A paper on thermal aspects in power systems won a Young Engineer Award at this year’s PCIM (Power Electronics/Intelligent Motion/Power Quality) Europe Conference. The Young Engineer Award is presented to exceptional contributions from young professionals (under 35 years old).
Andreas Munding of Liebherr-Elektronik GmbH and his co-authors were recognized for their paper, “Compact PCB-packaging and water cooling of a 25-kW inverter.” The abstract follows:
In many power electronics applications, volume and weight is a cost factor which developers seek to minimize by increasing power density. Many approaches to achieve a higher power density focus on reducing wiring and tubing expenses by integrating the system components into the electric actuator. The resulting installation areas are typically exposed to high vibration and high temperature stresses. This work features simulation results of a sandwich PCB assembly with an electronic board and a high current board attached to either side of an aluminum heat sink. This heat sink is thermally attached to the metal housing and to a liquid cooling channel which was optimized for low pressure drop. In addition, the effect of the low pressure drop cooler structure on the IGBTs of a directly cooled pin-fin based power module was simulated and characterized. It was found that a geometry with lateral coolant impingement exhibit lowest pressure drop and allows for a large flow rate operation range in automotive applications.
