Abstract
A cooling technology roadmap is defined for power electronics modules such as insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) and wideband gap semiconductor modules (SiC/GaN). These power modules are widely used for inverter and converter applications. Cooling technologies studied include natural air cooling, forced air cooling, forced liquid cooling, and thermal management technologies employing phase change. This work reviews the standard modes of failures of power electronics modules. The work helps to understand the thermal resistances at various interfaces in the module stack. The study highlights the importance of using electrothermal models for power loss estimation. Effective thermal management must ensure the power electronics components' junction (die) temperature is within the desired limits. The developed cooling technology roadmap suggests using heat flux at the module base and heat generation per temperature rise in the die as a metric for selecting cooling technology. Further, the review also stresses the importance of junction temperature swings experienced by the die during transient operation.
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Abbreviations
- A :
-
Area
- b :
-
Thickness of thermal interface material
- c :
-
Specific heat capacity
- d :
-
Diameter of copper tubes
- E :
-
Energy
- f :
-
Frequency
- g :
-
Acceleration due to gravity
- h :
-
Heat transfer coefficient
- \(h_{{fg}}\) :
-
Latent heat of vaporisation
- I :
-
Current
- \(K_{I}\) :
-
Exponents for current dependency of switching losses
- \(K_{I}\) :
-
Exponents for voltage dependency of switching losses
- k :
-
Thermal conductivity
- L :
-
Length of copper tubes
- m :
-
Modulation index
- \(\dot{m}\) :
-
Mass flow rate of the coolant
- N :
-
Number of IGBT modules
- n :
-
Number of transistor/diodes die
- \(n^{\prime }\) :
-
Exponent of Prandtl number
- Nu:
-
Nusselt number
- P :
-
Power
- p :
-
Power density
- \(\Pr\) :
-
Prandtl number
- Q :
-
Heat loss
- \(q_{s} ^{{\prime \prime }}\) :
-
Surface heat flux
- R :
-
Thermal resistance
- \(\text{Re}\) :
-
Reynolds number
- r :
-
Electrical resistance
- \(r_{{CE}}\) :
-
Temperature-dependent bulk resistance of the on-state characteristic for transistor
- \(r_{F}\) :
-
Temperature-dependent bulk resistance of the on-state characteristic for diode
- s :
-
Number of transistor/diode switches active in the circuit
- T :
-
Temperature
- \(TC\) :
-
Temperature coefficients for the switching losses
- \(\Delta T\) :
-
Temperature difference
- V :
-
Voltage
- \(V_{{ceo}}\) :
-
Temperature-dependent threshold voltage of the on-state characteristic for transistor
- \(V_{{Fo}}\) :
-
Temperature-dependent threshold voltage of the on-state characteristic for diode
- \(\rho\) :
-
Density
- \(\mu\) :
-
Viscosity
- \(\sigma\) :
-
Surface tension
- \(\varepsilon\) :
-
Effectiveness of cooling plate
- \(\lambda\) :
-
Parameter used in calculation of spreading resistance
- \(\cos \Phi\) :
-
Power factor
- \(\Delta T_{e}\) :
-
Degree of superheat
- cond:
-
Conduction
- cp:
-
Cooling plate
- D :
-
Diode
- E :
-
Energy
- j :
-
Junction
- l :
-
Liquid
- p :
-
Plate
- peak:
-
Peak
- ref:
-
Reference
- rms:
-
Root mean square
- s :
-
Source
- sp:
-
Spreading
- sw:
-
Switching
- th:
-
Thermal
- T :
-
Transistor
- v :
-
Vapor
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This work was partially funded by Cummins India.
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Ghaisas, G., Krishnan, S. A Critical Review and Perspective on Thermal Management of Power Electronics Modules for Inverters and Converters. Trans Indian Natl. Acad. Eng. 7, 47–60 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41403-021-00268-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41403-021-00268-1