Dielectric Fluid Cooling of Power Electronics Modules

INTRODUCTION

The need to increase volumetric power density in automotive power electronics requires innovations in their thermal management systems. Automotive power electronics modules are typically cooled using a water-ethylene glycol (WEG) solution. Modern automotive systems use baseplate-cooled or double-side-cooled configurations to cool the power modules. The baseplate-cooled configuration is used for single-side-cooled modules and directly cools the module’s baseplate, eliminating the need for thermal grease. The ceramic component in the metalized ceramic substrates is typically the largest thermal resistance within the packaging structure. Double-side-cooled modules are typically compressed between two cold plates and use thermal grease at the module-to-cold-plate interface. The thermal grease layer is usually the largest thermal resistance for these double-side-cooled modules. The package conduction resistance is typically the largest thermal resistance. References [1–3] provide additional information on typical WEG-based power electronics cooling systems. 

Read more