Advanced Thermal Packaging for Power Converters

ABSTRACT: The power converter units on military aircraft currently use relatively low performance aluminum cold plate technology and PAO or fuel coolant to cool the high heat producing components. The thermal resistance between the power electronic components and the coolant is relatively high in these package designs, which forces the coolant to be maintained at a low temperature in order to prevent component failure. This places a large burden on the thermal controls systems, which use a vapor cycle system to reduce the temperature of the coolant. In Phase I, Technology Assessment & Transfer (TA & T) analytically demonstrated the advantage of using ceramic cold plates for cooling the power switching modules and advanced cooling designs for the inductors to reduce allow a substantially higher (56 degrees C) coolant inlet temperature. In Phase II, TA & T will build upon the work performed in Phase I by further developing the component and system design and fabricating power switching modules and inductor components with the advanced thermal packaging designs and high temperature materials. These components will be tested in an existing power converter unit to experimentally demonstrate the performance advantages. BENEFIT: The proposed concepts will enable use of substantially higher coolant inlet temperature compared to current designs. The higher heat rejection temperature of the coolant increases the heat transfer efficiency and reduces the burden on refrigerated coolant systems on aircraft. This will enable reduced heat exchanger size and/or additional heat load from higher power or additional electronic components.