Patent Grant
10141860
This application claims priority to EP Application No. 16155697.2 filed Feb. 15, 2016, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The invention relates to a converter with a DC link for converting an input voltage into an alternating voltage with a pre-determined amplitude and frequency for driving a single or multiple-phase load.
Power modules of modern inverters are cooled with the aid of an air-cooled or water-cooled cooling body which consists of a readily heat-conducting material, e.g. aluminum. For better heat transfer to the cooling body, a carrier made of copper or other materials is fastened to the cooling body with heat-conducting paste. Soldered onto the carrier is a ceramic material provided on both sides with a copper lamination. Arranged on the side of the copper laminated ceramic material facing away from the carrier are the electronic components of the power module. The thickness of the copper laminated ceramic material is herein dependent primarily on the required dielectric strength. At the same time, the thickness of the copper laminated ceramic material determines the heat transmission in the direction toward the cooling body. This means that the higher the power category of a power module, the more difficult the heat removal in the direction of the cooling body becomes.
A further disadvantage lies therein that the contacting of the individual power modules must be correspondingly large, due to the conductive cooling body, in order to maintain the necessary safety margins. A space-saving compact construction is therefore only realizable with difficulty.
One embodiment provides a converter with a DC link for converting an input voltage into an alternating voltage with a pre-determined amplitude and frequency for driving a single or multiple-phase load, comprising a number of modules which are configured stackable over one another, wherein each module comprises a ceramic cooling body with a receiving surface on which electronic components of one phase are mounted, wherein the ceramic cooling body has one or more channels in the region of the receiving surface through which a coolant can flow during the operation of the converter; at least one DC link capacitor and input-side and output-side power connections which are arranged on a first carrier, the main level of which is arranged perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface; a control unit for driving the electronic components of the phase, wherein the control unit is arranged on a second carrier, the main plane of which is arranged perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface.
In one embodiment, a structural support is arranged at least on each of two opposing sides of the receiving surface, wherein the structural supports protrude, in a direction perpendicular to the receiving surface, beyond the receiving surface, so that the electronic components then lie in a depression formed between the receiving surface and the structural supports, wherein the structural supports have contact portions for an adjacent module at their ends lying in the extension direction.
In one embodiment, the thickness of the cooling body in the region of the receiving surface in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the receiving surface is between 3 mm and 5 mm.
In one embodiment, the thickness of the structural supports in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the receiving surface is between 15 mm and 20 mm.
In one embodiment, the coolant is supplyable to and removable from the channel or channels of the cooling body via the structural support or supports.
In one embodiment, in the structural support or supports, a common supply channel extending perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface is provided for the supply of the coolant to the channel or channels and a common removal channel extending perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface is provided for the removal of the coolant, wherein the respective volumes of the common supply channel and the common removal channel are very much greater than the volume of the channel or channels arranged in the region of the receiving surface.
In one embodiment, the structural support or supports are made of a ceramic material and integrally with the cooling body with the receiving surface.
In one embodiment, the structural supports are made of a different material from the cooling bodies with the receiving surface and are connected with a form fit and/or force fit to one another.
In one embodiment, in order to close the depression, provided on each side of the depression is a respective sealing plate, which comprises a passage for control connections or supply and load connections.
In one embodiment, the control connections pass through a first of the sealing plates, wherein the control connections are connected mechanically and electrically outside the module to the second carrier by means of a plug-in connection.
In one embodiment, the supply connections and the load connection pass through a second of the sealing plates, wherein the supply connections are connected mechanically and electrically outside the module to a first main side of the first carrier.
In one embodiment, the DC link capacitor or capacitors are arranged on a second main side of the first carrier.
In one embodiment, a first and a second supply connection are formed by sheet metal rails arranged over one another and separated from one another by means of an insulating layer.
In one embodiment, the load connection is configured as a further sheet metal rail which is guided over the sheet metal rails of the supply connections and is separated from these by means of an insulating layer.
In one embodiment, a plurality of modules arranged over one another are mechanically connected to one another to form a module group.
In one embodiment, the converter comprises a number of module groups corresponding to the number of phases.
In one embodiment, each module group is connected to a respective common second carrier.
In one embodiment, each module group is connected to the first carrier.
Example aspects and embodiments of the invention are described in greater detail below with reference to the drawings, in which:
Some embodiments of the present invention provide a converter with a DC link for converting an input voltage into an alternating voltage, which can be cooled better and simultaneously has a smaller space requirement.
Some embodiments provide a converter having a number of modules configured stackable over one another. Each module comprises a ceramic cooling body with a receiving surface on which electronic components of one phase are mounted, the ceramic cooling body having one or more channels in the region of the receiving surface through which a coolant can flow during the operation of the converter. The converter further comprises at least one DC link capacitor and input-side and output-side power connections on a first carrier, the main level of which is arranged perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface. The converter also comprises a control unit for driving the electronic components of the phase, wherein the control unit is arranged on a second carrier, the main plane of which is arranged perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface.
The use of the ceramic cooling body may provide a compact and modular construction of a converter.
In a converter with a plurality of modules stacked over one another, the DC link capacitors associated with the module or modules can be arranged together on the first carrier. Also, with a plurality of modules, a common control unit for driving the electronic components of the respective modules which is arranged on the second carrier can be used.
The stacking capability of a plurality of modules over one another results from the use of an actively cooled ceramic cooling body. In that the cooling body is provided with one or more channels through which coolant can flow during operation of the converter, the conventionally used cooling body made of aluminum can be dispensed with. Also, the conventionally necessary bottom plate which is connected via a heat-conducting paste to the metal cooling body is no longer required. This enables greater degrees of freedom in the configuration of the converter with regard to scaling.
The smaller space requirement as compared with conventional converters results from the use of the ceramic cooling body which enables the DC link capacitor or capacitors to be arranged on the first carrier and the control unit to be arranged on the second carrier, the first and second carrier each being arranged perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface. By this means, line lengths between the individual components can be significantly reduced, with the associated advantages of lower leakage inductances. This results in lower switching losses. In particular, it is possible to drive the electronic components of one phase, e.g. a half-bridge, at a higher frequency.
According to one embodiment, a structural support is arranged at least on each of two opposing sides of the receiving surface, wherein the structural supports protrude, in a direction perpendicular to the receiving surface, beyond the receiving surface, so that the electronic components then lie in a depression formed between the receiving surface and the structural supports, wherein the structural supports have contact portions for an adjacent module at their ends lying in the extension direction. The structural supports enable a robust mechanical construction of the cooling body. Furthermore, the supply and removal of the coolant, in particular for a plurality of modules stacked over one another, can be undertaken via the structural supports. This facilitates the cooling of the electronic components of the converter.
According to one embodiment, the thickness of the cooling body in the region of the receiving surface in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the receiving surface is between 3 mm and 5 mm. The thickness of the structural supports in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the receiving surface is suitably between 15 mm and 20 mm. This means that the height of a single module is between 15 mm and 20 mm and corresponds to the thickness of the structural support. If, for example, a plurality of modules is to be switched in parallel, this can take place by means of stacking the desired number of modules over one another. By this means, a module combination with a particular number of individual modules is produced which are connected to a common cooling system. At the same time, a compact construction is achieved, the height of which depends on the number of modules stacked over one another. The number of modules stacked over one another can, as described above, be associated with the common first carrier or with the DC link capacitor or capacitors and the common second carrier with the common control unit and can be connected to said control unit.
According to a further embodiment, the coolant is supplyable to and removable from the channel or channels of the cooling body via the structural support or supports. It is particularly suitable if the coolant is supplied to the channel or channels of the cooling body via one of the structural supports and is removed from the channels of the cooling body via the other of the two structural supports.
According to a further embodiment, in the structural support or supports, a common supply channel extending perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface is provided for the supply of the coolant to the channel or channels and a common removal channel extending perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surface is provided for the removal of the coolant, wherein the respective volumes of the common supply channel and the common removal channel are very much greater than the volume of the channel or channels arranged in the region of the receiving surface. By this means, a good heat removal via the coolant can be provided. In particular, due to the larger volumes of the common supply channel and the common removal channel relative to the volume of the channel or channels, it can be ensured that even for a large number of modules stacked over one another, the electronic components of each individual module can be cooled simultaneously.
According to a further embodiment, the structural supports are made of a ceramic material and integrally with the cooling body with the receiving surface. According to an alternative embodiment, the structural supports are made of a different material from the cooling body with the receiving surface and are connected with a form fit and/or force-fit to one another. Whereas a single piece configuration of the cooling body wherein the structural bodies and the cooling body with the receiving surface are made of a ceramic material, enable an excellent cooling, a variant in which the structural supports are made of another material, for example, aluminum, can be made with lower costs. Herein, the cooling is slightly worse than in the first named variant.
According to a further embodiment, in order to close the depression, provided on each side of the depression is a sealing plate, which comprises a passage for control connections or supply and load connections. Through the provision of the sealing plates, it is ensured that the electronic components provided in the interior of the depression can be protected by simple means against external influences, for example, dirt or moisture. Protection from above herein takes place either by means of another module over the module in question or by means of a separate closing plate.
The control connections may pass through a first of the sealing plates, wherein the control connections are connected mechanically and electrically outside the module to the second carrier by means of a plug-in connection. This results in easy manufacturing of the converter. In particular, the plug-in connection can also be used if a plurality of modules are stacked over one another into a module group.
The supply connections and the load connection pass through a second of the sealing plates, wherein the supply connections are connected mechanically and electrically outside the module to a first main side of the first carrier. It is herein suitable if the width of the respective supply and load connections extends over a large part of the width of the depression in order to increase the current-carrying capacity through a large surface area of the connections. A large area also favors a rapid switching behavior, that is, operation of the converter at high frequency.
According to a further embodiment, the DC link capacitor or capacitors are arranged on a second main side of the carrier. Conversely, this means that the modules are arranged on the first main side of the first carrier. This results in the compact construction with the low connector lengths for optimizing the inductance.
A first and a second supply connection may be formed by sheet metal rails arranged over one another and separated from one another by means of an insulating layer. In this way, firstly, large currents can be transmitted. Secondly, the sheet metal rails can be provided in a simple and cost-effective manner. The parallel arrangement of the sheet metal rails of the first and second supply connection results in a capacitive effect between the supply connections. In this way, the reduction of parasitic inductances can be achieved in the desired manner. This also enables the aforementioned large area current conduction in order to provide a large current carrying capacity, low losses and a rapid switching behavior. Further, through the parallel arrangement of the sheet metal rails, an eddy current effect is advantageously utilized.
According to a further embodiment, the load connection is configured as a further sheet metal rail which is guided over the sheet metal rails of the supply connections and is separated from these by means of an insulating layer. This arrangement enables a simple and mechanically robust construction. Furthermore, a high current carrying capacity of the load connection can also be ensured.
According to a further embodiment, a plurality of modules arranged over one another are mechanically connected to one another to form a module group. For example, the modules of the module group can be pressed into the group by means of threaded rods. The threaded rods can be guided, for example, by means of bores in the structural supports. As mentioned above, it is not required in a module group that a separate control unit and firmly associated DC link capacitors are provided for each module. Rather these functional units can be provided together for all the modules of the module group, in particular if the modules are to be driven and switched electrically in parallel.
The converter may comprise a number of module groups corresponding to the number of phases.
According to another embodiment, each module group is connected to a common second carrier. The second carrier is preferably present in the Euroformat, regardless of the number of modules of the module group connected to one another.
According to a further embodiment, all the module groups of the converter are mechanically and electrically connected to the first carrier. Thus, for example, it can be provided in a B6 bridge circuit that all DC link capacitors are connected to the first carrier.
The same elements have the same reference characters in the figures.
Arranged on each of two opposing sides of the receiving surface 12 of the cooling body 11 made of ceramic material is a respective structural support 13, 17. The structural supports 13, 17 extend in the representation show in
Whilst the thickness of the structural supports 13, 17 perpendicular to the plane of the receiving surface is between 15 mm and 20 mm and thus defines the “height” of the module, the thickness of the cooling body 11, in the region of the receiving surface 12 perpendicular to the plane of the receiving surface 12 is between 3 mm and 5 mm. The thickness of the structural support is identified in
Not shown in
As shown, for example, in the representations of
In the example embodiment of an inventive module 10 shown in
In another exemplary embodiment, the structural supports 13, 17 can be made of a different material from the cooling bodies 11 with the receiving surface 12. Preferably, the other material has good thermal conductivity and is mechanically stable. For cost reasons, the construction of the structural support 13, 17 from aluminum or another metal suggests itself. From the design standpoint, the structural supports 13, 17 are connected with a form fit and/or force fit to the cooling body 11 with the receiving surface 12.
In order to be able to connect a plurality of modules 10-1, . . . , 10-n (where n is a fundamentally arbitrary number) to one another to form a module group 100, the structural support 13 has a fastening portion 15 with a bore 16. In a corresponding manner, the structural support 17 has a fastening portion 19 with a bore 20. Purely by way of example, the fastening portions 15, 19 lie opposite one another. The bores 16, 19 extend over the whole height or thickness of the structural support 13, 17 or their fastening portions 15, 19.
As disclosed by
In a corresponding manner, it can be deduced from
Reference will now be made to the configuration of an individual module 10 and to
A number of control connections 25, 26 (each in the form of a number of contact pins) penetrates the sealing plate 30. The control connections 25, 26 are electrically and mechanically connected outside the module 10 to a control unit (to be described later). Controllable semiconductor switching elements of the module 10 can be controlled by means of the control connections 25, 26. As can be seen best from
A sheet metal rail 32 of a first supply connection 33 (e.g. of the minus pole), a sheet metal rail 36 of a second supply connection (e.g. of a plus pole) and a sheet metal rail 27 of a load connection 29 extend through the sealing plate 31. As shown best by the side views of
The first supply connection 33 and the second supply connection 37 each have a number of bores 34, 38 into which contact pins 113 in a later described carrier 110 are pressed. This can be seen by way of example in
Whereas the sheet metal rails 32, 36 of the supply connections 33, 37 and the sheet metal rail 27 of the load connection 29 are formed from a metal, preferably copper or a copper alloy, the insulating layers 28, 35 are made of an insulating material, for example, Makrolon® or polyethylene (PE).
As shown best by
From the perspective representation in
A module group 100 as shown in
In another embodiment, it is also possible to connect different phases of one or more loads to the load connections of different modules 10-1 to 10-4.
As can be readily seen from this representation, the main plane of the carrier 120 of the control unit is arranged perpendicularly to the plane of the receiving surfaces 12 of the modules 10-1 to 10-7 of the module group 100.
Shown in
Purely by way of example, each module group 100-1 has seven (i.e. n=7) modules stacked over one another, as described in relation to
As shown in the plan view of
As shown in the side view of
As shown, for example, in the view from underneath in
From the representations of
In the exemplary embodiment shown here, the three planes mentioned each lie perpendicularly to one another. In a derivation, it could also be provided to rotate the module groups 100-1, 100-2 and 100-3 relative to the main plane of the carrier 110 such that the main plane of the carrier 110 lies parallel to the main planes of the carriers 120-1, 120-2 and 120-3 for the respective control units of the module groups 100-1, 100-2 and 100-3. This requires only an adaptation in the region of the embodiment of the sheet metal rails 32, 36 and 27 and the associated load connections 33, 37 and 29.
This compact and space-saving arrangement is enabled by the use of ceramic cooling bodies of the modules. In that these can be stacked over one another in any desired number, by means of a parallel connection, the power output of a respective module group can be scaled. The stacking of the individual modules leads to an efficient assembly since no additional effort is required with respect to cooling connections of the individual cooling bodies. Furthermore, a cooling of the control unit can take place via the carrier 120 and the direct contact with the end sides of the structural supports 13, 17.
By means of the aforesaid arrangement of the planes to one another, parasitic inductances can also be minimized due to short power connections. In particular, by this means, small commutation cells can be realized in each module. A tendency toward oscillation can be realized by a damping resistor in conjunction with the DC link capacitors 112. The damping resistor can be provided on the receiving surface 12 of each module 10.
With a parallel connection of a plurality of modules in a module group, regardless of the number of the modules in the module group, only one driver layout of the control unit needs to be provided. Preferably, the carrier 120 is provided in the Eurocard format (i.e. with a size of 100 mm×160 mm), so that through a multi-layered construction, short conduction paths can be realized for the synchronization of run times. If required, individual plug-in slots can remain free, if the number of modules in a module group is too small. The electronic components of the control unit provide for a low-inductance identical (i.e. synchronous) control of the individual modules. Easy assembly of the control unit is provided by plug-in mounting with the control connections 25, 26. The optimum connection of the carrier 120 to the structural support 13, 17 is carried out with holding screws in order to generate an optimum pressing force for the cooling. These holding screws are identified in
Due to the possibility of realizing the sheet metal rails 27, 32 and 36 with a large area and parallel to one another, a desired reduction in parasitic inductances is achieved. Furthermore, a large current carrying capacity is ensured, to minimize losses. This makes it possible to switch the electronic components, in particular the semiconductor switching elements, at a high frequency.
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