Power Loss and Electrothermal Characterization of Hybrid Power Integrated Modules for Industrial Servo Motor Drives

This study aims to facilitate the assessment of the electromagnetic-electrical-thermal coupled response of a developed 30 kHz/12 kW silicon carbide (SiC)/silicon (Si) hybrid power-integrated module (hPIM) during load operation. To achieve this goal, an efficient electromagnetic-circuit-thermal coupling (ECTC) analysis methodology is introduced. This ECTC methodology incorporates a fully integrated electromagnetic-circuit coupling (EMCC) analysis model for parasitic extraction in order to addressing their effects on power losses, and a simplified electrothermal coupling (SETC) analysis model for temperature evaluation in order to consider the coupling influence of the instantaneous junction temperature on instantaneous power losses. The SETC model couples a simple lookup table that maps the power loss (P) in terms of the temperature (T) constructed using the developed EMCC model, and an equivalent Foster thermal network model established through three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) thermal flow analysis. This PT lookup table, replacing the tedious and time-consuming EMCC simulation, is responsible for fast estimation of temperature-dependent power losses. The proposed analysis models, namely the CFD, EMCC, and SETC analysis models, are validated through thermal experiments and detailed modeling. Finally, the influence of various operation conditions on the power losses of the hPIM during the power conversion operation is explored through parametric analysis.