Heat Sink for a Power Module
A customer was designing a power module consisting of a series of IGBTs. They were seeking a heat sink design but had many constraints and requirements. In addition to power dissipation (almost 6kW during transient, up to 2.4KW steady state), cooling methodology, heat sink size, IGBT orientation and overall ruggedness requirements were all fixed. To address the problem, ACT used in house developed analytical software to identify the optimal fin solution for the given geometric and flow constraints. This modeling provided a convection resistance, which was then incorporated into the FEA thermal analysis that included the electronics, thermal interfaces, and heat spreader. After a series of design iterations using strategically located vertical and horizontal heat pipes, a final prototype design proved feasible, satisfying the various performance objectives. Customer was so impressed with the thoroughness of the study that a second project to design and build prototypes was initiated.
Temperature Profile of Power Module with IGBT's mounted on proposed heat sink design platform, operating under defined power dissipation operating conditions.
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