Competence field

Power Electronics and Functional Integration

Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Tobias Reimann

Director of the Industrial Electronics Department

+49 3677 69-2849

Send mail

Competence Field Power Electronics and Functional Integration

Power electronics is a key component in modern automobiles. The number and electrical power of power electronic units and systems used in vehicles is steadily increasing.
This trend is further reinforced by the development of hybrid and electric vehicles and the implementation of complex functionalities using digital information and communication technology. Besides mechatronic integration, functional integration is becoming increasingly important. The total electrical power installed in the vehicle has reached the order of more than hundred kilowatts. With available space remaining constant, both the electrical efficiency and the power density of the power electronic systems must be increased.
To achieve these goals, on-board grids with different voltage levels from 12V to 700V are used, which are bi-directionally coupled with dc-dc-converters. New power semiconductor devices based on wide-bandgap materials such as SiC or GaN are applied in order to realize both minimum switching and forward losses. Innovative design and packaging techniques have to be researched in order to achieve high currents under thermally and electromagnetically demanding boundary conditions and to be able to work with high switching frequencies. The research and development topics of this ThIMo-field of competence are integrated into this overall context.


Topics

Reference Project

Development of an integrated and modular power electronics platform for innovative low-voltage / high-current systems with PCB-based assembly and connection technology (iModPoweSys)

Show project

Reference Project

Name of project:
Development of an integrated and modular power electronics platform for innovative low-voltage / high-current systems with PCB-based assembly and connection technology (iModPowerSys)

Project period:
05.2015 - 04.2017

Funding Agency:
Central Innovation Program for SMEs of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy

Project consortium:
Technische Universität Ilmenau, Thüringer Innovationszentrum Mobilität (ThIMo), Industrial Electronics Group ISLE Steuerungstechnik und Leistungselektronik GmbH, Ilmenau

Abstract:
The main topic of the project was the investigation of cost-effective, PCB-based assembly and connection techniques of power electronic d.c./d.c.-converters and d.c./a.c.-inverters for low-voltage / high-current applications. The input voltage was limited to 60V and the load currents up to 350A. Typical applications include battery chargers for mobile applications, drive inverters or d.c.-d.c.-converters for fuel cell systems.
Based on the multi-physical modeling of all system components, the electrical, thermal and mechatronic system behavior was simulated and all components were designed optimally. For two practical applications, reference designs were realized and experimentally investigated in detail in the laboratory.
As a result of the practical investigations the simulation models were verified and optimized. The first reference system was a three-phase drive inverter with a maximum power of 20kW. The second reference system was a parallel-interleaved d.c.-d.c.-converter for use in battery chargers, Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) or fuel cell systems up to 5kW.

The result of the project was a universal design tool for low-voltage / high-current power electronic converters for automotive and industrial applications.