Thermoelectric Cooling for Power Electronics Circuits: Modeling and Active Temperature Control

This paper discusses the modeling and application of thermoelectric cooling (TEC) in power electronics circuits. To investigate the benefits and challenges of using TEC, a temperature-dependent thermoelectric model which includes both power electronics circuits and TEC device is presented. With this model, both steady-state and small signal analyses can be carried out, and this paper is more focused on the steady-state part. For the steady-state analysis, the results have identified the allowed operation range which could be used as guidelines for system design. Also, with TEC device, the case temperature and junction temperature of power electronics switches can be dynamically controlled. Therefore, the switches' thermal cycling problem could be alleviated, and the switch lifetime and overall system reliability will be improved. Both simulation and experimental results are presented in this paper to verify the analysis.

[1]  V. Blasko,et al.  On the loading of power modules in a three phase voltage source converter , 1997, IAS '97. Conference Record of the 1997 IEEE Industry Applications Conference Thirty-Second IAS Annual Meeting.

[2]  V. Blasko,et al.  On line thermal model and thermal management strategy of a three phase voltage source inverter , 1999, Conference Record of the 1999 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. Thirty-Forth IAS Annual Meeting (Cat. No.99CH36370).

[3]  S. Ghamaty,et al.  New technology for thermoelectric cooling , 2004, Twentieth Annual IEEE Semiconductor Thermal Measurement and Management Symposium (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37545).

[4]  S. Ben-Yaakov,et al.  Modeling and Analysis of Thermoelectric Modules , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

[5]  U. Drofenik,et al.  A General Scheme for Calculating Switching- and Conduction-Losses of Power Semiconductors in Numerical Circuit Simulations of Power Electronic Systems; International Power Electronics Conference; ; IPEC-Niigata 2005 , 2005 .

[6]  D.A. Murdock,et al.  Active thermal control of power electronic modules , 2003, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

[7]  S. Lineykin,et al.  A Simple and Intuitive Graphical Approach to the Design of Thermoelectric Cooling Systems , 2006 .

[8]  J. Lutz,et al.  Power cycling induced failure mechanisms in the viewpoint of rough temperature environment , 2008 .

[9]  Robert D. Lorenz,et al.  Analysis and In-Situ Measurement of Thermal-Mechanical Strain in Active Silicon Power Semiconductors , 2008, 2008 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting.

[10]  Jin Wang,et al.  Minimum power loss control — thermoelectric technology in power electronics cooling , 2009, 2009 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.

[11]  C Mark Johnson,et al.  Real-Time Compact Thermal Models for Health Management of Power Electronics , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[12]  T. Abbas,et al.  CPU thermal management of personal and notebook computer (Transient study) , 2010, 2010 3rd International Conference on Thermal Issues in Emerging Technologies Theory and Applications.

[13]  Bin Du,et al.  Transient Electrothermal Simulation of Power Semiconductor Devices , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[14]  M. Schauer,et al.  Extended temperature tuning of an ultraviolet diode laser for trapping and cooling single Yb+ ions. , 2010, The Review of scientific instruments.

[15]  Xiaoxiao Yu,et al.  Control of Parallel Connected Power Converters for Low Voltage Microgrid—Part II: Dynamic Electrothermal Modeling , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[16]  Seiichiro Katsura,et al.  Frequency response analysis of observer-based thermal control system of peltier device , 2011, 2011 4th International Conference on Human System Interactions, HSI 2011.

[17]  P. Rodriguez,et al.  Converter Structure-Based Power Loss and Static Thermal Modeling of The Press-Pack IGBT Three-Level ANPC VSC Applied to Multi-MW Wind Turbines , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

[18]  Johann W. Kolar,et al.  A 120 °C Ambient Temperature Forced Air-Cooled Normally-off SiC JFET Automotive Inverter System , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[19]  A. Bar-Cohen,et al.  Self-Cooling on Germanium Chip , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology.

[20]  Seiichiro Katsura,et al.  Thermal bilateral control with scaled thermal information using peltier device , 2011, 2011 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII).

[21]  Pedro Rodriguez,et al.  Electro-thermal modeling for junction temperature cycling-based lifetime prediction of a press-pack IGBT 3L-NPC-VSC applied to large wind turbines , 2011, 2011 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.

[22]  Eliza Strickland.  A new kind of cool , 2011 .

[23]  S. Bhattacharya,et al.  Thermal design considerations for 12kV SiC n-IGBT based 3L NPC converter , 2012, 2012 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE).

[24]  P. Rodriguez,et al.  Power Capability Investigation Based on Electrothermal Models of Press-Pack IGBT Three-Level NPC and ANPC VSCs for Multimegawatt Wind Turbines , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[25]  C. Kral,et al.  A fast inverter model for electro-thermal simulation , 2012, 2012 Twenty-Seventh Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[26]  Christopher J. Backhouse,et al.  Nonlinear Controller Designs for Thermal Management in PCR Amplification , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.

[27]  T. M. Jahns,et al.  Power electronics loss measurement using new heat flux sensor based on thermoelectric device with active control , 2012, 2012 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE).

[28]  Frede Blaabjerg,et al.  Thermal and efficiency analysis of five-level multi-level clamped multilevel converter considering grid codes , 2012, ECCE 2012.

[29]  Janusz Zarebski,et al.  The Method of a Fast Electrothermal Transient Analysis of Single-Inductance DC–DC Converters , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[30]  Cong Li,et al.  Thermoelectric cooling for power electronics circuits: Small signal modeling and controller design , 2013, 2013 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.

[31]  O. A. Mohammed,et al.  A physics-based, dynamic electro-thermal model of silicon carbide power IGBT devices , 2013, 2013 Twenty-Eighth Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC).

[32]  Francis P. Dawson,et al.  Time-Dependent Finite-Volume Model of Thermoelectric Devices , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.