The emergence of new power architectures and new applications – including electric vehicles, consumer electronics and renewable energy – drives expanded use of converters to change alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), DC to DC, as well as power inverters to convert DC to AC. In parallel, the demands for higher energy efficiency and performance in today’s high current and voltage applications means converters and inverters must be able to take the heat, without losing power. Semiconductors play a major role in power converters by boosting performance, minimizing power losses and optimizing thermal management. Rogers Corporation’s Advanced Electronics Solutions provide increased efficiency, reliability and performance for both power converters and inverters.
Energy efficiency, fuel efficiency and performance in today’s demanding high current and voltage applications is driving expanded use of AC-DC and DC-DC converters. In parallel, power converters are being designed with ever faster switching frequencies to decrease the size and save board space, making thermal management an increasing challenge.
Rogers engineers help power inverter designers address the issues and challenges that come with the demand for higher efficiency and reliability in a wide range of energy applications, including consumer devices, hybrid/electric vehicles, industrial control systems and renewable energy systems. Smaller, faster systems require improvements like faster processing and better component integration. As modern inverters get smaller, these innovations intensify the challenge of dealing with the significant thermal, space and safety issues inherent in power conversion.
Our curamik® ceramic substrates address performance and heat challenges at a semiconductor level by carrying higher currents, providing higher voltage isolation and operating over a wide temperature range, making them ideal for challenging converter and inverter connections.
Space management can also be a challenge for the power converters and inverters used in many challenging applications, like hybrid/EV power trains. The need to handle increasingly higher power becomes an issue when space left for the converter is often very limited. ROLINX® busbars solve the space challenge while serving as power distribution highways” between the power source and IGBTs or complete modules. These flat, compact, laminated multilayer busbars are the perfect solution for an efficient and cool-running operation. They feature low inductance, controlled partial discharge, high current capabilities and compactness..
Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) offer high input impedance, making them popular in renewable energy (PV and wind) power conversion. They have lower gate drive requirements and lower switching losses, making them more efficient at smaller sizes and lower costs. IGBT connections are often the first choice for high current and high voltage applications.
Power MOSFETs are extremely fast and the high switching speed yields low switching loss. They can be found in most power supplies, DC-DC converters and low voltage motor controllers. Super junction MOSFETs are increasingly being used in to increase the efficiency and reduce the size of power converters for renewable energy applications.
