Water-cooled inverter for synchronous and asynchronous electric vehicle drives

Nowadays projects for the development and the production of electric vehicles are driven by nearly all car manufacturers. Due to the special requirements in a vehicle a high power to weight ratio, a good degree of efficiency and a low price are extremely important for the electric drive. Both synchronous motor drives-sometimes with field weakening-and asynchronous motor drives are used. The new inverter is able to control permanent magnet synchronous and asynchronous motor drives with the same hardware. Low weight and volume is reached by watercooling of the power semiconductors and capacitors. A good efficiency can be obtained with low saturation IGBTs. It is possible to connect a PC to a serial interface for commissioning, monitoring and diagnostics. In addition a DC/DC power converter for the 12 V system is integrated in the inverter housing.<>