Development of new power control unit for compact-class vehicle

Toyota Motor Corporation has developed the new compact-class hybrid vehicle (HV). This vehicle incorporates Toyota Hybrid System II (THS-II) to improve fuel efficiency. For this system, a new power control unit (PCU) which features substantial size reduction, light weight, and high efficiency has been developed by applying the newly developed direct-cooling structure to the intelligent power module (IPM). In this paper, the IPM is our main focus and its development is described.