Transient thermal management by using double-sided assembling, thermo-electric cooling and phase-change based thermal buffer structures: Design, technology and application

In this paper, a cooling concept for power electronics is discussed, using thermo-electric cooling in combination with a phase-change based latent heat storage module. It was designed to cope with thermal transients due to periodic overload operation phases of an IGBT power converter module. Several sub-system simulations and experiments have already been performed in previous publications leading to the current design state, which is now being tested under emulated experimental conditions. Very good results are presented, showing the feasibility of the transient cooling concept. On-going work referred to the long-term thermal stability and operation as well as a smart electrical TEC control will be motivated.