Thermal Performance of Infineon’s New 600 V CIPOS Micro IM241 IPM for Low-Power Motor Drive Systems Without Heatsink

This paper presents the thermal performance of Infineon’s new 600 V CIPOSTM Micro IM241 intelligent power modules (IPM) for low-power motor drive systems without heatsink. The CIPOSTM Micro IM241 IPM series combines the features of six Infineon TRENCHSTOPTM 2nd generation reverse conducting drive IGBTs (RC-D2 IGBT) and three half-bridge gate drive ICs. These days the demand for high-efficiency inverter motor driving systems for small home appliances and industrial motor applications has increased due to environmental concerns and to save energy. Additionally, heatsinks are not being used to reduce the size of the inverter motor drive system and manufacturing costs. Therefore, to implement a low-power motor driving system without a heatsink, devices with lower power loss are required. An optimal thermal analysis of power devices is required to avoid damaging the IPMs under low-power motor driving conditions without any heatsink. This paper provides an overview of the CIPOSTM Micro IM241 IPM series, defines the thermal measurement method for systems without a heatsink, and compares its thermal performance with competitor IPMs.