Development of water-cooled heat sink for high-power IGBT inverter

We present the development of a water-cooled heat sink that provides reliable thermal performance for high-power IGBT inverter. The development process comprises three stages. In the concept design, the thermal performances of two design proposals are considered. The thermal system of each design is particularly analyzed using the compact model. In the detailed design stage, specific dimensions of the heat sink are determined considering the design options under given external restrictions and the results from three-dimensional heat transfer analysis. The prototype of the resultant design is made and tested on the rig for final confirmation. We emphasize the relevant use of the thermal analysis on each stage and also discuss various practical issues involved.