Low-voltage power electronics building block for automotive applications

This paper investigates the potential use of the power electronics building block concept in low-voltage fed power converters, such as those being envisaged to be soon utilized on board automobiles being equipped with a 42 V electric power system. Concerning such specific applications, various power converter topologies having input voltage in the range from 24 V to 80 V and rating power from few kW up to 30 kW are likely to be used in order to accomplish bi-directional dc-dc or dc-ac power conversion. Thereby, the envisaged development of a low-voltage power electronics building block module including standardized power, thermal, and control interfaces is of great interest for power converter manufacturers as it would be expected to lead to great simplification in converter design and assembly and thereby should allow substantial reduction of mass-production costs.