Volumetric optimal design of passive integrated power electronic module (IPEM) for distributed power system (DPS) front-end DC/DC converter

In most power electronics converters, the overall footprint and profile of the whole system are in large part determined by the footprint and profile of the passive components and the interconnections between them. Planar magnetics technique, integrated magnetics technique and passive integration technique have been topics of research for the past a few years to reduce the count, footprint and profile of the passive components, hence increase the power density of the whole converter. This becomes especially prominent in the distributed power system (DPS) front-end converters, as the trend is moving from 2U (1U=1.75 inches) standard toward 1U standard. Chen et al. (2001) presented an integration technology, which combined planar magnetics, integrated magnetics and passive integration techniques, to integrate all the high frequency passive components in a DPS front-end DC/DC power converter into a single passive IPEM to reduce the size and volume of the overall system. To optimally design the passive IPEM, AC loss model and thermal model are needed, which is provided in this paper. Based on these models, the volumetric optimal design algorithm is presented. To evaluate the performance of the optimally designed passive IPEM, a passive IPEM prototype is constructed and tested. Comparisons are made between the passive IPEM and the discrete components from viewpoints of volume, profile, efficiency and thermal. The optimal design is verified by experimental results.