Electromagnetic simulation and design of complex, planar bus bars for multi-level, high power converters

In this paper, a state-of-the-art electromagnetic PEEC simulator is used in combination with task specific modeling methods to simulate a complex, planar bus bar of an actual multi-level, high power converter. The task specific modeling method proposed consists of defining the exact objective of the simulation and to make use of the bus bar´s typical AC and DC impedance characteristics in terms of inductance and resistance when defining the mesh. This way, the simulation effort is significantly reduced, thus allowing efficient layout changes based on simulated current densities and magnetic field patterns. For the critical commutation loop of the case study bus bar used in this work, the stray inductance was reduced by about 15 % with only minor layout modifications and minimal simulation effort.