Thermal management system for a power converter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12464689-B2
Application number	US-202218081770-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2022
Priority date	May 26, 2022
Publication date	Nov 4, 2025
Grant date	Nov 4, 2025

Abstract

A power converter assembly includes a housing, a cold plate in the housing, and a set of power converter components on the cold plate. The cold plate is configured to receive a coolant. A first medium in the housing surrounds the cold plate and components. An expandable heat transfer structure is attached to one of the cold plate and the housing.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A power converter assembly, comprising:
a housing; a cold plate in the housing, wherein the cold plate is configured to receive a coolant; a set of power converter components on the cold plate; a first medium in the housing surrounding the cold plate and components; and an expandable heat transfer structure attached to one of the cold plate and the housing.

2 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the expandable heat transfer structure is attached to the cold plate.

3 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first medium is a liquid or pressurized gas that provides a dielectric resistance.

4 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first medium is an oil.

5 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the expandable heat transfer structure includes a conductive material that is configured to transfer heat to the one of the cold plate and the housing.

6 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the expandable heat transfer structure has an expandable surface area.

7 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the expandable heat transfer structure is additively manufactured.

8 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the expandable heat transfer structure is filled with a gas.

9 . The power converter assembly of claim 8 , wherein the first medium is a liquid that provides dielectric resistance.

10 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the components are covered with a solid insulating material.

11 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the cold plate is a first cold plate and the power converter assembly further comprising a second cold plate.

12 . The power converter assembly of claim 11 , wherein the first cold plate and the second cold plate are configured such that the first cold plate is upstream with respect to the second cold plate.

13 . The power converter assembly of claim 12 , wherein the components include a first set of components and a second set of components, wherein the first set of components are on the first cold plate and the second set of components are on the second cold plate.

14 . The power converter assembly of claim 13 , wherein the first set of components are configured to generate more heat than the second set of components.

15 . The power converter assembly of claim 13 , wherein the first set of components includes high-power switching modules.

16 . The power converter assembly of claim 15 , wherein the high-power switching modules include at least one of a MOSFET, an IGBT, and a gate driver.

17 . The power converter assembly of claim 13 , wherein the second set of components includes auxiliary components.

18 . The power converter assembly of claim 17 , wherein the auxiliary components include at least one of a capacitor, an inductor, a resistor, and a bus bar, a capacitor, an inductor, a resistor, a bus bar, a control board, a gate driver board, and an interface board.

19 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first medium is sealed in the housing.

20 . The power converter assembly of claim 1 , wherein the expandable heat transfer structure includes at least one of a bellows structure, a gusset structure, and a gas spring structure.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Vijayaraghavan Sanjay
• Wang Libing
• Xiong Han
• Huh Kum Kang
• Pan Di
• Dame Mark Edward
• Datta Rajib
• Singh Alankrita

Classifications

• H05K5/0217

  Mechanical details of casings (covers, lids, hoods or members for covering apertures H05K5/03) · CPC title

• H05K7/20927 Primary

  Liquid coolant without phase change · CPC title