Green cooling solutions for high power electronics

通信和电力电子行业对开发更紧凑系统的需求不断增加，增加了功率密度和热负载频率。这一趋势给设计高效的冷却解决方案带来了巨大的挑战。因此，限制功率转换设备可靠性和更高性能的一个关键因素是缺乏有效的散热策略来将设备保持在其最高允许工作温度以下，同时降低(或消除)冷却解决方案所需的寄生功率。这些问题在设计新的可持续冷却战略以满足行业目前和正在出现的需求方面引发了一系列有趣和具有挑战性的问题。 该项目旨在用系统化的方法开发新一代高功率电子产品(HPE)可持续热管理解决方案，采用热管、相变材料储能、紧凑型冷板换热器和新型高效自然冷却散热器，这些都可以显著提高系统可靠性，降低HPE冷却解决方案的寄生功率、噪声和运行成本。 拟议的研究项目建立在SFU的巴赫拉米博士和阿尔法技术有限公司在过去六个月的富有成效的合作基础上。阿尔法是电力转换领域的知名领导者，为全球电信、有线电视(加拿大)、交通、安全、医疗、工业和可再生能源行业设计、制造、安装和服务供电解决方案。该项目将为阿尔法公司的下一代HPE产品开发新的热解决方案提供详细的分析、新颖的冷却设计和原型、测试结果和全面的工程设计工具，从而使阿尔法受益。拟议的研究预计将为不列颠哥伦比亚省和加拿大带来显著的经济收益，因为目标技术适用于新兴的战略市场。这一领域的创新可以帮助减少加拿大的碳足迹，并改变能源和电力电子部门。

The ever-increasing desire in telecommunication and power electronics industries to develop more compact systems increases the power density and thermal load frequency. This trend created great challenges for designing efficient cooling solutions. Consequently, one key factor that limits the reliability and higher performance of power conversion devices is the lack of effective heat removal strategies to maintain the device below its maximum allowable operating temperature, while reducing (or eliminating) the parasitic power required for the cooling solution. Such issues give rise to an array of interesting and challenging problems in devising new sustainable cooling strategies to meet industry's present and emerging demands. This project aims to use a systematic approach to develop next-generation sustainable thermal management solutions for high-power electronics (HPE), featuring heat pipes, thermal energy storage with phase change material, compact cold plate heat exchangers, and new efficient naturally-cooled heat sinks, which can all significantly improve system reliability, and reduce parasitic power, the noise, and operation costs for HPE cooling solutions. The proposed research project builds on a productive collaboration over the last six months between Dr. Bahrami at SFU and Alpha Technologies Ltd. Alpha is an established leader in the area of power conversion, and designs, manufactures, installs, and services powering solutions for worldwide telecom, Cable TV (Canada), traffic, security, medical, industrial, and renewable energy industries. This project will benefit Alpha by providing detailed analysis, novel cooling designs and prototypes, testing results, and comprehensive engineering design tools for the development of new thermal solutions for their next-generation HPE products. The proposed research is anticipated to result in significant economic gains for BC and Canada, since the targeted technology is applicable to an emerging and strategic market. Innovations in this area can help reduce Canada's carbon footprint and transform the energy and power electronic sectors.