Design and manufacturing of liquid-cooled SiC power modules for EV applications

发展电动汽车是应对日益加剧的气候变化的关键措施之一。发展加拿大电动汽车产业的机会比以往任何时候都好。省政府和联邦政府正在投资“数亿”美元来创造新的就业机会，这激起了加拿大成为电动汽车制造商的希望。虽然最初的重点主要放在制造低成本、高容量的电池上，但开发配套汽车零部件的市场空间很大。多伦多大学电动汽车（UTEV）研究中心的研究人员与Dana Canada Corporation （Oakville， ON）和Dana TM4 （Boucherville， QC）合作，提出设计和开发高性能液冷碳化硅（SiC）智能功率模块（IMPs）的制造技术。在现有技术的基础上，UTEV计划扩大氮化镓（GaN）功率模块的直接模具键合技术，该技术之前与加拿大德纳公司（Dana Canada）共同开发，用于制造能够为电动汽车充电和驱动系统提供超过100千瓦功率的液冷SiC功率模块。需要克服的一些挑战包括开发直接粘合技术，如金属钎焊和银烧结，以提供低热阻和高可靠性。此外，imp的物理布局和结构在优化电学和热学性能方面存在矛盾。智能栅极驱动ic的发展还可以为imp增加数字接口、电磁干扰抑制、老化和健康监测等新功能。UTEV计划使用这些SiC IMP原型来演示高效功率转换器的实现。这些电源转换器还将安装在UTEV的电动汽车滚动底盘上，以评估实际驱动循环性能。同时，德纳加拿大将确保制造技术符合严格的汽车制造要求。

The development of Electric Vehicles (EV) is one of the key measures to combat the accelerating climate change. The opportunity to develop the Canadian EV industry is better than ever. Provincial and Federal governments are investing "hundreds of millions" of dollars to create new jobs, stirring hopes to put Canada on the map as EV manufacturers. While much of the initial focus is placed on the manufacturing of low cost, high-capacity batteries, there are plenty of market space to develop complementary automotive parts. Researchers at the University of Toronto Electric Vehicle (UTEV) Research Centre, in partnership with Dana Canada Corporation (Oakville, ON) and Dana TM4 (Boucherville, QC), propose to design and develop manufacturing techniques for high performance liquid-cooled Silicon-Carbide (SiC) intelligent power modules (IMPs). Building on existing know how, UTEV plans to scale up the direct die bonding techniques for Gallium-Nitride (GaN) power modules, developed previously with Dana Canada, to build liquid-cooled SiC power modules capable of delivering more than 100 kW for the EV's charging and drive systems. Some of the challenges to overcome include the development of direct bonding techniques such as metal brazing and silver sintering, to provide low thermal resistance and high reliability. In addition, the physical layout and structure of the IMPs has conflicting requirements for the optimization of electrical and thermal performance. The development of smart gate driver ICs can also adds novel features such as digital interface, Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) suppression, aging and health monitoring to the IMPs. UTEV plans to demonstrate the implementation of high efficiency power converters using these SiC IMP prototypes. Theses power converters will also be installed on UTEV's EV rolling chassis to evaluate the real-world drive cycle performance. At the same time, Dana Canada will ensure that the fabrication techniques are compatible with the stringent automotive manufacturing requirements.