Embedded Power PCBs With Metal Inverse Opal Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional power device-embedded printed circuit boards (PCBs) face challenges with cooling due to high thermal resistance and heat flux, limiting power output and increasing package size, which restricts their installation locations, especially in vehicles.
Innovation Solution
The integration of metal inverse opal (MIO) portions on the PCB, thermally coupled to power devices, enhances cooling by providing increased surface area for heat transfer and using a cold plate with dielectric coolant to reduce thermal resistance, allowing for a compact package size and improved cooling efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If power devices are embedded in PCBs with conventional cooling structures, then the package size can be maintained, but the thermal resistance is high and cooling efficiency is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs metal inverse opal (MIO) portions with porous structures embedded in the PCB. These porous materials provide extremely large surface area-to-volume ratios that dramatically enhance heat transfer efficiency from the power devices to the cooling fluid, resolving the contradiction between maintaining compact packaging and improving cooling performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent integrates cooling fluid channels directly within the PCB structure, allowing coolant to flow through and around the MIO portions. This hydraulic approach enables direct contact between the cooling medium and the high-surface-area MIO structures, maximizing thermal transfer while maintaining a compact form factor.
2Productivity
If silicon-carbide components are used to reduce device footprint, then power density increases, but heat flux becomes larger requiring improved cooling
Solution Approach 1:
The MIO portions with their highly porous structures provide exponentially increased surface area for heat dissipation. This allows the system to handle the high heat flux generated by silicon-carbide power devices while maintaining high power density, as the porous structure converts the heat management challenge into a manageable thermal transfer problem.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite structure combining the PCB substrate, MIO portions, and cooling fluid channels. This composite approach integrates multiple material properties - the structural support of the PCB, the thermal conductivity and surface area of the MIO, and the heat capacity of the coolant - to effectively manage the high heat flux from silicon-carbide devices.
3Volume of stationary object
If conventional cooling structures are used, then manufacturing is simpler, but the package size increases to accommodate cooling requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the cooling structure with the PCB itself, integrating the MIO portions and fluid channels directly into the board rather than adding separate cooling components. This consolidation eliminates the need for additional space-consuming cooling assemblies while the modular fabrication process keeps manufacturing complexity manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the cooling approach by using nanoscale porous structures (MIO) rather than conventional macro-scale heat sinks. This parameter change from macro to nano scale allows dramatically improved heat transfer in a much smaller volume, fundamentally changing the scaling relationship between cooling performance and package size.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution increases power output and power density of power electronics assemblies, enabling more efficient cooling and a smaller package size, making them suitable for compact installations in vehicles and other applications.
Implementation Method 1
The plurality of MIO portions is thermally coupled to the plurality of embedded power devices
Implementation Method 2
enhances cooling by providing increased surface area for heat transfer
Implementation Method 3
using a cold plate with dielectric coolant to reduce thermal resistance
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are apparatus and methods for a power electronics assembly that includes a printed circuit board (PCB) and an electrical insulation portion. The PCB includes a plurality of embedded power devices and a substrate layer having a plurality of metal inverse opal (MIO) portions. The electrically insulating portion is positioned between each of the MIO portions. The plurality of MIO portions is thermally coupled to the plurality of embedded power devices.