Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

University of Colorado

Aritra Ghosh

Dragan Maksimovic

Robert Warren Erickson

Vivek Sankaranarayanan

Yucheng Gao

Ercan Mehmet Dede

Ercan Mehment Dede

Tsuyoshi Nomura

A bidirectional composite converter is provided. The bidirectional composite converter can be used with power electronics, such as but not limited to electric vehicles and other applications. In some implementations, for example, the composite converter may be used in a powertrain of an electric vehicle to couple batteries to a high voltage bus of the vehicle to provide power to the motors and to one or more integrated charging ports (e.g., ac grid wired connections or a wireless charging port) for extremely fast charging. In various implementations, the bidirectional converter architecture may comprise one or more dc transformer modules (DCX's) arranged with output port(s) coupled in series at an output port of the composite converter.

Composite DC-DC converter

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to apparatuses for enhanced thermal management of a planar inductor assembly. In one embodiment, a cooling package for an inductor assembly includes a cold plate and a heat-spreading bracket mechanically coupled to the cold plate at a first end of the heat-spreading bracket. The cold plate has a slotted recess for mounting a first inductor core along a first end thereof. The heat-spreading bracket is configured to apply a clamping force to a second inductor core at a second end opposite to the first end of the heat-spreading bracket.

Double-sided cooling package of inductor

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to apparatuses for enhanced thermal management of an inductor assembly using functionally-graded thermal vias for heat flow control in the windings of the inductor. In one embodiment, a PCB for an inductor assembly includes a top surface and a bottom surface. Two or more electrically-conductive layers are embedded within the PCB and stacked vertically between the top surface and the bottom surface. The two or more electrically-conductive layers are electrically connected to form an inductor winding. A plurality of thermal vias thermally connects each of the two or more electrically-conductive layers to a cold plate thermally connected to the bottom surface. A number of thermal vias thermally connecting each electrically-conductive layer to the cold plate is directly proportional to a predetermined rate of heat dissipation from the electrically-conductive layer.

Functionally graded thermal vias for inductor winding heat flow control

Growing community of inventors

Boulder, CO, United States of America

Aritra Ghosh