Electronics > Power/Renewable Energy/EV's

Teardown of Chevy Volt inverter assembly

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radar_macgyver:


It's more of a 'build-up' than a teardown, which has a nice side effect that the interesting bits are all at the beginning. Amazing power density, at least for someone who doesn't work with power electronics for a living.

rx8pilot:

--- Quote from: radar_macgyver on February 07, 2018, 05:19:28 pm ---Amazing power density, at least for someone who doesn't work with power electronics for a living.

--- End quote ---

The power density is amazing no matter who you are. That is especially true when you consider that expected lifespan, safety regulations, and cost pressure applied the engineering challenge.

The part that I would buy a ticket to see is the test and validation of these types of systems. The voltage and current involved is very high and it is facing an extremely dynamic range of operation. The control systems have to be over the top outstanding to make it all work.

Interesting there is a thermocouple on each IGBT (and presumably current sense). Curious if an IGBT fails, if the system as the ability to continue at reduced power.

John Heath:
Cool video. Thanks for sharing.

JohnG:
This is truly a fine example of commercial engineering. The amount of engineering going into the power module alone is astounding. Not only are there a lot of carefully placed bond wires, note that each has relatively sharp bends to keep the length down. If you look carefully, you can see that the module is filled with clear gel, which not only forms another layer of protection, it also provides electrical insulation, and improves the surge rating by helping to cool the bond wires. Note also the size of the single IGBT die.

Note that these modules do not have to last a particularly long time. For example, 200k miles at an average speed of 40 mph = 5000 hours. However, the transient electrical and thermal environment is brutal, with large and frequent excursions in power and temperature. There is a great deal of engineering effort just to keep the IGBT die attached to the module baseplate.

Thanks for sharing this!

John

rx8pilot:
It is hard to imagine the transients involved - simply huge. The control subsystems have to be near miracle levels of engineering to keep that under control.

I marvel at the display on my own Chevy volt that displays Kw - when I drop the hammer it goes from 'idle' of 1kW to full acceleration of 150kW. The Teslas are triple that number or more.

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