High density power electronics for FC - and ICE - Hybrid Electric Vehicle Powertrains

The results of HOPE are relevant from a business perspective because they improve the competitiveness of European products. On the other hand they help in meeting the environmental targets and therefore HOPE is relevant for the whole European society.

The project has the following deliverables :

• common specifications from OEMs including key parameter ranges for FC-hybrid and ICE-hybrid vehicles drive system;
• scalability matrix;
• reference mission profile for FC- and ICE-hybrid electric vehicles;
• applicable test procedures for power electronic systems;
• results of APCT, AMPCT and subsystem tests;
• sensor evaluation;
• HT-joining technologies;
• cooling concepts and verifications;
• results of environmental and reliability tests;
• design of the first mechatronic test vehicles;
• SiC - control board;
• HT - SiC control board;
• impacts of implemented technologies on inverter integration;
• benchmark study.

In summary it can be said that HOPE has achieved good progress:

Performance: There are many examples where the performance has been increased, like:

• Thinner die attach to lower the thermal resistance
• Measures to reduce the CTE mismatch
• Specific packaging to reduce on-state and switching losses in SiC inverters
• Low Rth heatpipe coupling to the SiC inverter
• High temperature driver circuit
• Local heating by thermosyphon
• Integrated SiC commutation cell with very high power density

Lower cost: Three examples demonstrate that lower costs can be achieved:

• IML technology has the potential of 30% cost reduction by replacing the ceramic DCB by a plastic insulator
• The high temperature control board has a potential of 50% costs saving in contrast
  to the ceramic substrate
• Integration itself has a potential of 20 to 30% because chip area and other
  materials can be saved.

Reliability: Improvements were made in the following areas:

• Partially implementation of the new “Robustness Validation “ process
• Methodology like the mission profile test
• Translation of drive cycle to stress profile at the weakest parts of a system
• Robust high temperature test equipment