Improving the thermal management of AC-DC converters using integration technologies

Thermal management plays a pivotal role in achieving high power densities in converters. By incorporating integration technologies into, and on, the PCB structure, improvement in power density and thermal performance of critical components are achieved without the addition of extra, expensive material. Better use of the already available PCB copper, layout and packaging technology is utilised to gain the advantages proposed. Theory to evaluate the thermal management efficiency is applied to a case study flyback converter that has been geometrically integrated and thermally revised. The improvement of the thermal management efficiency in conjunction with a geometrical integration process forms the core of the paper, validated by experimental measurements.