Adaptive cooling of power modules for reduced power and thermal cycling

This work proposes a cooling strategy which responds to changes both in the power dissipation and in the base-plate or heat-sink temperature of power devices and modifies the system thermal impedance accordingly. That allows to reduce both the amplitude of power cycles (i.e., active cycles, due to self-heating effects) and of thermal cycles (i.e., passive cycles, due to changes in ambient temperature), yielding lesser thermo-mechanical stresses and improved system performance and reliability. This paper considers the particular case of forced-convection air-cooling and provides proof-of-concept experimental demonstration of the approach. Though not yet optimised, the potentiality of the proposed cooling strategy is well demonstrated.