A review of thermal management in power converters with thermal vias

One important challenge in power electronics design is removing the heat cost effectively from the power devices. A thermal via is a small diameter hole plated with copper and is used to transfer the heat from one side of the printed circuit board (PCB) to the other side. In this paper, a thorough literature review of the design and analysis of thermal vias in PCBs for thermal management of devices in power electronics converters are presented. Key advantages of using PCB´s for thermal management are also presented. Based on the conclusions drawn from the available literature and practical manufacturing guidelines, four different via patterns for a single power device are selected and their thermal performances are studied. Each of the four via patterns is laid out multiple times on the same PCB. A power component in a D2PAK is soldered to each of the patterns. The PCB is attached to a liquid cooled cold plate. The devices are powered up and a thermal imaging camera is used to record the temperature of the device. The experimental results presented closely matches with the theoretical prediction and helps in identifying the most efficient thermal via pattern.