Granted Patent B2

US 12,301,136 · App. 18/660,748 · Granted May 13, 2025

Inventors: Peter Ibrahim (Westmount, CA); Hani Vahedi (Brossard, CA); Marc-André Forget (Saint Lazare, CA)

H02M7/797H02M7/003H02M7/483H02M7/4837H05K7/209H05K7/20909H05K7/20945

Abstract

Claims (23)

1. A power conversion apparatus comprising:

a housing having a first cooling system;

at least two electrical ports for sending and receiving electrical current between said conversion apparatus and at least one electrical source and one electrical load;

at least one power conversion circuit connecting to said at least two electrical ports having switches controlled by a controller to work at a switching frequency and located within said housing;

at least one temperature sensor connected to said controller;

a heat sink for attaching to at least one of said switches and to transfer heat generated by said at least one switch; and,

a compartment within said housing at least partially separated and for receiving off-board components of said at least one power conversion module, said compartment having an additional cooling system for cooling the off-board components; wherein said compartment allows a connection between said at least one conversion module and said off-board components, and wherein said additional cooling system provides additional cooling for said off-board components;

wherein said at least one controller is configured to adjust said switching frequency to correspond to and prevent exceeding a heat dissipation capacity of the first cooling system and a heat dissipation capacity of the additional cooling system in response to said at least one temperature sensor.

2. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said additional cooling system is an air-cooling system.

3. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said additional cooling system is a fin cooling system.

4. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said additional cooling system is a phase change material cooling system.

5. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said additional cooling system is a liquid cooling system.

6. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said at least one power conversion circuit is bidirectional power converters.

7. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said at least one power conversion module is a multi-level circuit.

8. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a connector backplane having plurality of module connectors, and wherein said at least one power conversion circuit is a conversion module connecting to said module connectors.

9. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said at least one power conversion circuit comprises a buck/boost DC to DC converter circuit.

10. The power conversion apparatus of claim 5 , further comprising a baffle to redirect a flow from said liquid cooling system onto the off-board components.

11. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a divider plate separating said compartment from said at least one conversion circuit.

12. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said off-board components are toroidal inductors.

13. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said heat sink is attached to said at least one of said switches using a thermal interface material.

14. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said off-board components are connected to at least one secondary heat sink.

15. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said off-board components are connected to said at least one secondary heat sink with a thermally conductive pad.

16. The power conversion apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said liquid cooling system is an air fan cooling system.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (66)