Thermal analysis of a magnetic packaged power module

Power density of converters have been dramatically increased through the innovations of packaging and integration technologies. Meanwhile, it also imposes more challenges on the thermal performances. An integrated power module packaged with magnetic component is proposed to improve both electrical and thermal performances. This paper presents the thermal analysis of the proposed power module. The magnetic component acts as both the filter inductor in the converter and the package of the power module. Benefiting from this package technology, the inductor can be designed with a bigger winding of lower resistance, thus generating less heat. The magnetic material has better thermal conductivity than plastic material used in conventional plastic packaged power modules; therefore, the power module has better thermal performance. Simulation is executed to show thermal effect of winding configurations. A thermal evaluation board is built to compare thermal performances of the proposed power module and two other commercial products. The proposed power module has 11°C lower than the other part with the same size.