Thermal Characterization of an EMI Filter for a Traction Inverter

Abstract:
The use of Wide Band-Gap (WBG) power transistors enables highly efficient power converters, but they are also a source of Electro-Magnetic (EM) noise. The amount of noise current generated in modern power converters is becoming a limiting factor for the thermal behavior of the Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI) filters. Modeling the thermal behavior of an EMI filter is not very common, but it has become necessary to achieve an optimized design. The characterization presented in this work shows that correlating Computational-Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations with experimental measurements is possible and produces reasonable results, enabling design optimization before the first sample has been realized.