Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-22
2001-12-25
Picard, Leo P. (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S710000, C361S718000, C165S080300, C165S185000, C257S718000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06333853
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to power electronic devices and more particularly to an efficient configuration of stacked power electronic device modules.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various assemblies of power electronic devices to form medium voltage switches and the like are known. For example, the following publications depict commercial arrangements: ABB brochure 34-300 (Sep. 1996), and PQA'97 North America (Mar. 3-6, 1997) paper entitled “Switching Megawatts in Microseconds”. The power electronic devices require compression clamping for suitable operations and heat dissipation. This can be accomplished either by clamping the overall assembly or individual clamping of subassemblies. Heat sinks are required to maintain the power electronic devices at suitable operating temperatures over the desired operating range. To this end, heat sinks are clamped about the power electronic devices.
While the enclosures of the prior art arrangements may be useful to provide certain useful operational features, the prior arrangements are large in size and are relatively difficult to assemble and disassemble.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an efficient configuration for a power system utilizing stacked power electronic device modules and a directed ventilation arrangement.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a power electronics assembly of stacked power electronic modules that are modularly clamped with each module including two back-to-back power electronic components that are mounted between heat sinks.
These and other objects of the present invention are efficiently achieved by the provision of an efficient configuration for a power system, e.g. for high-speed source transfer, utilizing power electronic assemblies and a directed ventilation arrangement. Each power electronic assembly includes a plurality of stacked power electronic device modules that are electrically series connected and energized at medium voltage. Each power electronic device module includes two heat sinks, a power electronic component assembly interposed between the two heat sinks, and an arrangement for clamping the heat sinks and the power electronic component assembly. In a preferred embodiment, the power electronic component assembly includes two stacked, series connected power electronic components such that single-sided cooling is provided. In one application, the power-electronic components are thyristors that have a high short-term, fault-current rating and a relatively low average current requirement.
With this arrangement, the heat sinks are suitably dimensioned to provide adequate temperature operation of the power electronic components along with the directed ventilation. This results in an overall power electronics assembly that is of smaller dimensions and overall configuration compared to a double-sided cooling configuration while also providing desirable clamping configurations on a modular basis. While the heat sinks are taller than conventional extruded heat sinks for double sided cooling configurations, with modular clamping, the result is an overall stack height of the power electronic assembly of power electronic modules that would be more than fifty percent larger if double-sided cooling were utilized. This arrangement also provides the advantage of modular clamping for ease of assembly, simplicity of components, ease of maintenance and overall reliability of components.
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Atanus Ronald D.
Mikosz Richard P.
O'Leary Raymond P.
Datskovsky Michael
Lapacek James V.
Picard Leo P.
S&C Electric Company
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