Bernd Laska

Latest developments in increasing the power density of traction drives

Volume and weight of the propulsion equipment of a traction drive are most important features to provide more efficient transportation in the future. It will be shown how the converter technology for traction drives has improved its performance in the past decades and new developments are presented promising a further increase in power density. The machine and corresponding gear and suspension system is even more weight sensitive, and latest measures to increase the performance will be presented.

A new standard IGBT housing for high-power converters

In the field of high-power converters, the standard IGBT module housing is the Ihm / Ihv established by Eupec during the 1990s. This paper explains the limitations of this housing and presents approaches for a new, next-generation housing. This new housing design targets a reduction of the leakage inductance and a significant power density improvement. With regard to the highest power densities for high-power traction converters, initial results are shown for converters using a reverse conducting diode controlled (RCDC) IGBT.