105°C Coolant DC Link Capacitor

For the past five years, SBE has developed a leading edge Film Capacitor technology for the critical DC Link application in Automotive HEV, PHEV, and EV powertrain inverters. Partially funded by US Department of Energy R&D grants, this significant investment has resulted in an array of design tools which can accurately characterized the performance of the capacitor in the application. Based on 2.5 Million unit hours of life testing (including over 4,000 hours of continuous run time at performance extremes on hundreds of parts) and on industry “peer reviewed” results analysis, these design tools can now be tied to reliability predictions up to exceeding MTTFs of 20,000 hours in the application environment.

We are pleased to announce that the Power Ring film capacitor – capable of delivering this performance with documented life data under these conditions – is now available in production quantities and at competitive prices.

The documents below detail some of our capability and summarize the technical approach and results:

Trise – The document summarizes the approach, analysis methodology and results.

Life Testing – This document describes where the “hot spot” is in a film capacitor, how to measure it and use it to validate simulation.

Simulation Tools – This document describes how the SBE model was created, validated as well as some of its capabilities for the DC Link application.

New Design Tools for Next Generation Inverter Power Module Sections
SBE has just unveiled a new suite of design tools for the inverter design community. They allow designers to make precise decisions on capacitor selection for high performance inverters. With such tools, designers can specify a “safe operating regime” of capacitor volume, dimensions, and shape (i.e. box, brick, can, or ring style), then set voltage limits and maximum current conditions (both peak and continuous) to define the application’s reliability. The SBE application engineering group can apply these tools for all customer applications of its Power Ring products and for customers designing with competing products. For more information, please contact Michael Brubaker, SBE’s Chief Technology Officer.