Power Dev Power Dev, Nov. issue : 10
NOVEMBER 2011 ISSUE N°3 COMP ANY INSIGHT Busbars head for intermediate copper thickness Rogers Corporation’s acquisition of Curamik, collaboration with Himag Solutions and new PowerCircuit busbar line all point to the need for more energy ef fi cient power distribution, say Koen Hollevoet and Jo Vercruysse. K Koen Hollevoet, Business Opportunity Analyst, Rogers Corporation oen Hollevoet is optimistic that surging interest in electric and hybrid electric vehicles will drive the power electronics industry to become larger and therefore enjoy economies of scale. But for that to happen, the business opportunity analyst at Rogers, Connecticut, headquartered electronic materials specialist Rogers Corporation, wants component suppliers and companies entering the fi eld to make their approaches more similar. “The new players in this power electronics market very often come from the lower power side where they use PCB technologies,” he told Power Dev’. “They’re not used to dealing with high power, the risks to reliability and thermal management issues. We have to get closer to their traditions and their way of designing, and on the other hand move them up, train them, so they get a little closer to our side and bene fi t from our long term experience in high power electronics.” Jo Vercruysse, business development manager at Rogers, agrees that the electric vehicle/hybrid electric vehicle (EV/HEV) producers need support. “They lack knowledge in power electronics and power distribution,” he said. “We have been developing power distribution systems, laminated busbars for traction drives for more than 40 years.” The biggest challenge Vercruysse says he, Hollevoet and their colleagues in Rogers’ Power Distribution Systems (PDS) division currently encounter is managing the heat components in higher-power systems release. “You can either cool the systems, or provide materials that can stand higher temperatures,” he explained. Power distribution is already accommodates high temperature operation, Vercruysse added. “We offer PCB materials that stand up to 200°C and more,” he said. “The next step on our side may be to look into laminated busbar solutions, though we have already developed busbars that can easily stand 125ºC continuously.” But Hollevoet and Vercruysse both see capacitors’ inability to operate reliably at high temperatures as a bottleneck for this strategy. “These components can only withstand 105ºC, and slightly higher,” Hollevoet said. “125ºC is already pushing them very hard. We are not actively involved in the capacitor market at the moment, so we have to help customers be creative to work around it. We can try to improve the connection between the capacitor and the busbar. Sometimes people put the components further away from the switches, but if the distance increases, then inductance is critical. Rogers is de fi nitely doing a lot to minimize the inductive losses in that area as much as possible.” Meanwhile, selecting appropriate substrates to distribute power can play an important role in helping bring operating temperatures down, to avoid such issues. Rogers’ laminated busbars feature thicker copper sheets than PCBs and therefore dissipate heat more effectively, though this advantage comes at a price that can cause designers to look for other solutions. “They try to drive down the copper thickness for cost reasons, but then they need to spend money on the cooling system,” Hollevoet said. “That’s often a con fl ict.” Traditional PDS laminated busbars feature copper layers more than 0.8 mm thick, whereas Rogers’ Advanced Circuit Division offers laminates on micrometre thickness scales. But in 2011, the company has taken several steps to meet its customers’ needs to balance economy and performance in power electronics materials. In January, it acquired Eschenbach, Germany’s Curamik, which produces direct copper bonded ceramic substrates. Then, in June, it announced a collaboration with Stroud, UK, based Himag Solutions, which designs and produces high-ef fi ciency planar transformers. “At Curamik and also Himag the copper thickness is right in the middle,” Hollevoet underlined. Jo Vercruysse, Business Development Manager, Rogers Corporation Balance for power: Rogers Corporation’s Ro-Linx PowerCircuit busbars combine performance features of power PCBs and laminated busbars. (Courtesy of Rogers Corporation) POWER Dev’ 10
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