#34 🚀 Dual Active Bridge 3,3kW 380/54V

SuperPowers for Electrical Engineers

May 15, 2022

👋 Hello Supergineers! Dr. Molina here! 👨‍🔧

Last week was PCIM and everyone was there (but me..😢), including Frenetic team. I hope you enjoyed it a lot, I will be back in San Francisco in a couple of weeks and it was not possible to attend.

This week I decided to talk about a specific solution I saw for DAB in an Infineon App note about DAB.

Frenetic Power Electronics team is working on some DAB converters and I ended (thanks to Sotiris) reading an impressive work of the Infineon guys. With a very recognized signature of Antonio Escudero in the transformer (see image below). Great work Antonio 💪🏻.

But I’m not going to talk about the magnetics in this edition, I will do that another day.

My main goal today is to share with you a technique for managing high current in the Dual Active Bridge. If we make simple numbers, 3,300 W with 54 V in the output means 61 A in the load. Therefore, the RMS and peak current through the MOSFETs will be high, however, the MOSFETs are not the problem if we are able to manage the heat dissipation. But, what about the PCB?

We need to manage more than 60A with peaks up to 100A in some cases. This is a lot of current for a simple PCB.

What Infineon did in this application note is ART 🎨. Look at this:

The yellow arrows are pointing out to cooper plates which help the SMD MOSFETS and the PCB to manage the high currents. You can even select the thickness of the copper plates for each case.

Of course, you need some mechanical work and isolation parts. In this case, the plates don´t look to be isolated, which could be a problem.

As drawbacks, I would say:

EMI emissions, basically, we are creating some antennas of amplification of very high-frequency currents.
Isolation and mechanical design

I have made some simulations for this transformer, but after a long week at PCIM, you will have a long to-do list 🗒. Next week I will share some magnetic simulations ;).

🎁 SPECIAL GIFT FOR FRENETIC NEWSLETTER READERS 🎁

The next session of our High Frequency Magnetics Training program will start on June 1st. We have still some available seats and we want to give the chance to some of our newsletter reader to participate at special conditions: 25% discount 😱

All the info about the Training Program are here.

When you check-out, use the coupon "NL25" and you´ll get a 25% off. This promotion is valid up to Sunday 22nd of May, so hurry up!

You can get the Frenetic SuperPowers and save some money, don´t miss this opportunity...

If you want to get SuperPowers in power electronics, join our training.

Some of the instructors are: