As a result of goals established in emissions rules in many parts of the world to reduce greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions from transportation, electric propulsion has just emerged and is redefining transportation. In addition to passenger cars, electricity also powers an increasing number of commercial vehicles, such as trucks, buses, and vans, as well as machinery used in construction and agriculture. These vehicles are consequently more effective, quieter, and eco-friendly than their forerunners who relied on combustion engines.
As for passenger cars, Infineon Technologies is also focused on providing solutions for the electrification of commercial construction and agriculture vehicles (CAVs). We know how commercial vehicles come in all shapes and sizes and offer solutions to every transportation task. No other means of transport provides such flexibility combined with top quality and offers a tailor-made concept for every possible transport requirement. When it comes to passenger transport, commercial vehicles are again leading the field, and buses are the most environment-friendly form of passenger transport.
Megatrends for CAVs
The megatrends for CAVs, shown in the lower side of Figure 1, are essentially three: electrification, safety & ADAS, and connectivity. Electrification of CAVs is mainly driven by the need to reduce CO2 emissions, due to the increase in regulations globally.
Commercial construction and agriculture vehicles, such as long-haul trucks or buses, have to meet special requirements and besides reliability, durability and profitability, they have to be eco-friendly and energy efficient. The European Council adopted a CO2 emission standard according to which new trucks will have to cut emissions by 15% from 2025, and by 30% from 2030. Also in the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposed rule to reduce pollution levels which will start in the year 2027.
“We have over 15 years of experience in electromobility, with more than 18 million pieces already shipped”, said Marlene Wuercher, Global Distribution Marketing Manager of Automotive at Infineon Technologies. She also added, “The fact that 17 out of 25 new electric vehicles are powered by Infineon devices proves our commitment to quality, enhanced by additional qualification tests performed on our products”.
Power modules
As for the hybrid packs, Infineon’s lead device will allow scaling to inverted performance at a faster rate of production.
“The HybridPACK Drive is a series of power modules which share the same footprint and allow scaling of inverter performance quickly and without a major system redesign”, said Wuercher.
The family’s lead type is the FS820, an 820A/750V six-pack module optimized for 150 kW inverters. It comes with press-fit pins for the signal terminals, avoiding time consuming selective solder processes and providing cost savings on system level. The FS820 features a PinFin baseplate for an optimized direct fluid cooling, enabling high current density. Other options are available, such as the wave product derivate (FS770), which offers optimized costs for fluid cooling with a Ribbon-bond baseplate, the FS660 which has a flat baseplate, and the FS950 which introduces Silicon Nitride ceramic resulting in highest power rates. The FS300, a 1200V/300A six-pack IGBT, offers the highest power density for compact inverter design.
Besides the HybridPACK family, which covers a wide range of power needs on most of passenger cars and also on the lower power levels of CAVs, Infineon offers other product families that complete its portfolio for CAV applications. The EconoDUAL family, which includes modules with various topologies spread in different ranges of powers, is the most applied product family in trucks and buses (Figure 2). In addition, the PrimePACK family, which includes half-bridge and chopper configurations, offers high power density and reduces the inverter size. Both these two families cover the power demand of heavier vehicles, especially construction vehicles and agriculture machines.
“We are able to calculate the lifetime of our products based on the vehicle’s operation cycle. More specifically, we can calculate how the temperatures in the chip will behave, since temperature variation is the most important factor which affects the chip’s lifetime”, said Luciana Caminha Afonso, System Architect, Application of Commercial, Construction and Agriculture Vehicles at Infineon Technologies. This is due to the fact that the chip is composed by different materials, and each of them has a different coefficient of temperature expansion. With the same temperature swings, each of these materials will expand and contract in a different way and, with a longer operation time, you will start having some kind of disconnections among those materials. “We can calculate how many cycles the chip is able to survive based on the temperature level and the temperature swings”, said Caminha Afonso.
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