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FPGA to Control
Power Electronics
During the development of an inverter, control- and power section have to interact smoothly.
Highest performance can be achieved by combining smart software with cutting-edge
semiconductors and innovative thermal management in a well planned mechanical setup.
Thomas Vetter, ARADEX AG, Martin Schulz, Infineon Technologies AG, Germany

The basis for an athlete’s success lies use of proper software or parameters to demand towards protection. Additionally, a
within an optimized use and interplay of achieve any functionality desired. This wide temperature range and massive
brain and muscles. Combining both, target can be met without compromises if mechanical stress, a high demand
mental and physical abilities in perfect a few major aspects are considered regarding thermal cycling and varying
manner also is the challenge when closely. electric load have to be taken into account,
building an inverter for mobile applications. not to mention the stipulation towards
This is especially true if additional FPGA as a control center save operation under fluctuating system
functionalities besides driving motors and Having the same topology with six IGBTs voltage.
generators have to be considered. For installed to support a variety of applications
mobile applications or decentralized drives, that spans from motor control to DC/DC Maximizing semiconductor utilization
the VECTOPOWER concept as displayed in converters makes an FPGA a tempting During short circuit or similarly high
Figure 1, can handle a multitude of solution for control. A special benefit arises, overload conditions a proper reaction has
requirements like if the FPGA generates the pulse pattern for to take place within microseconds.
䡲 connection to the grid, the power transistors and also administers Thermal development inside the
䡲 AC/DC-converter, optionally bidirectional, the high-speed control loops, especially semiconductor as a consequence of
䡲 bidirectional connection to batteries the current control. varying the load usually have to be
and/or capacitors, and The FPGA in the present application accounted for in the regime of
䡲 creation of on-board supply or isolated observes three voltage- and three current milliseconds. Detailed, most accurate
networks. measurements, runs the control algorithms knowledge of the semiconductor in use is
Figure 2 summarizes the possible and generates the gate signals for the mandatory. Sophisticated methods and
scenarios a VECTOPOWER could be used power transistors. The cycle time is model based calculations are done in hard
in. reduced down to 2 µs. Flexible firmware is real time inside the FPGA. Depending on
Looking at economical issues, logistics the door opener to enable the support of the application and the point of operation,
and especially worldwide provision of all the tasks sketched in Figure 2. this allows an increase in output power by
spare parts, a progressive concept is A wide spectrum of functional features up to 20 % from the same semiconductor.
required. The key is to provide a common combined with a swift and sensitive control This is beneficial for the application both in
hardware for any possible task and make is one thing. The other thing, especially in economics as well as in size and weight
mobile applications, is the extraordinary especially if advanced protection from
Figure 1: VECTOPOWER featuring peak power of extreme operation conditions is achieved
250 kW/350 kVA in 10 liters of space at the same time.
A prerequisite to fulfill the sum of
requirements is a current control loop that
is deterministic, predictable and fast
enough to prevent transient overshoots in
the load current even at extreme changes.
This particular requirement cannot be
matched with common processors. The
solution presented therefore is based on
FPGA, running several processes in parallel
using highly robust state machines.

Utilizing time constants to increase

peak power
Especially drive trains demand high peak
power for a matter of seconds. Changing
the switching frequency on the fly even
during active torque control allow to
achieve higher peak power. The use of
smaller IGBTs is a resulting alternative as
well, leading to cost reduction. Choosing

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Figure 2:
VECTOPOWER in
various applications

a proper switching frequency has to be 4.5 kHz for certain points of operation. magnets included are very sensitive
considered as optimization, taking The thermal time constants of power towards magnetic overload. A few
different parameters into account. Higher semiconductors typically are in a range microseconds of overload are good
switching frequencies lead to decreased below 100 ms while those for electric enough to initiate an irreversible partial
losses in the motor due to a reduction of motors exceed 100 s. demagnetizing. This is why motor
ripple currents. At the same time, it leads During times of high acceleration or to designers built in a corresponding
to increased switching losses in the manage a difficult driveaway situation, this magnetic reserve. If, like done with the
power semiconductors. Comparing the correlation can be considered and the FPGA, the current can be closely controlled
thermal relations it can be calculated, that switching frequency can be reduced for a even in a microsecond scale a motor can
a change from 9 kHz down to 4.5 kHz few seconds. be designed featuring the same size,
leads to an increase in output power by torque, power and efficiency with 30 %
40-45 %. Reducing the amount of magnetics in less magnetic material being used.
The FPGA-based control allows changing PM machines The strategic dependency on the raw
the switching frequency on the fly without FPGA based control strategies enable a materials along with the high prices for
introducing distortions to the torque. more cost efficient design of power magnets illustrates, that savings in this
During normal operation, the frequency electronics. Further possibilities arise in dimension are economically essential.
remains at 9 kHz but may be changed to optimizing permanent motors. The
Core piece power semiconductor
The power semiconductor is the core
component to control the flow of energy.
To live up to the expectations, electrical,
mechanical and thermal challenges have
to be mastered. During the development
of an inverter, the semiconductor, the heat
sink and the application’s typical load
profile have to be considered an
inseparable unit. In-depth knowledge
about this unit is mandatory to estimate
the chip temperature and the temperature
swing most accurately. Usually,
semiconductor manufacturers provide the
information needed by the power system
designers to predict the load cycles a
semiconductor will survive according to the
temperature swing within the application.
Knowing the load profiles and the number
of cycles to be expected per time, an
operating lifetime can be estimated.
For an all electric bus used in public
transportation, 60.000 operating hours are
demanded during a service life of 15 years
representing 1 million kilometers. To

Figure 3: Details inside the power module influencing the lifetime, EconoDUAL™3 600 A/1200 V

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comply with this demand, EconoDUAL™3 A further improvement results from of material applied locally. The enlarged
modules were chosen. Exhaustive replacing solder joints by PressFIT- area that is not covered with TIM later
upgrades have been introduced to the technology. In demanding applications, allows direct metal-to-metal contact,
existing design, improving the mechanical solder joints degrade over time due to leading to further thermal improvement.
robustness, the electric properties and the temperature swing and mechanical wear Copious tests, substantiated by years of
thermal connection. Figure 3 can best be caused by vibrations. The continuous field testing have proven the thermal
used to take a look at the changes in detail deterioration eventually leads to so-called quality and the long-term stability of the
and their influence to the design. cold solder spots. These spots bare the risk new compound. The critical failure
of intermittent or lost contact. mechanism ‘Pump Out of Thermal Grease’
Interconnecting technologies The PressFIT technology recently is now eliminated.
Formerly, the power terminals were introduced (C) forms a connection to the
plugged into the plastic frame. The new PCB that is considered a cold welding joint. Enhanced system soldering
design now features injection molded This is a gas tight, low resistive and One major novelty especially for power
terminals (A) which improves the resistivity mechanically highly robust interconnection. modules to support the application
towards vibration. Previously, micro- Compared to typical solder- or spring-force ‘Commercial and Agricultural Vehicles
movements of the terminals in some contacts, PressFIT-pins improve the (CAV)’ is the high reliability system solder
cases induced additional mechanical stress connection’s reliability by a factor 100. process. The system solder joint forms the
to the bond wires connecting the terminal connection between carrier substrate
to the DCB. Thermal connection (DCB) and the module’s base plate.
A change that improves thermal Improvement regarding the thermal Minute deviations between the thermal
properties along with electrical capabilities interconnection was achieved by applying coefficients of expansion lead to thermal-
is the new system bonding. System bonds a dedicated thermal interface material mechanical stress inside this joint.
are all wires that interconnect the module’s (TIM) to the power modules. This layer Delaminating of the layer is a
substrate to each other or provide electrical (D) forms the thermal link between power consequence.
connection between DCB and terminals. In module and heat sink. The new material This delaminating poses a perturbation
(B), a detailed view on a part of the new composition consists of a phase changing of the thermal transfer path as the
system bonding is given. Instead of using carrier matrix that holds the thermally available area to conduct the heat is
aluminum wires, the connection now is active filler components. The process of reduced. A positive feedback is introduced,
done utilizing copper. The higher specific application became part of the as higher chip temperatures result from
conductivity enables the handling of higher manufacturing and is fully automated and the diminishing area, leading to a higher
currents without increasing the number of monitored using a highly sophisticated temperature swing and increased
wires and the space consumed. As a optical inspection system. This sumptuous mechanical stress in turn.
consequence of the lower resistance, the procedure ensures that the predefined Figure 4 illustrates the evaluation of a
temperature rise in the bond wires is amount of material is applied in the correct system solder joint based on ultrasonic
reduced as well. Thus, the material helps location. The pattern displayed in the imaging. The images were part of the
to stay within the temperature limits given picture correlates to the macroscopic monitoring during cyclic testing. For
for the module’s construction even at geometry of the base plate. Changing the comparison, a common solder joint of an
higher currents. size of the honeycomb varies the amount industrial-grade device is depicted as well.
For IHM-type modules in the industry
sector, the target to be achieved is 3000
cycles. With the newly introduced process
for the EconoDUAL 3, more than 35,000
cycles have been done under the same
conditions, exceeding the target set by
factor 10.

Conclusions
During the development of an inverter,
expertise from numerous different
disciplines comes together. Only if
measurement- and control techniques,
software programming, mechanical issues,
component selection and thermal
management are considered an
inseparable unit, outstanding devices with
extraordinary capabilities come to
existence. And mobile applications tend to
be extreme regarding quality and durability,
especially when it comes to vibration. The
ARADEX’ VECTOPOWER®, equipped with
Infineon’s half bridge modules, survived
continuous shock tests acc. to IEC
EN60068-2-27 with accelerations of 40 g.
This is a fundament to support the
Figure 4: Ultrasonic microscopy (USM) to monitor stress tests for solder joints (Lötung – Soldered die application CAV with reliable and long-
attach after number of cycles) lasting power electronic equipment.

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