Full SiC power module optimized for electric/hybrid traction motorsports apps

Marelli has launched the first power module for motorsports electric and hybrid traction applications completely developed in the company’s Corbetta facility, fully based on Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology and using a new direct cooling solution. This leading-edge system will be the core building block for even more efficient, compact, and lighter inverters.

The new module, called EDI (Enhanced Direct-cooling Inverter), was developed by Marelli Motorsport with the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Micro integration IZM and features an innovative structural design that drastically reduces the thermal resistance between the SiC components themselves and the liquid coolant, thanks to a new baseplate-less solution. The result is an extremely compact power stage, which can exploit the efficiency advantage of Silicon Carbide, allowing vehicle designers more flexibility in packaging, cooling system design, and minimized energy storage.

In comparison to a Silicon-based design of the same rating, the new technology enables conversion efficiencies of up to 99.5%, 50% reduction in weight and size, and 50% higher heat dissipation into the cooling system.

Over the last years, Silicon Carbide has proven to be a technology of choice for high voltage and high-temperature power electronics devices such as inverters, being able to grant excellent performance in hybrid and full electric applications. The use of SiC Mosfet enables in fact smaller, lighter, and more efficient solutions. These features become even more crucial when it comes to motorsports, where size, weight, and efficiency are definitely major design drivers.

Produced in the cleanroom of Marelli Corbetta facility (Italy), the EDI power module has already successfully undergone a series of reliability qualification tests for motorsports mission profiles, to assess the robustness of the design when subjected to thermal cycles, switching tests, and pressure cycles.

This new significant achievement is a further step forward within Marelli’s ongoing commitment in the field of the electric powertrain, which is focused on developments both for motorsport and road vehicles applications and can rely on the company’s combined expertise in electric drives and thermal energy management systems.