Reduced-Order Thermal Observer for Power Modules Temperature Estimation

Abstract

In this article, a reduced-order thermal observer with disturbance estimation is applied for temperature monitoring in a power electronics module. Although the accurate thermal models of power electronics assemblies are widely available based on computational fluid dynamics solvers, their computational complexity hinders the application in real-time temperature monitoring applications. This article proposes a reduced-order state-space observer to provide a real-time estimation of temperature in power electronics modules. The observer is coupled with a disturbance estimator to minimize the error caused by uncertainties in the model and unknown operating conditions.