Applications and Future of Automated and Additive Manufacturing for Power Electronics Components and Converters

Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have by far been utilized to make 3-D passive components (i.e., resistors, inductors, and capacitors), circuit boards, and packages of power electronic devices. This article provides an overview of automatic assembling technologies and AM applications in power converters, as well as the advantages and limitations of each AM process in this area. It shows that direct metal laser sintering offers advantages for manufacturing inductors with a conductivity of 68% of the International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS) and magnetic cores with a permeability greater than 10 000 at 50 Hz. The additive electronics from Nano Dimension show great promise for fabricating power converter printed circuit boards (PCBs) with a conductivity from 25% to 50% IACS. AM in thermal management and packaging has been extensively studied and will spark more changes in these fields. Besides, the potential of the combination of automated and AM in power electronic systems has also been discussed, which sets the basis for future development of advanced manufacturing of power electronics.