Strategies to Reduce Copper Losses in Connections of Medium-Frequency High-Current Converters

In medium-frequency high-current converters, semiconductors are usually connected to passive components by means of copper plates or PCBs which generally have their thickness defined by the current frequency and their width defined by the maximum allowed copper losses. In this paper we will show some strategies to reduce copper losses in these connections by either interleaving parallel copper plates having currents in opposite directions or interchanging plates having currents in the same direction. Analysis is performed using 2D Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation and experimental results demonstrate the validity of the study.