On the Edge of Passive Cooling for Power Converters: Application and Strategies

High-power-density converters and inverters are essential to modern technologies, including electric vehicles (EVs), superchargers, and power grid infrastructure such as transformers. As the push for higher efficiency and lower cost continues, thermal management has emerged as a critical challenge—primarily due to heat generation, which limits the miniaturization and performance of power electronic systems. Among all components, power devices are the primary sources of heat and can significantly impact system reliability if not properly managed. To address this, the design of efficient cooling systems becomes vital for enabling compact integration of high-efficiency, high-power controllers. Passive cooling technologies offer key advantages over active cooling, including smaller size, simpler control, and lower cost. However, evaluating their feasibility and effectiveness in specific applications remains a complex engineering task. This paper investigates a range of passive cooling techniques and presents a method to help engineers to decide if passive cooling method is accessible to specific environment. Additionally, a series of experiments were conducted to demonstrate the practical impact of passive cooling methods in real-world applications.