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Solving the Challenges of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles

We've all heard about the benefits of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles. These new electrified cars, trucks, and buses can help our world reduce greenhouse gas emissions, secure energy independence, and introduce a whole new level of efficiency to personal transportation. Along with all the great attributes, they also pose novel and difficult technical challenges. Rogers collaborates with automotive and battery engineers to develop new materials and technologies to solve the new challenges they are facing.

Safety

Safety and battery protection for these new electrified vehicles can be a challenge without the right materials. Vehicle electrification depends on efficient energy storage and conversion. Large amounts of electrical energy are stored in NiMH and increasingly Li-ion Battery packs. These battery packs must be protected from shock and vibration, sealed from unwanted elements, and carefully managed for thermal properties.

Rogers specialized high performance foam battery pad and cushioning options provide engineers with cost effective, highly durable materials for vibration, sealing, and thermal management. Our foam technologies are flame resistant with specially-engineered properties to help ensure safety and performance over the life of the vehicle. Already widely adopted by the industry, Rogers materials can be uniquely customized for specific properties and applications as new designs and configurations emerge.

Power Conversion

Another challenge for designers of electric vehicles is how to ensure reliable conversion of electrical power to and from the grid and into motive power through on-board power electronics. Building on our long history of solving power distribution challenges with our laminated busbar solutions, Rogers developed an innovative solution to the problem. Conventional printed circuit board (PCB) technology is often not robust enough while thick copper busbars could be over-kill. Our new RO-LINX® PowerCircuit™ busbars bridge this gap, solving the unique power conversion requirements of electric vehicle drives and electrification of ancillaries, as well as for energy storage applications.

Thermal Management

Every engineer knows that conversion of energy from one form to another introduces losses that manifest themselves as waste heat. Even the best designs create significant amounts of thermal energy to be transferred away from devices and into cooling systems. Our curamik Direct Bond Copper (DBC) substrates enable durable, high thermal conductivity for electrified vehicles while providing the necessary high voltage electrical isolation.

If the thermal challenge is at the interconnect level, our RO-LINX PowerCircuit busbars allow designers to completely integrate components such as discrete power drivers, capacitors and Planar transformers with our uniquely designed RoLinx PowerPlanar™ solutions eliminating poor thermal paths created by termination issues.

Our engineers love a challenge, and we love enabling the technologies that will help us all drive towards a greener, cleaner future. Read more about our materials for HEV Enclosures or the wide range of our specialized power electronic design solutions.