The unfolding of MVDC (Medium Voltage DC) systems has the prospects to enable the incorporation of power electronic converters with higher power density and reliability. A tool with an integrated design approach is required to minimise the overall system volume by identifying optimal components. In this paper, a component-level early-stage design tool has been developed to attain the minimum achievable volume and failure rate for MVDC power converters. The developed tool optimises the choice of semiconductor switching devices, required heatsink, and other passive components (including dc-link filters and inductors) to minimise failure rate and overall converter volume. The optimisation algorithm employs the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to evaluate designs based on developed fitness functions. The design tool demonstrates the trade-off when evaluating multiple converter topologies and helps make an informed decision. A comparative study between two converter topologies shows the outcomes in terms of targeted metrics (volume and failure rate). This tool is expected to benefit early-stage design to perform trade-off studies among power electronic converter topologies based on key metrics like volume and failure rate.

MVDC（中压直流）系统的发展有望整合具有更高功率密度和可靠性的电力电子转换器。需要一种采用集成设计方法的工具，通过识别最佳组件来最小化整个系统体积。本文开发了一种组件级早期设计工具，以实现 MVDC 电源转换器的最小可实现体积和故障率。开发的工具优化了半导体开关器件、所需散热器和其他无源元件（包括直流链路滤波器和电感器）的选择，以最大限度地降低故障率和转换器整体体积。优化算法采用非支配排序遗传算法（NSGA-II）来评估基于开发的适应度函数的设计。该设计工具演示了评估多个转换器拓扑时的权衡，并有助于做出明智的决策。两种转换器拓扑之间的比较研究显示了目标指标（容量和故障率）方面的结果。该工具预计将有利于早期设计，以便根据体积和故障率等关键指标在电力电子转换器拓扑之间进行权衡研究。