This paper presents a design and performance evaluation of three different overvoltage suppression circuits employed in a solid-state circuit breaker for medium- to high-power and low- to medium-voltage DC grids. The evaluated criteria are the requirements for passive components, as well as the breaker performance in terms of peak switch overvoltage, peak short-circuit current, fault clearance time

The junction termination extension (JTE) structures for ultrahigh-voltage (UHV) devices consumes a considerable part of the semiconductor chip area. The JTE area is closely related to chip performance, process yield and ultimately device cost. The JTE lengths for UHV devices (i.e., > 30 kV) are still unknown, not visible in the scientific literature and have therefore been predicted in this study by

In this paper, performance at 1 st and 3 rd quadrant operation of Silicon and Silicon Carbide (SiC) symmetrical and asymmetrical double-trench, superjunction and planar power MOSFETs is analysed through a wide range of experimental measurements using compact modeling. The devices are evaluated on a high voltage clamped inductive switching test rig and switched at a range of switching rates at elevated

The GaN-based critical conduction mode (CRM) totem-pole power factor correction (PFC) converter with full-line-cycle zero voltage switching (ZVS) is a promising candidate for high-efficiency front-end rectifiers. However, the input current can be degraded by line-cycle current distortion and ac line zero-crossing current spikes, and maintaining reliable ZVS control is difficult in noise-susceptible

The increasing viability of wide band gap power semiconductors, widespread use of distributed power generations, and rise in power levels of these applications have increased interest and need for medium voltage converters. Understanding the definitions of insulation coordination and their relationship to applications and methodologies used in the test environment allows system engineers to select

Medium-voltage (e.g., 10 kV rated) silicon carbide (SiC) devices have great potentials in medium-voltage variable speed drives. But their high switching dv/dt can increase the voltage stress on motor windings and cause partial discharges. This paper presents a partial discharge study of a medium-voltage form-wound winding under two-level square-wave voltage pulses. A 10 kV SiC device-based test platform

Employing both high bandwidth (HBW) controller and wide bandgap (WBG) devices in the structure of converters improve the system size, performance, and efficiency. In this paper, HBW model predictive controllers (MPCs) are proposed, with both fixed and unfixed switching frequencies, to control a single-phase five-level hybrid active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) inverter. A hybrid modulation technique

The performance of inductors at high frequencies and small sizes is one of the largest limiting factors in the continued miniaturization of dc-dc converters. Piezoelectric resonators can have a very high quality factor and provide an inductive impedance between their series and parallel resonant frequencies, making them a promising technology for further miniaturizing dc-dc converters. In this paper

Reinforcement learning (RL) based methods are an upcoming approach for the control of power systems such as electric drives. These data-driven techniques do not need an explicit plant model like most common state-of-the-art approaches. Instead, the control policy is continuously improved solely based on measurement feedback pursuing optimal control performance through learning. While the general feasibility

In power electronics, the modular multilevel converter (MMC) is an easily scalable topology with an high output voltage quality. It is suitable for the transmission of large amounts of electrical power over long distances, which supports the realization of the ongoing energy transition. State-of-the-art methods require a comparatively large total cell capacitance in the system for energy pulsations

Traction inverter, as a critical component in electrified transportation, has been the subject of many research projects in terms of topologies, modulation, and control schemes. Recently, some of the well-known electric vehicle manufacturers have utilized higher-voltage batteries to benefit from lower current, higher power density, and faster charging times. With the ongoing trend toward higher DC-link

Pole-to-pole DC faults on HB-MMC-VSC-HVDC schemes impose significant risk of cascade failure on IGBT/diode pairs. Other novel topologies with fault blocking capability, i.e. AAC converters, and DC circuit breakers are not yet fully matured. Therefore, silicon thyristors are used to bypass the DC faults until AC breakers activate. However, silicon thyristors are also at risk of failure due to the capacitor

Ferroelectric Class II ceramic capacitors allow for highly compact converter realizations, but are showing relatively high losses for large-signal excitations which must be taken into account in the system dimensioning. Recent literature introduced the iGSE-C $_{\mathrm{Q}}$ , a Steinmetz model based on the macroscopic capacitor Q-U hysteresis, allowing to accurately predict the losses of X7R capacitors

Active thermal control has been introduced to regulate the steady state and reduce the transient thermal-mechanical stress in power electronic modules. Specifically, it can equally distribute the temperature among the devices, thereby better distributing the stress among a set of devices and reducing the failure probability in the most thermally-stressed devices. This is of great importance for multilevel

This work presents a physics-based compact GaN device model that can predict the performance characteristics of a wide range of GaN devices for power electronics applications. The model has been validated against the measured characteristics of a 650 V commercially available GaN device. The higher voltage range devices exhibit quasi-saturation on-state behavior due to drift resistance, which is evident

Transient simulation of complex converter topologies is a challenging problem, especially in detailed analysis tools like SPICE. Transistor models presented for SPICE are often evaluated by accuracy, with less consideration for the computational cost of model elements. In order to optimize models for application simulations, this research quantifies the relative simulation performance of modeling approaches

With growing concern on climate change, widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is important. One of the main barriers to EV acceptance is range anxiety, which can be alleviated by fast charging (FC). The main technology constraints for enabling FC consist of high-charging-rate batteries, high-power-charging infrastructure, and grid impacts. Although these technical aspects have been studied

Penetration of renewable energy in power systems has been increasing in the past decades in response to increased global electricity demand and concerns for the environment. Distributed energy resources (DERs) based on renewables have experienced rapid growth thanks to the incentive programs and broad-based participation. With the growing prevalence of DERs, the risk of grid instability and vulnerability

Series connection of multiple transistors is an attractive solution to achieve higher voltage capability. However, the voltage imbalance among the series-connected devices is a critical issue caused by mismatches of device characteristics and gate signals. To prevent the failure of devices from the voltage imbalance, voltage balancing control (VBC) is required. In this work, an active VBC for series-connected

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This paper proposes a triple phase shift modulation (TPS) with an optimization technique that aims at maximizing the efficiency of the dual active bridge converter. Such a converter is often used to interface renewable or energy storage systems in smart dc power systems, where loss minimization via TPS is crucial, especially at light-load conditions. In this paper, favorable modulation parameters are

To meet the upcoming challenges of higher power density and higher efficiency for power electronics, a system level approach to the design of power electronic devices must be carried out. Higher system integration and packaging will allow for more compact designs but will also result in challenges for component manufacturing and thermal management. Additive manufacturing can potentially mitigate some

Triangular-current-mode (TCM) modulation guarantees zero-voltage-switching across the mains cycle in AC-DC power converters, eliminating hard-switching with a minor ${\approx} {30}{\%}$ penalty in conduction losses over the conventional continuous current mode (CCM) modulation scheme. TCM-operated converters, however, include a wide variation in both switching frequency and switched current across

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This paper presents a high performance 4-layer communication architecture for a smart micro-grid testbed which consists of a 2 kVA Distributed Energy Resource (DER) inverter with PV and battery channels capable of advanced grid supportive and grid forming functions in the Process layer, a Raspberry Pi computer in the Interface layer, a customized Edge Intelligent Device (EID) in the Sub-station layer

For three-phase AC-DC power conversion, the widely-used continuous current mode (CCM) modulation scheme results in relatively high semiconductor losses from hard-switching each device during half of the mains cycle. Triangular current mode (TCM) modulation, where the inductor current reverses polarity before turn-off, achieves zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) but at the expense of a wide switching frequency

Several small-signal impedance models have been reported for type-III wind turbines for use in impedance-based system stability studies. Common to these models is the assumption that the dc bus between the rotor- and stator-side converters is an ideal voltage source. Under this assumption, there is no dynamic coupling between the two converters and the turbine can be represented by the impedance of

Transient simulation of complex converter topologies is a challenging problem, especially in detailed analysis tools like SPICE. Much of the recent literature on SPICE transistor modeling ignores the requirements of application designers and instead emphasizes detail, physical accuracy, and complexity. While these advancements greatly improve model accuracy, they also serve to increase computational

The revolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming major industries worldwide. With accurate inferencing, AI has caught the attention of many engineers and scientists. Promisingly, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) emulation can adopt this type of modeling method as one of the alternatives after comprehensive investigation. This paper proposes an approach for emulating power electronic motor drive

This paper studies the loss-optimal design of a power inductor employed in a 2 kW, 400 V input DC–DC converter. The design of an inductor is subject to a large number of design parameters and the implications of the different design parameters on the losses are often not clearly traceable in a full optimization, e.g., different current ripple amplitudes can lead to designs with similar losses, as larger

Integrated Voltage Regulators (IVRs) are attractive substitutes for conventional voltage regulators located on the motherboards, due to outstanding dynamic performances and superior power densities. IVRs operate with switching frequencies in the range of $100\,{\rm MHz}$ and are assembled in highly compact packages close to the microprocessor load. This paper presents a comprehensive characterization

Finite control set model predictive control (MPC) is a model-based control method that can include multi-objective optimization, constrained control, adaptive control, and online auto-tuning of weighting factors all in a single controller that exhibits fast dynamic tracking. This paper utilizes the model-based framework of MPC to develop a sensorless current maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm

Power devices are among the reliability-critical components in the Photovoltaic (PV) inverter, whose failures are normally related to the thermal stress. Therefore, thermal modeling is required for estimating the thermal stress of the power devices under long-term operating conditions of the PV inverter, i.e., mission profile. Unfortunately, most of the thermal models developed for the power device

A switching characterization (SC) test of power semiconductor devices (PSDs) gives us significant insight into the dynamic switching behavior of the device under various operating conditions. A double pulse test (DPT) is a widely used method for evaluating switching performance parameters of a PSD such as its switching losses, switching speed ( di/dt , dv/dt ), turn-on and turn-off times etc. The scientific

The shipboard power system (SPS) is expected to be configured as a hybrid microgrid (MG) to realize redundant bus design and high penetration of renewables (REs). Point-of-load (POL) inverters in SPSs play a critical role to feed for sensitive ac load. To realize voltage-oriented control objective under load disturbance due to load uncertainty or nonlinearity, this paper proposes an ellipse-optimized

Radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers are an integral part of many academic, medical, and industrial applications. For many of these applications, the RF power needs to quickly transition from one level to another. For switched-mode amplifiers, one way to achieve this is with an out-phasing modulation technique. This power control technique, however, presents its own disadvantages, including poor light-load

In this paper, a unidirectional single-phase five-level PWM rectifier based on flying-capacitor topology operating as PFC is proposed. The main feature is the fact that the proposed converter has three active switches, therefore offering a cost reduction compared to traditional five-level topologies. The multilevel voltage operation reduces the weight and bulk of the magnetic devices. Moreover, 82%

Many commercial controller implementations for dc-dc converters are based on pulse-width modulation (PWM) and small-signal analysis. Increasing switching frequencies, linked in part to wide bandgap devices, provide the opportunity to increase operating bandwidth and enhance performance. Fast processors and digital signal processing offer new computational techniques for power converter control. Conventional

Virtual synchronous machine (VSM) technology is an attractive control method for an inverter-based distributed generation (DG) due to having the voltage, and frequency support functionality. Embedding an anti-islanding protection (AIP) scheme with a high accuracy is a requirement for DG inverters due to the safety concern of the personnel, and hazardous operation. This paper presents a novel hybrid

Figures-of-Merit (FOMs) are widely-used to compare power semiconductor materials and devices and to motivate research and development of new technology nodes. These material- and device-specific FOMs, however, fail to directly translate into quantifiable performance in a specific power electronics application. Here, we combine device performance with specific bridge-leg topologies to propose the extended

System-level electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation of large-scale power converters with high-order nonlinear semiconductor switch models remains a challenge albeit it is essential for design preview. In this work, a multi-layer hierarchical modeling methodology is proposed for high-performance computing of the modular multilevel converter involving device-level IGBT/diode models. The computational

Load changes of electrical machines driven by inverters cause temperature swings of the semiconductor devices in IGBT modules of the inverters. These temperature swings lead to mechanical strain in the different material layers of the IGBT-power-modules and limit the numbers of cycles to failure and therefore reduce the lifetime of the IGBTs. This paper presents a temperature control system which is

This paper analyzes the potential of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) for the modeling and optimization of magnetic components and, specifically, inductors. After reviewing the basic properties of ANNs, several potential modeling and design workflows are presented. A hybrid method, which combines the accuracy of 3D Finite Element Method (FEM) and the low computational cost of ANNs, is selected and

In the post-industrial digital-economy, motors powering manufacturing have been replaced by computers powering ecommerce - with significant financial losses attributable to poor power quality (PQ). At the same time, increasing penetration of distributed generation and constant power loads complicate the job for the electric utilities to deliver high-quality electrical power. Traditionally, voltage

In single-phase ac/dc applications where reliability and/or power-density are critical, active power decoupling (APD) circuits can be employed to reduce the required capacitance on the dc-link. Various APD circuits have been proposed so far, all with their advantages and disadvantages. However, many confusions still exist in the literature on this topic which is mainly attributed to a lack of unified

The ZVS T-type converter can be used as an alternative to the conventional ZVS-PWM full-bridge (FB) converter for applications where improved light-load operation is required. In this converter, two of the switches conduct only the current that flows during a freewheeling mode of operation and two of the switches conduct only the current that flows in the converter when it is in an energy-transfer

A general PWM method for soft-switching three-phase power converters—Edge Aligned PWM (EA-PWM) is proposed. It aligns all the high loss commutation instants of the converter bridges in a switching cycle at the same instant so that all the switches of the three-phase converter can realize zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) with the help of the resonant auxiliary circuit which operates once each switching

In this paper, a T-type common ground transformer-less single phase inverter with dynamic swing of the dc-link voltage is presented for photovoltaic (PV) application. The topology is a combination of a bi-directional, partial-power-processing boost stage and an asymmetric half-bridge inverter stage along with a T-branch. It takes advantage of the three-level switching states with reduced voltage stress

Clean energy (including hydropower, wind power, solar power, nuclear power, etc.) provides an effective solution to deal with the issue of environmental protection and alleviate the depletion pressure of traditional fossil energy. However, in real practices, there are also many barriers that can challenge the accommodation of clean energy, including geographical condition, economy growth, energy endowment

Dynamic on-resistance ( ${\text{d}R_\text{on}}$ ), where the on-resistance immediately after turn-on is higher than the DC resistance, increases the conduction losses in power converters with gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs). There exist no direct ${\text{d}R_\text{on}}$ measurements in the literature above ${1}\,\text{MHz}$ , leaving designers unable to predict conduction

This paper presents a spatial harmonics compensation method for mutually coupled switched reluctance machines (MCSRMs) with sinusoidal current excitation. The regulation by linear controllers to achieve sinusoidal currents in MCSRMs is challenging due to the substantial presence of spatial harmonics. The standard vector control with using Proportional-Integral controllers cannot effectively suppress

This paper investigates three-phase two-level VSI hysteresis-based Model Predictive Control (MPC) for permanent magnet synchronous machines with different current error shapes. To limit the motor current harmonics and prevent overheating of the magnets, motor filters (mostly LC filters) are often used. The hysteresis-based MPC is investigated to provide high dynamic performance and limit the size of

This paper investigates the impact of reference's bias on the high frequency voltage spectrum for the modular multilevel converters (MMC). Analytical solution of the voltage spectrum under carrier Phase Shifted Pulse Width Modulation (PSPWM) is derived using double Fourier integral analysis. The distribution of the switching frequency voltage harmonics is found to be directly related to the ratio between

The conventional grid-connected inverters require a sophisticated digital signal processor to generate the demanded reference signal as a feedforward signal for the sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) control. However, the reference signal needs to be re-calculated to maintain the demanded power control as the ac mains varies. It increases the computation burden of the controller and has become

The LCL filter represents the state-of-the-art passive interface type for grid tied power converters as a cost and space reducing alternative to single coil solutions for switching harmonic attenuation. However, a simple PI controller can cause instabilities when applied to control the current of this filter. Thus a general analytically closed approach is presented to determine the safe operating areas

Submodule (SM) open-circuit failures severely affect the reliable operation of modular multilevel converter (MMCs). A comprehensive SM open-circuit failure diagnosis process includes three steps with failure detection, localization, and classification. However, the existing diagnosis methods perform these steps separately, which makes the diagnosis processcomplicated. Furthermore, the efficiency is

With the increasing penetration of renewable power, its reliability and cost-effective production are becoming more important. A filter is inserted between the grid-connected inverter and the power grid to reduce the PWM switching harmonics, which may become a fragile part seen from the power electronics converter perspective. As the grid-connected inverter is typically designed with additional reactive

Optimal thermal management system design is critical for power electronic converters to ensure the reliability of power semiconductor switches. Medium power density inverter systems are often air-cooled to ensure an efficient and cost-effective thermal management solution. In addition, using heat pipes as the heat transfer medium between the heat sources and the heat sink can provide lower volume for

This article proposes a design procedure for power loss shifted inductive energy transfer systems. Based on adequately simplified mathematical circuit models for four different compensation topologies, the load dependent losses of the respective resonant circuits are presented. Power loss shifting is achieved for transfer coils and their compensation capacitors by adjusting the design operating area

Dynamically-tunable impedance matching is a key feature in numerous radio-frequency (RF) applications at high frequencies (10 s of MHz) and power levels (100s–1000 s of Watts and above). This work develops techniques that enable the design of high power tunable matching networks (TMN) that can be tuned orders of magnitude faster than with conventional tunable impedance matching techniques, while realizing