MS student Samuel Utomi with advisor A. Domínguez-García There has been a proliferation of distributed energy resources (DERs) due to their reduced cost and the desire to increase grid infrastructure reliability and stability. This has led to the viable integration of decentralized generation and the need to find innovative control strategies to obtain optimal performance. […]
Differential Power Processing for Voltage Regulation of Series-Stacked Processor Cores
PhD student Dipanjan Das with advisor P. Krein Power delivery to multi-core processors has become increasingly challenging as transistor sizes decrease and, consequently, their operating voltages. With rising core numbers for each processor, the power needs tend to remain the same for each new generation of microprocessors. Handling both transient performance requirements and efficiency has […]
Dynamic Model Parameter Estimation and Capacitance Prognostics for Single-Phase Induction Motors
PhD student Phuc Huynh with Advisor H. Zhu A hundred million single-phase induction motors (SPIMs) are connected to the U.S. distribution grid. Within a few hundred milliseconds after many simultaneously stall, a prolonged voltage drop on the distribution grid, called a fault-induced delayed voltage recovery (FIDVR), could occur. The event could lead to a cascading […]
Design of High Density Inverters for Photovoltaic and Motor Drive Applications
PhD student Christopher Barth with advisor R. Pilawa-Podgurski Inverter designs seek to minimize system volume and weight and improve efficiency and performance. As the energy density of capacitors has been shown to be around two orders of magnitude higher than inductors, one method of increasing power density is through the increased use of capacitors as […]
Solar Variability Reduction in Solar Arrays Using Off-MPP Tracking and Energy Storage Systems
PhD student Jason Galtieri with advisor P. T. Krein Maximum power point (MPP) tracking is the standard control scheme for photovoltaic (PV) arrays of all sizes. Inverter tracking algorithms work on second to sub-second time scales and can track most naturally occurring irradiance changes, such as moving cloud coverage. Fast response tracking imposes large power […]
A Five-Level Flying Capacitor Multi-Level Converter with Integrated Auxiliary Supply
PhD student Andrew Stillwell with advisor R. Pilawa-Podgurski Flying capacitor multi-level (FCML) converters are capacitor-baser power converters that provide high-density and high-efficiency power conversion for dc-dc and dc-ac applications. In many of these applications, there is a need for an auxiliary power supply for control, thermal management, or secondary loads. This auxiliary supply is traditionally […]
GaN-Based Flying-Capacitor Multilevel Boost Converter for High Step-Up Conversion
MS student Zitao Liao with advisor Pilawa-Podgurski Compact high step-up dc/dc conversion to provide high dc voltage has numerous applications. A conventional boost converter has many limitations with regard to achieving high voltage gain with high power density and efficiency. The flying capacitor multilevel (FCML) converter topology has inherent advantages to overcome many of the […]
IC Compatible Power Supply Circuitry for Gate Driver of Flying Capacitor Multi-Level Converters
PhD student Zichao Ye with advisor R. Pilawa-Podgurski Flying capacitor multi-level converters (FCMC) have received increased attention for medium- to low-power designs. Compared to conventional two-level converters, FCMCs have the advantages of lower device stress ratings, greatly reduced inductor values, increased effective ripple frequency and reduced dv/dt transients. There are many demonstrated examples showing a […]
High Power Density Flexible Power Electronics
MS student Derek Chou with advisor R. Pilawa-Podgurski Wide-bandgap semiconductor devices such as gallium nitride and silicon carbide have found use in power electronics as high-performance switches, allowing for higher frequency switching with minimal losses; this in turn reduces the required physical size of many of the passive components required in such designs, mainly the […]
Active Power Decoupling in High Power Density Single-Phase DC-AC and AC-DC Converters
MS student Nathan Brooks with advisor R. Pilawa-Podgurski Single-phase ac-dc and dc-ac converters have fundamental power-processing limitations at twice the ac line frequency. The conventional solution for twice-line cycle energy storage utilizes a large dc link capacitor across the dc bus to buffer the instantaneous energy difference between the ac and dc side. This research […]