IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 58, NO.

2, FEBRUARY 2011

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Three-Arm AC Automatic Voltage Regulator

Jinn-Chang Wu, Member, IEEE, Hurng-Liahng Jou, Member, IEEE, Kuen-Der Wu, and Shiue-Jung Jan
AbstractIn this paper, a novel ac automatic voltage regulator (AVR) is proposed. This AVR is congured by an input inductor, an output lter, a small-capacitance dc capacitor, and a three-arm power converter. This three-arm power converter acts as an ac boost converter when the utility voltage is lower than the specied voltage. On the contrary, this three-arm power converter acts as an ac buck converter when the utility voltage is higher than the specied voltage. Hence, the output voltage of the AVR can be maintained at the specied voltage. The salient feature of this AVR is that the power electronic switches of only one arm are switched in high frequency, while those of the other arms are switched in low frequency. Hence, the switching loss of this AVR can be reduced. Moreover, the capacitance of the dc capacitor in the three-arm power converter is very small. Hence, the size and cost can be reduced, while the reliability and power efciency can be increased. A prototype is developed and tested to verify the performance of the proposed AVR. The experimental results verify that the proposed AVR has the desired performance. Index TermsAC boost converter, ac buck converter, automatic voltage regulator (AVR).

I. I NTRODUCTION OMPUTER-RELATED precision equipment has been widely used in many elds, and it requires a high-quality power source in maintaining normal operation. Voltage regulation is an important issue in the eld of power quality improvement [1], [2]. Conventionally, a tap-changer autotransformer is a popular solution to the problems of under- and over-voltages. The tap-changer autotransformer connects the utility and a load, and it provides the load with a stable voltage by adjusting the tap of the transformer. However, voltage regulation of the tapchanger autotransformer has some disadvantages including step regulation of the supply voltage, large installation volume, and inability to improve the voltage distortion. The dynamic voltage regulator has been reported to reduce the installation size of automatic voltage regulator (AVR) [3][7]. However, it can only overcome the problem of undervoltage (voltage sag) but not that of over-voltage. In recent years, AVRs implemented by a three-arm power converter have been reported [8][18]. The conventional threearm AVRs are shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 1(a) shows a doubleconversion three-arm AVR. A battery set is often placed at the
Manuscript received February 9, 2009; revised June 2, 2009 and December 27, 2009; accepted March 4, 2010. Date of publication March 22, 2010; date of current version January 12, 2011. J.-C. Wu is with the Department of Microelectronic Engineering, National Kaohsiung Marine University, Kaohsiung 81157, Taiwan (e-mail: jinnwu@ mail.ksut.edu.tw). H.-L. Jou and K.-D. Wu are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan (e-mail: hljou@mail.e.kuas.edu.tw; kuender@mail.ee.kuas.edu.tw). S.-J. Jan is with R&D Division, HIWIN Technologies Corporation, Taichung 40707, Taiwan (e-mail: onlypel@gmail.com). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIE.2010.2045994

Fig. 1. Conventional three-arm AVRs: (a) double-conversion three-arm AVR, (b) transformer-coupling three-arm AVR, and (c) direct-coupled three-arm AVR.

dc bus of the three-arm power converter to operate as an online uninterruptible power supply [8][15]. The input ac voltage is converted into a dc voltage by the rst and second arms of the power converter. The dc voltage is then converted into a specied ac voltage by the second and third arms of the power converter. A large dc capacitor must be applied to the dc bus of the power converter for operating as an energy buffer and sustaining at a constant dc voltage. The capacitance of the dc

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capacitor is dependent on the power rating of the load and the allowable ripple voltage of the dc bus, and it is generally several thousands of microfarads. In the double-conversion three-arm AVR, the entire power demanded by the load must be converted twice (ac to dc and dc to ac), and the power electronic switches of two or three arms in a three-arm power converter are switched in high switching frequency. Thus, it results in poor power efciency. Moreover, a dc capacitor of several thousands of microfarads is required to act as an energy buffer and sustain a constant voltage for normal operation of the three-arm AVR. Fig. 1(b) shows a transformer-coupled threearm AVR [16]. This three-arm power converter is operated as a shunt converter congured by the rst and second arms and as a series converter congured by the second and third arms. A large dc capacitor is still required at the dc bus of the power converter. The series converter is coupled between the utility and the load, and it will generate a voltage opposite to the variation in utility voltage so as to obtain a constant ac voltage for the load. The function of this coupling transformer is employed to match the voltage level. The shunt converter is connected to the utility in parallel to absorb or generate a real power demanded by the series converter for voltage regulation, thus sustaining the dc voltage of the power converter at a preset value. In comparison with the double-conversion three-arm AVR, the series and shunt converters in the transformer-coupled three-arm AVR process only a part of the power demanded by the load. The power electronic switches of two or three arms in the three-arm power converter are switched in high switching frequency at the same time. However, a large-size lowfrequency transformer and a large dc capacitor are required in this AVR. To avoid using a low-frequency transformer, Fig. 1(c) shows the direct-coupled three-arm AVR [17], [18]. The threearm power converter of this AVR is still operated as a shunt converter congured by the rst and second arms and as a series converter congured by the second and third arms. Except that the series converter is directly connected to the load in series, the operation principle of the direct-coupled three-arm AVR is similar to that of the transformer-coupled three-arm AVR. However, a large dc capacitor still exists in the direct-coupled three-arm AVR. This paper proposes a novel three-arm AVR. The proposed three-arm AVR acts as an ac boost converter when the utility voltage is lower than the specied voltage, and it acts as an ac buck converter when the utility voltage is higher than the specied voltage. Hence, the output voltage of the AVR can be maintained at the specied voltage. The power demanded by the load is directly supplied by the conversion results of the power converter (ac to ac). In comparison with the conventional threearm power converter which requires double conversion (ac to dc and dc to ac), the proposed three-arm AVR requires only a single conversion. Moreover, the power electronic switches in only one arm of the three-arm power converter are switched in high frequency, while those of the other arms are switched in low frequency. The switching power loss is reduced, and no transformer is required. In comparison with the conventional three-arm AVR with a constant dc bus voltage, the dc bus voltage of the proposed three-arm AVR is a full-wave rectied voltage. Hence, the use of a large dc capacitor in sustaining a

Fig. 2.

Circuit conguration of the proposed three-arm AVR.

constant dc voltage is avoided, and only a small dc capacitor is employed to act as a snubber and lter circuit. Consequently, the proposed three-arm AVR has the advantages of reduced installation cost and volume, as well as increased reliability and power efciency. To verify the performance of the proposed three-arm AVR, a prototype is developed and tested. II. S YSTEM C ONFIGURATION AND O PERATION T HEORY The circuit conguration of the proposed three-arm AVR is shown in Fig. 2. This AVR comprises a three-arm power converter, an input inductor, a small dc capacitor, and an output lter. The three-arm power converter of the proposed AVR acts as an ac boost converter when the utility voltage is lower than the specied voltage, and it acts as an ac buck converter when the utility voltage is higher than the specied voltage. Hence, the output voltage of the AVR can be maintained at the specied voltage. Since the power converter operates as an ac boost converter or an ac buck converter, the dc bus voltage of the power converter is a rectied utility voltage where the amplitude can be controlled. The dc bus voltage of the proposed three-arm AVR with a full-wave rectied voltage is different from that of the conventional three-arm AVRs [8][18] with a constant dc voltage. Hence, there is no need to use a large dc capacitor of several thousands of microfarads in sustaining a constant dc voltage, and only a small dc capacitor of several tens of microfarads is applied to act as a snubber and lter circuit. A. AC Boost Mode When the utility voltage is lower than the specied load voltage, the three-arm power converter operates as an ac boost converter. In this situation, the rst and third arms are controlled by a square signal with the fundamental frequency of utility, and the second arm is controlled by a high-frequency pulsewidth modulation (PWM) signal. Fig. 3 shows the operating circuit of the proposed AVR under the ac boost mode. The inductor LA is applied as the energy storage element when the three-arm power converter operates as an ac boost converter. Fig. 3(a) shows the operating circuit of the ac boost converter when the utility voltage is in the positive half-cycle. As shown in Fig. 3(a), G1 and G6 are always on, and G2 and G5 are always

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Fig. 4. Related control signals of the power electronic switches and voltage waveforms of the proposed AVR under the ac boost mode. Fig. 3. Operating circuit of the proposed AVR under the ac boost mode. (a) Positive half-cycle. (b) Negative half-cycle.

off. When G3 is on and G4 is off, the inductor LA is energized through the utility, G1 and G3 . In this duration, the inductor voltage (vLA ) is given by vLA = vs (1)

where vs is the utility voltage. The current of the inductor LA is increased. The energy stored in the inductor LA will be released through G1 and G4 to the dc capacitor of the three-arm power converter when G3 is off and G4 is on, and the inductor voltage becomes vLA = vs vc (2)

where vc is the dc bus voltage of the three-arm power converter. Since the dc bus voltage of the three-arm power converter will be higher than the utility voltage under the ac boost mode, the current passing through the inductor LA is decreased. When the current passing through the inductor LA is continuous, by applying Faradays law, the voltage-second balance can be represented as vs DT + (vs vc )(1 D)T = 0 (3)

where D and T are the duty ratio and the switching period of G3 , respectively. From (3), the amplier gain can be derived as Mv = vc 1 . = vs 1D (4)

The operation of the three-arm power converter is similar to the dc/dc boost converter during the positive half-cycle. Fig. 3(b) shows the operating circuit while the utility voltage is in the negative half-cycle. As shown in Fig. 3(b), G2 and G5 are always on, and G1 and G6 are always off. The inductor LA is energized from the utility through G2 and G4 when G4 is on and G3 is off, and the energy stored in the inductor LA will be released to the dc capacitor of the three-arm power converter through G2 and G3 when G4 is off and G3 is on. The operation of the three-arm power converter is also similar to that of the dc/dc boost converter under the negative halfcycle, and the amplier gain is also the same as (4). As shown in (4), the dc bus voltage of the three-arm power converter is a rectied ac voltage which is higher than the utility voltage when serving as an ac boost converter, and the amplier gain is determined by the duty ratio D. The dc bus voltage of the threearm power converter is inverted by the third arm, and then, it passes through the output lter so as to supply a load voltage higher than the utility voltage. Hence, the proposed AVR can sustain the load voltage at the specied voltage under the sag of the utility voltage. Fig. 4 shows the related control signals of the power electronic switches and the voltage waveforms of the proposed AVR under the ac boost mode. The efciency of the dc/dc boost converter is dependent on the duty ratio [19]. Hence, the efciency of the proposed AVR is also dependent on the amplier gain shown in (4). The higher the amplier gain is, the lower the efciency of the proposed AVR will be. Since the voltage across the inductor LA is smaller than that of the conventional three-arm AVR, the inductance of the inductor

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LA in the proposed AVR can be reduced. The ripple of the input current can be derived as iLA = vs D/LA f (5)

where f is the switching frequency. As shown in (5), the ripple of the input current is dependent on the duty ratio, switching frequency f , and inductor LA . In the continuous conduction mode, the minimum product of LA and f can be derived as (LA f )min = D(1 D)2 Z/2 (6)

where Z is the load. Hence, the inductor LA can be determined by the switching frequency, specied ripple current, range of the duty ratio, and load. As shown in Fig. 3, the dc capacitor CA and output lter (LB , CB ) form as a third-order low-pass lter to lter out the switching harmonic in the output voltage. Hence, a lower capacitance dc capacitor CA of several tens of microfarads can be selected. B. AC Buck Mode When the utility voltage is higher than the specied load voltage, the three-arm power converter operates as an ac buck converter. In this situation, the rst and second arms are controlled by a square signal with the fundamental frequency of utility, and the third arm is controlled by a high-frequency PWM signal. The inductor LB serves as the energy storage element when the three-arm power converter operates as an ac buck converter. Fig. 5(a) shows the operating circuit of the ac buck converter when the utility voltage is in the positive half-cycle. As shown in Fig. 5(a), G1 and G4 are always on, while G2 and G3 are always off. The utility voltage is rectied through the rst and second arms of the three-arm power converter; thus, a rectied utility voltage appears at the dc bus of the three-arm power converter. Both the input inductor LA and the dc capacitor CA performed as a low-pass lter. When G5 is on and G6 is off, the inductor LB is energized from the rectied utility voltage through G4 and G5 . In this duration, the inductor voltage (vLB ) can be represented as vLB = vc vo (7)

Fig. 5. Operating circuit of the proposed AVR under the ac buck mode. (a) Positive half-cycle. (b) Negative half-cycle.

where D and T are the duty ratio and switching period of G6 , respectively. From (9), the dropped gain can be derived as Mv = vo = D. vc (10)

where vo is the load voltage. Since the rectied utility voltage is higher than the load voltage, the current passing through the inductor LB will be increased, and it stores energy in this duration. The energy stored in the inductor LB will be released to the load through G4 and G6 when G5 is off and G6 is on, and the inductor voltage is vLB = vo . (8)

Hence, the current passing through the inductor LB will be decreased. When the current passing through the inductor LB is continuous and the Faradays law for the inductor LB is used, the voltage-second balance can be represented as (vc vo )DT + (vo )(1 D)T = 0 (9)

Since the input inductor LA and the dc capacitor CA form a low-pass lter, the rectied voltage of the three-arm power converter is close to the absolute utility voltage. Hence, the operation of the three-arm power converter is similar to the dc/dc buck converter under the positive half-cycle. Fig. 5(b) shows the operating circuit when the utility voltage is in the negative half-cycle. As shown in Fig. 5(b), G2 and G3 are always on, while G1 and G4 are always off. The utility voltage is rectied through the rst and second arms of the three-arm power converter; thus, the dc bus voltage of the three-arm power converter is the negative utility voltage. The inductor LB is energized by the rectied utility voltage through G3 and G6 when G5 is off and G6 is on, and the energy stored in the inductor LB will be released to the load through G3 and G5 when G5 is on and G6 is off. The operation of the three-arm power converter is also similar to the dc/dc buck converter under the negative half-cycle, and the dropped gain is the same as that in (10). As shown in (10), the load voltage is lower than

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Fig. 7. Control block of the proposed three-arm power converter.

Fig. 6. Related control signals of the power electronic switches and voltage waveforms of the proposed AVR under the ac buck mode.

the dc bus voltage of the three-arm power converter. The dc bus voltage of the three-arm power converter is close to the absolute utility voltage. Hence, the relationship between the utility voltage and the load voltage is close to (10) when serving as an ac buck converter. The dropped gain is determined by the duty ratio D. Hence, the proposed AVR can sustain the load voltage at a specied voltage under the swell utility voltage. Fig. 6 shows the related control signals of the power electronic switches and voltage waveforms of the proposed AVR under the ac buck mode. Since the voltage across the inductor LA is smaller than that of the conventional three-arm AVR, the inductance of the inductor LB in the proposed AVR can be reduced. The ripple of the input current can be derived as iLA = (vc vo )D/LB f. (11)

In the continuous conduction mode, the minimum product of LB and f can be derived as (LB f )min = (1 D)Z/2. (12)

the dc capacitor CA form a low-pass lter to lter out the switching harmonic in the input current. The amplier gain Mv shown in (4) and (10) is derived from the continuous conduction mode of the inductor current. If the inductor current is discontinuous, the duty ratio must be decreased slightly in obtaining the same amplier gain [19]. However, this problem can be solved effectively by a close-loop control of the output voltage. The output voltage will deviate from its desired value when the inductor current is discontinuous, and the controller of the output voltage can correct the duty ratio to trace the desired value. As discussed earlier, the conventional three-arm AVR utilizes a high-capacitance dc capacitor to provide a constant dc voltage, and at least four power electronic switches of the conventional AVR are switched in high frequency. In accordance with the proposed AVR, either the second or the third arm is controlled via highfrequency switching. As a result, the power electronic switches of only one arm are switched in high frequency, while those of the other arms are switched in the fundamental frequency of the utility voltage. Hence, the switching loss can be reduced effectively. Moreover, the high-capacitance dc capacitor and high-inductance inductors employed in the conventional threearm AVR are replaced by a small-capacitance dc capacitor and small-inductance inductors in the proposed AVR. The present design achieves lower cost and smaller volume for installation as well as lower switching loss. III. C ONTROL B LOCK D IAGRAM Fig. 7 shows the control block diagram of the proposed AVR. It includes a utility voltage processing unit, a load voltage processing unit, and a selecting unit. The utility voltage processing unit is employed to generate a low-frequency square signal and a selecting signal. The utility voltage is detected by a voltage detector, and then, it is sent to a zero-crossing detector. The output of the zero-crossing detector and its inverted signal are square waves in synchronization with the utility voltage to obtain the driving signals of G1 and G2 of the rst arm. The detected utility voltage is also sent to a selecting circuit to

Hence, the inductance of the inductor LB can be determined by the switching frequency, specied ripple current, range of the duty ratio, and load. The ripple of the output voltage can be derived as vo = vo (1 D)/8LB CB f 2 . (13)

The capacitor CB can be determined for a specied output ripple voltage. As shown in Fig. 5, the input inductor LA and

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generate a selecting signal C1 . The selecting signal C1 determines the operation mode of the three-arm power converter. If the utility voltage is lower than the specied voltage, the selecting signal C1 is HIGH for operating at the ac boost mode. On the contrary, the selecting signal C1 is LOW for operating at the ac buck mode when the utility voltage is higher than the specied voltage. As shown in Fig. 7, the load voltage processing unit is employed to generate a high-frequency PWM signal. The load voltage is detected by a voltage detector, and then, it is sent to a root-mean-square (rms) detector to detect its rms value. The rms value is sent to the subtractor for subtracting a setting value from the rms value, and the result of the subtraction is further sent to the PI controller. From (4) and (10), a constant duty ratio is required in the three-arm power converter to increase or decrease a constant gain. Since the duty ratios of the power electronic switches switching in high frequency in the second or third arms are inverse of each other at the positive and negative half-cycles, the modulation signal must be a square wave that is synchronous to the utility voltage. The amplitude of the modulation signal settles the duty ratio of the second or third arm so as to determine the gain of the three-arm power converter. The output of the PI controller is the amplitude of the modulation signal. Both the output of the PI controller and the signal G1 are sent to a multiplier to obtain an adjustable squarewaveform signal. According to the described procedures, with a close-loop control, the rms value of the load voltage can track the setting value through adjusting the amplitude of the adjustable square-waveform signal generated by the multiplier. Under the continuous conduction mode, the demanded duty ratio of the second or third arm is a constant. However, the load voltage will be distorted when the load is nonlinear, when the utility is distorted, or when the current of the inductor LA or LB is discontinuous. In order to prevent the load voltage from being distorted, the load voltage control must be further tuned. The detected load voltage is sent to a band-stop lter with a center frequency of 60 Hz to detect the distorted signal of the load voltage. The output of the band-stop lter and the adjustable square-waveform signal are sent to a subtractor to obtain the complete modulation signal. The complete modulation signal is sent to a PWM circuit to generate a PWM signal S . As shown in Fig. 7, the high-frequency PWM signal S and G2 are, respectively, sent to the input pins of multiplexers I and II, and the selecting signal C1 and its inverted signal are sent to the selected input pins of multiplexers I and II, respectively. The output of multiplexer I and its inverted signal are the driving signals of the second arm, while the output of multiplexer II and its inverted signal are the driving signals of the third arm. The utility voltage is regarded as an undervoltage when the selecting signal C1 is HIGH. In this situation, the high-frequency PWM signal S is selected to be the output of multiplexer I, while G2 is selected to be the output of multiplier II. Hence, the second arm is operated in high frequency, the third arm is operated in low frequency, and the three-arm power converter is operated at the ac boost mode. On the contrary, when the selecting signal C1 is LOW, the utility voltage source is regarded as an over-voltage. In this situation, G2 is selected to be the output of multiplexer I, while the

TABLE I M AIN PARAMETERS OF P ROPOSED AVR

Fig. 8. Experimental results of the proposed AVR under a utility voltage of 143 V and resistive load. (a) Utility voltage. (b) Utility current. (c) Load voltage. (d) Load current.

high-frequency PWM signal S is selected to be the output of multiplexer II. Hence, the second arm is operated in low frequency, and the third arm is operated in high frequency so that the three-arm power converter is operated at the ac buck mode. IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS In order to verify the performance of the proposed AVR, a prototype is developed and tested. The controller of the prototype is implemented by a digital signal processor chip (TMS320F2407). Table I shows the main parameters of the proposed AVR. The capacitance of the dc capacitor CA is only 20 F, it is very small in comparison with that of the dc capacitor used in the conventional three-arm AVR [8][18]. Fig. 8 shows the experimental results of the proposed AVR under the utility voltage of 143 V and a resistive load. As shown in Fig. 8(c), the load voltage is close to sinusoidal and is regulated at 110 V. Fig. 9 shows the experimental results of the proposed AVR under the utility voltage of 77 V and a resistive load. As shown in Fig. 9(c), the load voltage is still almost sinusoidal and is regulated at 110 V. Fig. 10 shows the experimental results of the proposed AVR under the utility voltage of 121 V and nonlinear load. As shown in Fig. 10(d), the load current is distorted. However, the load voltage shown in Fig. 10(c) is still almost sinusoidal and is regulated at 110 V. Fig. 11 shows the experimental results of the output voltage for the proposed AVR upon varying the utility voltage from 77 to 143 V. It can be found that the output voltage varied between 113 and 108.9 V upon varying the utility voltage from 77 to 143 V.

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Fig. 12. Experimental results of the THD% for the proposed AVR upon varying the utility voltage from 77 to 143 V. Fig. 9. Experimental results of the proposed AVR under a utility voltage of 77 V and resistive load. (a) Utility voltage. (b) Utility current. (c) Load voltage. (d) Load current.

Fig. 13. Experimental results of the proposed AVR upon changing the utility voltage abruptly from 143 to 77 V. (a) Utility voltage. (b) Utility current. (c) Load voltage. (d) Load current.

Fig. 10. Experimental results of the proposed AVR under a utility voltage of 121 V and nonlinear load. (a) Utility voltage. (b) Utility current. (c) Load voltage. (d) Load current.

Fig. 11. Experimental results of the load voltage for the proposed AVR upon varying the utility voltage from 77 to 143 V.

This means that the voltage regulation performance of the proposed AVR is very good. Fig. 12 shows the experimental results of the total harmonic distortion (THD) for the proposed AVR upon varying the utility voltage from 77 to 143 V. The load is a resistive load of 1 kW. As shown in Fig. 12, the THD of the utility voltage is about 4%, and the THD of the load voltage is still smaller than that of the utility voltage. Fig. 13 shows the experimental results of the proposed AVR upon changing the utility voltage abruptly from 143 to 77 V. As shown in Fig. 13(c), the output voltage maintains at the specied load voltage regardless of the variation in utility voltage. Since the load is constant, the variation in the utility current shown in Fig. 13(b) is inversely proportional to the variation of the utility voltage. Fig. 14 shows the experimental results of the proposed AVR upon varying the utility voltage abruptly from 77 to 143 V. As shown in Fig. 14(c), the output voltage still maintains at the specied load voltage in spite of the variation in utility voltage. The variation in the utility current shown in Fig. 13(b) is also inversely proportional to the variation in the utility voltage due to the constant load. The experimental results in Figs. 13 and 14 prove that the transient performance of the proposed AVR is very good.

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Fig. 14. Experimental results of the proposed AVR upon changing the utility voltage abruptly from 77 to 143 V. (a) Utility voltage. (b) Utility current. (c) Load voltage. (d) Load current.

V. C ONCLUSION A novel AVR congured by a three-arm power converter has been proposed in this paper. The proposed AVR is operated as an ac boost under over-voltage of the utility, and it is operated as an ac buck when the utility is under-voltage. The salient feature of this AVR is that the power electronic switches of only one arm are switched in high frequency, while those of the other arms are switched in low frequency. Hence, the switching loss of this AVR is reduced. Since the voltage across the inductor is smaller than that of the conventional threearm AVR, the inductance applied in the proposed AVR can be reduced. Moreover, there is no need to use a large dc capacitor in sustaining a constant dc voltage. Hence, the size can be decreased, the cost can be reduced, and the life of the power converter can be extended. A prototype is developed and tested to verify the performance of this AVR. The experimental results verify that the performance of the proposed AVR is as expected. R EFERENCES
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Jinn-Chang Wu (M07) was born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1968. He graduated from the National Kaohsiung Institute of Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1988 and received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, in 1992 and 2000, respectively. Since 2007, he has been an Associate Professor with the Department of Microelectronic Engineering, National Kaohsiung Marine University, Kaohsiung. His research interests are in power electronic applications.

Hurng-Liahng Jou (M99) was born in Taiwan in 1959. He received the B.S.E.E. degree from Chung Yuan University, Jonglih, Taiwan, in 1982 and the M.S.E.E and Ph.D.E.E. degrees from the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, in 1984 and 1991, respectively. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. His major interests are power electronic applications and power quality improvement techniques.

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Kuen-Der Wu was born in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1954. He received the B.S.E.E. degree from Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1977 and the M.S.E.E. degree from the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, in 1980. He is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. His major interests are power electronic applications and power quality improvement techniques.

Shiue-Jung Jan was born in Taichung, Taiwan, in 1983. He received the M.S.E.E. degree from the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 2008. He is currently with the R&D Division, HIWIN Technologies Corporation, Taichung, Taiwan. His research interests are power electronics and digital controllers.