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THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND®
Pre-Applied
Thermal Interface Material (TIM)
The Infineon-qualified solution
With the ongoing increase of power densities in power electronics the thermal interface between power module and heatsink
becomes a larger challenge. A thermal interface material, especially developed for and pre-applied to Infineon’s modules
outperforms the general purpose materials available.
TIM does not only provide the lowest thermal resistance, it also fulfills the highest quality standards given for power modules
to achieve the longest lifetime and highest system reliability.
Main Features
› Best in class thermal resistance
› Pre-applied to Infineon Modules 110
› Dry to the touch 100
› Optimized for dedicated Infineon Modules 90

Tj–Tamb [K]
80
Benefits 70
› Reduced process time in manufacturing 60
› Simplified mounting 50
1 2
› Increased system reliability Time in HTS* [Weeks]
3 4 5
› Increased system lifetime *HTS: High Temperature Storing,

Stresstest 1000 h, 125 °C MOD-3
MOD-2
› Optimized thermal management MOD-1
› Improved handling in case of maintenance IFX-Solution
www.infineon.com/tim
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Vol. 3, No. 2 www.pels.org

June 2016
For your engineering success
Features
18 A Low-Cost, High-Fidelity
Processor-in-the-Loop Platform
For rapid prototyping of power electronics circuits
and motor drives
Harsh Vardhan, Bilal Akin, and Hua Jin
29 Medium-Voltage Drives
Challenges and the existing technology
Haitham Abu-Rub, Sertac Bayhan, Shaikh Moinoddin,
Mariusz Malinowski, and Jaroslaw Guzinski
42 Power System Infrastructure

On the cover Do we face a complete power-electronics-based power
Dare to be different! In our first feature article,
“A Low-Cost, High-Fidelity Processor-in-the-Loop
system and energy-storage infrastructure?
Platform,” a different way of developing and testing Johan H. Enslin
controllers is examined. In the authors’ approach,
the actual power stage (hardware) is replaced by a
simulated power stage modeled in a simulation software. 46 Understanding the Challenges
BACKGROUND IMAGE ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/IVANASTAR, LAPTOP
IMAGE LICENSED BY GRAPHIC STOCK, CIRCUIT IMAGE ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/
of Converter Networks and Systems
UNKAS_PHOTO, CABLE IMAGE LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING
Better opportunities in the future
Braham Ferreira
Departments 50 Transportation Electrification

& Columns Challenges and opportunities
Don Tan
4 From the Editor
8 President’s Message 53 Power-Semiconductor Devices and Components
13 Letter to the Editor
for New Power Converter Developments
A key enabler for ultrahigh efficiency power electronics
16 Patent Reviews
Juan Carlos Balda and Alan Mantooth
64 Entrepreneur Viewpoint
66
71
Society News
Event Calendar
57 APEC Signals Emerging Trends
A focus on advancements in GaN integration, SiC devices,
76 White Hot high step-down converters, and passives
Ashok Bindra
66
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2551813 June 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 1
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IEEE Power Electronics Magazine

Editor-in-Chief Don F.D. Tan Helen Li Advertising Sales
Ashok Bindra Immediate Past President, PELS hli@caps.fsu.edu
_________ Walter Chalupa
12 Magnolia Ave. Executive VP, Global Relations William Peterson United States, Africa, Asia,
Nesconset, NY 11767 USA dong.tan@ngc.com
__________
peterson@EandMPower.com Canada, Central and South
_______________
+1 631 471 5895 Dushan Boroyevich America, and Europe
bindra1@verizon.net
___________ Pradeep Shenoy Telephone: +1 973 835 7015
Sr. Past President/Strategic pshenoy@ti.com
Planning
_________ wchalupa@aol.com
__________
Deputy Editors-in-Chief Shinzo Tamai
dushan@ieee.org
_________
Ira J. Pitel (Industry) tamai.shinzo@tmeic.co.jp IEEE Power Electronics
_____________
Magna-Power Electronics, Inc. Alan Mantooth Society Staff
39 Royal Road President Elect Mike Kelly
Flemington, NJ 08822 USA VP Technical Operations 2018 Members-at-Large Executive Director
+1 908 237 2200 ext. 102 mantooth@uark.edu
___________
Liuchen Chang m.p.kelly@ieee.org
__________
ipitel@magna-power.com
_____________
lchang@unb.ca
________
Mario Pacas Donna Florek
John Shen (Academic) VP Conferences William Gerard Hurley Technical Community
Grainger Chair Professor pacas@uni-siegen.de gerard.hurley@nuigalway.ie
______________ Program Specialist
___________
Department of Electrical Katherine Kim d.florek@ieee.org
__________
and Computer Engineering Frede Blaabjerg katakim@gmail.com
__________
VP Products Becky Boresen
Illinois Institute of Technology Ernie Parker Technical Community
10 West 35th Street, Suite 1600 fbl@iet.aau.dk
_______
ernie.parker@crane-eg.com
______________ Program Specialist
Chicago, IL 60616 USA Peter Wilson b.boresen@ieee.org
__________
+1 312 567-3352 Executive VP Standards Grant Pitel
zjohnshen@gmail.com
___________ prw@ecs.soton.ac.uk
___________
grantpitel@gmail.com
___________ Alicia Tomaszewski
Seung-Ki Sul Project Manager Transportation
Magazine Advisory Board Jinjun Liu Electrification Community
sulsk@plaza.snu.ac.kr
___________
Braham Ferreira Executive VP Membership a.tomaszewski@ieee.org
_____________
President liu_jinjun@ieee.org
__________
Technical Committee Chairs IEEE Periodicals
IEEE Power Electronics Society Hirofumi Akagi John Hawkins
Division II Director Magazines Department
Don F.D. Tan Communications Energy Systems 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ
Immediate Past President akagi@ee.titech.ac.jp
___________ jmhawkins@ieee.org
___________ 08854 USA
IEEE Power Electronics Society Peter Liang
2016 Members-at-Large Jessica Barragué
John M. Miller High Performance and Emerging Managing Editor
Vladimir Blasko Technologies
JNJ Miller plc blaskov@utrc.utc.com
____________
tjliang@mail.ncku.edu.tw
_____________ Geraldine Krolin-Taylor
Philip T. Krein Silva Hiti Senior Managing Editor
University of Illinois at Uday Deshpande
silva.hiti@gm.com
__________
Motor Drives and Actuators Janet Dudar
Urbana-Champaign Senior Art Director
udayd@ieee.org
________
Robert N. Guenther Dan Kinzer
Yan-Fei Liu Gail A. Schnitzer, Mark Morrissey
NWL dan.kinzer@fairchildsemi.com
________________
Power and Control Core Associate Art Directors
Ira J. Pitel Mario Pacas Technologies Theresa L. Smith
Magna-Power Electronics pacas@uni-siegen.de
___________
yanfei.liu@queensu.ca
___________ Production Coordinator
Prasad Enjeti Pat Wheeler Robert Pilawa Mark David
Texas A&M University Consitution and Bylaws Chair Power Conversion Systems Sr. Manager Advertising and
John Shen Pat.Wheeler@nottingham.ac.uk
________________
and Components Business Development
Illinois Institute of Technology Zhengming Zhao pilawa@illinois.edu
__________
Felicia Spagnoli
Bob White zhaozm@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
________________
Sudip Mazumder Advertising Production Manager
Embedded Power Labs Sustainable Energy Systems Peter M. Tuohy
2017 Members-at-Large mazumder@uic.edu
__________
William A. Peterson Robert Balog Production Director
E&M Power Robert.Balog@ieee.org
____________
Anand Sathyan Dawn M. Melley
Vehicle and Transportation Editorial Director
IEEE Power Electronics Johan Enslin Systems
Society Officers jenslin@uncc.edu
_________ sathyan.anand@chrysler.com
_______________ Fran Zappulla
Braham Ferreira Staff Director,
President Publishing Operations
J.A.Ferreira@tudelft.nl
____________
IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying.

For more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/whatis/policies/p9-26.html.
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine (ISSN 2329-9207) (IPEMDG) is published quarterly by the Institute of Electrical and
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Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2447692 ______
2 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016
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From the Editor

by Ashok Bindra
Exploring New Ideas

for Circuits and Motor Drives
A
lthough manufacturers contin- the PIL platform provides a frame- sion chairs, including, “Power System
ue to improve the efficiency, work with which to verify the actual Infrastructure,” by Prof. Johan H. En-
cost, size, weight, harmonic control algorithm. This framework slin of the University of North Caro-
distortion, dV/dt, and other similar is presented in de- lina at Charlotte;
electrical, mechanical, and thermal tail in the first fea- “Understanding the
parameters of electric motors and ture article, “A Low- Simulation has played Challenges of Con-
associated drives, there are still Cost, High-Fidelity a crucial role in final- verter Networks and
many challenges to overcome. In P roce s sor-i n-t he - Systems,” by IEEE
izing hardware design
this issue of IEEE Power Electron- Loop Platform” by Power Electronics
ics Magazine, we present two arti- Harsh Vardhan and
for both power elec- Society (PELS) Presi-
cles related to this subject that Bilal Akin of the Uni- tronic circuits and dent Prof. Braham
explore new ideas for enhancing the versity of Texas at motor drives. Ferreira of Delft Uni-
performance of motor drives. The Dallas and Hua Jin versity of Technolo-
first investigates a low-cost, high- of Powersim. gy, The Netherlands;
fidelity, processor-in-the-loop (PIL) In the second feature, “Medi- “Transportation Electrification,” by
platform for rapid prototyping; the u m -Volt age Dr ives,” by Haitham Don Tan, immediate past president
second analyzes problems and rec- Abu-Rub, Sertac Bayhan, and Shai- of PELS, of Northrop Grumman Aero-
ommends solutions. kh Moinoddin of Texas A&M at space Systems; and “Power-Semi-
Simulation has played a crucial Qatar; Mariusz Malinowski of the conductor Devices and Components
role in finalizing hardware design Warsaw University of Technology, for New Power Converter Develop-
for both power electronic circuits Poland; and Jaroslaw Guzinski of ments,” by Juan Carlos Balda and
and motor drives. However, with Gdansk University of Technology, Alan Mantooth of the University of
the rising use of digital-control al- Poland, the authors present a com- Arkansas, Fayetteville.
gorithms and software, prototyping prehensive overview of state-of- My article, “APEC Signals Emerg-
design and software-control–test- the-art design and research trends ing Trends,” presents the latest ad-
ing procedures have become time- in medium-voltage drives as well vances in power semiconductors,
consuming and costly. To overcome as challenges and requirements as- circuit architectures, passives, and
these challenges, researchers at the sociated with these types of drives. packaging presented at this year’s
University of Texas at Dallas, in col- The article focuses on high-perfor- Applied Power Electronics Con-
laboration with simulation vendor mance, low-cost solutions with min- ference and Expo sition (APEC).
Powersim, developed a new, low- imal flaws. While the “Patent Reviews” column
cost method for rapid prototyping: We also continue to cover the focuses on patent exhaustion, the
the PIL platform. Using a dedicated Eighth International Workshop on “Entrepreneur Viewpoint” column
microcontroller that controls simu- the Future of Electronic Power Pro- provides tips to identify and avoid
lation in the software environment, cessing and Conversion (FEPPCON traps when creating a new start-
2015). In the March issue of the maga- up. The “White Hot” column sur-
zine, we presented an overview of veys the digital landscape. “Society
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2550298
this futuristic conference; this issue News” provides a preview of the
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 features summaries generated by ses- upcoming IEEE Energy Conversion
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Congress and Exposition in Milwau- Magazine’s editorial and adver-

kee, Wisconsin, and reports on t i s ement pa ge s are increasing,
magnetics workshop activities in With your support which is evident in the size of the
Warsaw, Poland. It also includes a and cooperation, IEEE March and June issues this year.
call for papers for APEC 2017, which Power Electronics Consequently, I am looking for-
will take place in Tampa, Florida, Magazine’s editorial ward to another exciting year.
and for the IEEE International Confer- Meanwhile, please continue send-
and advertisement pages
ence on Power Electronics, Drives, ing your comments and feedback,
and Energy Systems in Trivandrum, are increasing, which is as your ideas help us make IEEE
Kerala, India. The Google Little Box evident in the size of Power Electronics Magazine a
Challenge winners are announced in the March and June v a lu a ble re sou rce for pr a c t ic -
“Society News,” as well. issues this year. ing power electronics engineers
Wit h you r support and coop- around the world. Thanks for your
eration, IEEE Power Electronics continued support.
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President’s Message
by Braham Ferreira
IEEE PELS Launches

New Initiatives
R
eturning home from the IEEE now four IEEE staff members support Workshop on the Future of Electronic
Applied Power Electronics PELS. Also, there are now three IEEE Power Processing and Conversion
Conference and Exposition Energy Conversion Congress and (FEPPCON 2015) held last September.
(APEC) after a hectic week of adminis- Exposition flagship conferences and This year, PELS is going forward with
trative meetings, I could not help think- two full AdCom meetings per year. three initiatives of its own.
ing how much has changed in the IEEE Over the years, PELS, as well as the 1) The next real breakthrough in
Power Electronics Society (PELS) IEEE as a whole, has grown substan- power electronics is likely to come
since my early involvement. The origi- tially. There is an ongoing discussion from WBG semiconductor devices.
nal flagship conference, the Power among the IEEE Technical Activities The ITRW was initiated to acceler-
Electronic Specialist Conference Board about the changes that should ate the transition from silicon to
(PESC), was held in my backyard in be made now to best position the IEEE silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium
Aachen, Germany, in 2004. At that time, for success in 2030. Technical meet- nitride (GaN).
Dean Patterson was the president of ings and publications are still at the 2) The second initiative is a new work-
the Society, and I was a member-at- core of the organization, but the IEEE shop in response to the emergence
large. We had one meeting during the is actively seeking ways to improve of power-electronic-based trans-
day, which was attended by about 20 its role as a volunteer organization mission and distribution technology
people. We put out one publication and whose core purpose is to foster tech- as a driving force for grid moderni-
had one external administrator. This nological innovation and excellence zation. The first IEEE Workshop on
year, at APEC 2016, we began meeting for the benefit of humanity. One way Electronic Power Transmission and
on a Sunday, one day before the official the IEEE is addressing this challenge Distribution (eT&D) will be held on
start of the conference, with the IEEE is by introducing the New Initiatives 26 May 2016 in Hefei, China, chaired
International Future Energy Challenge Program, which is intended to initiate by Don Tan and in partnership with
Student Competition (IFEC), Interna- new programs, products, and services the IEEE Power & Energy Society.
tional Technology Roadmap for Wide- that will potentially provide signifi- 3) At APEC, the AdCom approved
Bandgap (WBG) Power Semiconduc- cant benefit to members, the technical a new three-year initiative proj-
tor Activity (ITRW), and industry board community, and the broader public. ect, “Reaching the Global Tipping
meetings, followed by a membership Our Society is looking forward, Point for Small Renewable Energy
meeting on Monday morning. Various engaging our members in future-ori- Systems.” The goal of this project
steering committee and technical com- ented workshops. In the even years, is to create a framework to sup-
mittee meetings continued throughout we do long-range planning at Society port, enhance, and expedite devel-
the week, ending with the Administra- meetings, and in the odd years, we are opment of a world technology
tive Committee (AdCom) meeting that brainstorming answers to the ques- platform for small renewable
Friday. In short, this year, we needed tion “What does the future hold—and energy systems (SRES). Solutions
six days to attend all the meetings. In can technology development be influ- must be globally scalable and easy
addition, the number of Society publi- enced to address important needs?” to use and maintain.
cations has grown from one to five, and Regular readers of IEEE Power Elec-
tronics Magazine may have noticed Transition to WBG Power Devices
that recent issues feature articles orig- Although the step from germanium to
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 inating from the Eighth International silicon at the dawn of the electronics
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are becoming available to engineers.

SiC and GaN devices have superior
characteristics compared to silicon
and will eventually pervade major
application areas of power electronics.
However, displacing an existing tech-
nology with a new, better technology
is never easy. For example, it took the
better part of a quarter century to
replace mechanical commutator
switches in electric machines with
semiconductor switches, even though
the advantages were evident from the
beginning. This lesson from the past
shows it is necessary to accelerate the
transition from silicon to SiC and GaN.
FIG 1 Some attendees at the ITRW kick-off meeting. Front row (from left): Peter
Wilson, Yuju Tsukamoto, and Hiro Akagi. Back row (from left): Alastair McGibbon, Ilija
On 8 December 2015, a meeting
Pecelj, Kouchi Zhang, Bram Ferreira, Jing Zhang, and Yasunori Tanaka. Participants was held in Delft, The Netherlands,
not pictured: Jelena Popovic, Alex Huang, Hai Lu, and Al Hefner. with the goal to establish the ITRW
(see Figure 1). The mission of ITRW is
fostering and promoting the research,
revolution was ideal for microelec- piggybacking on silicon advances was education, innovations, and appli-
tronics applications, power electronics the obvious way to improve power cations of WBG technologies. The
would have benefitted if investments devices. Silicon, which is a suboptimal steering committee strove for broad
in bandgap were significantly higher. semiconductor material for power representation, and global support
Large research and development applications, has served the indus- was established by involving organi-
investments went to silicon fabrication try adequately for many years. Now, zations such as the U.K. National Mi-
technology for microelectronics, and WBG material-based power devices croelectronics Institute, China Wide
unbeatable
price-
performance
ratio
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Bandgap Research Alliance, Cross- wealthy countries in which market drive the development of SRES tech-
Ministerial Strategic Innovation Pro- forces provided the investment and a nology and create enough momentum
motion Program and New Energy and competitive environment to improve, so the tipping point for self-sustaining
Industrial Technology Development grow, and mature technology plat- platforms can be reached.
Organization (Japan), and the U.S. De- forms and business models and result I believe that the IEEE, better than
partment of Energy and Power Amer- in a high-tech product that became a any other organization, is able to facili-
ica (United States). ITRW’s purpose world commodity. However, because tate an alternative process for reach-
is to coordinate and focus activities developed countries already have ing a global SRES tipping point. PELS
globally and not to compete with ex- abundant access to electricity, there is has taken some first steps by forming
isting national organizations. no incentive for them to develop SRES a humanitarian ad hoc committee and
and bring them to the required level of approving a US$300,000 project over
Humanitarian Power Electronics maturity and affordability. a three-year period. We plan to run a
One-quarter of the world’s population Survival of the fittest is the mech- program of competitions to achieve
lives without access to electricity. Pow- anism for successful innovation and is the necessary convergence and focus,
er-electronics-based SRES can provide provided by a market-driven economy. drawing inspiration from the US$1 mil-
light and connectivity for these disad- The shakeout among start-up compa- lion Google Little Box Competition,
vantaged communities. Despite a tre- nies in pursuit of a new technology whose winner was announced at the
mendous concerted effort by entrepre- opportunity is brutal. A large enough DOE Energy Summit in February this
neurs, corporations, charities, philan- pool of early adapters is needed to pay year. We invite other IEEE Societies
thropies, and technical organizations, for first-generation products, despite and organizations to join us. We do not
the solutions are frequently unsustain- their potential bugs and reliability is- have all the answers, but if you share
able. Currently, world technologies sues. However, once the market opens, the vision that conditions should be en-
available for poor communities in economy of scale can be established gineered to grow an appropriate world
emerging countries have their origins to improve products and services technology and feel that you can con-
in the developed world. For example, while reducing their cost. It is impera- tribute, please contact me.
cell phones were developed by tive to find an alternative process to
___________________
___________
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Letter to the Editor
is now published by Wiley and contin- Reference

Readers are encouraged to share ues to help. Why? Because engineers [1] R. V. White, “Publish or perish,” IEEE Power
their views on issues pertaining to like myself never really retire! So... Electron. Mag., vol. 3, no. 1, p. 80, Mar. 2016.
IEEE Power Electronics Magazine again, I say, “publish and prosper!”
and the power electronics profes- Derek Paice
sion. Letters may be edited for pub- IEEE Life Member, PE
lication. Please e-mail all letters Palm Harbor, Florida
to the editor-in-chief, _______
bindra1@ dekep@aol.com
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Date of publication: 23 June 2016
June 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 13
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32nd Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition

March 26th–30th 2017 at the Tampa Convention Center, Tampa, FL, USA
ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS
APEC 2017 continues the long-standing tradition of addressing issues of immediate and long-term
interest to the practicing power electronic engineer. Outstanding technical content is provided at one of
the lowest registration costs of any IEEE conference. APEC 2017 will provide a) the best power
electronics exposition, b) professional development courses taught by world- class exper ts, c)
presentations of peer-reviewed technical papers covering a wide range of topics, and d) venue to
network and enjoy the company of fellow power electronics professionals in a beautiful setting.
Activities and attractions for guests, spouses, and families are abundant in the Tampa area.
Topics of Interest:
1. AC-DC Converters: c. High Power Density Design
a. Single-Phase and Three-Phase Input d. Thermal Management
b. Power Factor Correction, CCM, DCM, CRM/BCM e. EMI and EMC
Control, Bridgeless f. Material Science and Nanotechnology
c. Embedded AC-DC Power Supplies g. Sensors for Power Electronics
d. External AC-DC Adapters
7. Modeling and Simulation:
2. DC-DC Converters: a. Circuits and Systems
a. Hard- and Soft-Switched b. Device and Component Modeling
b. Resonant Converters c. Parasitics
c. Point-of-Load (PoL) and Multi-Phase Converters d. Software Tools
d. Voltage Regulator Modules (VRM) e. Rapid Prototyping
3. Power Electronics for Utility Interface: 8. Control:

a. Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution a. Control of Power Electronic Converters
b. Power Quality, UPS, Filters b. Current-Mode and Voltage-Mode Control
c. Distributed Energy Systems c. Digital Control
d. SmartGrid d. Sensor and Sensor-less Control
e. UPS e. Gate Drive Circuits
f. Solid-State Transformers f. Control ICs
g. Metering g. MCUs, DSPs, FPGAs, ASICs
4. Motor Drives and Inverters: 9. Manufacturing, Quality and Business Issues:

a. AC, DC, BLDC Motor Drives a. Quality and System Reliability
b. Single- and Multi-Phase Inverters b. Design for Manufacturability
c. Sensor Integration c. Fault-Tolerant Systems and Lifetime Predictions
d. Actuators d. Life Cycle Cost Analysis
e. High Performance Drives e. Material Procurement
f. Supplier Qualification
5. Devices and Components: g. Standards
a. Power Silicon MOSFETs, BJTs, IGBTs h. Production Processes
b. GaN HEMTs,
c. SiC MOSFETs and BJTs 10. Renewable Energy Systems:
d. Fast Recovery Diodes a. Photovoltaic (PV) Inverters and Micro Inverters
e. Magnetic Materials and Components b. Maximum power point tracking (MPPT)
f. Capacitors, Supercapacitors c. Wind Energy Conversion Systems
g. Interconnects and Fuses d. Fuel Cells
e. Grid-Tied Systems
6. System Integration: f. Bi-directional Power Converters
a. Power Electronics Packaging g. Microgrid Systems
b. Power Modules h. Energy Storage Systems
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ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS, CONTINUED
11. Transportation Power Electronics: b. Network and Telecommunication Power Electronics

a. Vehicular Power Electronic Circuits and Systems c. Defense and Military Power Electronics
b. Power Electronics for Hybrid and Electric Cars d. AC-DC-AC Applications and Matrix Converters
c. Power Electronics for Aerospace e. Portable Power
d. Charging Systems f. Energy Harvesting
g. Wireless Charging (Non-Transportation
12. Power Electronics Applications: Applications)
a. Lamp Ballasts and LED Lighting
Please note the following time frames (subject to change and posted at www.apec-conf.org/speakers/):
___________________
1 June 2016: Start date to submit paper

20 July 2016: Deadline for submission of digests
5 October 2016: Notification that a paper was accepted or declined
15 November 2016: Final papers and author registrations are due
Submission Requirements: Prospective authors are asked to submit a digest explaining the problem
that will be addressed by the paper, the major results, and how this is different from the closest existing
literature. Papers presented at APEC must be original material and not have been previously presented
or published. The principal criteria in selecting digests will be the usefulness of the work to the
practicing power electronic professional. Reviewers value evidence of completed experimental work.
Authors should obtain any necessary company and governmental clearance prior to submission of
digests. Please visit www.apec-conf.org/speakers/ for all details on digest and final manuscript format
and to submit your paper.
If a digest is accepted, authors must submit a final manuscript before the deadline or the manuscript
cannot be published in the Proceedings or presented at the conference. Final manuscripts may be
subject to charges if their papers are over the page or file-size limit. At least one of the authors listed on a
paper must be registered for either a Full Registration or for the Technical Sessions Only registration, per paper.
Become an APEC paper Reviewer: APEC relies upon a peer review process to ensure the quality of
the technical content. To help maintain the high quality of the program, please contribute a few hours
to review digests in your area of expertise by registering at www.apec-conf.org (under “Speakers” and
“Paper Reviewer Sign-Up”).
Calls for Industr y Sessions, Professional Education Seminars, and E xhibitor Seminars will be
posted at www.apec-conf.org.
Website: www.apec-conf.org APEC APEC Sponsors

Email: apec@courtesyassoc.com
_________________ 2025 M Street Power Sources Manufacturers Association
Phone: +1-202-973-8664 Suite 800 IEEE Industry Applications Society
Facsimile: +1-202-331-0111 Washington, DC 20036 IEEE Power Electronics Society
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Patent Reviews
by Art MacCord
Exhaustion of Patents
A
s we discussed in previous cartridges at a 20% discount as a The Court of Appeals for the Fed-
“Patent Reviews” columns, a return-program cartridge. A return- eral Circuit said that, although the
patent gives its owner the program cartridge is labeled with a basic principle is that the uncondi-
right to exclude others from making, statement that the cartridge is sub- tional sale of a patented device
using, offering to sell, or selling the ject to a single use and no resale is exhausts the patentee’s right to con-
product within the United States or permitted; the buyer may not reuse trol the purchaser’s use of the device,
from importing the patented product the cartridge after the toner runs the sale of patented goods, like other
into the United States. However, the out a nd may not tra nsfer it to goods, can be subjected to conditions.
right to exclude is usually exhausted anyone but Lexmark A condition such as
by the first legitimate sale of the pat- once it is used. The the requirement that
ented item. That is, if the patent return program in- A recent case involving t he c a r t r id ge b e
owner or his licensee makes a prod- v ites the user to printer cartridges r e t u r ne d on ly t o
uct and sells the patented product to return the spent car- Lexmark for refur-
suggests that the first-
customers, that sale to the customer tridge to Lexmark bishment could be
sale doctrine and the
exhausts the patent owner’s right to for refurbishment g iven ef fect . T he
exclude. The purchaser of the patent- and resale. exhaustion of patents Court acknowledged
ed product can resell it, give it away, Impression Prod- may not be as simple that there are condi-
show it on television, destroy it, store ucts bought spent ink as stated. t ion s t h a t wou ld
it in his basement, or what have you, cartridges, includ- not be enforceable,
free of any claim or control by the ing some that were including those that
patent owner. return-program cartridges. They extend the exclusive rights afforded
A recent case involving printer refurbished the cartridges and sold by the patent or that may cause
cartridges suggests that the first- them, triggering Lexmark’s lawsuit unreasonable restraints of trade. His-
sale doctrine and the exhaustion of for infringement. Some of the car- torically, such things as requiring the
patents may not be as simple as tridges that Impression Products purchase of items in addition to the
stated. Lexmark International sued refurbished were acquired overseas patented item or conditioning a sale
Impression Products for infringe- and brought into the United States to a dealer with a requirement for
ment of patents on printer ink car- for resale, and some were acquired in minimum or maximum prices has
tridges. Lexmark makes and sells the United States. The Court found been deemed improper and a viola-
printers and printer ink cartridges that Impression Products and people tion of the antitrust laws. The law
that supply the ink to the printer supplying spent cartridges to Impres- today is somewhat more relaxed, per-
and derives a fair amount of its sion Products knew about the return- mitting those types of restraints
profit from the sale of the cartridg- program cartridge limitations. One unless the patent owner/product sell-
es. It offered the cartridges for sale issue for the court to decide was er has a very strong market position
w ithout restr iction, but it a lso whether the law allows Lexmark to (i.e., market power).
allowed a customer to purchase the limit the rights acquired by the pur- The lawsuit also involved cartridg-
chaser of return-program cartridges, es that Lexmark made and sold out-
so later activities can still be deemed side the United States. Impression
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 patent infringement. Products refurbished spent cartridges
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and brought them to and it is immaterial dissenting opinion in the Court of

the United States to The court found that whether or not the Appeals was that those cases should
sell. Some were regu- both categories were product is covered have dictated a different result.
lar cartridges, and by a patent in a for- Impression Products, which lost in
infringing, holding
some were return- eign country. The the Court of Appeals, has requested a
program cartridges. that a patentee’s sales Court concluded that Supreme Court review of the case,
The Court found that outside of the United the first-sale doc- but the Supreme Court has not yet
both categories were States do not exhaust trine did not make accepted. If the Court agrees to
infringing, holding its U.S. patent. the importation and review the case and provide more
that a patentee’s sale of either catego- guidance, it can be discussed in a
sales outside the ry of cartridges from future “Patent Reviews” column in
United States do not outside the United the magazine.
exhaust its U.S. patent. A U.S. patent States noninfringing.
confers certain rights that are not There have been recent Supreme
affected by sales of a product abroad, Court cases on similar topics, and the
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A Low-Cost,
High-Fidelity
Processor-in-the-Loop
Platform
For rapid prototyping of power electronics circuits and motor drives
by Harsh Vardhan, Bilal Akin, and Hua Jin
W
ith the rising complexity in digital con- (SIL) simulations. It is shown that PIL leverages the
trol algorithms for power electronics embedded code generation features of the SE, which
(PE) systems, prototype design and enables controller design and testing through minimal
software control testing procedures modifications to generated code and eliminates the need
have become increasingly time-consum- for real hardware during development, therefore remov-
ing and costly. To minimize time to market and improve ing safety concerns and any risks of damaging the
software quality assurance, this article presents a low- expensive hardware. The presented approach also helps
cost, safe, and reliable processor-in-the-loop (PIL) con- identify coding errors, casting errors, and platform-spe-
cept for rapid prototyping. PIL provides a framework to cific configuration errors even before the actual test
verify the actual control algorithm on a dedicated micro- setup is functional.
controller that controls plant simulation in the software
environment (SE). The corresponding communication Reasons for a New PIL Platform
approaches, constituting blocks and preliminary results, PE systems have recently undergone a fast evolution
IMAGE LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING
are presented in detail. The accuracy and fidelity of the enabled by high-performance embedded systems and
PIL platform is validated through software-in-the-loop computational technologies. The demand for digital con-
trol algorithms managing the electronic component oper-
ations and the overall system has been rising, and the
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 systems have been increasing in complexity with faster
18 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ] June 2016 2329-9207/16©2016IEEE
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execution times [1]. Therefore, it has become a standard

engineering practice to test the control algorithm PIL
through real-time simulation before it is used on a digital
power management system or a motor drive [2]. This is MCU
especially helpful in detecting problems with the con-
trols before they are deployed to the expensive or high-
ADC Power PWM
power hardware, and this testing significantly reduces Model Converter Model
the development time. The prototyping environment SE
also allows for testing the boundary conditions that
would be damaging to the hardware or cause safety con-
FIG 1 The basic PIL system.
cerns and unstable operations resulting in costly repairs.
For rapid and safe prototyping, many approaches have
been used, such as the model-in-the-loop (MIL) or SIL power converter (a generic power stage) is described
simulations, which are purely software based in nature in the SE. The analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and
and provide limited insights into the design aspects and pulsewidth modulation (PWM) hardware are imple-
problems that may arise later in hardware [3]–[6]. mented in the SE, and the sampled data is transferred
Real hardware is approximated by hardware- to the controller residing on the digital signal proces-
in-the-loop (HIL) simulations for testing purposes sor (DSP) or the microcontroller unit (MCU). The
[7], [8]. The wide-ranging applications of a real-time MCU processes the data and provides the controller
HIL simulation consist of development of digital output to the SE, which converts it into PWM pulses.
controllers, power converters, and complex electri- Another time-consuming aspect of prototyping
cal machines [9]–[12]. The HIL systems are typically is the MCU configuration. As a result of increas-
expensive and complicated in nature; in comparison, ing peripheral types and their complexity, the dedi-
the PIL approach presents a much less expensive and cated on-chip peripheral configuration has become
simpler alternative for the assessment of the control a complicated task. Typically, handwritten C code
algorithms. PIL introduces another level of simulation is used to define the control algorithms and con-
between SIL and HIL, with improved accuracy and figure the MCU peripherals. A modern MCU comes
closer approximation to the real plant and controller accompanied by a large number of user manuals,
dynamics than SIL. In PIL, the control algorithm runs data sheets, and other documents. This necessi-
on an actual microcontroller [13]–[15]. The HIL simu- tates a comprehensive understanding of the MCU
lations are also limited by the complexity involved in through careful perusal of these documents. To
configuration of HIL systems. Even a slight change in simplify the process, automatic code generation
circuitry may require additional modifications and a approaches have been used to automate the MCU
complete rebuild of the entire circuit. The HIL sys- programming [16]–[18]. PIL utilizes the autocode
tems run in real time, which bring its own limitations, generation features from the SE to accelerate the pro-
often necessitating the use of relatively simple con- cess, which allows for shorter and more economically
trol models. The PIL system works in quasi-real time efficient algorithm development cycles.
and provides a high degree of flexibility in designing In principle, the PIL system can work with any
a complex control algorithm. Throughout the execu- SE or high-level prototyping tool with the ability to
tion, the processor remains halted during the data simulate the plant design by using incremental time
exchange between the processor and the software. steps. For the purposes of this research, PSIM—a
The basic PIL system is illustrated in Figure 1. The PE simulation software developed by Powersim, Inc.
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(Rockville, Maryland)—is used as the SE. The system conjunction with the SE allow for code generation that has
presented in this article is deeply integrated with PSIM all the configuration code for the MCU. It allows the users
and leverages multiple features of to simulate the power stage along
the software. It uses the various with the MCU peripherals and use the
circuit blocks in PSIM (to describe SimCoder module to generate the
the power stage), the stepwise simu- The PIL system code for MCU configuration. The gen-
lation capability of PSIM, and the erated code is directly imported into
SimCoder plug-in, an autocode gen-
presented in this Code Composer Studio (CCS), the
eration module that has built-in fea- article is designed integrated development environment
tures of code generation for multiple developed by TI for programming
to work with almost
hardware platforms [16]. The PIL the MCUs.
system is integrated with the Sim- any fixed-point or The SimCoder-generated code
Coder module from PSIM to mini- floating-point can be compiled and can be used for
mize the code development efforts. PIL simulations after making some
The PIL system presented in this processors by Texas minor modifications such as remov-
article is designed to work with almost Instruments of Dallas. ing the code pertaining to ADC con-
any fixed-point or floating-point pro- figuration, reading the data from the
cessors by Texas Instruments (TI) ADC, and variable scope of some vari-
of Dallas. The examples have been ables. The user also has the option to
provided using the TI F28335 Delfino 32-bit floating point write his or her own code for the PIL system, using the
MCU processor. It uses TI Debug Server Scripting (DSS) MCU or PSIM libraries in accordance with the guidelines
for facilitating the data exchange between the software and for the PIL system. The basic difference between PIL and
the MCU. DSS is a collection of custom application program SimCoder is that SimCoder uses coded hardware periph-
interfaces (APIs) developed by TI for controlling the MCU eral models in simulation. A SimCoder simulation occurs
during code execution. PSIM’s SimCoder module is utilized completely in the SE and does not require an MCU. On the
to generate custom code for the control algorithm. After it other hand, PIL brings the actual MCU into the simulation
is compiled with an appropriate compiler, the PIL system loop, which allows platform specific code to be tested.
can use this generated code for programming the MCU.
Development Methodology
SIL and SimCoder to PIL The PIL system requires continuous communication
SIL simulations are composed of coded models of the hard- between the SE and the MCU. However, there is no
ware peripherals and the power converter. The control direct communication between the SE and the MCU. The
algorithm is implemented using these models. These coded SE communicates only to the control script (CS), which
blocks (typically in C or C++) are then inserted into the controls the data flow between the SE and the MCU. The
simulation environment and used as a part of the circuit. CS is also software that may or may not be integrated
This approach is a step closer to the real environment with the SE. It serves as an intermediary between the SE
when compared to the MIL, as it requires actual implemen- and MCU. This is necessary because there can be many
tation or modeling of the block in code and is not merely a differences between the processing of the simulation by
model describing inputs and outputs, as is MIL. This the SE and the MCU. For instance, the precision of float-
approach is used to detect coding failures that may appear ing-point numbers is usually different between the SE
in the algorithm. At this stage, the coded algorithm is not and the MCU. The data flow between them can be
platform or MCU specific and is used for multiple design achieved through multiple means. The data exchange
iterations to eliminate the failures in the system. As a result can be facilitated by using text or XML files or by net-
of a more detailed control algorithm implementation, the work-based sockets or pipes. Both approaches were
simulations are slower than an MIL simulation. The blocks used and the pipe method was chosen, as it had better
required for SIL simulations can be built in the SE or can be performance in terms of speed and reliability. For the
programmed into the software by the user. PSIM has multi- file method, the data exchange is depicted in Figure 2. In
ple blocks that can be interconnected to represent the con- this method, the software instance running on the per-
trol system and also has blocks that accept custom C code sonal computer (PC) writes its data into text or XML
for any features that may not be present in the SE. PSIM file(s). The CS then reads the files and transfers the read
also has SimCoder, an automatic code generation feature data to the MCU. After the MCU finishes its processing,
for different microcontrollers that has been utilized for gen- the CS reads the data from the MCU memory and writes
eration of the code for the control algorithm. The SimCoder it to the same or a different text or XML file. The SE
module is made up of dedicated blocks for MCU peripher- instance then reads the files, updates its buffers, and
als such as ADCs, PWMs, and digital input–output that can processes the data. After the data is processed, the new
be used in the simulation. These peripherals blocks used in values are written to the file being monitored by the CS,
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and the simulation proceeds forward. The synchroniza-

tion is maintained by using flag files, which are updated
Computer
after every read and write. The actual read and write
Software
doesn’t take place unless the flag files have correspond- Environment Hard Disk
ing flag values in them. The process is then repeated by Memory
the CS, and the simulation is continued. PSIM
Use of files for such communication is quite slow and Flag File
places extra load on the system resources. In addition, PSIM
there is a probability that incorrect data may be read if the PSIM
file read by the CS happens before it is updated by the SE Data File
with values for the next cycle. If such a read were to hap-
pen, it could cause the entire simulation to go out of sync. It
Script
is also possible that there may be an attempt to write to or Data File
read from the same file at the same instance. This creates Control
a conflict, and it is never assured that the resultant values Script
Script
are correct. This can be avoided by using separate files for Flag File
directional data and thread safe file handling. However,
Control
Data
using thread safe methods results in time wasted between
cycles as the system is stalled during the time a file is being
accessed by a thread. Also, the files need to be opened and
MCU
closed for every read and write. This adds an overhead for
each cycle. For evaluating a large number of cycles and
PIL
high sampling frequency, this overhead can become quite
Write Access Read Access
large and add substantial delay to the simulation time. As
a result, the simulation becomes extremely slow even for
FIG 2 PIL data exchange through text and XML files.
simple circuits.
All the bottlenecks due to the use of files can be avoided
by using network pipes or sockets for communication efficient interaction between processes on a PC. The com-
between the software instance and the CS. Sockets are the munication is done between pipe servers and pipe clients.
endpoints for communication over a computer network. The data transfer through pipes is nearly instantaneous
They are used for interprocess communications on the for small data size. It is also possible to keep the pipe open
same computer or different computer terminals. Because for the entire duration of the simulation and close it when
they use network ports, they are more optimized for inter- the simulation ends. This eliminates the overhead associ-
terminal communications and have an overhead. On the ated with repeated opening and closing of files. The use of
other hand, pipes reside on the file system in memory and pipes for PIL greatly increases the simulation speed. This
are faster. Therefore, pipes are preferred for communica- approach for the PIL communication is represented in Fig-
tion between the CS and the SE. Pipes are basic operating ure 3. The connection between the SE and the CS is made
system communication tools that can facilitate fast and using two bidirectional pipes. The pipes are full duplex
Computer
Pipe File System
Control
111010…...10111
Control
PSIM MCU
Pipe 1 Script
Data
111010…...10101
Software
Environment Pipe 2
PIL
FIG 3 PIL data exchange through bidirectional pipes.
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PIL with SE
Table 1. Simulation speeds comparison—PIL.
The PIL is comprises a DSP or any floating or fixed-point
Simulation Time (in s) Improvement microcontroller that can be used to compute the controller
Simulation File Method Pipe Method Factor output and simulation software instance running on the
Buck converter 226 35 6.45 PC. The required schematic file is opened in the SE and
PFC 1272 227 5.6 the simulation is started by choosing the “simulate” or
PMSM FOC 5904 1034 5.71 equivalent option from the SE interface. This starts the
simulation in PSIM and also executes the CS that controls
the data exchange between the MCU and the software.
Relevant information is exchanged between SE and the
Table 2. CPU and memory usage— MCU that configures the MCU for acting as a PIL. The
SIL, SimCoder, and PIL.
MCU is then ready to receive the simulation data coming
CPU Usage (in %) Memory Usage (in MB) from SE and compute the control algorithm output to be
Simulation PFC PMSM FOC PFC PMSM FOC sent back to SE. In comparison to the real hardware, the
SIL 25 – 83 – synchronization requires many more steps for PIL. The
SimCoder 25 29 87 127 synchronization scheme that is evident with an MCU con-
PIL 15.12 15.27 787 792 trolling real hardware is illustrated in Figure 4. At t0, the
MCU counter resets and starts counting. At t1, the ADC
interrupt arrives, and the ADC senses the data (V and I)
(two-way read and write) and have in-built handshaking to from the hardware. The interrupt service routine (ISR)
handle the data flow. This eliminates the need for the flag then executes, processing the data according the control
files. Because there are no files being continuously moni- algorithm, runs until time t2, and generates the controller
tored, the execution speed improves drastically. With the output voltage, which is sent to the MCU’s PWM hardware.
pipe approach, a simulation can be up to six times faster than The PWM module generates the PWM waveform and is
the file approach. Table 1 presents the comparative execu- sent to the hardware. The MCU counter continues until it
tion speed data for the file method and the pipe method for resets at t3, where the new cycle begins.
PIL. The improvement registered between the file and the In case of PIL, in the absence of real hardware, there
pipe method is dependent on number of inputs, sampling is no need to use the ADC for sampling data. The data is
frequency, and the granularity (time step) of the SE simu- sampled at appropriate times and provided to the MCU by
lation. Therefore, the change varies between the different PIL control. The synchronization requires more steps to
types of circuits tested. The usage of system resources is facilitate the data exchange between MCU and PSIM. The
also reduced when using the pipe method. The central pro- synchronization scheme for PIL is illustrated in Figure 5.
cessing unit (CPU) usage and memory consumption for the The simulation can be split into the SE side and the MCU
PIL system using the pipe method is presented in Table 2. side. Both are running asynchronously. At the beginning
The table also presents the resource usage statistics for SIL of a cycle (t0), the MCU counter is reset and the counter
and SimCoder. Splitting of the simulation control between starts counting to the interrupt. When the interrupt arrives,
the SE and the CS leads to an overall reduction in the CPU MCU is halted (p1). At this point, the SE sends the data to
usage. On the other hand, memory usage increases due to the MCU. This takes a finite amount of time, dependent
the simulation now comprising two processes. on the number and size of data points being transferred.
Once this transfer is complete, the MCU starts the execu-
tion (t2) of the algorithm described in the ISR. At the end
Power Converter of the execution (t3), MCU is halted again and the SE reads
the data (controller output) and updates the simulation
running on the SE. The MCU is run again until the next
MCU Counter MCU Counter interrupt is encountered, and the whole cycle is repeat-
Resets Resets MCU ed again. Even though the SE and the MCU are running
t0 t1 t2 t3 asynchronously and are not operating in real time, neither
ISR ISR of them lags the other and no incremental time step in PSIM
td Begin End td simulation is excluded for the simulation purposes. Since
Start Update no simulation time step is ignored during PIL simulation,
ADC PWM
Read the simulation results can be said to be analogous to real
V, I time, even though it doesn’t occur in real time—we call it a
PWM
Counter quasi-real time operation.
The PIL system uses TI’s DSS for sending the raw data
FIG 4 The synchronization between converter and MCU in a to the MCU and for receiving the computed output. It also
real application or an HIL system. controls the execution flow by stopping and starting the
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MCU at the correct positions to facilitate the synchro-

nized simulation. Dedicated pipes are used for commu- SE
nication between the SE and the CS. PIL is compatible p1
PSIM PSIM p2
PSIM and
with TI’s 32-bit fixed-point number format and the IEEE Sends Reads MCU Run
V, I Controller Asynchronously
single-precision floating-point format. Explicit conver- Output MCU
sion from double precision to single precision is done to t0 t1 t2 t3 t4
avoid any errors arising out of automatic typecasting.
ISR ISR
Additionally, the PIL has built-in compatibility for 16-bit td Begin End td
and 8-bit fixed-point values. This provides flexibility to
the user to utilize any data size and format of choice. It MCU
can also handle data in both big-endian and small-endian MCU Running
Halted
formats and for multiple word sizes of eight-, 16-, and PWM
32-bit words. Counter
The PIL system is present as a PIL block in the SE (PSIM).
The various parameters or configurations required by PIL FIG 5 The synchronization scheme between SE and MCU for PIL.
can be provided through the PIL block’s attributes. The con-
figuration data is passed onto the CS by the SE in the initial quency as the sampling frequency for the control algorithm.
data exchange before the actual simulation begins. This The PWM is generated by using a comparator with the con-
information consists of the interrupt subroutine names and troller output fed to the positive terminal and a triangular
the names of the subroutines that process the control algo- voltage source fed to the negative terminal. A similar subcir-
rithm. Based on this data, the MCU is configured to halt at cuit is used for the PWM generation in the PIL system.
appropriate locations to read and write data to and from the For code generation by the SimCoder PIL module, the ZOH
MCU, respectively. It also allows the user to launch CCS in block is replaced by a hardware specific ADC block (F28335
the debug perspective to interact with the code during the ADC block), and the PWM generation circuit is replaced by
PIL simulation. a hardware specific PWM block (F28335 PWM block). The
At the beginning of the simulation, the CS configures the hardware specific blocks are provided by the SimCoder
MCU by setting the breakpoints and identifying the read module. All the information required to program the MCU is
and write variables. The CS then starts code execution and contained in the code files generated by SimCoder. The Sim-
the MCU runs until the breakpoint is encountered, which Coder PIL module generates the files required for creating a
halts the MCU. The CS then waits for the data to arrive from CCS project and the source file for the code, which is used
the SE and sends it to the MCU after receiving it. The MCU to program the microcontroller. The project file is imported
execution is resumed. At the end of the cycle, the control- into the CCS and the project is built with all the source and
ler output (Vm) is read from the MCU, which is a result of header dependencies to generate the .out file. This .out file is
the computation of the control algorithm with the data pro- placed in the MCU memory and contains the byte code for
vided from the SE. The data are sent to the SE, updated in running on the MCU.
the SE simulation, and then converted to PWM waveform, After the code is generated, the plant is configured to
which in turn is fed into the power stage. work with the PIL system. The PIL library provides for the
PIL block to be placed in the simulation environment. This
PIL Implementation PIL block samples the data with appropriate delay, applies
The PIL system can be divided into four blocks: the the gain (if any), and communicates with the CS for data
SE–PSIM software module, the CS, the MCU running the exchange between the PSIM environment and the MCU. It
control algorithm, and the controller output to PWM con- is configured with the requisite number of inputs and out-
version module. These blocks are described in the puts. The inputs to the digital controller are the inputs of
upcoming sections. the PIL block. The PIL block’s output is the controller out-
put voltage, which is fed to the PWM generation subcircuit
SE–PSIM to generate the PWM pulses. The PWM block’s output is
The PSIM software developed by Powersim Inc. is used for connected to the feedback path to the plant. The PIL block
the software simulation part of the PIL system. PSIM pro- is configured with all the parameters required by the CS.
vides building blocks for creating and simulating the power These parameters can be configured by modifying the PIL
circuits or the motor drives (typically called the plant). The block’s attributes through a dialog box in PSIM.
plant is designed using the library provided by PSIM, and
the control algorithm is defined as an MIL system. The simu- Simulation CS
lation step size is specified using the simulation control The CS is a custom script written in JavaScript using the TI
module in PSIM. For the MIL/SIL simulation, the sampling DSS API. Many actions essential to the working of the PIL
of the data fed to the control system is done through a zero- system are controlled by the CS. The MCU used for the PIL
order hold (ZOH) block. The ZOH block has the same fre- is configured and programmed with the .out file by the CS.
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Lin Ld Power Stage
ADC
ac A0 D0
Vin A1 D1
A2 D2
– A3 D3
A4 D4
A5 D5
A6 D6
A7 D7
B0 D8
B1 D9
B2 D10
B3 D11
B4 D12
B5 D13
ZOH |x | B6 D14
1-ph B7 D15
PWM F28335
+ + + +
Σ Kp Σ X Σ K Σ A
B
– + – +
dc +
–
F28335
Kp Ki K Ki
ZOH
FIG 6 The PFC circuit with a controller for the SIL and SimCoder simulation.
Key actions such as setting of appropriate breakpoints, to the CS. The MCU is then configured and programed by
identification of the variables to be updated and the vari- the CS. The simulation is continuously monitored by the CS
ables to be extracted, exchange of data between the PSIM and the connection between the SE and the MCU is termi-
instance running on the PC and MCU, and the running of the nated as soon as the CS detects the end of the simulation
code on the MCU are all controlled by the CS. In addition to in the SE.
the above, conversion of the double-precision sampled data
coming from the SE to single precision and the single- MCU Running the Control Algorithm
precision data coming from the MCU to double precision The code generated by the SimCoder module contains the
before the data exchange is also done by the CS. The CS control algorithm description and the programming con-
also handles the transition from fixed-point to floating-point structs required for configuring the MCU peripherals. After
data whenever applicable. successful compilation, the code is placed in the MCU’s pro-
The information exchange between the SE and the CS is gram memory and is executed when the MCU is turned on.
done through dedicated pipes and is facilitated by the CS. The MCU code execution is controlled by the CS, and exe-
The CS is invoked at the beginning of the PSIM simulation. cution is stopped and started to facilitate the data exchange
The presence of the PIL block in the simulation is detected between the SE and the MCU. The MCU code has global
by the simulation environment, and the execution of the variables representing inputs that are overwritten by the CS.
CS is initiated accordingly. The configuration data for con- The output variables are also represented by global vari-
figuring and programming the MCU is passed by PSIM on ables that are read by the CS every cycle.
The MCU code is composed of interrupt configurations
and the interrupt service routines that describe the digital
Table 3. PFC circuit parameters.
control algorithms. The code in the MCU can be SimCoder-
Parameters Values generated code or any custom C code instead of the Sim-
Sampling frequency 30 kHz Coder-generated code. However, the primary requirements
Vin 200 V @ 60 Hz for running with the PIL systems must be satisfied. The
Voref 10.5 variables that accept the ADC data and the variables that
Lin 0.000015 H represent the controller output must have global scope in
Ld 0.0006 H order to be accessible to the CS. Also, the variable must not
be updated by the ADC hardware in the ISR or any other
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subroutine. If the variable is updated by the ADC hardware,

the values coming from PSIM are overwritten and the Lin Ld
simulation becomes incorrect. Power Stage
+
ac
Controller Output to PWM Conversion Module Vin –
The PIL block’s output is the controller output voltage com-
puted by the MCU. The variable corresponding to the con-
troller output is read by the CS and its value is sent to the
SE. The voltage received is fed to the PWM conversion PIL PWM
Conversion
module. The PWM conversion module consists of a voltage Block Block
comparator and a triangular voltage source. The voltage
source is configured to match the specification used by the
F28335 PWM block. The PWM is generated with the con- FIG 7 The PFC circuit for the PIL simulation.
troller output fed to the comparator’s positive terminal and
the voltage source to the negative terminal. The PWM
waveform generated is fed as the feedback to the plant and 200
the loop is completed. The PWM conversion module con-
Voltage (V)
sists of a single comparator for one-phase operation and
three comparators connected in parallel for three-phase 0
operation. The comparators and voltage source are
provided in the PSIM library.
–200
Model Testing with PIL 0.50 0.51 0.52 0.53 0.54 0.55
Time (s)
The PIL system is tested with both simple power electronic
(a)
circuits and more complex motor control algorithms. The
testing is done with a power factor correction (PFC) circuit
10
and a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) field-
Current (A)
oriented control (FOC) motor drive example. The simula-

0
tion results are compared with the SIL and MIL simulation
for the PFC and the PMSM FOC motor drive circuit is tested
–10
and compared with the SIL simulations.
0.50 0.51 0.52 0.53 0.54 0.55
PFC System Time (s)
A PFC circuit with a simple power stage and double-loop (b)
voltage and current digital control system with input voltage 10
sensing is simulated using the PSIM SE. The circuit for the
SIL simulation is presented in Figure 6. The parameters for
Vm (V)
the circuit are presented in Table 3. For this example, both

the current and the voltage loop are running at 30 KHz. The
circuit is used to generate the code for the MCU by adding 5
the MCU peripheral modules for the ADC and PWM from
the SimCoder library. The code is compiled in CCS and the . 0.50 0.51 0.52 0.53 0.54 0.55
out file is generated. Figure 7 contains the circuit used for Time (s)
(c)
the PIL simulation. The data sampling is done by the PIL
block, and therefore an ADC block is not needed.
FIG 8 The simulation results for a PFC circuit in SIL (using PSIM).
The PIL block for the PFC circuit is a multi-input, sin-
(a) Vin and downscaled Vo, (b) I (Lin) and Iref, and (c) controller output (Vm).
gle-output block. Each input is separately configured
according to the sampling frequency, gain, and delay for
the signal. The PIL block’s output goes to a 1-ph PWM for PSIM and PIL simulations, respectively, and are
converter block. The PWM block’s output is fed back almost identical.
into the circuit. Further, the PIL simulation setup with
the MCU (F28335) is connected to the PC running the FOC of PMSM Motor Drive
SE instance using an emulation board and USB cable, The PMSM FOC is designed using PSIM with the MCU
and the setup is simulated. The resultant waveforms for peripheral modules based on the conventional FOC scheme
the inductor current, input and output voltage, and con- [19] through the drive as detailed in Figure 10 and Table 4.
troller output voltage are presented in Figures 8 and 9 The power stage is connected to the digital FOC algorithm
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through the ADC Block and PWM block from SimCoder. CCS. For a PIL simulation, the MCU peripheral blocks from
The FOC algorithm is placed in a subcircuit for increased SimCoder library are removed from the schematic. They are
readability. Various parameters required for FOC drive con- no longer required, as the code generated by SimCoder will
figuration are provided by the user to the PSIM environment be run on the actual MCU, with its dedicated peripherals.
using a parameter file. The SimCoder module is then used to However, the ADC and the PWM hardware from MCU are
generate the code for the PIL system and compiled through not used, as PIL has its own implementaion of those mod-
ules. The hardware specific encoder block is replaced with
an encoder block from the PIL library. The PIL block in this
200
case is a three-input and three-output block. The inputs are
connected to the respective ADC signals and the outputs
Voltage (V)
are connected to a 3-ph PIL PWM converter. The PWM

0
carrier signal frequency is set to 10 kHz, the same as the
controller interrupt frequency, defined in the parameter file.
The outputs are connected as feedback to the power stage.
–200
0.50 0.51 0.52 0.53 0.54 0.55 Figure 10 presents the simulation setup for the PIL simula-
Time (s) tion of this example. The time step and the end time for the
(a) simulation are configured using the PSIM simulation con-
trol block. The MCU is connected to the PC running the SE
10 instance using an emulation board and USB cable. The
Current (A)
setup is then simulated. The simulation results for the

0 PMSM FOC motor drive are presented in Figure 11, and
Figure 12 presents the results for the PIL simulation. The
–10 SIL simulation results are identical to the HIL simulation
results given in [16]. The PIL simulation results are very
0.50 0.51 0.52 0.53 0.54 0.55 close to the SIL simulation results, with an observable
Time (s) improvement in the waveform for the motor’s speed as
(b)
seen in Figure 12(b). The speed waveform is closer to the
10 HIL simulation results with a smaller dip in the speed at the
time the speed loop is activated.
Vm (V)
Table 4. Specifications of the test motors.

5 Rated voltage 133 V
Rated current 2.7 A
0.50 0.51 0.52 0.53 0.54 0.55
Time (s) Rated torque 1.27 Nm
(c) Rated speed 3,000 r/min
Number of poles 8
FIG 9 The simulation results for a PFC circuit in SIL (using PSIM). Ls 6.5 mH
(a) Vin and downscaled Vo, (b) I (Lin) and downscaled Iref, and Rs 2.25 Ω
(c) controller output (Vm).
Encoder
Power Stage
3-ph
PWM
Ta V_ia Out In
up u
A PMSM
un + Op-Amp
Tb ia A
vp v dc_Source A Z
PIL Block – A Speed
vn ib B
Tc V
wp w
wn V_ib Out In
Op-Amp
PIL
LOOP_SP Encoder
Encoder
Start
FIG 10 The motor drive used to implement FOC through PIL.
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1 1
Current, Ia (A)
Current, Ia (A)
0.5 0.5
0 0
–0.5 –0.5
–1 –1
1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35
Time (s) Time (s)
(a) (a)
1,400 1,400
Speed (r/min)
Speed (r/min)
1,050 1,050
700 700
350 350
0 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Time (s) Time (s)
(b) (b)
Ta , Duty Cycle
Ta , Duty Cycle
0.1 0.1
0 0
–0.1 –0.1
1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35
Time (s) Time (s)
(c) (c)
FIG 11 Simulation results for a PMSM FOC motor drive circuit FIG 12 Simulation results for a PMSM FOC motor drive circuit in
in SIL (using PSIM). (a) Phase A current (Ia), (b) speed (r/min), PIL. (a) Phase A current (Ia), (b) speed (r/min), and (c) controller
and (c) controller output (Ta). output (Ta).
Conclusions About the Authors

This article presents a named pipe-based PIL platform for Harsh Vardhan (Harsh.Vardhan@utdallas.edu)
___________________ received
basic as well as complex PE circuits and motor drives. The his bachelor of engineering degree in electronics and
system integrates the SE, autocode generation, MCU hard- communications engineering from Manipal University,
ware, and communication between them and presents a Karnataka, India, in 2010 and his M.S. degree in electrical
complete solution that facilitates rapid design and prototyp- engineering from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2014.
ing of complex control algorithms. He was the first recipient of the prestigious Indian Stu-
The PIL approach provides a safe debugging environment, dent Alumni Association Scholarship at the University of
better quality control, and failure analysis. It helps verify the Texas. He has been a research assistant with the Department
control system code through a simple MCU kit. The control of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dal-
algorithms can be validated on a high-speed MCU, eliminat- las since 2014. His research interests include power elec-
ing the need for the real hardware during the development tronic applications of embedded systems, simulation tech-
phase. Therefore, it allows eliminating the risk of damaging niques in power electronics, and programming in low-level
any real or expensive hardware. It also helps in detecting any hardware environments.
platform-specific problems and casting errors and allows Bilal Akin (bilal.akin@utdallas.edu)
_______________ received his B.S.
for the testing of the control algorithm in isolation from the and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Middle East
power stage, all at a fraction of the cost of the conventional Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, in 2000 and 2003,
HIL systems. The accuracy of the PIL simulations is verified respectively, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from
by comprehensive testing, with the results being compared Texas A&M University, College Station, in 2007. He was an
to both the SIL and HIL simulations. Results obtained prove R&D engineer with Toshiba Industrial Division in Houston,
the versatility and the robustness of the PIL system. Texas, from 2005 to 2008. From 2008 to 2012, he worked as
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an R&D engineer at C2000 Embedded Control Group, [9] J. Zhong, Y. Jin, G. Lian, G. Ding, and C. Zhu, “Efficient control sys-
Texas Instruments Inc. Since 2012, he has been with the tem development using real-time virtual hardware-in-the-loop simulation,”
University of Texas at Dallas as an assistant professor. He in Proc. 2010 11th Int. Conf. Control Automation Robotics & Vision
received the 2015 National Science Foundation CAREER (ICARCV), Singapore, pp. 2231–2236.
Award, the Jonsson School Faculty Research Award, and [10] H. Li, M. Steurer, K. L. Shi, S. Woodruff, and D. Zhang, “Development
the Top Editors Recognition Award from the IEEE Vehicu- of a unified design, test, and research platform for wind energy systems
lar Technology Society. He is an associate editor of IEEE based on hardware-in-the-loop real-time simulation,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Transactions on Industry Applications and IEEE Trans- Electron., vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 1144–1151, June 2006.
actions on Vehicular Technology. His research interests [11] L. Gauchia and J. Sanz, “A per-unit hardware-in-the-loop simulation of a
include design, control, and diagnosis of electric motors fuel cell/battery hybrid energy system,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 57,
and drives, digital power control and management, and no. 4, pp. 1186–1194, Apr. 2010.
fault diagnosis and condition monitoring of power electron- [12] S. Huang and K. K. Tan, “Hardware-in-the-loop simulation for the devel-
ics components and ac motors. opment of an experimental linear drive,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 57,
Hua Jin (hjin@powersimtech.com)
________________ received his B.S. no. 4, pp. 1167–1174, Apr. 2010.
degree from Hunan University in China in 1984 and his [13] R. Liu, A. Monti, G. Francis, R. Burgos, F. Wang, and D. Boroyevich,
M.S. degree and doctorate from the University of Toronto, “Implementing a processor-in-the-loop with a universal controller in the
Canada, in 1987 and 1991, respectively, all in electrical virtual test bed,” in Proc. IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conf. (PESC),
engineering. From 1991 to 1995, he worked at Concordia Orlando, FL, 2007, pp. 945–950.
University, Montréal, as an assistant professor and from [14] G. Francis, R. Burgos, P. Rodriguez, F. Wang, D. Boroyevich, R. Liu,
1995 to 1999 at the University of British Columbia, Vancou- and A. Monti, “Virtual prototyping of universal control architecture sys-
ver, Canada, as an assistant/associate professor, engag- tems by means of processor in the loop technology,” in Proc. 22nd Annu.
ing in teaching and research in power electronics (PE) IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conf. (APEC), Anaheim, CA, 2007,
and motor drives. He founded Powersim Inc. in 2001 pp. 21–27.
and was the original developer of the PE simulation [15] N. Gupta, S. P. Dubey, and S. P. Singh, “PIL based control algorithm for
software PSIM. three-phase four-wire active filter for reactive and harmonic compensation
under distorted supply,” in Proc. 2010 Joint Int. Conf. Power Electronics,
References Drives and Energy Systems (PEDES) & 2010 Power India, New Delhi,
[1] J. Poon, E. Chai, I. Celanovic, A. Genic, and E. Adzic, “High-fidelity real- India, pp. 1–6.
time hardware-in-the-loop emulation of PMSM inverter drives,” in Proc. [16] Z. Tang, X. Li, B. Akin, and H. Jin, “A high-fidelity integrated platform
2013 IEEE Energy Conversion Congr. Exposition (ECCE), Denver, CO, for rapid prototyping of AC motor drives,” in Proc. 40th Annu. Conf. IEEE
pp. 1754–1758. Industrial Electronics Society (IECON), Dallas, TX, 2014, pp. 3730–3735.
[2] C. Dufour, S. Abourida, J. Bélanger, and V. Lapointe, “Real-time simula- [17] J. Currie, A. Prince-Pike, and D. I. Wilson, “Auto-code generation for
tion of permanent magnet motor drive on FPGA chip for high-bandwidth fast embedded model predictive controllers,” in Proc. 2012 19th Int. Conf.
controller tests and validation,” in Proc. 32nd Annu. Conf. IEEE Industrial Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice (M2VIP), Auckland, New
Electronics (IECON), Paris, France, 2006, pp. 4581–4586. Zealand, pp. 116–122.
[3] W. Zhu, S. Pekarek, J. Jatskevich, O. Wasynczuk, and D. Delisle, “A model- [18] C. Morkoc, Y. Onal, and M. Kesler, “DSP based embedded code genera-
in-the-loop interface to emulate source dynamics in a zonal DC distribution tion for PMSM using sliding mode controller,” in Proc. 2014 16th Int. Power
system,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 438–445, Mar. 2005. Electronics and Motion Control Conf. and Exposition (PEMC), Antalya,
[4] M. Cakmakci, Y. Li, and S. Liu, “Model-in-the-loop development for fuel Turkey, pp. 472–476.
cell vehicle,” in Proc. 2011 American Control Conf., San Francisco, CA, [19] M. Bhardwaj. (2013, July). Sensored field oriented control of 3-phase per-
pp. 2462–2467. manent magnet synchronous motors. Texas Instruments. [Online]. Available:
[5] S. Demers, P. Gopalakrishnan, and L. Kant, “A generic solution to http://www.ti.com/lit/an/sprabq2/sprabq2.pdf
software-in-the-loop,” in Proc. IEEE Military Communications Conf. [20] D. M. Alter. (2013, Jan.). Running an application from internal flash
(MILCOM), Orlando, FL, 2007, pp.1–6. memory on the TMS320F28xxx DSP. Texas Instruments. [Online]. Available:
[6] S. Werner, L. Masing, F. Lesniak, J. Becker, “Software-in-the-loop simula- http://www.ti.com/lit/an/spra958l/spra958l.pdf
tion of embedded control applications based on virtual platforms,” in Proc. [21] Texas Instruments. (n.d.). Debug Server Scripting. [Online]. Available:
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London, U.K., pp. 1–8. [22] Texas Instruments. (2012, Aug.). TMS320F28xx digital signal con-
[7] S. Lentijo, A. Monti, E. Santi, C. Welch, and R. Dougal, “A new testing trollers (DSCs). [Online]. Available: http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/
tool for power electronic digital control,” in Proc. 2003 IEEE 34th Annu. tms320f28335.pdf
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Power Electronics Specialist Conf., PESC ‘03, Acapulco, Mexico, vol. 1, [23] Texas Instruments. (2013, Oct.). TMS320F28xx piccolo microcontrollers.
pp. 107–111. [Online]. Available: http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/sprs584j/sprs584j.pdf
[8] Z. Jiang, R. A. Dougal, R. Leonard, H. Figueroa, and A. Monti, “Hardware- [24] Texas Instruments. (2010, Jun.). C28x IQmath library – a virtual floating
in-the-loop testing of digital power controllers,” presented at Proc. 21st point engine, v1.5c. [Online]. Available: http://www.ti.com/lit/sw/sprc990/
Annu. IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conf. and Exposition (APEC), sprc990.pdf
______
Dallas, TX, 2006.
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Medium-Voltage Drives
Challenges
and the
existing technology
HAND AND CHESS PIECES IMAGE ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/VASJAKOMAN

CIRCUIT IMAGE LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING
by Haitham Abu-Rub, Sertac Bayhan, Shaikh Moinoddin,

Mariusz Malinowski, and Jaroslaw Guzinski
T
his article presents an overview of state-of-art The focus is on solutions that present high efficiency; low
solutions, advances, and design and research price, size, and weight; minimum harmonic distortion;
trends in medium-voltage (MV) drive technolo- reduction in dv/dt; mitigation of common-mode (CM) volt-
gies—and also discusses the challenges and age; avoiding torsional vibration; transformerless solu-
requirements associated with the use of such tions; fault detection capability; and condition monitoring.
drives. The choice and deployment of MV drives in industries The ever-growing demand for electrical energy and the
are associated with numerous requirements related to the continuous rise in energy prices compel us to conclude
front-end converter (grid side) and inverter (machine side). that energy must be used more efficiently. Modern power
electronics technology with high efficiency and appro-
priate control approaches is needed in energy-intensive
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 industries to decrease the immense waste of energy and
2329-9207/16©2016IEEE June 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 29
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30 16
14 2012 Growth 2013 Growth 2014 Growth
Growth Rates (%)

25
12
Growth Rates (%)
20
10
15
8
10 6
5 4
0 2
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
–5 0
Years The Americas EMEA China Japan Rest of
–10
Asia Pacific
–15
(a) (b)
FIG 1 (a) The global market growth for MV drives. (b) The global market growth for MV drives by region. (EMEA: Europe, the Middle
East, and Africa.)
mining, water/waste, pulp/paper, cement, chemical, power

Power Consumption Curve generation, metal production and processes, traction, and
Power Consumption/Shaft Power
110 marine drives sectors. To improve power quality and sys-

100 Power Consumption
with Damper tem response and to reduce operation cost and energy loss,
90
80 Control the installed MV drives should be adjustable-speed drives
Savings
Energy
70 (ASDs). Figure 1(a) shows the global market growth of MV

60
50 drives from 2008 to 2015 [2]. Due to the recession during
40 Power Consumption 2009 and 2010, there was little or negative growth in the
30 with Drive Control global market. Due to fracking of unconventional shale gas
20 Shaft Power with
10 Speed Control
and oil in the Americas, the sale of MV drives increased dur-
0 ing 2012 and 2013, whereas, in Europe, growth was recov-
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Air Flow Speed (%)
ering. Figure 1(b) shows the market growth for MV drives
during 2012–2014 by region [3].
FIG 2 A comparison of power consumption for fan applications. The use of adjustable-speed MV drives guarantees
significant savings in energy, as shown in Figure 2, and
decreases payback time up to 2.5 years. Table 1 also
Table 1. The benefits of ASDs shows the benefits of ASDs for pumping applications.
for pumping applications. Control techniques with transformerless solutions lead to
a further decrease in the payback time [4]. Nevertheless,
Speed Level Benefits the deployment of such drives is associated with several
Soft start of motor No network voltage dips requirements and challenges. Significant challenges are
Reduced mechanical stress with the power line side (e.g., power quality, resonance,
High speed Maximum capacity and power factor), motor side (e.g., dv/dt, CM voltage,
Best productivity and motor derating caused by generated harmonics,
Low speed Best energy efficiency resonance, torsional vibration, and traveling wave reflec-
Reduced operating costs tions), and semiconductor devices (e.g., switching losses
Precise and Best efficiency point of pumps and reliability) [1], [4]. Unfortunately, various challenges
optimal speed Increased lifetime of equipment related to converters—line side as well as motor side—
Soft stop of motor No water hammering are faced when installing MV drives. Hence, the motiva-
Reduced mechanical stress tion behind this article is pointing out the challenges and
problems faced when using MV drives and indicating the
direction for proper use and understanding of such drives.
improve power quality. Since electric motor drive systems The article presents the existing MV drive technologies
are the major consumers of energy, they have the great- and emphasizes the need for further development and
est potential for improvement in terms of efficient energy enhancement of MV drives.
consumption. High-power motors, mostly operating in
MV, are of most interest, due to their enormous energy MV Drive Topologies
consumption [1]. MV drives are classified to cover a power range of 0.2 MW to
MV drives have found extensive applications in sev- almost 40 MW at the MV level of 2.3–13.8 kV [4]–[6]. However,
eral industries, such as in the oil and gas, petrochemical, most of the installed MV drives in industrial settings are in the
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Line Filter Transformer Rectifier dc Filter Inverter Motor Filter

va
∼
∼
∼
vb
∼ Motor
vc
∼ ∼
∼
Grid Side Motor Side
FIG 3 A typical MV ASD.
range of 1–4 MW, with voltage ratings of 3.3–6.6 kV [6]. A typi- Challenges and Requirements of MV Drives
cal block diagram of a MV drive is shown in Figure 3. Small
size, lower cost, high efficiency and reliability, fault protec- Power Quality and LC Resonance Suppression
tion, ease of installation and maintenance, high dynamic per- Harmonics in the voltage and current waveforms of the util-
formance, and regenerative capability in some applications ity grid is a crucial problem that needs to be effectively
are the essential requirements for MV resolved. Diode-based rectifiers draw
drives. A list of some of the industrial distorted current from the grid and
drives is presented in Table 2. This Small size, lower cost, cause notches in the voltage wave-
table presents the power rating, forms. This results in numerous prob-
devices and topology used, and control high efficiency and lems in the power grid, such as equip-
methods. Furthermore, the popular reliability, fault ment failure, computer data loss, and
converter topologies in MV drives are malfunction of communications equip-
summarized in Figure 4 [7], [8].
protection, ease of ment. Various standards such as IEEE
The main disadvantage of multi- installation and 519-1999, IEC 1000-3-2, and IEC 61000-
level inverters (MIs) is the complex- 3-2 define the limit of harmonics
ity of the power circuit and controls.
maintenance, high injected into the power grid [6]–[8]. To
However, the use of MIs in MV drives dynamic performance, reduce current harmonics or to com-
offers improved power quality, lower pensate for the input power factor, an
and regenerative
switching losses, high voltage capa- LC line-side filter is a common solu-
bility, and lower dv/dt [9]. There are capability in some tion. However, the low damping LC
different types of power switches applications are the resonances may cause undesired
that could be adopted for MV oscillations or overvoltages in the grid
drives. These include the injection essential requirements side because of the low impedance of
enhanced gate transistor (IEGT), the for MV drives. the MV grid. This may destroy the
integrated gate-commutated thyris- switching devices or other compo-
tor (IGCT), and the insulated-gate nents of the rectifier circuits. Solu-
bipolar transistor (IGBT). The gate tions to this problem should assure
drive circuits of IEGTs are more reliable than IGCT drive low harmonics and low dv/dt using just a reactor instead of
circuits. The failures in time (FIT) ratio of IEGTs versus an LC filter, or using a small filter.
IGCTs is four to one. Furthermore, the IGBT gate drive
circuit is simpler and has fewer components than IEGT Inverter Switching Frequency
gate drive circuits. Hence, IGBT gate drive circuits are High dv/dt is generated with the use of high-switching-
more reliable than IEGTs [10]. frequency semiconductor devices in power electronic
Modern power semiconductor switches have a peak volt- converters, which can produce CM voltage and currents,
age blocking capability of nearly 6.5 kV, which restricts the electromagnetic interference (EMI), shaft voltages, bear-
maximum voltage ratings of the inverter and the motor in MV ing currents, and high voltage stress that negatively
high-power drives. The apparent power that can be obtained affect the insulation life of motors and transformers [12].
is limited by the available MV IGBT switches, which have a The harmonic distortion of the output waveforms
peak current conducting capability of 750 A. Series or paral- increases with the decrease of inverter switching fre-
lel combinations of semiconductor switches are used to over- quency. MIs provide voltage/current waveforms with
come the limits of switch ratings, but with these arrange- improved harmonic spectrum and lower dv/dt, which lim-
ments, a balance of the current and voltage between devices its the insulation stress on the motor windings. However,
is achieved using extra measurements [11]. the higher number of switching devices in MIs tends to
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Table 2. A market overview of industrial MV drives.
Manufacturer Power Voltage (kV) Topology Semiconductor Control Method

ABB [55] 0.315–5.0 MW 2.3–4.16 3L-NPC-VSC IGBT DTC
0.25–72 MW 4.0–6.90 5L-NPC-VSC IGCT
2.0–36 MW 6.0–13.8 5L-HNPC-VSC
3.0–36 MW up to 3.3
2.0–72 MW 2.1–10
SIEMENS [56] 0.15–14.2 MW 2.3–4.16 MMC-VSC IGCT V/f
0.82–18 MW 3.3–7.2 3L-NPC-VSC IGBT FOC
2.8–31.5 MW 2.3–12 5L- NPC-VSC LV/MV-IGBT
0.8–85 MW 4–7.2
TMEIC [57] 4.0–120 MVA 1.25–7.2 3L-HNPC IGBT, V/f
5L-HNPC IGCT, IEGT
5L-PWM
AMTECH [58] 0.25–12.5 MW 3.3–11 7L-CHB-VSC (3.3 kV) IGBT V/f
9L-CHB-VSC (4.16 kV) FOC
13L-CHB-VSC (6.6 kV)
19L-CHB-VSC (11 kV)
ALSTOM [59] 1.4–7.2 MVA up to 4.16 2L-VSC HV-IGBT FOC
2.2–8.0 MVA up to 4.16 4L-FLC-VSC GTO
7.0–9.5 MVA up to 3.3 3L-NPC-VSC
8.3–13.5 MVA up to 10 PWM-CSI
Schneider Electric [60] 0.5–10 MVA 2.3–6.6 3L-NPC-VSI HV-IGBT V/f
FOC
Fuji Electric [61] 5.2–10.5 MVA 0.28–8.3 9L-NPC-VSC HV-IGBT V/f
17L-NPC-VSC FOC
DELTA GROUP [62] 0.28–9.52 MVA 3.3–11 7L-CHB-VSC (3.3 kV) HV-IGBT V/f
9L-CHB-VSC (4.16 kV) FOC
13L-CHB-VSC (6.6 kV)
19L-CHB-VSC (10 kV)
21L-CHB-VSC (11 kV)
EATON Corporation [63] 0.22–4.29 MVA 2.4–13.8 3L-NPC-VSC IGBT V/f
Toshiba International 0.22–3.73 MVA 2.4–4.16 9L-NPC-VSC IGBT V/f
Corporation [64] FOC
WEG Equipamentos up to 3.36 MVA 2.3–4.16 3L-NPC-VSC HV-IGBT V/f
Elétricos [65] 5L-NPC-VSC
Hitachi [66] 0.31–10 MVA 2.4–11 2~9L-CHB-VSC HV-IGBT FOC
INGETEAM [67] 0.8–36 MVA 2.3–6.9 3L-NPC-VSC HV-IGBT, IGCT V/f, FOC
Rockwell 1.5–25.4 MVA 2.4–6.6 3L-NPC-VSC HV-IGBT FOC
Automation [68] 5L-NPC-VSC SGCT, SCR
Yaskawa [69] 0.15–3.73 MVA 2.4–4.16 9L-CHB-VSI IGBT V/f
17L-CHB-VSI FOC
MW: megawatt; MVA: megavoltampere; NPC-VSC: neutral-point-clamped-voltage source converter; HNPC: H-bridge neutral-point-clamped; MMC: modular
multilevel converter; CHB: cascaded H-bridge; LV: low-voltage; HV: high-voltage; GTO: gate turn-off thyristor; SGCT: symmetric gate-commutated thyristor;
DTC: direct torque control; V/f: voltage/frequency; FOC: field-oriented control.
reduce their overall reliability and efficiency. On the other issue that should be considered in MV drives. The maxi-
hand, an inverter with a lower number of output voltage mum and minimum modulation depth and a power factor
levels requires a large LC output filter to decrease the range between 1 and −1 are the critical operating points
motor winding insulation stress. The challenge is to reduce of MIs. When applying continuous modulation methods,
waveform distortions and total harmonic distortion when some switching devices reach their maximum allow-
the lower switching frequency is used, to ensure high able junction temperature, while other switches remain
power quality, and to allow fast transient operations. The much cooler. Unbalanced distributions of junction tem-
switching loss due to the fast transition is an important peratures depend on the type of modulation method used.
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Topology Description
1) Three-Phase 5L-HNPC [7], [55], [57] The 5L-HNPC bridge inverter is developed from the three-
level NPC inverter topology. This inverter has some unique
36-Pulse Rectifier Three-Phase, Five-Level H-NPC
–20° features that have promoted its application in the MV drive
0° 0° industry. The inverter phase voltage contains five voltage
Six- Vdc/2
Grid
+20° Pulse levels instead of three levels for the NPC inverter. This
~
Rectifier
N
a leads to lower dv/dt and total harmonic distortion (THD).
–20° b IM The inverter does not have any switching devices in series,
30° 0° c
Six- Vdc/2 which eliminates the device dynamic and static voltage sharing
+20° Pulse
Rectifier problems. However, this topology requires three isolated dc
supplies, which increases the complexity and cost of the dc
n
supply system [1].
2) Three-Phase 4L-FLC [8], [59] This topology has evolved from the two-level inverter by
adding dc capacitors to the cascaded switches. There are
Three-Phase, Four-Level FLC
18-Pulse Rectifier three complementary switch pairs in each of the inverters.
Phase-a
Therefore, only three independent gate signals are required

Phase-b
Phase-c
+20° for each phase. The flying-capacitor inverter can produce

Six-Pulse an inverter phase voltage with four voltage levels. In this
Rectifier
topology, some voltage levels can be obtained by more
than one switching state. The switching state redundancy is
a
Grid a common phenomenon in multilevel converters, which
~
0° b
C1 C2 IM
c
Six-Pulse provides great flexibility for the switching pattern design.
Rectifier
However, the practical use of the flying-capacitor inverter
seems limited due to the use of a large number of capacitors
–20°
and complex control scheme [1].
Six-Pulse
Rectifier
3) Three-Phase NL-CHB [58], [62], [66], [69] The cascaded H-bridge (CHB) multilevel inverter (MI) is one of
the most popular converter topologies used in MV drives. It is
Three-Phase, 12-Pulse Rectifier Three-Phase, n-Level CHB
composed of multiple units of single-phase H-bridge power
Phase-a
Phase-b cells. The H-bridge cells are normally connected in cascade
a
Phase-c on their ac side to achieve MV operation and
0° b
IM
c low harmonic distortion. In practice, the number of power
Cell n
+30° cells in a CHB inverter is mainly determined by its
operating voltage and manufacturing cost. The use of
Grid 0°
identical power cells leads to a modular structure, which is
Cell 2
+30° an effective means for cost reduction. However, the main
disadvantage and limitation of this topology are that the
0° need for a large number of isolated voltage sources
+30°
Cell 1 increases the converter cost.
4) Three-Phase 5L-NPC [56], [65], [68] The diode-clamped MI employs clamping diodes and cascaded
36-Pulse Rectifier Three-Phase, Five-Level NPC
dc capacitors to produce ac voltage waveforms with multiple
–20° levels. The main features of the NPC inverter include reduced
0° 0° dv/dt and THD in its ac output voltages. More important, the
Three-Phase
Six-Pulse
Power Supply
+20°
Rectifier inverter can be used in the MV drive to reach a certain voltage
~ –20°
a
b IM
level without switching devices in series. In this topology,
30° 0° c capacitors have been used to generate an intermediate voltage
+20° Six-Pulse level. However, the voltages on these capacitors are unequal,
Rectifier
which results in unbalancing the dc-link voltage.
n
FIG 4 An overview of popular converter topologies in MV drives.
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Semiconductor Losses (kW)

60 120 150
50 100
40 80 100
Converter
Converter
Converter
30 60
20 40 50
10 20
0 0 0
500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500
Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz) Frequency (Hz)
3L-NPC 3L-FLC 3L-NPC 3L-FLC 3L-NPC 3L-FLC

4L-FLC 5L-SC2LHB 4L-FLC 7L-SC2LHB 4L-FLC 9L-SC2LHB
(a) (b) (c)
FIG 5 NPC, FLC, and series-connected converter semiconductor losses versus switching frequency at (a) 2.3 kV, (b) 3.3 kV, and
(c) 4.16 KV.
These problems can be resolved at the expense of addi- may result in failure of the motor winding insulation due
tional effort and cost. The operating cost can be reduced to partial discharges. Furthermore, such rapid voltage
with the minimization of switching losses. This also transition induces rotor shaft voltages that cause current
enables reducing the cooling requirements. Hence, the flow in the shaft bearing, which finally leads to motor
cost and size of the drive are reduced. The switching bearing failure [16]. The switching pattern of the power
losses of MV semiconductor devices contribute the major switches affects the wave reflection value, which is pro-
portion of the total device losses. duced by the mismatch between the
Hence, a reduction in switching fre- cable and the inverter and the motor
quency allows increasing the maxi- wave impedances. The motor cable
mum output power. On the other The high switching works as a transmission line where
hand, harmonic distortion at the line frequency of power the voltage pulses will travel very
and motor side increases with the fast, up to 150–200 m/μs [15]. When
decrease of switching frequency [13]. devices results in high the pulses take more than half the
A comparison of losses in a dv/dt at the rising and rise time to move from the inverter
three-level neutral point clamped to the motor, a full wave reflection
(3L-NPC) converter, a three-level
falling edges of the occurs. For that worst case, the wave
flying capacitor (3L-FLC), a four- inverter output reflections will double the voltage on
level flying capacitor (4L-FLC), and the motor terminals at each switch-
a nine-level series-connected H-
waveform. ing transient. The critical cable
bridge (9L-SCHB) is reported in [14], length for 500 V/μs is in the 100-m
[15]. Figure 5 shows switching losses range and for 10,000 V/μs in the 5-m
as a function of frequency at different classes of output range [1]. The wave reflection coefficient C is dependent
voltage (2.3 kV, 3.3 kV, and 4.16 kV) of various types of on the ratio between motor and cable wave inductances
MIs [15]. It can be observed that in all types of convert- C = (Z motor - Z cable) / (Z motor - Z cable). Nevertheless, cable
ers, the losses increase with an increase in the switch- diameter (Z cable) is around 80–180 X , which is much
ing frequency and with the voltage. The smallest losses smaller than motor wave impedance, which is around
are found in the 9L-SC2HB MI. At 2.3 kV, losses in the 2–0.4 kX [17].
3L-NPC and SC2LHB MIs are almost the same, but at The high dv/dt also causes EMI on the cables
4.16 kV, losses in the 3L-NPC MI are almost double those between the inverter and the motor. The expensive
of the SC2LHB [15]. shielded cables are used to avoid these effects; never-
theless, the electromagnetic emission may affect the
Motor Side Challenges operation of nearby installed electronic equipment. In
the inverter, the dv/dt still depends on the switching
High dv/dt and Wave Reflection characteristics of the power devices, and it could still
The high switching frequency of power devices results in be problematic if no output filter is used. To get guar-
high dv/dt at the rising and falling edges of the inverter anteed low THD in both motor and line ends, passive
output waveform. Such a high rate of change of voltage filters are commonly employed. The high value of the
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va
vb C Induction
Motor
vc C
Isolation Transformer Inverter LC Filter
FIG 6 The use of the isolation transformer.
inductor in the LC filter must be used in most high- Furthermore, a dual inverter-fed open-end winding (neutral
power drive systems, but that causes a higher voltage if the winding is removed) induction motor drive with
drop across the inductor. two isolated dc power supplies for CM voltage elimina-
The increase in the capacitor value of the filter tion and to maintain dc-link capacitor voltage balancing
reduces LC resonant frequency, which is affected by the is reported in [12]. The neutral point of the dc link and
parallel connection of the filter capacitor and motor mag- motor and/or star point of the output filter capacitors
netizing inductance. This leads to instability in the drive have been grounded through a grounding network using
system. To overcome this issue, active damping could be isolation transformers to reduce CM voltage. The use of
proposed while at the same time suppressing LC reso- the isolation transformer is shown in Figure 6.
nance to achieve high efficiency [18]. Furthermore, the At a low modulation index, the three-phase system looks
use of an LC filter introduces a phase shift between the continuous, which leads to very low dwell time, resulting in
voltages at the output of the feeding converter and the an increase in CM voltage. There will also be high spikes in
voltage at the motor terminal [19]. This phase shift may the dc side that affect the reliability and performance of the
pose a control problem if not taken into account. Hence, motor drive. To overcome this, the dwell time is modified to
the control algorithm should be modified accordingly. decrease CM voltage. The adjusted dwell time is compensated
for in the subsequent cycles of the switching periods [23].
CM Voltage
The CM voltage on the motor side is produced because of Use of Inverter Output Filters
the switching actions of the power converters. This phe- Passive and active filter-based solutions are employed to mit-
nomenon has to be taken into consideration while igate the problems that arise due to PWM actions [19], [24],
designing the motor drive [20]. CM voltage is mostly [25]. Presently, passive filtering is commonly used for such
responsible for the ground leakage current through stray problems. Passive filters are hardware circuits that are
capacitances that ultimately may damage the motor bear- installed at the output terminals of the converter structure
ing. Replacement of the bearing is an expensive and time- [26]. The most common approach is using filters based on
consuming process; hence, unplanned maintenance must low-pass LC filters, CM chokes, and CM transformers [26].
be avoided. Normally, the bearings should be replaced or For reducing the overvoltages at the motor terminals (espe-
maintained during the scheduled or planned mainte- cially in the case of long cable connections), differential-mode
nance. Great effort has been invested to minimize the CM LC filters are used [16]. On the other hand, differential-mode
voltage in MV drives to save the drive system from cata- LC filters make it extremely difficult to apply precise control
strophic failure. The most widely used approach is to
modify the pulse-width modulation (PWM) strategy
Dec
toward minimizing the CM voltages. Another approach is Cruise

to employ passive filters at the output of the PWM Psource
ele
ion
Pstorage
rati
t
inverter. However, the weight and cost of the drive sys-

era
Pmotor Cruise
Power
Speed
o
cel
tem will increase [20]. Speed

n
Ac
For the MIs, the CM voltage is similar to the traditional Cruise

rt
two-level inverter, but with a lower level. Therefore, this

a
St
topic is still a subject of research, and several contributions Time

0
have been reported in recent years [21]. An effective solu-
tion to the issues mentioned above might be found mainly Energy Due Energy Energy
Supplied Recovered
by offering a lower-switching-frequency drive system with to Charging During During
very low harmonic content. Other possible solutions for from Source Acceleration Deceleration
such a problem could be grounding the brushes on the motor
shaft [16] and using dv/dt-resistant winding insulation [22]. FIG 7 The power (source, storage, and motor) and speed trajectories.
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in these motors. Control system design under low-speed con- converter that provides the regeneration at reduced har-
ditions is complicated because of phase shift between volt- monics and operation at a high power factor and active/
ages at the input and output of the LC filter installed at the reactive power combination [29]. Therefore, it is important
output of an inverter. Also, there is a voltage drop across the in some applications to use an AFE multilevel converter pro-
LC [26]. Usually, it is assumed in the drive control that the out- viding harmonic mitigation in the power grid and an almost
put voltage and current of an inverter unity power factor for all operating
are equal to the motor input voltage and points. It is highly advantageous for
current. The region of proper motor MV applications that require regen-
operation remains limited if there are
Complex multiwinding eration capability. Figure 7 shows
any discrepancies. Hence, it is neces- transformers can a cycle of power and speed trajecto-
sary that the measurement circuits or ries [29]. The use of multilevel AFE
mitigate harmonics
the control algorithms of the electric solutions makes it possible to improve
drive be modified [27]. through phase the input power factor, power qual-
Using MIs in drive systems results shifting in modular ity, total cost, and volume by possi-
in a reduction of motor winding insu- bly eliminating line side transformer.
lation stress. However, the reliability converters. Back-to-back converters (converters
and efficiency of the inverter may with AFE) are almost double the
decrease. The practice is to make it cost of a single converter. Still, they
possible to use very small LC filters or even exclude them are a worthy investment to achieve the solution with
by ensuring low harmonic voltage waveforms while main- nearly perfect sinusoidal input currents at nearly unity
taining a low switching frequency. Furthermore, the control power factor and with regenerative capability.
strategy that is chosen must actively damp filter oscillations
and allow fast dynamic operation with very low switching Torsional Vibration
frequencies [28]. In the MV drive, torsional vibration can occur because of
the large inertia of the motor and its mechanical load. This
Regeneration Capability and Power Factor Correction occurs when the natural frequency of the mechanical sys-
In general, for all electric devices, a high power factor is tem matches the frequency of torque pulsations caused by
desired. Therefore, rectifiers with low current harmonics the motor current harmonics [30]. Excessive torsional vibra-
and those capable of operating at almost unity power factor tions at resonance can result in high twisting torque and,
are required as utility interfaces for many ASDs. The hence, breakage of shafts and couplings. The undamped
requirement of a high power factor is especially important response is shown in Figure 8(a) [31]. The torsional vibra-
for MV drives due to their high power rating. The rectifier tions can also damage other mechanical components in the
design is a decisive factor for the optimum size, cost, and system. PWM control with harmonic elimination can be
efficiency of the MV drive. helpful to overcome such problems. The operating points
The most popular solution for high-power regenera- that excite the shaft in PWM inverter-fed motors can be pre-
tive loads is the use of a multilevel active front-end (AFE) dicted without torque sensors as shown in Figure 8(b) [31].
Induced Shaft Torque
Speed Range 18X 12X

Excitation Torque
400
3
Natural Frequency (Hz)
6X
300
2
200
Dynamic Magnifier =
1 Critical or
100 Resonance
Points
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000
Frequency Ratio (ω /ω n ) Speed (r/min)
(a) (b)
FIG 8 (a) An undamped response. (b) A Campbell diagram.
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Transformerless Solution
Complex multiwinding transformers can mitigate har-
With Transformer
monics through phase shifting in modular converters. Without Transformer
However, an isolation transformer can represent 30–50% 100
of electric drive system size and 50–70% of the system’s
Percentage
weight. The comparison of the average drive system 75
space and weight with and without a transformer is
shown in Figure 9. In addition to soaring raw material 50
costs for the transformer itself, an isolation transformer
adds to total drive costs with extra cabling, air condition- 25
ing to cool the transformer, engineering time, concrete
pad construction for outdoor transformers, and overall 0
Space Weight
installation [32].
Issues such as cost, space, weight, and platform bal-
FIG 9 A comparison of average drive system space and weight
ance can be improved significantly with fewer transform-
with and without a transformer.
ers for an offshore platform. To control pump motors on
downhole wells, each drive requires a multiton trans-
former. Offshore platforms typically require 20-MV drives solutions, MV variable speed drives require very good
(sometimes up to 40 or more) [32]. A significantly large insulation on the motor side to sustain high CM voltage
cooling system is required in a tropical environment, stress. Hence, the integrated CM dc choke is used to block
because a 1,000-kVA transformer generates up to 2 kW the CM voltage and reduce motor neutral-to-ground volt-
of heat energy. The transformerless solution provides age. The structure of the integrated choke and its connec-
substantial energy savings [33]. This feature is also tion diagram in transformerless motor drives is shown in
important in applications such as utility distribution Figure 10 [35].
systems and high-voltage vehicle drives [34]. Solutions Transformerless MV motor drives usually require a
are desired that reduce CM voltage, produce sinusoidal high level of motor insulation to overcome CM voltage
output waveform, and limit dv/dt in a transformerless stress or require the use of an additional inductor with
MV drive. approximately the same impedance as the transformer
Even though transformers protect the motor from CM to be replaced [36]. The use of shunt active hybrid filters
voltage, the high-level CM voltage stress on the motor solves this problem [24]. In Figure 11, a calculation of FIT
is imposed on the transformer and cable insulation. To rates of the considered transformerless converter topolo-
withstand the CM voltage stress, specific transformer gies is given and compared to a conventional traction drive
and cable insulation is required. But in transformerless system using a low-frequency transformer [37].
C1 C
A C2 B
A1 B1
A2 D B2
D1
D2
ac/dc id +ic /2 dc/ac

va a ia
A1 A2 C2 C1
vb b Induction
Motor
vc id –ic /2 c
B1 B2 D2 D1
Integrated Choke
FIG 10 The structure of the integrated choke and its connection diagram in single-word motor drives.
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Fault Detection and Condition emitter turn-off thyristor, improving

Monitoring the speed and dynamic performance of
Under severe operating conditions,
Issues such as cost, the device [42]. In [43], a full bridge
there should be accurate techniques space, weight, and converter was realized using SiC
for fault diagnosis and condition mon- metal–oxide–semiconductor field-
platform balance can
itoring of MV drives to avoid financial effect transistors. In semiconductor
losses due to unscheduled and forced be improved research, SiC power switches promise
shutdown. Therefore, condition moni- significantly with to increase efficiency by 10% due to
toring and fault diagnosis of electrical reduced switching losses. However, up
motors is another important challenge fewer transformers to now no MV drive manufacturer has
to be met for MV drive systems. In for an offshore declared adoption of SiC devices. This
this area, a significant amount of may be due to the high cost of the
work has been done in recent years, platform. devices and anticipation of the high-
and a comprehensive review is pre- current switching devices yet to come
sented in [38]. The interesting possi- on the market.
bility of sensorless fault detection involves using observer- An Intelligent Power Module has been developed to
based diagnostic methods for mechanical fault detection protect IGBTs from short circuit and to provide a negative
[39]. More advanced solutions are also possible to detect voltage to avoid false switching signals, which reduces
failures when LC inverter output filters are installed on the switching losses [44]. Furthermore, to obtain closed-loop
drive [40]. Any partial discharge in the stator of high-volt- gate control, a new technique has been proposed in [45].
age rating machines can be monitored by using high-fre- The voltage across parasitic inductance of IGBTs is moni-
quency current transformer sensors located at hazardous tored to measure switching speed and di/dt, so that the gate
locations such as oil and gas facilities [41]. drive voltages are adjusted to control the switching speed,
allowing the full capability of power devices to be utilized.
Research and Industrial Trends
Topologies
Components For more than 6 kV, the modular multilevel converter is the
The present research and industrial trends in the area of MV best solution to dispense with transformers and isolated
drives are multidimensional, encompassing the front-end power sources. But they have the problem of voltage fluctu-
converter, inverters, motor, and control. A new trend is using ation and voltage balance of capacitors. The research trends
advanced materials for power semiconductor switches, such in modular multilevel cascaded inverters have been dis-
as silicon carbide (SiC)-based switches. Simulation of SiC cussed in [46], which proposes methods to mitigate the fluc-
thyristors has given excellent conduction and switching per- tuation in ac voltage to stabilize operation at low speed and
formance. So SiC thyristors hold promise as devices for high- low frequency, and those methods are compared with two
power applications. They have the drawback that they need other methods.
a di/dt snubber and also a dv/dt snubber for turn-off. This
drawback has been overcome by development of the SiC Control and Modulation Techniques
To control MIs at low switching frequency, the synchronous
optimal PWM technique was proposed in [47]. This modu-
× 104
lation technique provides considerable benefits. For
5.0 example, the THD level of the machine current doesn’t
4.5
affect low switching frequency. The technique also main-
System with
4.0 Transformer tains an optimal CM voltage and neutral point potential
3.5 balance. To improve the dynamics of the control system,
3.0 the hybrid direct torque control was proposed in [48]. In
FIT
2.5 this control system, the torque is shown to be proportional

2.0 to the quadrature axis component of the current. This can
1.5 improve the calculations of error (between quadrature ref-
1.0 erence current and actual quadrature current). Initially
0.5 selected harmonic elimination was proposed in [49] and
0.0 then in [50]. After that, new techniques to eliminate the
2-Level 3-Level 3-Level 4-Level
NPC FC FC selective harmonic elimination PWM schemes were sug-
gested, such as Programmed PWM [51], and Multilevel SHE-
6.5-kV IGBT 4.5-kV IGBT 3.5-kV IGBT
PWM for series-connected inverters [52], [53]. The major
challenge with SHE is solving online the algebraic equations
FIG 11 A comparison of the reliability of converters. obtained for specific harmonic cancellation [54].
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Conclusions trial Electronics Society conference. He has also been the

This article discusses the problems associated with recipient of many awards, such as research excellence
controlled MV ac drives and the trend toward lowering travel awards in 2014 and 2015 from Texas A&M University
switching frequency and improving the efficiency of MV at Qatar and paper support awards in 2009, 2014, 2015, and
drive systems. In analyzing MV drives, the quality of 2016 from the Scientific and Technological Research Coun-
current and voltage wave shapes at both the input and cil of Turkey.
output terminals is an important factor. The applica- Shaikh Moinoddin (moinuddin2006@gmail.com)
___________________
tion, the topology used, the size of filter components, received the B.E. and M.Tech. degrees in electrical engi-
the switching frequency, and the control strategy han- neering and the Ph.D. degree in multiphase inverter mod-
dle the current waveforms. There will be minimal eling and control, all from Aligarh Muslim University
effects on the motor side if a better power factor and (AMU), India, in 1996, 1999, and 2009, respectively. He
power quality with higher efficiency are obtained. In served in the Indian Air Force from 1971 to 1987. He
this article, most of the existing has been with the University Poly-
shortcomings—such as overvoltage technic, AMU, since 1987, where he
due to dv/dt or wave reflection, is currently an assistant professor.
bearing currents due to CM voltage,
An Intelligent Power He is also a postdoctoral research
regeneration capabilities, torsional Module has been associate at Texas A&M University,
vibration, isolating transformer or Doha, Qatar. His principal research
transformerless solutions, fault
developed to protect interests include power electronics
detection, and condition monitor- IGBTs from short and electric drives. He received
ing—were discussed, and solutions the University Gold Medals for
circuit and to provide
were noted whenever possible. graduating as valedictorian in the
a negative voltage electrical branch and in all branch-
About the Authors to avoid false es of engineering during the B.E.
Haitham Abu-Rub (haitham.abu-rub@
___________ 1996 exams.
qatar.tamu.edu) received his M.Sc.
___________
switching signals, Mariusz Malinowski (malin@ _____
degree from Gdynia Maritime Acad- which reduces ee.pw.edu.pl)
________ received his Ph.D. and
emy, Poland, in 1990 and a Ph.D. D.Sc. degrees in electrical engineer-
degree from the Technical Universi- switching losses. ing from the Institute of Control and
ty of Gdańsk, Poland, in 1995, both Industrial Electronics, Warsaw Uni-
in electrical engineering. He also versity of Technology, Poland, in
received a Ph.D. degree in humanities from the Universi- 2001 and 2012, respectively. He has authored more than
ty of Gdańsk, Poland, in 2004. Since 2006, he has been 130 technical papers and received the IEEE Industrial
associated with Texas A&M University, Doha, Qatar, Electronics Society David Irwin Early Career Award in
where he was promoted to professor. Currently, he is 2011 for “outstanding research and development of mod-
the chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering ulation and control for industrial electronics convert-
Program at that university as well as the managing ers.” He participated in several scientific and industrial
director of the Smart Grid Center extension in Qatar. projects related to the application of power electronics
His main research interests are energy conversion sys- converters for renewable energy resources. He is a Fel-
tems, including electric drives, power electronic con- low of the IEEE.
verters, renewable energy, and smart grids. He is the Jaroslaw Guzinski (jarguz@ely.pg.gda.pl)
______________ received
recipient of many prestigious international awards, such the M.Sc., Ph.D., and D.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering
as the American Fulbright Scholarship, the German from the Faculty of Electrical and Control Engineering,
Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, the German Aca- Gdansk University of Technology, Poland, in 1994, 2000,
demic Exchange Service Scholarship, and the British and 2012, respectively. He was an assistant professor until
Royal Society Scholarship. 2000 with Gdansk University of Technology, where he is
Sertac Bayhan (sbayhan@gazi.edu.tr)
_____________ received the currently an adjunct professor. From 2006 to 2009, he was
B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from Gazi University, Anka- involved with Alstom Transport in a predictive mainte-
ra, Turkey, in 2006, 2008, and 2012, respectively, all in elec- nance project dedicated to high-speed trains. He supervised
trical engineering. He is with the Department of Electron- two grants supported by the Polish government related to
ics and Automation, Gazi University, where he has been a estimation and control of drives with a motor filter. He is
faculty member since 2009. He is currently an assistant the author and coauthor of more than 100 papers in inter-
research scientist at Texas A&M University, Doha, Qatar. national journals and conferences. His main interests
His research interests lie in the areas of power electronics, include sensorless control of electrical motors, digital sig-
motor drives, and renewable energy conversion systems. nal processors, electric vehicles, renewable energy, and
He was awarded best presentation at the 2015 IEEE Indus- smart grids.
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Power System Infrastructure

Do we face a complete power-electronics-based power system
and energy-storage infrastructure?
BACKGROUND IMAGE ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/RAWPIXEL LTD

by Johan H. Enslin
A
t the FEPPCON 2015 Power System Infrastruc- ■“Power Electronics and Storage System for Flexible
ture Session, six papers were presented, and Distribution Networks” by Rik W. De Doncker, Rhe-
notes were taken by Marcelo L. Heldwein. The inisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen,
papers were Germany
■ “Introduction and Explanation of Format” by “Use of Power Electronics Technology for Power System
■
Johan H. Enslin, Energy Production and Infrastructure Cen- Stability” by Ron Hui, Hong Kong University
ter and University of North Carolina, Charlotte, United States “Renewable-Grid Integration and HVDC Transmission” by
■
■ “Challenges for Developing the Integrated Grid” by Mark Jian Sun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New
McGranaghan, Electric Power Research Institute, Palo York, United States.
Alto, California, United States
■ “Distributed Power Regulation” by Deepak Divan, Varen- An Integrated Energy Grid
tec, San Jose, California, and the Georgia Institute of An integrated energy-efficiency approach between the elec-
Technology, Atlanta, United States trical, heat, and gas grid is required to help produce a CO2-
neutral energy-supply system, as depicted in Figure 1. With
this approach, the energy system can be optimized across
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 the multiplatforms in terms of cost, energy efficiency,
42 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016 2329-9207/16©2016IEEE
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Electricity Grid Heat Grid Gas Grid

Volatile Sources with
Sources Energy Storage
Heat Hydrogasification
Storage
HV dc
Transmission Solar Power
Gas
Storage
Wind Offshore Hydro Power Electrolyzer
MV dc
Distribution
Biomass and Waste Power
Geothermal Reservoirs
Wind Onshore Geothermal Energy
Mini CHP
LV
Photovoltaic Micro CHCP1

Heat Pump
1) Combined Heat, Cooling, and Power

2) Demand-Side Management
FIG 1 An integrated energy grid (i.e., electric–heat–gas) [1].
capacity, energy storage, and CO2 pro-

duction. Power-electronics interfaces
between the different energy grids
and assets enable technology to link
them together efficiently. For optimal
integration of these different grids, we
foresee entire solid-state (in place of
electromagnetic and electromechani-
cal) conversion, control, and protec-
tion take place within each grid in the
future. This goal will take decades to
implement, but piecemeal efforts to
modernize the grid need to be aligned
with such a long-term goal. Some of Power System That Is Highly Flexible, Resilient, and
the short-term challenges to integrate Connected and Optimizes Energy Resources
modernization into a legacy and aging
grid will be a very important task for
FIG 2 Optimizing an integrated grid [2].
power and power-electronics engi-
neers over the next two decades.
based resources that use distributed intelligence in the
An Integrated Electric Grid process (Figure 2). Distributed energy resources
For grid integration, the electrical component will have a (DERs) are currently being integrated into the grid at an
large number of power-electronics- and communications- accelerating rate. Distributed solar, with competitive
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System Needs
Substation Central Volt-

VAR Control
Service
Transformers
Poor Visibility
High Volatility
System Needs
Slow Edge-Up
Communication Grid Edge
Substation
with Grid Edge Controller
Devices
Σε = Feeder Level Support
Service
Δ1 + ε Δ2 + ε Δ3 + ε Δn + ε Transformers
ε Grid Edge
Devices
LTC Set at 240 V (1.0 pu)

Top-Down Control – 3% CVR
245
240
10
235 8
6
4
230
2
0
17:50
225
16:50
15:50
5
14:50
10
13:50
12:50
220 15
11:50
20
10:50
5
10 Needs Time of Day
18 0
17 0
16
15
15
:0
14
:0
13
20
:0
12
:0
Nodes
0
11
:0
:0
VARs Applied
0
:0
0
:0
0
0
0
Time of Day
LTC Set at 240V (1.0 pu)

Edge-Up Control – 3% CVR
18:50
5
17:50
16:50
10
15:50
14:50
15
13:50
12:50
20
11:50
10:50
Nodes
Time of Day
FIG 3 The substation top-down versus grid-edge intelligence-distribution optimization [3].
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prices, and fast automatic demand– Power-electronics developers do not

response controllers are the game currently use the advanced metering
changers for fast-forwarding the con-
Power converters are infrastructure. In most cases, duplicate
cept. The focus is now moving toward still mostly designed metering infrastructure and communi-
optimizing the system, including dis- cation networks are used. On the low-
for individual
tributed resources, to operate more voltage networks, very limited or sparse
efficiently and with higher reliability applications. system information is relayed back to
and resiliency in an existing and aging the operator and the end customer.
grid infrastructure. Power electronics connected to the grid
edge (e.g., PV inverters) and volt-VAR
Power-Electronics Challenges regulating and energy storage converters should be used to
and Opportunities in the Integrated Grid regulate voltage and provide distributed support and distrib-
As we move forward integrating the grid and the distributed uted intelligence to the grid. Figure 3 describes the impact of
intelligence, we face challenges associated with power-elec- substation versus grid-edge regulation.
tronics converters. Power converters are still mostly Energy storage, DERs, and microgrids are currently imple-
designed for individual applications. A more integrated reli- mented with mostly converter interfaces to the grid. However,
able and low-cost design approach is required, one that these converters are not optimization on a system level and
would employ stacked use cases and applications, including some of the applications may even work against each other.
system-level supervisory control. Power-electronics devel- Even nonoptimized harmonic filters inside the converters
opment and power systems operations often operate in silos can result in system interactions and resonances with each
without an integrated application-oriented approach. other at high populations. The increased penetration of this
The integration of distributed renewable resources is intermittent power from renewable energy resources on the
accelerated with the low cost of photovoltaic (PV) solar transmission and distribution system is causing destabiliza-
technology, but it brings challenges to distribution network tion of the electric grids, which may cause potential black-
operation. Converter thermal overload ratings need to be outs, voltage instability, and widespread damage to industrial
increased to handle the stacked applications, e.g., volt–volt- equipment. The opportunities for power-electronics-enabled
ampere reactive (volt-VAR) optimization and distributed automatic demand–response and stability networks (i.e., the
energy storage integration with PV conversion. The con- “springs and shock absorbers”) can provide instantaneous
verters should also be designed to mitigate excess intermit- power balancing as well as voltage and frequency stability.
tent resources that might lead to system-wide stability and In most cases, the business and value propositions for power
power-quality problems. Further, several older generating electronics in these DER applications are not well defined or
plants with integrated ancillary services, such as voltage clearly stated to power utilities, and they limit the widespread
and reactive power support and spinning inertia, are disap- use of DERs in utility grids.
pearing from the grid and need to be replaced with smart
inverters and energy storage. About the Author
Grid-protection approaches need to be redesigned with Johan H. Enslin (JEnslin@uncc.edu)
____________ is the director of the
power electronics in mind. In most cases, the short circuit Energy Production and Infrastructure Center as well as the
ratings provided by converters do not operate the protec- Duke Energy Distinguished chair in Power Engineering Sys-
tion circuits reliably. Therefore, it is important to have an tems at the William States Lee College of Engineering, Uni-
integration approach around protection, short circuit, and versity of North Carolina at Charlotte. He was the Power
stability ratings and ancillary services. Normally, a distri- System Infrastructure Session chair at the IEEE Conference
bution feeder has spare capacity that can be better applied on the Future of Electronic Power Processing and Conver-
when an integrated approach is implemented between the sion 2015, Verbania, Italy. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
network-protection operation and the power electronics.
This implies that a stronger emphasis should be given to References
ancillary services, such as voltage and frequency regu- [1] Rik W. De Doncker, “Power electronics and storage system for flexible
lation, voltage ride-through, black start, and spinning distribution networks,” in Proc. Eighth Int. IEEE Workshop on the Future
reserves (inertia) when power electronics are designed of Electronic Power Processing and Conversion (FEPPCON VIII 2015),
and operated within the feeders. Verbania, Italy, Sept. 2015.
Currently, limited integration of fast communication [2] Mark McGranaghan, “Challenges for developing the integrated grid,” in
networks with power-electronics nodes are available on Proc. Eighth Int. IEEE Workshop on the Future of Electronic Power Pro-
the grid. However, a fully integrated communications cessing and Conversion (FEPPCON VIII 2015), Verbania, Italy, Sept. 2015.
system with a network rich in power electronics may [3] Deepak Divan, “Distributed power regulation,” in Proc. Eighth Int. IEEE
provide cyber- and physical security risks to the system Workshop on the Future of Electronic Power Processing and Conversion
operator. A larger focus on more secure but integrated (FEPPCON VIII 2015), Verbania, Italy, Sept. 2015.
communications is the aim.
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Understanding the
Challenges of Converter
Networks and Systems
Better opportunities in the future
by Braham Ferreira
T
he note taker for the FEPPCON 2015 Converter ■ “What Are the Bottlenecks and Opportunities of Power
Networks/Systems Session was Robert Balog, Electronics-Based Power Systems?” by Kamiar Karimi,
and three papers were presented The Boeing Company, United States
■“Interactions of Power Electronics Convert- ■ “Future Requirements for Reliable Networks of Convert-
ers in Distribution Grids: Some Issues and ers” by Rainer Marquardt, Bundeswehr University Munich,
Challenges” by Paulo Mattavelli, University of Padova, Germany.
Italy
More Converters, More Interactions
Power-electronics components are the newcomers in
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 electrical systems, and their penetration is growing.
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Power-electronics
converters increasingly
have to work together
in systems, walking a
tightrope to balance
and control the
interactions they have
with each other.
Converters, previously scattered in networks of passive there are no technology bottlenecks limiting the devel-
components, are becoming denser. When the number is opment of microgrids. There are plenty of potential
small, the converters mostly interact with the grid, which opportunities for service providers, technology provid-
is dominated by inductances and the sinusoidal voltage ers, energy managers, third parties, independent author-
of the generators. Now, as the population of power-elec- ities, and new enterprises.
tronics converters is growing, they are interacting more However, the complexity of operation is a concern and
closely and frequently with each other. The days are com- protection coordination is a challenge. We still don’t know
ing to an end in which a converter, as a power-system what will happen when multiple microgrids are intercon-
component, can be regarded as connected to a fixed volt- nected. Load models are often overlooked, and analyti-
age bus feeding power to clearly defined loads. cal tools and methodology should be developed to create
Power-electronics converters increasingly have to modularity approaches in complex scenarios.
work together in systems, walking a tightrope to balance
and control the interactions they have with each other, Power-Electronics-Based Power Systems
while at the same time having to provide collectively the The power system of the Boeing 787 extensively uses
desired system performance. This brings new challenges power electronics and features 230-V ac variable fre-
in system integration, control, and communications. In quency, an electrically powered air-conditioning system,
the second FEPPCON session, participants engaged in a and electromechanical flight-control actuators. The sys-
discussion to better understand where we are currently tem, as shown in Figure 2, represents a breakthrough in
heading with converter networks and systems, where we system integration of power-electronics converters. The
will be in 2020–2030, and what technical challenges have requirements that had to be met include power quality, sta-
to be addressed. bility, electromagnetic interference, voltage drop, vibra-
tion, reliability, thermal management, efficiency, and par-
Converter Systems tial discharge.
The grid is an important system application, but not the This commercial system paved the way to larger-scale
only one that deserves serious attention. Transporta- adoption of power electronics. Managing the complexity
tion platforms have sophisticated electrical systems and dealing with stringent requirements remain a chal-
and the more-electric trend implies that more function- lenge. Lowering the cost of high-power density, efficiency,
ality and higher power levels are required. The third and reliability is important for the further evolution of full
type of system discussed was power conversion com- power-electronics power systems
prising many subconverters, which, at the moment, is
receiving much attention in the research and develop- Networks of Converters
ment community. Key comments made by the three pre- Networks of converters that coordinate their operation to
senters are briefly summarized. achieve specific functionalities are new and are often
referred to as modular converters. One of their advantages
Microgrids is the ease of scaling voltage and current, whereas a poten-
Today, many ac microgrid test-beds that are operational tial weakness is reduced reliability if redundant operation
worldwide are providing valuable knowledge. An cannot be ensured after a fault.
impression of a typical microgrid is given in Figure 1. Multiple series and parallel resonances that can occur
The low-voltage (LV) electrical market is ready to take due to front-end passive filters pose a severe complica-
off. Radical innovations can now be expected because tion in multiple converters connected to the same bus.
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Utility
(DSO)
Backup Generator
and Energy Storage
Wind
Energy Turbine
Gateway
Smart PV Smart
Energy
Storage
Utility
Interface
Energy
Storage Smart
Energy Generator
Gateway LV PV, Thermal
Electrical Network
Smart
Energy Energy
Gateway Storage
Smart Meter
Pico-Systems-Local
Optimization
Smart
Energy Meter
Gateway
Community Energy Narrowband
Storage Communication Link Community of Prosumers
FIG 1 The utility interface allows optimum microgrid operation. (Figure used courtesy of Prof. Paolo Mattavelli, University of
Padova, Italy.)
Control becomes complicated and stability issues can ■Models are currently not “good enough.” Component
easily arise, as field experiences with modular multilevel models have electrical static and dynamic characteristics,
converters and wind turbines on dc collection grids tes- but don’t capture thermal lifetime reliability costs needed
tify. Rainer Marquardt proposed that system architec- for system-level optimization.
tures that avoid passive filters on the network side should ■Codes and standards lag technology development
be used, with the exception of radio-frequency filters, as and may not embrace the capabilities of power-elec-
is shown in Figure 3. tronics-enabled power systems. Standards for power-
electronics integration into electrical systems need
Challenges to be addressed.
During the discussions, participants identified the following ■Stable interoperation of high-penetration power-electron-
challenges. ics is still unknown; as such, it needs modeling, validation,
■The limitations of global system optimization instead of and testing.
component-level optimization, i.e., top down and bottom ■Protection is a technical area that is underrepresented in
up, need to be better understood. A system-level design power electronics, which presents a limitation between
may not yield optimized individual components, but at the the power systems and power-electronics communities.
system level, achieves the desired functionality and cost. ■Design for reliability and cost is not addressed in aca-
■Techno-economic optimization—the right technology for demia and needs to be elevated in priority.
the right price—is important. Some applications need
expensive power converters due to reliability or other Directions
considerations, whereas other applications need cheap Converter networks and systems are extremely com-
and simple solutions. plex because the behavior of individual components is
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Fan
Controllers
Power Power-
Power Electronics
Gen Distribution And
Electronics Cooling
Conversion
Systems
Flight Control
Power Actuators
Gen Electronics
Avionics-IFE
Power Electric
Gen Power
Electronics Brackets
Distribution And
Conversion
WIPS
Cabin Air
Power Compressor
Gen Electronics Energy Storage
Electric
Driven
Hydraulic
Pumps
FIG 2 An aircraft system.
time-invariant, controllers follow their

own agendas, and converter-input L4 L5 L6
impedance is capricious. Also, under- +
standing failure modes is essential for dc-BUS L4 L5 L6
protection. Fresh approaches are nec- –
essary to come to grips with systems:
■develop standard test-case systems
with sufficient and appropriate L1 L1 L2 L2 L3 L3
dynamics to be a validation and
design tool for power-converter
integration
■develop appropriate system-orient-
Converter Converter 1 Converter 2 Converter 3
ed models that contain rich sets of
multiphysics, including electrical, (Motor) (Generator) (Battery)
thermal, cost, and reliability (Load
models that are dynamic need to be FIG 3 A capacitorless converter network.
included.)
■develop a society-wide mechanism
to share lessons learned ■develop a common vocabulary (lexicon) to describe fea-
■understand dynamics of at-scale power-electronics- tures and capabilities of power-electronics-enabled
enabled power systems power systems; common definitions for reliability, resil-
■develop a mutual understanding/common language for iency, availability.
protection technology and system coordination between
power electronics and power systems About the Author
■embrace protection as integral to power electronics and Braham Ferreira (j.a.ferreira@tudeflt.nl)
______________ was the Con-
coordination at the system level; use new views and new verter Networks/Systems Session chair at FEPPCON 2015.
approaches, not simply over current fuses; and integrate He is the president of the IEEE Power Electronics Society.
protection into the control and operation of the convert-
ers themselves
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Transportation Electrification
Challenges and opportunities
by Don Tan BACKGROUND IMAGE ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/RAWPIXEL LTD
S
ession 3 of the Eighth International Workshop on ■“Electrical Infrastructure in Ships” by D. Boroyevich,
the Future of Electronic Power Processing and Center for Power Electronics Systems, Virginia Tech,
Conversion (FEPPCON VIII 2015) focused on Blacksburg
transportation electrification, where I was the ■“Power Electronic Circuit for Electric Vehicles” by A.
chair and Robert Pilawa was the note taker. The Kawamura, Yokohama National University, Japan
invited presentations included ■“High-Speed Railway Systems” by Z. Zhang, China South-
■“In-Space Electric Propulsion, Smart Distributed ern Rail Research Center, Zhuzhou.
Systems, and Beyond” by D. Tan, Northrop Grum-
man Aerospace Systems, Melbourne, Florida Challenges
■“More Electric Aircraft” by P. Wheeler, University of Not- The major challenges were identified by the invited panel
tingham, United Kingdom of experts.
1) In-space electric propulsion for human space explora-
tion calls for 250-kW power-processing capability, large
deployables, and robust precision pointing. This calls for
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 high-power processing capability with high efficiency,
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To improve the
reliability of power-
electronics systems,
one of the key areas is
thermal management
because failure rates
increase exponentially
with the increase of
temperature levels.
large deployable drive electronics with high torque, and module (I2PM). For more electric aircrafts, power-den-
high-precision motor drive for high-precision pointing. sity improvements in the inverter and motor are much
2) Hardware reliability is increasingly important for electri- needed, in addition to storage. Medium-voltage direct-
cal transportation systems. If we can better understand current technology can be synergistic between ship
the reliability and failure modes of components, we can power and electrical power-grid applications.
design more reliable systems. Better modeling of compo-
nent reliability is the key to understanding reliability Opportunities
and designing and building more reliable systems. Facing these challenges, power electronics and systems
3) The recognition of the fact that railway transportation technology can certainly provide a path forward. The first
is the most environmentally friendly mode of trans- thing is to take inspiration from nature for distributed
portation drives increasing development in high- smart systems with connected intelligence. Successful
speed rail systems, especially in Asia and Europe. In examples include self-driving cars, computer self-learning
traction drives, the majority of failures are a result of techniques, etc. The first task is to enhance IEEE techni-
power devices (as high as 60% according to some stud- cal Society-level collaboration with the IEEE Transporta-
ies), especially due to thermal events. The ability to tion Electrification Community, which comprises experts
improve the reliability of power devices and their from 12 Societies, including
packaging is highly desirable. New power devices in ■the IEEE Power & Energy Society
higher current ratings (6.5 kV/900 A, for instance) are ■the IEEE Industry Applications Society
required for new-generation trains, with speed capa- ■the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
bilities of 450–500 km/h. Typical efficiency needs to ■the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society
be improved from today’s 85 –95% or higher into ■the IEEE Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing
the adiabatic region (>98.5%) to reduce heat and Technology Society
improve reliability. ■the IEEE Electron Devices Society
4) Storage-technology development and deployment rep- ■the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society
resent significant challenges in cutting across all elec- ■the IEEE Standards Association.
tric vehicle applications. Future electrification depends Beyond the IEEE level, we need to work with automo-
on continued improvements in battery technology. Can tive manufacturing associations, battery societies, photo-
power electronics and systems technology improve voltaic societies, wind power-societies and other utility
performance in, for instance, rapid charging and dis- organizations. Only seamless collaboration can lead to
charging? Furthermore, wireless charging technology fruitful research and development results that are deploy-
needs to be multidirectional and requires development able to industry.
of safety standards for human interfaces. At the technology level specifically, we need to sys-
5) Electric transportation requires system-level thinking tematically develop a thorough failure-mode-and-effect
for overall optimization. It is critical for power-electron- analysis at both the component level and the system
ics designers to work with experts in other technology level. Proven techniques in high-reliability products and
domains, such as mechanical, materials, software, etc., long-life systems, such as space-payloads electronics and
to realize more effective heat removal with better pack- space-power systems, can be directly leveraged. More
aging technology, such as an integrated intelligent power important, fault isolation and redundancy-management
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techniques that are so prevalent in space systems, but To this end, a modular, multilevel, multiphase approach
awfully lacking in many industries, can also be adapted is appealing. To control large deployables for smooth
for industry applications. Improved deployment, a flexible control algo-
hardware reliability, together with add- rithm, self-calibration, and adaptive
ed redundancy, will enhance power control are essential. For high-reso-
availability significantly for transpor- To control large lution precision pointing, a drive cir-
tation electrification and intelligent deployables for smooth cuit capable of cardinal stepping and
transportation systems. microstepping is desired, together
To improve the reliability of power- deployment, a flexible with self-calibration and autonomous
electronics systems, one of the key control algorithm, adaptive control.
areas is thermal management because For grid impact by electric vehi-
failure rates increase exponentially self-calibration, and cle, the most effective is the high-
with the increase of temperature adaptive control speed charge, either with or with-
levels. To this end, there are three out wire. Power electronics can
aspects: improve efficiency, improve
are essential. certainly provide the technology
thermal management, and reduce for efficient fast charging, together
electrical stress level. For efficiency with the integration of renewable
improvement, the adiabatic technology as discussed in [1] energy resources such as solar, wind, or a combina-
can be used together with various virtual soft-switching tion of both. Storage technology can be extended from
techniques and various multilevel converter schemes. For vehicle level to utility level to provide the charging power
reduction of electrical stress levels, the dominant ones surge required.
are due to over-current and/or over-voltage stresses. For
a given power to be processed, and given semiconductor About the Author
devices, the packaging of the semiconductor dies to the Don Tan (don.tan.oc@gmail.com)
_______________ is an engineer/power-
module, and the modules to the board and board to the products development manager with Northrop Grumman
unit are important. Most critical is the semiconductor die Aerospace Systems, Melbourne, Florida. He was the Trans-
attachment to a module. Specific semiconductor packing portation Electrification Session chair at FEPPCON 2015.
challenges are addressed in this issue of IEEE Power Elec- He served as the president of the IEEE Power Electronics
tronics Magazine in “Power Semiconductor Devices and Society from 2013 to 2014 and is the founding editor-in-chief
Components for New Power Converter Developments” by of IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in
Alan Mantooth. At a more fundamental level, the ability to Power Electronics. He was instrumental in establishing the
predict the parasitics due to systematic packaging is criti- IEEE Transportation Electrification Community. He is a Fel-
cally important. A more systematic theoretical approach low of the IEEE.
is needed. Efforts in this area are already underway by
some research universities. Reference
For space applications, the 250-kW power level for [1] D. Tan, “Power-conversion technology is going adiabatic: Adiabatic point-
manned mission to deep space calls for a robust and of-load technology for space applications,” IEEE Power Electron. Mag., vol.
expandable modular approach to provide flexibility to 2, no. 4, pp. 47–53, Dec. 2015.
accommodate different missions and to reduce the cost.
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Power-Semiconductor
Devices and Components
for New Power Converter
Developments
A key enabler for ultrahigh efficiency power electronics
by Juan Carlos Balda and Alan Mantooth
I
n a world with an increasing penetration of wide- and dielectric materials) up through integration, for the
bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technology, the purpose of refining appropriate power-electronics con-
FEPPCON 2015 Session on New Power Devices verters by 2025. An important goal was to identify those
and High Temperature focused on power-semicon- markets and applications where silicon technology will
ductor devices and passive components (magnetic remain the preferred choice. The semiconductors are
rarely the predominant failure mechanisms even in sili-
con modules; the failure mechanisms are usually either
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 the passive components or the packaging. Thus, higher
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High Power
SiC
Wind Turbine Inverter
for Industry SiC for High-Power Voltages (>1 kV)
Railway
10 M with High Current = Niche Market
PV Inverter
1M
(Power Conditioner) EV/HEV High Speed
Output Power (VA)
100 K GaN
Data Center
10 K PV Inverter (Server)
(Micro-Inverter) (dc-dc)
GaN on Si for High Frequency
1K
at Midrange Voltages (<1 kV, Up to 100 A)
Silicon PC = Mass Market
ac-dc
(PFC) (dc-dc)
100
10
10 100 1K 10 K 100 K 1M 10 M
Operating Frequency (Hz)
FIG 1 A perspective on WBG technologies in terms of frequency and power. (Figure used courtesy of Prof. T. Paul Chow, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute.)
power densities afforded by using WBG semiconductors specific devices are more suitable than others are avail-
require those passives capable of operating at high tem- able from different sources are shown in Figure 1. T.
peratures and having high reliabilities. Presenters Paul Chow from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute pro-
addressed the state of the art and future directions for vided a general overview of state-of-the-art semiconduc-
magnetic cores, dielectric materials, and electronic tor devices for various applications, state-of-the-art SiC
packaging/integration. Finally, potential additional fron- devices, and major breakthroughs needed for greater
tiers that merit research in a WBG world (such as new penetrations in power-electronics systems. SiC Schottky
markets, capabilities, circuit architectures, and applica- barrier diodes are becoming the device of choice for
tions) were evaluated. The session was divided into four systems between 300 and 1,200 V, which require antipar-
main groups: “WBG Technologies,” allel diodes. SiC diffusion and
“Silicon Technologies,” “Passive U-shaped metal–oxide–semiconduc-
Technologies,” and “Power-Integra- tor field-effect transistors (MOS-
Silicon carbide and
tion Technologies.” FETs) have already reached the
gallium nitrite devices market, either in discrete or module
Trends in Power-Electronic are reaching different packages, they are used in commer-
Converters cial products like solar inverters,
levels of maturity, and other commercial applications
WBG Technologies with several manufac- are being explored by several origi-
Silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nal equipment manufacturers. Lat-
nitrite (GaN) devices are reaching turers already offering eral high-electron mobility transis-
different levels of maturity, with devices in different tor GaN devices for power-elec-
several manufacturers already tronic systems under 650 V have
offering devices in different pack- packages. also reached the market and are
ages (e.g., CREE, EPC, GaN Sys- finding commercial applications in
tems, GeneSiC, Infineon, ON Semi- which efficiency and fast switching
conductor, Rohm, United Silicon Carbide, and Trans- are design requirements. Panasonic has developed sev-
phorm). Graphs illustrating output power versus eral GaN power integrated circuits having six and nine
switching frequency and the particular areas where devices, respectively. Current and midterm research
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Hysteresis Loss
Core Losses
Eddy Current
Fringing
Skin Effect
Copper Losses
Proximity Effect
FIG 2 Losses in magnetic components.
efforts should produce develop-

ments related to bidirectional 600-V 1 cm2 < Size < 15 cm2
GaN MOSFETs, 10-kV SiC bidirec- Heat Sink
tional insulated-gate bipolar transis-
tors (IGBTs), SiC MOS-FETs and
~4–8 mm
IGBTs rated above 10 kV, and more
GaN-based power application-spe-
Heat Sink
cific integrated circuits incorporat-
ing optoelectronics. The main
issues that should be addressed are FIG 3 The Power System in Package (PSiP).
1) those reliability concerns that
hinder greater adoption of SiC
and GaN devices (e.g., reliability of the SiC gate oxide) improve performance. Silicon superjunction MOSFETs
2) material quality for moving to larger wafers, which continue to improve; for example, the specific on resis-
should bring needed cost reductions in addition to tance is currently at 1.0 Ω-mm2, but still far from the limit
potential cost savings at the system level of 0.1 Ω-mm2 for 600–650-V devices. These devices may be
3) power packages capable of removing large heat fluxes more expensive for voltages above 900 V. Silicon IGBTs
from these small-area devices. are also improving in performance by
Devices based on gallium arsenide working on the plasma profile, par-
and GaN on native substrates do not Silicon devices continue ticularly near the emitters, and new
seem to be viable at the present time, developments on trench-based IGBTs
as they require more basic research.
to be the devices of continue to extend the silicon limit
choice for those while providing cost-effective solu-
Silicon Technologies tions for high-current applications.
Silicon devices continue to be the
applications in which Reverse-conducting IGBTs (RC-
devices of choice for those applica- high-switching IGBTs) integrating the diode func-
tions in which high-switching fre- tion into the IGBT chip and using
frequencies,
quencies, high-temperature opera- dynamic gate control to reduce
tion, and very high efficiencies do high-temperature reverse recovery currents are other
not override design requirements, operation, and very examples of the necessity of size and
but cost is of the utmost importance. thermal impedance reductions, along
F.J. Niedernostheide from Infineon high efficiencies do the order of 30–50%.
delivered a presentation regarding not override design R. Bayerer, also from Infineon,
future silicon devices up to the year indicated that power circuits should
2025 and indicated that further opti- requirements. have symmetry in terms of para-
mization of the device cell should sitic inductance, with low parasitic
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inductance allowing the freewheeling devices may lead to reductions in

of diodes with large tail currents (i.e., the size of the needed capacitors.
still soft switching). These modules High-frequency
should experience minimal oscil- operation using About the Authors
lation when switching the IGBTs. Juan Carlos Balda (jbalda@uark.
_________
Another research focus is higher fast-switching devices edu) is a university professor of electri-
__
operating junction temperatures for like GaN devices cal engineering at the University of
IGBTs, currently at 175 °C, which is Arkansas. He serves as the vice chair
enabled by copper bonding and diffu-
may lead to reductions of the Renewable Energy Systems
sion assembly of chips with a target in the size of the Technical Committee in the IEEE
temperature of operation at 200 °C. Power Electronics Society.
needed capacitors.
Finally, J. Shen from the Illinois Alan Mantooth (mantooth@uark.
__________
Institute of Technology indicated edu) is a distinguished professor of
___
that nanotechnology will enable electrical engineering and the Twenty-
the increase of operating voltage of silicon, SiC, and First Century Research Leadership chair at the University of
GaN devices by reducing their on-state resistances; as Arkansas. He was the New Power Devices and High Temper-
examples, nano-IGBT could increase its current capa- ature Session chair at FEPPCON 2015 and is the president-
bility by a factor of three, and nano-CoolMOS could elect of the IEEE Power Electronics Society to serve for a
have a reduction of five in its on-state resistance. term of two years beginning in 2017.
Passive Component Technologies References

W.G. Hurley from the National University of Ireland, Gal- [1] R. Bayerer, “Parasitic inductance hindering utilization of power devices,”
way, made a presentation on the technologies of passives presented at Proc. 10th Int. Conf. Integrated Power Systems, Nuremberg,
that was coauthored by C. ÓMathúna from the Tyndall Germany, 2016.
National Institute (Cork, Ireland). Hurley indicated that [2] S. Hain, M. Bakran, C. Jaeger, F.-J. Niedernostheide, D. Domes, and D.
the main technical issues when designing magnetic struc- Heer, “The effect of different stray inductances on the performance of vari-
tures for high-frequency operation include fringing fluxes ous types of IGBTs—Is less always better?” in Proc. 17th Eur. Conf. Power
around air gaps, minimization of leakage inductances, Electronics and Applications, Geneva, Switzerland, 2015.
packaging, thermal management, and three-dimensional
[3] R. Rupp, T. Laska, O. Häberlen, and M. Treu, “Application specific trade-
printing (see Figure 2). Trends in magnetic design include
offs for SiC, GaN and high-end Si power switch technologies,” in Proc. 2014
printed-circuit-board-embedded power magnetics to
IEEE Int. Electron Devices Meeting, San Francisco, CA, pp. 2.3.1–2.3.4.
obtain low profiles, the use of thin-film materials, integrat-
ing inductors and capacitors into a single structure, new [4] F. Wolter, R. Rupp, and O. Häberlen, “Next-level silicon, SiC and GaN—a bal-
materials for inductors and capacitors, increasing power anced view on future power semiconductor switches,” presented at Proc. Applied
density and operating temperatures, and integration of Power Electronics Conference 2014.
passives with sensors. [5] F. Wolter, W. Roesner, M. Cotorogea, T. Geinzer, M. Seider-Schmidt, and
K.-H. Wang, “Multi-dimensional trade-off considerations of the 750V micro
Electronic Packaging/Integration pattern trench IGBT for electric drive train applications,” in Proc. IEEE
Heterogeneous integration of passives, WBG semicon- 27th Int. Symp. Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs, Hong Kong, 2015,
ductors, integrated circuitry for drive, control, protec- pp. 105–108.
tion, communication, and advanced thermal manage-
[6] D. Werber, T. Hunger, M. Wissen, T. Schütze, M. Lassmann, B. Stemmer,
ment devices and methods is a major challenge. Eckart
V. Komarnitskyy, and F. Pfirsch, “A 1000A 6.5kV power module enabled by
Hoene from the Fraunhofer Institute (Germany) posed
reverse-conducting trench-IGBT-technology,” in Proc. Int. Exhibition Conf.
the question of whether integration is the next mile-
Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Man-
stone for power-electronics systems and evaluated the
agement, Nuremberg, Germany, 2015, pp. 351–358.
conditions under which integration makes sense. Ven-
dors like Texas Instruments and Vicor have already [7] E. Hoene, A. Ostmann, and C. Marczok, “Packaging very fast switching
launched several products integrating semiconductor semiconductors,” in Proc. Eighth Int. Conf. Integrated Power Systems,
devices and passives into a PCB substrate, leading to con- Nuremberg, Germany, 2014, pp. 1–7.
cepts like the power system in package (PSiP) and trans- [8] G. Feix, E. Hoene, O. Zeiter and K. Pedersen, “Embedded very fast switch-
fer-molding technologies (Figure 3). These technologies ing module for SiC Power MOSFETs,” in Proc. 2015 Proc. Int. Exhibition
must ensure manufacturing in terms of materials, pro- Conf. Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy
cessing, reliability, and thermal management con- Management, Nuremberg, Germany, pp. 104–110.
straints, which limit potential size reductions. High-fre-
quency operation using fast-switching devices like GaN
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TOCKFINLAND
©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/S
APEC Signals
Emerging Trends
A focus on advancements in GaN integration, SiC devices,
high step-down converters, and passives
by Ashok Bindra
C
ontinuing to bring the latest advances in power (SiC) devices, high step-down dc–dc converters, and circuit
semiconductors, circuit architectures, passives, components. While the plenary session talks highlighted
and packaging, this year’s IEEE Applied Power trends in GaN-based power integrated circuits (ICs) and
Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC) very-high-frequency (VHF) power conversion and magnetics,
in Long Beach, California, signaled emerging the exhibit floor demonstrated advances in SiC discretes and
trends in gallium nitride (GaN) integration, silicon carbide modules, including silicon-based power devices, passive
components, and dc–dc power conversion solutions.
This year, the exposition recorded high participation
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 from industry. Approximately 263 vendors from around
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tive, easy-to-use, high-frequency power system designs.

D Because the integration virtually eliminates package parasit-
ics and inductance in the driver path, the talk suggested that
VDD
+6 V the emerging GaN-on-silicon power ICs will enable up to
40-MHz switching, four times higher density, and 20% lower
PWM system costs.
Kinzer indicated that GaN integration is made pos-
SK sible because two-dimensional electron gas with alumi-
COM
num gallium nitride/GaN heteroepitaxy structure gives
very high mobility in the channel and drain drift region,
S while lateral device structure achieves extremely low Qg
and Qoss. According to Kinzer, the monolithic integration
offers 20 times lower drive loss than silicon, matched
driver impedance to power device, shorter propagation
delay (10 ns), zero inductance turn-off loop, digital input,
QFN 5 × 6 mm
rail–rail drive output, and layout insensitivity.
FIG 1 GaN-on-Si power IC combines enhancement–mode GaN The benefits of GaN power IC were demonstrated in a
power FET with GaN logic and drive circuits on a silicon substrate. 150-W boundary conduction mode boost power factor cor-
(Figure used courtesy of Navitas Semiconductor.) rection circuit with universal ac input (85–265 Vac, 47–63 Hz)
and 400 V, 0.27 A output. Built using a two-layer printed
the world, occupying 398 booths, displayed their state- circuit board, it measures 100 × 50 × 20 mm and requires
of-the-art technologies, products, and solutions. From no heat sink. The peak measured efficiency reported by the
wide-bandgap power devices to low-loss magnetic com- company was 98.1% and power factor of >0.995 at 150 W.
ponents and high-performance test and measurement Though Navitas has been sampling its first GaN-on-
instruments, the exhibiting companies signaled new silicon power IC to select customers, it plans to make it
trends in power transistors, diodes, capacitors, induc- commercially available in a quad-flat no-leads (QFN) pack-
tors, packaging, heat sinks, and more, including precision age by summer 2016. For that, it is closely working with a
power-supply measurements. Concurrently, the exhibitor large Asian complimentary metal–oxide–semiconductor
seminars described techniques of implementing these foundry with plans to fabricate the GaN power IC on a 6-in
latest devices, modules, and components in the designer’s wafer and then migrate to 8-in wafers in a few years.
end-product designs. GaN power integration was also
The plenary session started with a demonstrated by Texas Instruments
talk on the challenges of VHF power (TI) and Efficient Power Conversion
GaN power integra-
conversion by Tony Sagneri, chief (EPC). However, unlike Navitas’ mono-
technology officer (CTO) at FINsix. tion was also demon- lithic integration, TI is combing the FET
In his presentation, Sagneri high- strated by Texas driver with GaN half-bridge power stage
lighted the power of VHF conversion in a single QFN package. Concurrently,
by demonstrating the 65-W adapter Instruments and TI also announced that it has leveraged
built by his company that is four times Efficient Power existing manufacturing infrastruc-
smaller and lighter than today’s simi- ture and capabilities to qualify its 600-V
lar laptop chargers with efficiency as Conversion. GaN process. The company intends
high as 95%. He said that in switch- to tap its new process going forward
ing power supplies, size, weight, and with GaN integration. EPC introduced
cost are dominated by passive components, which can be an enhancement-mode GaN (eGaN) IC that incorporates
substantially reduced by switching at VHF frequencies. It a synchronous bootstrap FET in a half-bridge topology to
permits the use of tiny capacitors and air-core inductors. eliminate gate-driver induced reverse recovery losses. It was
designed specifically to maximize amplifier efficiency in a
GaN Power ICs zero voltage switching (ZVS).
In another plenary talk, “Breaking Speed Limits with On the discrete front, EPC evaluated the thermal per-
GaN Power ICs,” Dan Kinzer, chief operating officer and formance of its chip-scale packaged eGaN FETs and com-
CTO of start-up Navitas Semiconductor, unveiled plans to pared its in-circuit electrical and thermal performance
deliver true GaN power ICs using its proprietary AllGaN with the state-of-the-art silicon metal–oxide–semicon-
monolithically integrated 650-V platform. He said that with ductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). This was pre-
monolithic integration of GaN drive and logic circuits with sented in the paper “Thermal Evaluation of Chip-Scale
enhancement-mode GaN power field-effect transistors Packaged Gallium Nitride Transistors” by David Reusch,
(FETs) (Figure 1), the industry now has a path to cost-effec- EPC’s executive director of applications engineering.
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Digital PWM
HV PWM Monitoring Isolation
dc/dc Converter
+VISO
+15 V
Vcc
GND
GND
–VISO
HI Input
Driver Logic D1
(Drive Signal) Digital and
HI Output Isolation Protection G1
(Status Feedback) Functions Vgs
RG On/Off
Driver S1
Electrical Interface
D251
dc–dc Converter
+15 V +VISO
Vcc
GND
GND
–VISO
LO Input
Driver Logic D2
(Drive Signal) Digital and
LO Output Isolation Protection G2
(Status Feedback) Functions
RG On/Off Vgs
Driver S2
Temperature PWM Monitoring Digital

Isolation PWM
T1 T2
FIG 2 A basic schematic of AgileSwitch’s programmable gate driver EDEM3. (Figure used courtesy of AgileSwitch.)
Transphorm unveiled a fully qualified 650-V GaN-on-Si In addition, they would like to know when GaN suppliers
FET with lowest on resistance (41 mΩ) in a TO-247 pack- will offer pricing that is in line with market demands for
age and a low Qrr spec of 175 nC. Similarly, Panasonic power-conversion equipment.
revealed a 600-V normally off GaN transistor in a TO-220
package. Designated X-GaN, its performance was dem- SiC Discretes and Modules
onstrated in a 1-kW totem-pole ac–dc converter offering On the SiC front, Wolfspeed, a Cree company, extended the
99.2% energy efficiency. reach of SiC MOSFETs to 900 V. The company announced a
Also on display in the GaN Systems booth was the portfolio of 900-V SiC MOSFETs with on-resistance as low
CE+T designed 2-kW inverter powered by GaN FETs, the as 65 mΩ in TO-247 and surface-mount double-decawatt
winner of Google’s Little Box Challenge. The 650-V GaN packages. An evaluation board demonstrated the imple-
FETs used in this design were supplied by GaN Systems, mentation of 900-V SiC MOSFETs in a synchronous buck or
which helped CE+T’s design team to exceed power den- boost converter while a three-phase inverter unit bragged
sity goals by a factor of three while meeting or exceeding the use of a 1,200-V power module. The 900-V platform was
all other specifications. While there are more GaN sup- officially unwrapped last May. Concurrently, in the session
pliers today and the number of commercially available (#T21.2) on “Advances in Wide Bandgap Devices,” Wolf-
parts has increased, users are still concerned about reli- speed presented a record-low on-resistance for its 900-V SiC
able supply of GaN power devices in volume quantities. MOSFETs in a paper titled “Record-Low 10-mΩ 900-V SiC
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PRM VTM
Regulates a 48-V Line Input Transforms the Regulated
48-V to CPU Power
48 Vdc
Cool-Power 48 Vdc ~1 Vdc CPU

Inductor VTM
ZVS BB
Regulated GPU
P13020
Digital
Control
FIG 3 Vicor’s 48-V direct-to-point-of-load power conversion solution.
MOSFET in TO-247” by Jeffery Casady, Vipindas Pala, lockout, desaturation detection settings, dead time, fault
Gangyao Wang, Brett Hull, and Scott Allen. lockout settings, automatic reset, and seven fault condi-
Similarly, Fairchild Semiconductor released its first tions. The company was planning to make its board com-
1,200-V, 40-A SiC Schottky diode (FFSH40120ADN) with mercially available by the end of April or early May.
very low leakage current at temperatures up to 175°C.
Designed for boosting efficiency in high-speed solar Single-Stage 48 V to Point-of-Load Solutions
inverters and industrial power supplies, the SiC diode In the power conversion arena, the 48-V power distribution
offers fast reverse recovery with negligible switching loss bus is gaining traction following Google’s initiative,
and avalanche rating of 200 mJ. announced at the Open Compute Project Summit 2016, to
Start-up AgileSwitch displayed SiC-based intelligent promote the 48-V server and distribution infrastructure as a
power modules (IPMs) based on its standard for data centers. Supporting
gate drivers and ROHM Semicon- this initiative, Vicor introduced latest
ductor’s power modules employing generation 48-V direct-to-central
1,200-V, 300-A SiC MOSFETs, along Start-up AgileSwitch processing unit (CPU) solutions at the
with Mersen’s film capacitors and ther- displayed SiC-based conference, which includes the Cool-
mal management solutions. Offered Power PI3751-02 buck-boost, the pre-
as evaluation kits, these IPMs are
intelligent power regulator module (PRM), and the
designed for 50–200-kW ac–dc inverter modules based on VTM48Kp020x current multiplier mod-
and dc–dc converter applications with ule (VTM). As shown in Figure 3, the
up to 100-kHz switching. In essence,
its gate drivers and PRM receives its input from a 48-V dis-
there are three evaluation kits. While ROHM Semiconductor’s tributed bus (input voltage up to 55 V)
the 1,200-V/300-A gate driver kit is and drives a controlled factorized bus
power modules.
fully programmable and tailored for voltage to the VTM. The VTM then
experimenting with SiC modules, the generates a low output voltage (1 V or
150-kW/25-kHz heat sink (embedded less) at very high current (95 A) to
heat pipes) kit is a direct replacement for common insulated- drive loads such as CPUs and graphics processing units
gate bipolar-transistor-based power stacks. The third kit is (GPUs). In applications that require telemetry and digital
a 200-kW/30-kHz heat pipe assembly that is fully optimized control (e.g., CPU, GPU, application-specific IC, and dou-
with integrated heat pipes for cooling the system. ble-data-rate fourth generation memory applications), the
Optimized for SiC MOSFET-based power modules, Agile- manufacturer recommends using a digital control and
Switch’s programmable gate driver board EDEM3 provides telemetry device like PI3020 with a VTM/PRM pair. Key fea-
monitoring and fault reporting information and up to 15 A of tures of the PI3020 are PMBus and serial voltage identifica-
peak gate current at an operating frequency up to 100 kHz tion control interfaces with support for server processor
(Figure 2). Software programmable features include two- power VR13 and backwards compatibility for VR12.5 and
level turn-off, power supply undervoltage and overvoltage VR12.0 designs.
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Enable
Buck
Converter
110 V
ac Mains
Full-Wave Switches
Output
Rectifier
Muxcapacitor
Chip
Buck
Phase Converter PSR Forward
Generator Controller Converter
and Controller
Control
Enable
Digital Control Optimal Clock
Communication
Interface
Main Voltage Selection Low-Power DaV
Digital
with User
μController
Start-Up Complete
Start-Up 5 V/Few mA Analog 5V Clock Generator

Circuit MUX XTAL
Tronium ASIC
Tronium Module
FIG 4 Semitrex’s PSSoC is a multichip module that combines the Tronium ASIC with other passive components, including magnet-
ics, to deliver a complete dc–dc converter solution in a compact package. (Figure used courtesy of Semitrex.)
Vicor has been offering single-stage 48 V to point-of-load breakthrough materials for magnetics in VHF designs.
(PoL), both isolated and nonisolated, for the last several Concurrently, his presentation indicated a need for stan-
years. Others supporting the 48-V data center architecture dardization of material and loss characteristics by the core
include EPC, TI, and STMicroelectronics. EPC showcased material manufacturers; in addition, creative core geome-
a 48-V to 1-V evaluation module based on TI’s GaN module tries are needed for modern PoL inductors. “It may be on
LMG5200 and an analog controller TPS53632G. STMicro- the wish list of some, but magnetic core is not going away,”
electronics displayed a new family comprising three ICs noted Ridley.
for the Google 48-V architecture. These include secondary- In the same industrial session on high-frequency mag-
side controller STRG02, 60-V full-bridge MOSFET driver netics, Coilcraft’s Len Crane (#IS09.2) provided good tips
STRG04, and scalable digital power controller STRG06. for selecting magnetics for high-frequency converters.
When combined with the maker’s low-voltage STripFET According to Crane, with respect to inductor design, the
power-MOSFETs, the three chips can deliver high efficiency goal must be to maximize L × Isat product while simulta-
for a high step-down 48-V converter. neously trying to minimize R, size, and cost. However, the
discussion was centered more around 6-MHz switching
High-Frequency Magnetics and Passives frequencies catering to the needs of present-day design-
The plenary speakers and industry session participants ers. Toward that goal, Coilcraft demonstrated its ultralow
indicated that magnetics technology is not on par with the loss-shielded power inductors offering lower inductance
advances in GaN devices and that it must be optimized values (as low as 92 nH) with extremely low dc resistance
quickly to fully access the benefits of GaN FETs. In the ple- (DCR) (as low as 2.5 mΩ) and ultralow ac losses for high-
nary talk “The Future of Magnetic Design for Power Elec- frequency (2–5 MHz) dc–dc converters. The supplier dem-
tronics,” Ray Ridley of Ridley Engineering emphasized the onstrated these inductors in its booth where Spice models
fact that there is no black magic and that we need to make were also presented for its magnetics. West Coast Magnet-
better use of what we have, including the design and simu- ics’ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Weyman Lundquist pre-
lation tools. But, going forward, better materials are needed dicted a decrease in device volume or increase in power
to improve core losses at high switching frequencies, and density of at least 50% over the next ten years as a result
better design and simulation tools are also needed. Ridley of better core materials and increased operating frequen-
shed some more light on magnetic core losses in the indus- cies (#IS09.3). Likewise, the sixth presentation in this
try session “High-Frequency Magnetics: Black Magic, Art, session (#IS09.6), by Christopher G. Oliver of Micromet-
or Science? Magnetics Core Loss.” In this session (#IS09.1), als, indicated that lower permeability materials are better
he indicated that more funding was needed to develop suited for higher switching frequency (500 kHz–100 MHz),
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as they help balance the core and conductor losses while trex has developed several Tronium PSSoC modules with
eliminating the need for discrete gaps. In that context, he dc outputs ranging from 1.8 V to 5 V and up to 2.5-W power.
added, RF iron powder materials are a suitable choice for The measured efficiency is over 95% across all loads while
inductive components used at high switching frequencies. the standby power is less than 0.5 mW. According to the
With regard to passives, AVX Corporation’s technical mar- developer, the first Tronium PSSoCs are in sampling and
keting manager Chris Reynolds described a number of new testing mode with the European Union Energy Commis-
capacitors for more robust and reliable power system design sion and many global original equipment manufacturers
in the industry session on capacitors for power applications of consumer electronics. The final manufacturing optimi-
(#IS19b.1). From ESD-safe multilayer ceramic capacitors to zation will occur between September and the end of 2016,
novel terminations to eliminate short-circuit failures, includ- with product shipping in early 2017.
ing high-voltage and high-temperature surface-mounted Others pushing the limits of silicon were Power Inte-
device (SMD) capacitors, Reynolds presented current devel- grations and Infineon. While Power Integrations revealed
opments in this sector. Concurrently, on the exhibit floor the addition of a 900-V MOSFET to its off-line constant
the company displayed products that demonstrated such voltage/constant current flyback switcher IC for han-
advances. For applications requiring operations up to 200°C, dling high voltages at the input, Infineon Technologies
AVX Corporation displayed wet tantalum capacitors featur- displayed latest-generation integrated power stages with
ing a novel cathode system that enables high capacitance- maximum current rating of 70 A in a small 5 × 5-mm power
voltage performance in standard Defense Supply Center, quad flat no-lead SMD package. Some other highlights of
Columbus, case sizes with stable performance from -55°C APEC include magnetic-resonance-based standards com-
to +200°C. In addition, they are hermetically sealed for sat- pliant wireless charging solutions for electric vehicles
isfying the harsh mechanical shock and vibration require- from WiTricity, corona-free magnetics solution from
ments of avionic, industrial, and down-hole applications. Bicron Electronics Company, and programmable dc elec-
Similarly, for dc filtering of high-frequency ripple currents tronic loads from Magna-Power Electronics. Powered by
and decoupling dc links in ac–ac and dc–ac motor drive ST’s SiC devices, WiTricity’s wireless-charging solution
inverters, the maker introduced a new series of dry, high- delivered between 3.3 kW and 11 kW with >92% efficiency
voltage (1.5–3 kV), medium-power film capacitors compris- and included foreign object detection capability. Bicron
ing a unique combination of dry, metallized polypropylene Electronics disclosed second-generation transformers
film and a no-free-oil solution sealed in a cylindrical aluminum with the ability to eliminate corona failure (dielectric
case filled with self-extinguishing polyurethane resin. It is breakdown) for voltages up to 4.5 kV from a footprint as
designed to offer a safe and reliable alternative to oil-filled small as 1 in2. With power ratings of up to 200 VA and
high-voltage power film capacitors. input voltages up to 250 V, the corona-free transformers
offer partial discharge specification of <10 pC @ 4.5 kV.
Notable Presentations Regarding programmable dc loads, Magna-Power
In the industrial session on very low power applications Electronics presented a new line of air-cooled dc elec-
(#IS07.2), Michael H. Freeman, CEO and founder of fabless tronic loads with power levels of 7.5 kW to 45 kW and volt-
startup Semitrex, disclosed a switched-capacitor-based novel age ratings of 200 Vdc to 1000 Vdc at current levels from
architecture for ac–dc and dc–dc converters used for power- 15 A to 900 A, respectively. Incorporating the latest dis-
ing Internet of Things connected devices. It is implemented tributed DSP architecture, digital control loops, and in-
on an application-specified integrated circuit (ASIC) chip house developed high-speed communications protocol,
called Tronium, which uses an 0.18-μm process to integrate a the new dc electronic load offers 16-bit digital program-
series of cascading voltage reduction capacitors (Muxcapaci- mability with precise control over a wide power range.
tors) with embedded buck converter controller and associ- In essence, from low-power components to high-power
ated logic circuits on a single silicon chip. Typically, the Tro- systems, APEC continues to push the frontiers of technol-
nium chip implements six Muxcapacitor blocks. It is then ogy. Next year in Tampa, Florida, this bar will be further
combined with a buck converter, two inductors, and few raised to new heights at all levels of power electronics.
passives in a single package to create what the company
calls power supply system on a chip (PSSoC). In reality, the About the Author
Tronium PPSoC is a multichip module. Ashok Bindra (bindra1@verizon.net)
_____________ is the editor-in-chief
For applications where high current is necessary, a for- of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine and a veteran writer
ward converter is utilized, wherein the Tronium primary and editor with more than 30 years of editorial experience
side regulation (PSR) is included in the single or dual chip covering power electronics, analog/RF technologies, and
(die) single-package solution as shown in Figure 4. In addi- semiconductors. He has worked for leading electronics
tion, the PSR is also offered as a standalone chip option trade publications in the United States, including Electron-
for controlling flyback or forward topologies, erasing the ics, EETimes, Electronic Design, Power Electronics Tech-
need for opto-isolation communication from secondary to nology, and RF Design.
primary, said Semitrex. Utilizing this architecture, Semi-
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Call for Nomination

IEEE Power Electronics Society
Distinguished Lecturer (DL) Program
2017–2018
The IEEE Distinguished Lecturers Program is one of the most exciting offerings available to the
IEEE Society Chapters. Each year, the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) selects a few dis-
tinguished members of our profession as Distinguished Lecturers, not only to celebrate and
honor their high achievements in the field but also to support PELS chapter activities by provid-
ing high profile speakers for local chapter/section events. The appointed DLs will serve a two
year term and fulfill the commitment of delivering at least two lectures during the period.
If you are or know someone who is an expert on certain topics of power electronics and a good
public speaker, please email a brief nomination package to John Shen, PELS DL Committee Chair
at _______________
johnshen@ieee.org by July 1, 2016 which should include the following:
■Nominator’s contact information and a short bio (not needed for self-nomination)
■Nominee’s contact information and full resume
■1-3 proposed lectures each with a title and short abstract (less than 100 words for each title)
■Nominee’s past records in giving public lectures, seminars, or tutorials
■List of respective PELS Technical Committee(s) which may potentially endorse the nomination
(for a complete TC list please check www.ieee-pels.org)

______________
The candidates will be evaluated by the DL committee in consultation with respective technical
committees of PELS, based on high distinction earned from their professional work and public
speech experience, and officially approved by the President of PELS with the consent of PELS
AdCom no later than October 1, 2016.
The DLs will be acknowledged in PELS publicity materials and honored at selected PELS award
ceremonies. PELS will support DL’s volunteer service by covering transportation expense while
the local PELS chapter will be responsible for local expense (hotel stays and foods etc.).
PELS wishes to thank you in advance for your support in nominating excellent candidates to
serve our society in this distinguished role. For any related questions please contact:
Prof. John Shen

PELS DL Committee Chair
Grainger Chair Professor
Illinois Institute of Technology
10 W 35th Street, Suite 1600
Chicago, IL 60616
+1-312-567-3352
johnshen@ieee.org
_______________
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Entrepreneur Viewpoint
by Deepak Divan
Identifying and Avoiding

Some Common Traps
A
s new entrepreneurs, we love adopting and introducing new technol- leaders’ positions because that allows
our novel, game-changing ogies so as to manage disruptions and you to position solutions in the market.
technology, the advantages obsolescence. The process is guided It is also important to constantly ques-
of which are obvious when compared by intense customer interaction and is tion the path you are taking and be
with the ancient relics made by global funded with large teams and signifi- ready to pivot as needed. For example,
market leaders. We also know that cant resources. How can a start-up a company developing a brand new,
when we get to scale and can make a succeed in this environment? There wide-bandgap power device technolo-
million pieces, we will have a cost are two ways: you either have a timing gy realized that adoption cycles with
advantage and will surely win. Time to advantage because you can move their target customer base and the
do a start-up and begin planning that fast, or you address niche markets nonavailability of standard gate drives,
Caribbean vacation! Although this is that large companies cannot afford to sensors, and packaging could dramati-
somewhat satirical and an oversimpli- ad dress. The chal- cally delay adoption
fication, it shows some of the traps lenge is that as mar- of their technology at
entrepreneurs, especially first-time ket leaders scale up, As new entrepreneurs, scale. For a start-up,
entrepreneurs, often fall into. it will be difficult for this would result in
we love our novel,
First, let’s start with the technology you and your start- high sustained cash
piece. If you have deep domain exper- up to compete on game-changing burn and jeopardize
tise in the technology and have spent price, manufactur- technology. the company’s sur-
your life learning and developing the ing, market access, v ivability. Under-
industry’s tools, you have a very good and brand. The rapid standing that the end
understanding of the current state of a n d a m a z i n g g r ow t h o f t h e users were technology agnostic and
technology in the industry (as do your light-emitting diode lighting market only concerned with value (in this
peers at global market leaders). You over the last five years is a testament case size and/or efficiency), the com-
also have good familiarity with emerg- to that truth. pany developed a set of charger prod-
ing trends and see opportunities for A better strategy for a start-up may ucts that provided near-term sales and
the next wave of advances along the be to look at creating new, lower-per- proven reference designs on related
technology road map. This is often formance market segments that adjacent technologies to seed long-
common knowledge shared by those become viable as cost decreases or term market growth.
with domain expertise, and most com- consider new technologies that can When you have successfully identi-
panies have a long-term plan for disrupt market leaders. Neither of fied the disruptive niche, introduced
these options is typically of interest to products and solutions, and shown
market leaders, which affords a start- that the market is willing to adopt at
In subsequent columns, the colum- up time to develop and introduce its scale, it may feel like it’s time to relax;
nist will share learning and experi- products. Disruptions almost always however, this is actually the time fast
ences, as well as discuss challenges result from asking a different set of followers will be nipping at your heels.
of obtaining venture capital funds. questions of a new group of customers These followers will have much lower
and identifying a new set of value risk; can introduce products with a
streams. It is critically important that higher level of refinement than your
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 you respect and understand market earlier, first-generation products; and
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w ill use a lower in people with the inevitable delays mean you will need
amount of capital Your only advantage skills that will allow more money than you told your inves-
to get to the same will be any intellectual them to respond to tors in your last fundraising effort.
le vel . You r on ly your threat. Even This process is gut wrenching and
property you may
advantage will be as these competi- emotionally draining. Maybe that
a ny i ntel lect ua l
have developed, tive forces are build- Caribbean vacation doesn’t sound like
property you may lessons learned from ing, you need much a bad idea, after all!
have developed, les- your time in the market, more capita l to
sons learned from and momentum ensure growth con- About the Author
your time in the mar- in introducing t i nue s a nd you r Deepak Divan (ddivan@varentec.
____________
ket, and momentum competitive position com)
___ is a National Academy of Engi-
new products.
in introducing new is maintained. neering member, IEEE Fellow, and
products. This can Some version of past president of the IEEE Power
be a big challenge this drama unfolds Electronics Society. He is a professor
as this is also the time investors are in every start-up on its way to success. and director of the Center for Distrib-
getting restless and want to reduce You cannot be wed to your technology uted Energy at Georgia Tech. He also
new research and development and and motivated by technology push; serves as founder and chief scientist
see cash flow and sales from their rather, you must work toward market of Varentec, a company focused on
investments. At the same time, mar- pull, which you create, because no one grid edge control that is funded by a
ket leaders have awakened and are knows about your product or needs it, clean-tech venture capital firm, Khosla
increasingly focused on countering and you have to compete with the Ventures, and investor Bill Gates.
your message in the market, espe- behemoths when you do not have Varentec is his third start-up company.
cially where it threatens them. They scale. And through all this, you have
are also seeking to rapidly bring to continue to raise money even as
____________________________________
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Society News
by Ashok Bindra
ECCE 2016 Continues to Deliver Innovative

Solutions and Build Communities
C
osponsored by the IEEE
Power Electronics Society
(PELS) and the IEEE Indus-
trial Applications Society (IAS), the
IEEE Energy Conversion Congress
and Exposition (ECCE) has been ECCE should become a memorable ■ “Future of the Smart Grid” by
growing since its beginning. As a homecoming social event for IEEE Prof. Massoud Amin, University of
result, the eighth annual ECCE 2016, Members who work in these techni- Minnesota
to be held 18–22 September in Mil- cal areas.” ■ “Intelligent Motor Control in a Con-
waukee, Wisconsin, the heartland of Industrial support is stronger nected Enterprise” by Blake
the North American energy conver- than ever with gold or platinum spon- Moret, president and chief execu-
sion industry, has received a record sorship from companies like GM, tive officer, Rockwell Automation
number of digest submissions (a Rockwell Automation, ABB, Eaton, ■ “Optimized Power Management
10.7% increase over the previous Danfoss, and Wolong Electric Group. Using Data Analytics” by Michael
record). More than 1,500 engineers, Some 60+ industrial and university Regelski, SVP and CTO, electrical
researchers, students, and other pro- exhibitors are expected to display sector, Eaton Corporation
fessionals from a broad spectrum of their latest technologies and products ■ “Very High Power Electronics for
the energy conversion industry will in the exhibit hall. HVDC” by Dr. Guangfu Tang, vice
come to the Milwaukee Convention Keynote speeches will be delivered president of Smart Grid Research
Center (Figure 1) to stay current and by prominent leaders from academia Institute of China State Grid.
tap into the collected brain trust and industry: For technical sessions, a high-
assembled here during that week. ■ “Options to Create a Sustainable quality technical program is being
With this continued growth in at- Energy Future” by Prof. Arun developed from a record-setting 1,715
tendance, industry participation, and Majumdar, Stanford University and digest submissions. Some of the top-
exhibitor sponsorship, ECCE is now former director of ARPA-E ics include:
regarded as the foremost energy con-
version solutions conference, offer-
ing innovative and practical solutions
that are customer focused and cost-
effective. According to ECCE General
Chair John Shen, “ECCE is unique in
our emphasis on integrated systems,
presenting the best in contemporary
energy conversion research along-
side innovations from more tradi-
tional component topics. In addition,

Date of publication: 23 June 2016 FIG 1 The Wisconsin Convention Center is located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee.
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■ renewable energy systems and ■ cybersecurity as it pertains to they see coming down the pipe
energy storage power electronics systems-sessions for simulation software and
■ smart grid and utility applications addressing the topic of cybersecuri- methodologies.
■ energy efficiency and industrial ty as it applies to the power elec-
applications tronics industry WEMPEC Open House
■ computer and telecommunication ■ the future of electric machin- On Friday, 23 September 2016, the
applications—power supplies, UPS, ery, application-specific future University of Wisconsin–Madison is
energy storage, and system archi- trends—dual sessions with indus- hosting the Wisconsin Electric
tectures try and academic experts ad - Machines and Power Electronics Con-
■ transportation applications dressing the future of electric sortium (WEMPEC) open house
■ electric machines and actuators machines and how specific appli- event. WEMPEC, which is celebrating
■ electric motor drives, power con- cations as well as manufacturing its 35th anniversary, is inviting all
verters, control, and modeling automation are changing and ECCE attendees—including first-time
■ power semiconductors and packaging challenging the design paradigm visitors as well as alumni and long-
■ magnetic materials and other pas- being employed time friends—to come spend a day
sive components ■ practical implementation of SiC at WEMPEC in Madison. Activities
■ emerging power electronics MOSFETs for industrial applica- planned for the day include a mixture
technologies. tions—device manufacturers and of lab tours, open lab sessions to meet
Plus, the conference will deliver 12 industrial experts discussing the students, a presentation or two, and
tutorials on interesting and relevant practical aspects of using these plenty of opportunities for socializing,
technical topics. new devices including a buffet lunch. Bus transpor-
In addition, a number of invited ■ challenges of simulating in tation will be offered from Milwaukee
special sessions are planned. This power electronics systems—sim- to Madison and back. The drive is
year, the proposed topics for the spe- ulation software industry experts under two hours. Separate registra-
cial sessions include discussing the challenges that tion is needed.
PROGRAMMABLE DC POWER
Magna-Power’s high frequency IGBT-based programmable DC power supply line spans 1.5 kW to 2000 kW+
with hundreds of models to target a variety of different applications.
Using a Magna-Power supply is as simple or sophisticated as the application demands with front panel control, 37-pin
isolated analog-digital I/O and a computer interface. Remote programming is supported through a variety of development
environments by a provided National Instruments LabVIEW™ driver, IVI driver and SCPI command set over RS232,
TCP/IP Ethernet, IEEE-488 GPIB and USB.
Designed and manufactured in the USA. Available worldwide.
www.magna-power.com
SL Series XR Series TS Series MS Series MT Series

Power Levels 1.5 kW, 2.6 kW, 4 kW, 6 kW 2 kW, 4 kW, 6 kW, 8 kW, 10 kW 5 kW to 45 kW 30 kW, 45 kW, 60 kW, 75 kW 100 kW to 2,000 kW+
Package 1U Rack-mount 2U Rack-mount 3U to 9U Rack-mount Floor Standing Floor Standing
No. of Models 70 70 80 80 65
Voltage Range 0-5 Vdc to 0-1,000 Vdc 0-5 Vdc to 0-10,000 Vdc 0-5 Vdc to 0-4,000 Vdc 0-5 Vdc to 0-4,000 Vdc 0-16 Vdc to 0-4,000 Vdc
Current Range 0-1.5 Adc to 0-250 Adc 0-0.2 Adc to 0-600 Adc 0-1.2 Adc to 0-2,700 Adc 0-7.2 Adc to 0-4,500 Adc 0-24 Adc to 0-24,000 Adc
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IES/PELS Polish Joint Chapter

Organizes Magnetics Workshops
O
n 23–24 September 2015,
i n Wa r s a w, P o l a n d ( a
Sklodowska-Curie, Chopin,
and Copernicus country), the fourth
Power Electronics for Renewables
and Drives—Magnetic Components:
Theory, Materials, Wires, and Design
Workshop (EwOZEiN-MAG) was FIG 1 From left: L.M. Grzesiak (Faculty of Electrical Engineering dean), Christoph
organized by Prof. Marek Jasinski of Loef (lecturer from Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives/RWTH Aachen),
A. Dzielinski (ICIE director), Roman Barlik (The Institute of Control and Industrial
Warsaw University of Technology
Electronics division head), M.P. Kazmierkowski (IES IEEE Fellow), M. Malinowski
(WUT) under the umbrella of (vice president, IEEE Polish Section), M. Jasinski (chair of the workshop), and S. Stynski
EwOZEiN. EwOZEiN Chair Jasinski (IES/PELS Chapter chair).
has been planning such workshops
since 2010. Power Electronics Society (PELS) Polish-German cooperation initiated
This event was organized by the with support from the Institute of by Prof. Marian P. Kazmierkowski,
Polish Joint Chapter of the IEEE In- Control and Industrial Electron- Prof. Rik De Doncker, and Prof.
dustrial Electronics Society (IES)/ ics (ICIE), Department of Electrical Stefan Bernet.
Engineering, WUT, and Germany’s The EwOZEiN-MAG was organi-
RWTH Aachen University. Conse- zed by a team from ICIE’s Faculty
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 quently, this workshop is the result of of Electrical Engineering, WUT.
___________________________________
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The team consisted of ICIE Direc-

tor Andrzej Dzielinski, IES/PELS
Chair Sebastian Stynski, IT Labora-
tory Head Konrad Markowski, Mari-
usz Zdanowski, Szymon Piasecki,
Grzegorz Wrona, IEEE Vice-President
(Poland Section) Mariusz Malinows-
ki, and EwOZEiN-MAG Chair Marek
Jasinski (Figure 1).
Offering short and effective sci-
entific workshops, conferences,
and seminars, the EwOZEiN-MAG
is a part of a series of workshops
started as a continuation of previous
activities and guided by the Polish FIG 2 A simulation of magnetic components—guiding the participants in the first
National Center for Research and steps of FEM simulations.
Development. In 2009, scientists
from WUT (Mariusz Malinowski and
Marek Jasinski) and Prof. Andrzej
Sikorski of Bialystok University of
Technology (BUT) started intensive
research in the field of renewable en-
ergy sources, energy conversion, and
grid integration. Renewable energy
generator control issues were as-
sisted by the in-depth and long-term
experience in the field of adjust-
able speed drives (ASDs) and con-
trol gained by the research team of
Prof. Kazmierkowski and Prof. H.C.
Skudelny from the Institute for Pow-
er Electronics and Electrical Drives
(ISEA), RWTH Aachen University in
the early 1980s.
Moreover, thanks to the E.ON Ener-
gy Research Center at RWTH Aachen,
the knowledge associated with the grid
integration issues received new focus
at the workshop. Plus, more attention
was given to covering magnetic com-
ponents for high-power and/or high-
frequency applications.
Christoph Loef from ISEA, RWTH
Aachen University, was a lecturer
at EwOZEiN-MAG. He has been a
permanent member of the research
staff at the ISEA, RWTH Aachen Uni-
versity, since 2010. He was employed
at Philips Research Laboratories
Aachen from 1990 to 2010, as senior
scientist. The subject of his lecture
was magnetic component design for
high-frequency applications (>50 kHz)
that need to use new magnetic ma-
terials and winding outlines. People __________
from academia, research centers, and
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industry participated. It was a unique After the event, diplomas were pre-
opportunity for discussion and co- sented to the participants. Thanks
operation among students, Ph.D. as- to EwOZEiN-MAG, all attendees
sistants, and engineers coming from from different institutions had the
research institutions (WUT, BUT), re- opportunity to cooperate with col-
search centers (IEL, IMNZ-Gliwice), leagues from the power electron-
and industry (ABB, DTW, Sigma-Elec- ics field.
tro, TRUMPF-Huettinger). The participants recommended
The workshop was divided into that this workshop should continue
FIG 3 Inductors designed by attendees
three main sections: lectures (the- to address more advanced topics
for practice; they are identical inductors ory), simulations (Figure 2), and in the field of designing magnetic
with winding variations. practicals in a laboratory (Figure 3). components.
Google’s Little Box Challenge

Winner Is Belgium’s CE+T Power
B
elgium’s power specialist Google and IEEE Little Box Chal- inverter challenge were Schneider
CE+T Power’s Red Electrical lenge. The company was awarded Electric and Virginia Tech’s Future
Devils team has won the the US$1 million prize at the ARPA-E Energy Electronics Center.
Energy Innovation Summit in Wash- Among the three finalists, the
ington, D.C., on 29 February 2016. Red Electrical Devils’ inver ter
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 Two other finalists in this kW-scale had the highest power density and
smallest volume (see Table 1). It
offers a huge improvement on the
High tech,
competition’s original specifica-
tions of 50 W/in3 power density and
low risk
fewer than 40 in3 volume. By compari-
son, the grand prize winner boasted
“We identified some critical

and necessary design alter-
ations, and through this
innovation, we will change
the future of electricity,
power, and even smart
home technology.”
a powerful 142.9 W/in3 density with

From drive technology to the supply of a volume of only 13.77 in3.
energy – where raw power is in play, a In a statement, CE+T Power’s
high margin of safety is essential..
Chief Executive Officer Robert Eyben
Protect your investments, and those of your clients. said, “Winning the Google Little Box
Protect your business. With us. The world over.
Challenge presents us with a unique
SIBA is active around the world and has eleven subsidiaries:
USA, China, Russia, UK, Denmark, Netherlands, Poland, head start to address the crucial
Austria, Czech Republic, South Africa and Singapore.
(continued on page 74)
SIBA GmbH (Headquarters and Production)
')$")+) /
0&"&
Our Protection.

/---*#!"
_____ Your Benefit.
&(,#)#"*#&(*#!"
______
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Event Calendar
2016 3–5 November

26–29 June Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dearborn, Michigan, United States International Symposium on Industrial
Electronics (INDEL)
IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC)
7–9 November
27–30 June Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada IEEE Fourth Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices
IEEE Seventh International Symposium on Power and Applications (WiPDA)
Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG)
5–8 December
27–30 June Auckland, New Zealand
Trondheim, Norway IEEE Second Annual Southern Power Electronics
IEEE 17th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Conference (SPEC)
Electronics (COMPEL)
14–17 December
20–22 July Thiruvananthapuram, India
Knoxville, Tennessee, United States IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics,
IEEE Power Electronics Society Workshop on Emerging Drives, and Energy Systems (PEDES)
Technologies: Wireless Power Transfer (WoW)
5–8 September
2017
Karlsruhe, Germany 26–30 March
18th European Conference on Power Electronics Tampa, Florida, United States
and Applications (EPE ECCE Europe) IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference
and Exposition (APEC)
18–22 September
21–24 May
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Miami, Florida, United States
IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)
IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives
Conference (IEMDC)
23–27 October
Austin, Texas, United States 28 May–1 June
IEEE International Telecommunications Energy Sapporo, Japan
Conference (INTELEC) International Symposium on Power Semiconductor
Devices and ICs (ISPSD)
2–4 November
Toulouse, France
International Conference on Electrical Systems for Aircraft,
Railway, Ship Propulsion, and Road Vehicles and International
Transportation Electrification Conference (ESARS-ITEC)

Date of publication: 23 June 2016
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White Hot (continued from page 76)
sys has developed nonlinear control Rectifier). CHiL’s technology, as I working on power supply for a client
algorithms that greatly simplify com- understand it, is based on nonlinear that used a control IC that implement-
pensation and improve transient techniques to improve transient ed valley-mode switching (some call
response, especially in boost and response in voltage regulators for high- this quasi-resonant, but I disagree
boost-derived topologies. performance processors. On top of all with that term) for a flyback convert-
Infineon, aside from its work on the that, Infineon has also developed the er. At low output power, the flyback
aforementioned .dp power architec- XMC digital power controllers which operates with a constant primary
ture, appears to have bet big on digital are based on an ARM core processor. peak current and variable frequency.
control. Infineon ac- The conventional As the output power increases the fre-
quired Primarion, wisdom is that digi- quency increases. At a given thresh-
another early devel- tal controllers have old, the controller switches to a mode
oper of digital con- The conventional to be inexpensive with constant frequency but increas-
trollers, but these wisdom is that digital and consume little ing peak current. As the power reach-
devices seem to have controllers have to power. That is why I es another threshold, the controller
disappeared from the be inexpensive and find it interesting switches to a constant peak current
market. Infineon also that the 32-bit ARM but variable frequency. This last mode
consume little power.
obtained a significant core processors are uses the valley-switching technique.
portfolio of digital becoming so com- Remember that, in a flyback, after the
control devices when mon in power con- transformer resets, the capacitance at
it acquired International Rectifier. Not version applications. This is a trend the junction of the transformer and
only did Infineon obtain IR’s digital that I will be watching closely. main switch resonates with the mag-
controllers and integrated modules, it Even all of that is not why I say netizing inductance. Turning the
acquired the technology developed by that digital control is being widely main switch on when that voltage is
CHiL Semiconductor (who had previ- used in power supply control today.
ously been acquired by International Consider this. A while back, I was (continued on page 74)
3 D H E AT S I N K T H E R M A L
M O D E L I N G TO O L
NEXT
GENERATION
R-TOOLS
SOFTWARE!
_____________
T H E R I G H T T O O L T O M O D E L YO U R
H E AT S I N K C O N F I G U R AT I O N
ȼˏ.!!ˏ+*(%*!ˏ/%)1(0%+*ˏ/+"03.!
ȼˏ + !(/ˏ0$!ˏ+,0%)1)ˏ%.ȥ++(! ˏ$!0/%*'ˏ/+(10%+* ____________
ȼˏ! 1!/ˏ !/%#*ˏ0%)!ˏ* ˏ%*.!/!/ˏ.!(%%(%05
GEN3.R-TOOLS.COM
_____________
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________________
CALL FOR PAPERS: 2016 IEEE THE 4TH ANNUAL IEEE WORKSHOP
ON WIDE BANDGAP POWER DEVICES & APPLICATIONS
The IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices & Applications (WiPDA) provides a forum for device
scientists, circuit designers, & application engineers from the Power Electronics & Electron Devices
Societies to share technology updates, research findings, experience & potential applications. All presented
papers will be included in the conference proceedings and submitted to the databases of IEEExplore.
THE TOPICS OF INTEREST INCLUDE:
t Heteroepitaxial & Bulk Materials Growth t Packaging Power Modules & ICs
t Gate Dielectrics & Surface Passivation t Hard-Switched & Soft-Switched Application Analysis
t Device Structures & Fabrication Techniques t Gate Drive & Other Auxiliary Circuits
t Device Characterization & Modeling t High-Performance Passive Components
t Very-High Efficiency or Compact Converters t Applications in Renewable Energy & Energy Storage,
t Safe Operating Areas Of Wide Bandgap Devices, Transportation, Industrial Drives, & Grid Power
Including Short Circuit, Spike, &Transient Tolerance Systems
t Harsh Environment (High Temperature) Operation t Wide Band Gap System Design Philosophies &
& Reliability Strategies
Call for Tutorials: Educational tutorials on state-of-the-art device technology and applications are welcome. Four
tutorials will be offered on the afternoon of November 7th.
Keynote Sessions: Two keynote sessions will be held on November 8th and 9th, where leading experts from
academia, industry, and research institutes will be invited to share their insights on technology developments and
future trends.
Panel Session: Leading experts from federal agencies, industry, and academia will be invited to discuss pressing
technical issues at a late morning session on November 9th.
Call for Exhibition: A limited number of booths and corporate sponsorships will be available.
KEY DATES:
Two-page abstract deadline: July 10, 2016 Final paper submission: September 25, 2016
Notification of acceptance: August 21, 2016 Technical Oral & Dialogue Sessions:
November 8th-9th, 2016
WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO MEETING YOU IN FAYETTEVILLE THIS COMING NOVEMBER!
CONTACTS:
Alan Mantooth, General Chair, University of Arkansas, Robert Pilawa-Podgurski, Technical program Co-Chair,
mantooth@uark.edu
______________ University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,
Robert Kaplar, Vice-Chair, Sandia National pilawa@illinois.edu
____________
Laboratories, rjkapla@sandia.gov
_____________ Sudip Mazumder, Technical program Co-Chair,
Maryam Saeedifard, Vice-Chair, Georgia Tech, University of Illinois, Chicago, mazumder@uic.edu
______________
maryam@ece.gatech.edu
__________________ Michael Glover, Treasurer, University of Arkansas,
mglover@uark.edu
_____________
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White Hot (continued from page 72)
at a minimum reduces the turn-on trol is already in wide use. It is sim- was the book Power Electronics
loss and improves efficiency. Since ply hiding in plain sight. Converter Harmonics: Multipulse
this gives discrete values of the One final note: I have mentioned Methods for Clean Power written by
off-time and thus discrete values of many companies and products in Derek. What a small world in which
the switching period, the controller this column. These are companies we live. Thank you, Derek, for your
will generally have to dither the turn and devices of which I am most letter and for your valuable book.
on between two minimums of the aware. Mentioning these companies
switch voltage to get the right average and products is not an endorsement About the Author
switching frequency. of these companies or their products Robert V. White (bob.white@ieee.
___________
The data sheet for this controller by the IEEE or the IEEE Power Elec- org)
__ has over 30 years of industry
looks like the data sheet for any ana- tronics Society. experience as a power electronics
log controller that has been devel- engineer. He has worked in product
oped in the last 40 years. But aside It’s A Small World Department design, systems and applications engi-
from some analog-to-digital convert- Derek Paice wrote to me after read- neering, and technology development.
ers and a peak current comparator, ing my column in the March 2016 He has been an active volunteer with
the rest of the IC is just about all issue (see the “Letter to the Editor” the IEEE Power Electronics Society,
digital. Implementing a controller column on page 13 of this issue). I serving several years on the Adminis-
that worked through three mode really like his comment that “pub- trative Committee, two terms as tech-
changes and manages the variable- lish and prosper” is better than nical vice president, and as a Chapter
frequency valley-switching control “publish or perish.” Anyway, last chair. He earned a B.S.E.E. degree
mode in analog would be difficult year I was consulting on a project from the Massachusetts Institute of
and uneconomical. However, imple- for a high-power (>100 kW) industri- Technology and an M.S.E.E. degree
menting that in inexpensive digital al power supply. This power supply from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
circuitry using state machine tech- had to be extremely reliable while He is currently pursuing a Ph.D.
niques is straightforward. Looking at operating in the harsh environment degree in power electronics at the Uni-
most of the control ICs that are being of an outdoor cabinet and had to versity of Colorado–Boulder. Present-
introduced today, with their various meet the harmonic current emission ly, he is the chief engineer of Embed-
modes of operations intended to limits of the IEEE-Std-519. An ded Power Labs, a power electronics
improve transient response or effi- approach using an 18-pulse trans- consulting company. He is a Fellow of
ciency, they are all mostly digital ICs. former and rectifier was chosen. A the IEEE.
And that is why I say that digital con- key reference for the project team
Society News (continued from page 70)
Commenting on the role of enhance-

Table 1. The grand prize winner exceeded the power density goal
ment-mode gallium nitride (GaN)
by a factor of three.
power transistors, team member Olivi-
CE+T er Bomboir, vice president of power
Power’s Red Virginia Tech’s Little Box management and new business at
Electrical Schneider Future Energy Challenge CE+T Power, stated, “The reduced gate
Devils Electric Electronics Center Requirements
drive and switching losses of GaN Sys-
Power density 142.9 96.2 68.7 >50 tems’ GS66508P were critical to our
(W/in3)
thermal and power density goals. Addi-
Volume (in3) 14.0 20.8 29.1 <40
tionally, we were highly impressed at
how reliably the devices performed
improvements required in power through this innovation, we will over the months of rigorous, real-world
backup. We identified some critical change the future of electricity, power, testing by the NREL team.”
and necessary design alterations, and and even smart home technology.”
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Advertisers Index
The Advertisers Index contained in this issue is compiled as a service to our readers and advertisers: the publisher is not lia-
ble for errors or omissions, although every effort is made to ensure its accuracy. Be sure to let our advertisers know you
found them through IEEE Power Electronics Magazine.
SALES CONTACT PAGE ADVERTISER URL PHONE

Walter Chalupa Associates 11 Acopian Technical Company www.acopian.com
__________ +1 800 523 9478
Walter Chalupa 6 AGILE Magnetics www.agilemagco.com
___________ +1 800 805 8991
Sales Manager 69 Applied Power Systems www.appliedps.com
___________ +1 516 935 2230
United States, Africa, Asia, CVR 4 Chroma Systems Solutions www.chromausa.com
___________ +1 949 600 6400
Canada, Central & South America, 17 CKE/Dean Technology www.deantechnology.com
______________ +1 972 248 7691
and Europe CVR 2 Infineon Technologies www.infineon.com/tim
____________ +1 908 236 5600
Phone: +1 973 835 7015 3 ITECH Electronics www.itechate.com
__________
E-mail: wchalupa@aol.com
__________ 67 Magna Power Electronics www.magna-power.com
_____________
72 Mersen gen3.r-tools.com
_________
10 Omicron Lab www.omicron-lab.com
____________
7 OPAL RF Technologies opal-rt.com/OP4200
___________
68 Payton Planar Magnetics www.PaytonGroup.com
____________ +1 954 428 3326
13 PEM Ltd. www.pemuk.com
_________ +1 650 802 8292
CVR 3 Plexim GmbH www.plexim.com/trial
____________
9 Powersim, Inc. www.powersimtech.com
_____________ +1 301 841 7445
70 SIBA GmbH www.siba.de
_______ +49 23 06 70 01 0
5 Tamura Corp. of America tamuracorp.com
_________ +1 800 472 6624
65 Teledyne Lecroy teledynelecroy.com/static-
______________
dynamic-complete
__________
12 Triad Magnetics www.triadmagnetics.com
______________ +1 951 277 0757
_________________
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White Hot
by Robert V. White
Surveying the Digital Landscape
W
hen I am asked, “When able. The big disadvantage is that user, Infineon is also using this plat-
do you think digital con- one must learn the architecture and form for application-specific control-
trol will widely be used in then write the code—which is still a lers, such as for LED lighting drivers.
commercial power supplies?” my challenging task even for an experi- Something I find very interesting
answer is “It already is.” The re - enced coder. about the .dp product is that it is
sponse is usually a confused look. There are also some interesting aimed at lower power applications
Why? Because when most power combinations of microcontroller where cost is paramount. I will be
supply engineers think of digital con- cores with power conversion specific watching the .dp product and the
trol, they are thinking of writing silicon. The Microchip MCP19xxx industry to see if this programmable
code for microcontrollers and digital family is a multichip package that power supply controller on a chip
signal controllers (DSCs) or perhaps includes an 8-bit PIC core with an becomes a major new direction for
FPGAs. But digital control is being analog power supply controller. It digital control of power supplies.
implemented in commercial power even includes a programmable com- Next in our survey of digital con-
supplies in many different ways. pensator that uses switched capacitor trol comes the controller ICs that are
Of course, one can choose to filters. This offers a cost and space clearly (and often proudly) adver-
implement digital control of a power saving solution for many applications. tised as digital. These ICs offer some
supply with a microcontroller or a At the higher end, the TI UC3138 com- great advantages ranging from pro-
DSC. There are a wide variety of bines an ARM-7 core processor with grammable compensation to adap-
chips from which to choose, includ- ma ny per iphera ls a nd controls tive optimization of the transient
ing Microchip Technology’s dsPIC designed for power conversion. response to completely self-tuning
DSCs, Texas Instruments’ TMS - Another approach is the system- compensators. Many companies
320F 2 8 0 x x P iccolo DSCs, a nd on-a-chip (SoC). For power conver- have been working in this area, and
the NXP (for merly Freesca le’s) sion, the Cypress PSoC has been the offerings are diverse. One of the
MC56F8xxx DSCs. I have even seen a used to create custom power supply first companies was Zilker Labs
microcontroller with an ARM core controllers even though Cypress does (now part of Intersil). Powervation
used in a cost-sensitive application. not particularly advertise the PSoC (now part of Rohm) was one the first
Some of these chips offer enough as a power supply controller. The lat- to offer self-tuning control loops.
independent PWM outputs so that est generation of the PSoC includes Maxim Integrated also worked on
one device can control the input PFC an ARM core processor. self-tuning control loops using what
stage, the primary side switches, and Infineon has introduced a system- it called “In-Tune” technology, but
the secondary side synchronous rec- on-a-chip device that is specifically this effort appears to have stopped
tifiers in an off line supply. This designed for power conversion, the when Maxim acquired Volterra. ZMDI
makes for a significantly reduced .dp architecture. The first generation (now part of IDT) also offers fully
parts count and printed circuit board .dp devices include a nano-DSP core digital control ICs with programma-
area. The purchase price of these surrounded by a number of power ble compensation and programmable
controllers has become quite reason- specific peripherals that can be pro- nonlinear transient response. And
gramed and configured in a number while not an IC manufacturer, Cira-
of ways. While the .dp controller can
Date of publication: 23 June 2016 be purchased and programed by the (continued on page 72)
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electrical engineering soft ware
THE SIMULATION SOFTWARE PREFERRED

BY POWER ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS
MODELING DOMAINS KEY FEATURES

Electrical Fast simulation of complex systems
Control Code generation
Thermal Frequency analysis
Magnetic Available as standalone program
Mechanical or Simulink blockset
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PV Inverters | On-line UPS | Vehicle to Grid (V2G) | Energy Storage Systems (ESS)
Ensuring proper and safe operation of on-grid devices

The 61800 is a full 4 quadrant, fully regenerative, AC power source with advanced features satisfying rigorous regulatory standards testing as well
as design and verification testing. The 61800’s power can both sink and source from the UUT seamlessly to support countless applications. In
cases where the UUT sources current, a detection circuit will sense the excess power and recycle it back to the grid. Designed to simulate grid
characteristics the 61800 is ideal for testing PV inverter, on-line UPS, Smart Grid, Vehicle to Grid and Energy Storage System applications as well
as common electrical product testing such as home appliances and industrial electronics requiring a programmable input source.
Power rating: up to 300kVA, single or three phase output

Output: 0-330V L-N / 0-571V L-L (0-400V L-N / 0-692V L-L opt.)
Improved front panel display with real time waveform viewer
Maximum power delivered down to 200VAC L-N
Achieves 400V L-N / 692V L-L without using a transformer
Harmonics, inter-harmonics waveform synthesizer
Instruments Automated Test Systems

AC Power Sources Hipot Testers and Analyzers Battery
Regenerative Grid Simulators Wound Component Testers EV/EVSE
Programmable DC Power Supplies LCR Meters PV Inverter
AC & DC Electronic Loads Milliohm Meters Power Conversion
Power Meters TEC Controllers Medical Device
Multimeters Thermal Data Loggers LED Lighting and Driver
_________ _____________
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Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out For navigation instructions please click here Search Issue | Next Page

› Dry to the touch 100

› Optimized for dedicated Infineon Modules 90

› Reduced process time in manufacturing 60

› Increased system lifetime *HTS: High Temperature Storing,

Vol. 3, No. 2 www.pels.org

For your engineering success

42 Power System Infrastructure

Departments 50 Transportation Electrification

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine

IEEE prohibits discrimination, harassment, and bullying.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2447692 ______

2 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016

From the Editor

Exploring New Ideas

4 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016

HALL EFFECT CURRENT SENSOR DCDC CONVERTER TCDC7001

IAL O- Y O CALL: 1-800-472-6624

EDGE WOUND LA01/02/03

Congress and Exposition in Milwau- Magazine’s editorial and adver-

OPTIMIZED HIGH-FREQUENCY MAGNETICS

Agile Magnetics, Concord, NH  www.agilemagco.com  1-800-805-8991  Since 1992

6 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016

Why Limit Yourself?

An Open Simulation Platform

IEEE PELS Launches

8 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016

PSIM + SPICE = FULLY CAPABLE

Expanding the possibilities of power electronics powersimtech.com

are becoming available to engineers.

Do you use the best tools?

ş Perform control loop stability analysis on e.g. SMPS

Letter to the Editor

is now published by Wiley and contin- Reference

Reader Response to “White Hot” 30MHz screened Rogowski probes

After I retired, I wrote a book that

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2550258 +1-650-802-8292 www.pemuk.com

June 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 13

32nd Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition

ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS

3. Power Electronics for Utility Interface: 8. Control:

4. Motor Drives and Inverters: 9. Manufacturing, Quality and Business Issues:

14 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016

ANNOUNCEMENT AND CALL FOR PAPERS, CONTINUED

11. Transportation Power Electronics: b. Network and Telecommunication Power Electronics

1 June 2016: Start date to submit paper

Website: www.apec-conf.org APEC APEC Sponsors

June 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 15

16 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016

and brought them to and it is immaterial dissenting opinion in the Court of

Contact DTI today to find out about the exact diode

June 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 17

by Harsh Vardhan, Bilal Akin, and Hua Jin

18 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ] June 2016 2329-9207/16©2016IEEE

execution times [1]. Therefore, it has become a standard

June 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 19

20 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016

and the simulation proceeds forward. The synchroniza-

Pipe File System

FIG 3 PIL data exchange through bidirectional pipes.

June 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 21

22 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]June 2016

MCU at the correct positions to facilitate the synchro-

Agile Magnetics, Concord, NH www.agilemagco.com 1-800-805-8991 Since 1992