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High-voltage power supplies (HVPSs) are widely used to supply vacuum tubes. The amount of delivered energy from the HVPS to the tube is an important issue during the vacuum arc in the tube. The conventional protection mechanism consists of a shunt crowbar which diverts the fault current from the tube to itself as a parallel path. The crowbar circuit is usually built of the devices without the turn-off capability. It is a drawback since the output of the power supply is shortened for a long time. Thus, the restoration time of these power supplies is excessive. This demerit can have detrimental effects on mission-critical applications. In this paper, the insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)-based crowbar structure is studied to overcome this issue. In the proposed protection mechanism, the crowbar can be reopened intentionally after closing. A theoretical analysis is presented to compare power supply performance in the presence of the conventional crowbar with the IGBT-based crowbar. The experimental results are presented to demonstrate the practical considerations of the proposed crowbar structure and its appropriate performance. This paper shows that HVPS has more fault resiliency and less restoration time with the proposed IGBT-based crowbar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the current limiting behavior based on an air-core high-temperature superconducting transformer (HTST) and a group of inductor–capacitor series resonant limiters. The air-core HTST is composed of four same double-pancake type high-temperature superconducting coils made up of Bi-2333/Ag tape, and both of primary and secondary windings include two series superconducting coils. It plays the roles of inductive fault current limiting and transformation impedance; in addition, the magnetic flux saturation can also be avoided. Meanwhile, the inductor and capacitor series with the secondary winding of the air-core HTST in series resonance state are the conventional devices. The influence of them on the circuit can almost be ignored, because they are in series resonant state in normal operation. While the fault current appeared in the primary circuit, it will be limited by the impedance of the air-core HTST and the inductor without quench (the inductor and capacitor would quit the series resonant state). According to the preliminary experiment carried out in our laboratory, this superconducting current limiting module can operate as expected, and its behavior is satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper embodies the results of experimental studies of a dielectric barrier discharge low-temperature nonequilibrium plasma reactor that runs in air and nitrogen at atmospheric-pressure conceived for surface treatment applications. A homemade reactor, of typical plane-to-plane geometry with the dielectric covering the upper electrode which is stressed by a high voltage (40 kV, 3–20 kHz) is used. Electrical signals (current and voltage), optical emission spectroscopy records, and total light emission measured by photomultiplier have been analyzed and used to distinguish different plasma regimes which are studied for the treatment of a lignocellulosic material (sugarcane bagasse). In the filamentary discharge regime, the gas temperature of few tens of degree Celsius above the ambient one was determined, the electronic temperature of some electronvolts and electron density in the range of 1012–1013 cm−3 were estimated. Plasma treated pellets of sugarcane bagasse were analyzed by diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectrometry and the relative results obtained under filamentary discharge regime have shown significant degradation of the lignin macromolecule. It has been shown important modifications on the lignocellulosic material, namely, the plasma attacks drastically the lignin bonds. Strong modification of lignin was observed near wavenumber of 3400 cm−1, due to stretching vibrations of OH, and for the band 1114 cm−1 which is related to C=C and C=O stretching. Severe decrease of the band intensity 1596 cm−1, which due to C=C stretching and C=O, is also a result of the treatments done in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a high-efficiency single-phase T-type boundary conduction mode (BCM) microinverter. The conventional full-bridge BCM microinverter has achieved zero voltage switching (ZVS) and thereby improved the efficiency, but it suffers from high switching losses under light load conditions. The proposed T-type BCM microinverter reserves ZVS and uses a multilevel technique to further decrease the switching losses. The BCM operation with multilevel technique will have too low switching frequency when the grid voltage approaches half of the dc link voltage. To solve this problem, this paper adopts a third operation mode for the T-type switching leg to maintain the switching frequency above a minimum value. The corresponding mode transitions are also detailed to ensure a smooth operation. Because of the turn-offdelay of the freewheeling transistor, the actual lower current boundary deviates from the programmed one, which will distort output current. To address this issue, this paper also proposes a boundary compensation method. A prototype has been built for performance verification, which can test both full-bridge and T-type topology. Compared with the full-bridge BCM microinverter, the proposed T-type BCM microinverter has a higher efficiency over the whole load range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the conceptual designs of the breeder blanket for a European demonstration fusion power station (DEMO) is the water-cooled lithium lead (WCLL) concept. The design development of the WCLL blanket in recent years has undergone the evolution of the neutronics model employing the MCNP code, with key changes in radial lengths and thickness as well as dimensional differences in inner structures such as breeding zone, shielding zones, and manifold. Furthermore, there has also been a significant increase in projected fusion power. Such changes were made with respect to its nuclear, thermohydraulic, and thermomechanical performances. In this paper, neutronic characteristics of WCLL modules were analyzed in terms of fusion power increase and dimensional changes of the blanket geometry presented in DEMO 2014 and 2015 models. For comparison, outboard and inboard blanket modules of the equatorial region were selected. Investigated neutronic characteristics include activity, decay heat, and contact dose rates. The numerical experiment was carried out with MCNP particle transport code and FISPACT/FISPACT-II activation calculation codes with EAF-2010/TENDL-2015 nuclear data libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoelectric characteristics are an important reference for high-voltage discharges and are closely related to the excited mode of the high-voltage source. In this paper, we built a large-scale volume dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) system, which is composed of multilayer parallel-plate DBD electrodes and is excited by a high-voltage source in the power density modulation (PDM) mode. Subsequently, we analyzed the applied energy equation and evaluated the DBD systems photoelectric characteristics. The results show that the energy values of different applied voltage cycles during a PDM period exhibit significant differences. However, the average energy in a PDM period is approximately constant. Moreover, the equivalent capacitance of the DBD cell is a function of both the applied voltage and energy density. For the DBD cell, with the increase in both the applied voltage and energy loaded on the DBD cell, the total equivalent capacitance ($C$) is approximately constant, the dielectric capacitance ($C_{\mathrm{ d}}$) increases exponentially and decreases linearly, while the discharge gap capacitance ($C_{\mathrm{ g}}$) decreases and increases in the same cases. In addition, the relative intensities of the discharge emission increase and the energy efficiency ratios of the relative photoquantum yield of active species decline with the increase in both the applied voltage and energy density loaded on the DBD cell. The experimental results have been analyzed by evaluating the influence of the electrical parameters, and the underlying physical principles have been discussed. This paper clearly demonstrates that the photoelectric characteristics of the DBD reactor are significantly influenced by both the applied voltage and energy density, thus providing helpful insights into the energy evaluation and application of high-voltage discharges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased usage of diesel fuel of late has led the researchers to pay more attention toward abatement of increased emission of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in the engine exhaust. The focus is, therefore, lies in providing a technique that is economical, feasible, and long lasting. The combination of electric discharge plasma with adsorbent/catalyst derived out of solid waste can be one such possible technique. In this paper, waste foundry sand from foundry industry and red mud or bauxite residue from aluminum industry have been used. Diesel engine exhaust under dry condition was exposed to an oxidizing discharge plasma environment. The plasma-treated exhaust was subjected to either adsorption over waste foundry sand or catalysis over red mud. Studies were carried out in the laboratory environment with 20% loading of diesel generator. The oxidizing plasma environment was either with direct plasma or with indirect plasma in which case ozone injection into the exhaust was accomplished. The ozone-adsorbent cascading system has resulted in about 87% NOx reduction in the dry exhaust case. The effect of O3:NO ratio was discussed from the point of NO/NO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs) have been studied over the past several years to generate high-power radio frequency signals. Their operation consists of a lumped line based on the nonlinear behavior of the LC section components, capacitors or inductors, as a function of the applied voltage or current, respectively. However, considering high-power signals, the application of these devices using nonlinear ceramic capacitors as the capacitive lumped lines are restricted to frequencies around 100 MHz since at high voltages, parasitic impedances in the line structure limit the maximum operating frequency. On the other hand, the use of variable capacitance diodes has enabled the operation of NLTLs at higher frequencies. This paper provides the results of a study of NLTLs for RF generation based on silicon carbide Schottky diodes. The principle of operation and its simplified theory are presented. Initially, the voltage dependence of the diode capacitance is modeled. Experimental and simulation results are compared. Frequency oscillations around 200 MHz were generated. The extraction of the radio frequency energy is realized, and the radiation of the electromagnetic wave is performed using double-ridged horn antennas. Finally, some parameters are analyzed, and all results discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a monitoring and control system for MEMS tunable evanescent-mode cavity filters. Inductive proximity sensing is utilized to detect the deflection of the tuning MEMS membrane. The sensed deflection is used as a feedback for a closed-loop control of the MEMS bias voltage to deliver the desired deflection and, hence, desired RF response based on an input from the user. The sensing spiral inductor also functions as an electrode for the electrostatic actuation of the membrane. The presented system is analyzed, optimized, and experimentally implemented on a bandstop filter tunable in the 30–42-GHz range. The measured results show that the system is capable of tuning the filter to the desired response with good repeatability of notch frequency (less than 1% error) and with stable long-term response (better than 1.6% drift), which falls within the 20-dB bandwidth of the filter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a miniaturized contact-based system for dielectric spectroscopy using time-domain (TD) technique in ultrawideband (UWB) frequency range. The system consists of a miniaturized UWB transmitter, a planar sensor having direct contact with a liquid material under test (MUT), and a high-speed oscilloscope receiver. In the transmitter, a baseband (BB) pulse with 3.5-GHz bandwidth is generated from a square-wave input signal by employing a step recovery diode and a short-circuited stub. Then, the BB pulse is upconverted by a UWB mixer with 6.5-GHz local oscillator frequency, creating a 3–10-GHz passband pulse. After being amplified, the passband pulse excites the miniaturized sensor, including two stages of microstrip open-circuited stub between meander inductors. This sensor has a small area, requires only 0.3 $\mu \text{L}$ of liquid MUT for accurate sensing, and responds to both $\epsilon '$ and $\epsilon ''$ properties. The sensor output is captured by the oscilloscope in TD and then converted to frequency domain (FD) by the fast Fourier transform operation. Considering $\epsilon '$ and $\epsilon ''$ of MUT simultaneously affect both phase and magnitude of output signal in FD, the behavior of the system is described by testing 12 reference MUTs. From the behavioral model of the system, three unknown MUTs are characterized with errors less than $0.1|\epsilon ^{*}|$ in both $\epsilon '$ and $\epsilon ''$ from 3.28 to 10 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft-switching techniques of transformerless photovoltaic grid-connected inverters (TLIs) can significantly reduce switching losses, as well as soften switching processes. Conventional dc–ac soft-switching configurations proposed by Dr. Deepakraj M. Divan are invalid in TLIs because of the leakage current problem. In order to develop soft-switching techniques in TLIs, this paper proposes a new soft-switching configuration and a procedure to guide the invention of soft-switching TLIs. First, this paper proposes two basic resonance tanks related to dc bus polarities, and then, uses these basic tanks to elevate four popular full-bridge-type TLIs according to the proposed guideline. As a result, four soft-switching TLIs are gained. Second, this paper picks obtained soft-switching highly efficient and reliable inverter concept (HERIC) as example to analyze its soft-switching operation principle and performance. As a consequence, all active switches of the gained soft-switching HERIC circuit are switched under both of zero-current turn-on and turn-off conditions; the reverse recovery problem of freewheeling diodes is alleviated owing to the zero-current turn-off of diodes; meanwhile, the common-mode voltage at the switching frequency scale is still constant. Finally, some experimental results from a 3-kW universal prototype at 50-kHz switching frequency are provided to verify the effectiveness of the main contributions of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses dynamic behavior of a dual-active-bridge (DAB) dc–dc converter. Conventional phase-shift control methods for the DAB converter may cause dc offsets in both inductor current and transformer magnetizing current in transient states. The dc offset in the inductor current would introduce an excessive peak current through the switching devices. The dc offset in the magnetizing current may induce magnetic-flux saturation. Conventional methods simultaneously turn on and off the diagonal switches in each H-bridge converter and produce a square-wave voltage with a 50% duty ratio. In contrast, the proposed method in this paper independently controls each switch to modify the duty ratio in transient states. This paper clearly derives the requirements of each switch to eliminate the dc offsets in both currents with a settling time shorter than half the switching period. Experimental results using a 5-kW 20-kHz system verify the validity of the proposed control method, which is effective not only in a single step change, but also in a continuous change in the phase-shift reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pump-back test is widely adopted in the industry for characterizing and qualifying high-power converters. One popular pump-back test configuration is to tie the dc links of two converters together and circulate the current through the inductor connected between the ac terminals. In this configuration, one of the converters operates in the voltage mode to generate the virtual grid and the other converter regulates the circulating current, where hysteresis control could be applied. However, the switching characteristics of hysteresis control are unique due to the pulsewidth modulation type voltage being the virtual grid. This paper contributes to analyzing the switching frequency characteristics of the hysteresis control in this pump-back test configuration. The switching frequency tracking phenomenon is revealed and reported in this paper for the first time. Theoretical analysis, simulation validation, and experimental demonstration are provided to support the major conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a measurement technique for telemetric systems working with passive resistive sensors from the kilohm order. It permits calculating sensor output through analytical formulas, from system parameters and the real part of system impedance measured at readout inductor’s terminals. Impedance measurement is performed always at a fixed frequency, when inductors are at a fixed relative position. Formulas were derived through specific analyses, starting from a circuit model of the system. The technique was validated by finding the output of discrete commercial resistors attached to an inductor. A difference lower than 0.98% was obtained between resistors’ values calculated through the proposed technique, and their values measured by means of an impedance analyzer. Finally, we applied the technique to a real application, i.e., temperature monitoring in an enclosed environment. We used a telemetric configuration with a Pt1000 sensor to monitor the temperature inside an oven wirelessly. The results pointed out that the technique permitted to estimate the temperature with an average difference of 2.2 °C with respect to a reference. Then, uncertainty on calculated temperature was equal to ±1.2 °C. In general, work analyses highlight that measuring impedance real part may be preferred than measuring its phase angle. These achievements show the feasibility of estimating the output of a resistive sensor through the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air-borne micrometer and submicrometer particles produced by anthropogenic sources contaminate atmospheric air, especially in large cities where both population and industrial activities are higher leading to a reduced air quality. Recent research has pointed out particles less than 2.5 \mum in diameter (PM2.5) as a potential health hazard. To address this issue, stricter legislation has been put into force to reduce PM2.5 emissions. This paper is focused on the development of an impulsive microelectrostatic precipitation technology for charging and removal of fine air-borne particles in an economically feasible way. In this paper, a compact coaxial precipitator has been developed for possible indoor air cleaning applications. High-voltage impulses together with dc voltage have been used for energization of the reactor as it has been shown to enhance the precipitation efficiency. This precipitation system has been used for removal of fumes and fine air-borne particles from ambient air. In addition to the experimental part, analytical work has been conducted to optimize the electrostatic precipitation process and to reduce its power consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides a theoretical and experimental discussion on a modular multilevel triple-star bridge-cell converter with focus on mitigating the capacitor-voltage fluctuation contained in each bridge cell. A new control method proposed in this paper is characterized by properly superimposing both common-mode voltage and circulating currents in the whole speed range. Moreover, this paper optimizes the amplitude and frequency of the superimposed common-mode voltage on the basis of theoretical analysis, thus resulting in minimizing the voltage fluctuation. The optimized control method makes both voltage fluctuation and cluster-current amplitude smaller than do the existing methods. Experimental waveforms obtained from a three-phase downscaled system using a 370-V, 15-kW, 75-Hz, six-pole, permanent-magnet synchronous motor verify good start-up performance from a standstill to the rated speed, keeping both capacitor-voltage and cluster current within acceptable levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active balancing architectures effectively increase the efficiency of large battery packs by equalizing charge between cells. For this purpose, a balancing circuit and appropriate control scheme have to be designed to enable the charge transfer via energy storage elements such as inductors. Using a manual approach to design balancing architectures can be tedious and error-prone, resulting in potentially suboptimal solutions. As a remedy, this paper presents an automatic synthesis of balancing circuits and their corresponding control, optimizing the number of required metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors, and necessary control signals. The proposed synthesis combines a satisfiability solver to explore the search space with a graph-based verification that iteratively excludes infeasible solutions until the optimal architectures are obtained. The experimental results are carried out for three given template circuits and two signal templates. The synthesis results in architectures that are superior in terms of all design objectives in comparison to solutions from literature that result from a manual design approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dynamic wireless charging (DWC) is one of the most promising and economical power supply solutions for electric vehicles (EVs), which can address range anxiety and downsize the volume of onboard batteries. To solve the null power phenomenon and transfer power pulsation phenomenon in DWC scheme, this paper proposes a new magnetic coupler array to implement continuous charging and reduce the output power variation. The transmitters are placed with a proper interval to eliminate the adjacent coupling and enlarge the coil array’s effective length. ANSYS Maxwell is utilized to demonstrate the finite element analysis (FEA) of the DWC system. A larger receiver coil is designed to significantly mitigate power pulsation and increase the magnetic coupling as the receiver moves along the array. With the well-designed receiver coil, the output power pulsation is $\pm$ 1.52 $\%$. For the high-power capacity scenario, a multilevel connected DC-DC converter is designed on the receiver side to regulate the transfer power. Besides, a passivity-based control (PBC) is developed for the receiving DC-DC converter based on the Euler-Lagrange (EL) model, and a current sharing compensator is employed to balance each phase inductor current. Finally, a 500- $\text{W}$ prototype is constructed, and experimental results are represented to validate the proposed optimized coil array and the proposed PBC method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DC-DC converter for fuel cell vehicles should be characterized by high-gain, low voltage stress, small size and high-efficiency. However, conventional two-level, three-level and cascaded boost converters cannot meet the requirements. A new non-isolated DC-DC converter with switched-capacitor and switched-inductor is proposed in this paper, which can obtain high-gain, wide input voltage range, low voltage stresses across components and common ground structure. In this paper, the operating principle, component parameters design, and comparisons with other high-gain converters are analyzed. Moreover, the state-space averaging method and small-signal modeling method are adopted to obtain the dynamic model of converter. Finally, simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed topology. The input voltage of the experimental prototype ranges from 25 V to 80 V. The rated output voltage is 200 V and rated power is 100W. The maximum efficiency is 93.1% under rated state. The proposed converter is suitable for fuel cell vehicles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper by Jin et al. (IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 62, no. 3, pp. 1363–1371, Mar. 2015), the authors present an expansion of Ohm's law in the nonsinusoidal ac circuit, based on which a distinct instruction for analyzing and designing nonsinusoidal circuit including ac/dc link circuit is provided. This paper is very interesting and a good work. However, some equations and expressions may be improved. In this paper, they are discussed and modified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the world's first ever power electronic traction transformer (PETT) for a 15-kV 16.7-Hz railway grid has been newly developed, commissioned, and installed on the test locomotive, where the PETT is presently in use. The design and development of the PETT are described in two parts of this paper. The details related to the 1.2-MVA medium voltage (MV) PETT prototype, including the electrical design of the power circuit, the sizing and characterization of insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) devices, the design of the medium-frequency transformer, the cooling system design, insulation coordination, and protection, are presented in this part, while the preceding paper deals with the overall system requirements and control system design based on the low-voltage (LV) PETT prototype. The identical control hardware and software from the LV PETT prototype were used for the MV PETT prototype, thus reducing significantly commissioning time. The experimental results obtained during the testing are presented to demonstrate the performance of the developed MV PETT prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of power converters is very important in maximizing the power transfer from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, or even a hydrogen-based fuel cell to the utility grid. An LCL filter is often used to interconnect an inverter to the utility grid in order to filter the harmonics produced by the inverter. Although there is an extensive amount of literature available describing LCL filters, there has been a gap in providing a systematic design methodology. Furthermore, there has been a lack of a state-space mathematical modeling approach that considers practical cases of delta- and wye-connected capacitors showing their effects on possible grounding alternatives. This paper describes a design methodology of an LCL filter for grid-interconnected inverters along with a comprehensive study of how to mitigate harmonics. The procedures and techniques described in this paper may be used in small-scale renewable energy conversion systems and may be also retrofitted for medium- and large-scale grid-connected systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of three-dimensional (3D) thermal simulations of magnetic components for power converters is limited to validation of final designs due to time consumption. A two-step homogenization is proposed to simplify them, while keeping good accuracy. The required equations and some guidelines are described in this paper. It can be applied to solid round wire, litz wire, or foil wound magnetic components. Considerations to extend its use to transformers, including the use of interleaving techniques and insulating tape, are explained. This method can reduce the computation time of 3-D simulations (seven times faster than usual simulations) while the convergence is assured even for complex structures or cases with litz wire. Finally, the method is experimentally validated with DC and AC excitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the design methodology of switched-tank converter (STC) is presented. The power loss breakdown analysis is conducted to point out the directions and paths for components optimization. It is revealed that the switching device conduction loss, printed circuit board (PCB) loss, and inductor loss become significant when output power is >150 W. Power loss of four switches is calculated and compared for switching device selection. The resonant capacitor is carefully designed to meet both current stress and ripple requirements. On the other hand, optimal design of the resonant inductors and PCB layout are fully investigated. The core loss model is provided, and different core materials are compared to minimize the core loss. Besides, a fine-tuned inductor winding structure is designed to achieve the lowest winding loss. Furthermore, PCB layout is optimized to get short loop length for each operation state. In addition to the hardware level optimization, an improved control method is proposed, in which the conduction time of switching devices is tuned to mitigate the circulating power. To verify the optimization work, a prototype of STC is built and tested. The experimental results indicate that a state-of-the-art performance of 98.71% efficiency and a 1000 W/in3 high power density is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development of a Class-D full-bridge zero-voltage switching (ZVS) inverter, applicable to wireless power transfer (WPT) systems, operating at 13.56 MHz switching frequency with dynamic dead-time control (DDTC). Resonant-coupled WPT systems are being designed at ultrahigh switching frequencies to reduce the size of the wireless link and the passive components. Maintaining ZVS while controlling the output power delivered to a fixed or variable load is one of the major challenges of designing inverters at multi-MHz switching frequencies. DDTC is the approach deployed in this paper to sustain soft switching of a Class-D full-bridge inverter over the full range of output power while regulating the input dc bus voltage. Simulation results are presented to show that dynamically controlling the dead-time during input dc bus voltage variations reduces switch-node voltage overshoot, prevents large current spikes in the switching devices, and reduces associated high switching loss. Practical results obtained show that DDTC reduces switch-node voltage overshoot, increases the inverter efficiency, and reduces the steady-state temperature of the inverter during output power regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the power density of a power converter has many benefits for systems integration. Aspects such as thermal management, weight, conformation to mounting locations, and the footprint of the converter all become critical factors as systems continue to scale down in size. The flying capacitor multilevel converter topology is of interest because it has characteristics which contribute to high power density. This paper presents a quasi-square-wave zero-voltage switching (ZVS) multilevel dc–dc converter. ZVS greatly reduces switching losses and enables high-frequency operation of the converter. A hardware prototype is implemented, built on a flexible polyimide substrate circuit board. Experimental results show a peak system efficiency above 98.1%, an effective switching frequency of up to 3 MHz, and a power output of 250 W. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new isolated single-stage single-switch power-factor-correction (S4 PFC) driver for supplying light-emitting diodes (LEDs) without electrolytic capacitor. In the proposed LED driver, the switch turns on under zero current switching (ZCS) condition. Also, it turns on at a voltage less than its nominal voltage stress, and therefore, the switch capacitive turn-on loss decreases too much extent. The leakage energy is absorbed, so there are no voltage spikes across the switch when the switch turns off. In this paper, operating principles of the proposed driver are discussed, and design considerations are presented. Also, a laboratory prototype for supplying a 21 W/30 V LED module from 220 Vrms/50\,\rm Hz ac mains is implemented, and experimental results are presented to verify the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we propose a novel ac/dc bridgeless and contactless energy transmission system. The coreless planar transformer and magnetic dipole moment are applied to transmit electrical energy in a noncontact method. In addition, the input ac current of the proposed converter has effective power factor correction. Simultaneously, the primary-side switches have zero-voltage switching, and the secondary-side diodes have zero-current switching. Thus, the power quality and efficiency of the proposed system can be upgraded. Furthermore, the proposed system can increase the transmission distance with the voltage multiplier receiver connected at the rear of the secondary-side coreless planar transformer. Power transmission and circuit operation are described in this paper. Finally, a prototype system is constructed, and its validity has been confirmed with experimental and practical measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the design optimization of single- and dual-band inductively source degenerated field-effect transistor low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) using an analytical formula of noise parameters derived through a noise transformation matrix. The dual-band LNA design can be directly expanded from the single-band LNA design using a noise transformation matrix. The derived noise formulas of LNAs reveal that a simultaneous noise and input match (SNIM) can be obtained at a single frequency for a single-band LNA. For a concurrent dual-band LNA, the simultaneous noise match cannot be achieved at two different operating frequencies and thus a balanced design in noise performance is developed using a noise transformation matrix. This paper demonstrates a 5-GHz single-band and a 2.4/5-GHz concurrent dual-band two-stage single-voltage-supply LNA using 0.15-\mu\m depletion-mode pseudomorphic HEMT technology to verify design methodology. The inductively source-degenerated common-source amplifier is applied at the input stage. The 5-GHz common-source common-drain (CS-CD) LNA shows 1.4-dB noise figure (NF) with an SNIM. Moreover, the 2.4/5-GHz CS-CD concurrent dual-band LNA has a balanced noise performance of 2.2-dB NF at 2.4 GHz and 2.0-dB NF at 5 GHz, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A mobile charging system (MCS) for electric vehicles (EVs) is presented in this paper. The proposed MCS has a 2-MWh energy storage capacity for charging five EVs simultaneously with 75-kW individual charging rates. The MCS would be rechargeable from the available power substations (three phase, 480 V) with 375-kW charging rate. The appropriate modular power interface is designed and implemented between the MCS, batteries of the EVs, and the power substations. Experimental validation is presented in this paper to demonstrate the system performance and effectiveness under rapid charging requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the theoretical framework and the consequent application of the input–output feedback linearization (FL) control technique to linear induction motors (LIMs). LIM, additionally to rotating induction motor, presents other strong nonlinearities caused by the dynamic end effects, leading to a space-vector dynamic model with time-varying inductance and resistance terms and a braking force term. This paper, starting from a recently developed dynamic model of the LIM taking into consideration its end effects, defines a FL technique suited for LIMs, since it inherently considers its dynamic end effects. Additionally, it proposes a technique for the on-line estimation of the inductor resistance, based on model reference adaptive system (MRAS) on-line estimator; it has been exploited for adapting on-line the FL control action versus inductor resistance variations leading to undesirable steady-state tracking errors. The stability of the proposed MRAS on-line estimator has been proven theoretically, adopting the Popov's criterion for hyperstability. The proposed approach has been validated experimentally on a suitably developed test setup, under both no load and loaded conditions. It has been compared firstly with the simplest control structure, which is the scalar $V/f$ control, secondly under the same closed-loop bandwidths of the flux and speed systems, with the industrial standard in terms of high-performance control technique, i.e., field-oriented control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many installations in the petrochemical industry routinely require medium-voltage adjustable speed drives (MV ASDs) with long output cables, particularly for offshore applications and land-based well applications. This paper describes the effects of using MV ASDs with long cables. It examines the major issue known as the “standing wave effect,” which may be more prominent at certain cable lengths, as well as the design solutions to ensure proper drive and motor functionality and performance. Examples of this unique phenomenon and the effectiveness of different mitigation measures are presented using simulations and actual data. Simulations are also used to provide a comparison of operating waveforms with two- and multilevel converters. This paper recommends considerations for the installation and/or design of the MV ASD that can be implemented to avoid problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel technique for suppressing cable noise currents, the quadruplet-resonator-based ferrite-free choke (QR-based FFC), to eliminate the gigahertz (GHz) electromagnetic interference caused by noise currents flowing on the cable shielding. This problem is difficult to handle with conventional ferrite materials since their permeabilities dramatically degrade when the operating frequency goes up to several GHz. In this paper, with the aid of QR surrounding on the cable shielding, the FFC forms bandstop responses against the noise currents. The corresponding equivalent lumped circuit model is proposed and investigated. Furthermore, the synthesis procedure is established using microwave filter theory. The QR-based FFC can achieve a high-level current suppression at the desired frequency band. This technology is experimentally verified: a given design example is demonstrated at the operating center frequency of 2.57 GHz. The frequency range of 3-dB current suppression is measured from 2.47 to 2.75 GHz (FBW = 10.8%), where the highest suppression level is up to 36 dB. The FFC-added cable also demonstrates a good result in the reduction of far-field radiation, where the reduction level of radiation peak gain is measured as 7 dB compared with that of a bare cable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various methods have been presented in the past to emulate the electrical behavior of modular multilevel converters (MMCs). To meet the demands for the reliability aspect study of MMCs, this paper proposes a viable setup to emulate the thermal behavior and to investigate its feasibility for reliability testing and thermal model validation of the power modules in the MMC. The proposed mission profile emulator has three distinctive features: 1) capable of emulating and measuring the thermal stresses of power modules; 2) capable of implementing practical switching profile as a full-scale MMC; and 3) having significantly reduced requirement for dc power supply compared to existing setups used for electrical studies. Theoretical discussions, and simulations as well as the experimental results are presented to demonstrate the capability of the mission profile emulator both electrically and thermally. Moreover, this paper is accompanied by a video demonstrating how to measure the junction temperature of the power devices using the optical fiber and the thermal camera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical expressions that have been derived to calculate ac resistance and losses of magnetic devices at high frequencies have primarily used a one-dimensional approximation, and have used Cartesian coordinates or approximations that are equivalent to Cartesian coordinates. The result is Dowell's equation. This paper examines the effect of winding curvature on the losses relative to Dowell's equation by solving the problem completely in cylindrical coordinates. The error in Dowell's equation relative to a full cylindrical solution is found to be as great as 33% for some designs. A mathematical model is derived for the relative error between the two solutions, which can be used to assess the accuracy of Dowell's equation for a particular design, as well as a correction factor for Dowell's equation. The corrected Dowell's equation using the model is validated using finite-element analysis simulations as well as previously published experimental data. This paper is accompanied by Python codes to generate all data and figures used in the paper, a Python object that implements the derived mathematical model, and Lua scripts to run the finite-element simulations using FEMM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new dc–dc high voltage gain converter with low-voltage stresses on switches and diodes is proposed. Even though, in the topology of the proposed converter there are not any coupled inductors and transformer utilized, the voltage conversion ratio of the proposed converter is considerable in comparison to its conventional types. Also, two switches of the proposed converter provide longer charge time for two inductors which make the proposed converter capable of providing high voltage gain without preselecting extremely large duty cycles. In addition, the number of power circuit components of the proposed structure are few and the voltage stresses on semiconductor elements are low. In this paper, theoretical analysis of the proposed converter for each operating mode is presented and the voltage gain, voltage and average current stresses of elements, maximum input current ripple, efficiency and equations of critical inductances are calculated. Moreover, to verify the capability of the proposed converter, it is comprehensively compared with other similar recently presented high voltage gain boost converters. Finally, an approximately 12 V/380 V and 520-W prototype of the proposed converter is implemented in laboratory to demonstrate its practical performance, then, the experimental results reconfirm each other and theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents bidirectional grid-connected modular multilevel converters (MMC) with direct digital control and division-summation processes to achieve power-injection and rectification functions. A direct digital control is developed to track current references, regulate dc-bus voltage and cell voltage, and balance the upper and lower dc-bus voltages. It can accommodate wide filter-inductance variation and take care of source voltage harmonics to achieve tight current tracking and low distortion output current. Based on the power-balance principle, the commands of arm currents can be determined directly. In this paper, the MMC configuration is introduced first, and then the control laws for current tracking and voltage regulation are derived in detail. Experimental and simulated results obtained from two 50 kW MMCs operated in power-injection and rectification modes have verified the analysis and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new configuration of high gain (HG) single ended primary inductor converter (SEPIC) with a ripple-free input current to maximize the efficiency of the PV panel for standalone water pumping system (WPS). The ripple eliminating circuit combined with the HG SEPIC converter to achieve reduced ripples in photovoltaic (PV) current is independent to the duty cycle control and hence, it can be easily integrated to the main power circuit of configuration. This circuit does not need any active switches, control, or drive circuit for its execution. The ripple eliminating circuit yields a complete removal of the electrolytic capacitor connected across the PV array and significantly reduces the inductance of the HG SEPIC converter. It also improves the response and power density of the dc–dc converter. The large gain of dc–dc converter enables the use of low-voltage PV panel and minimizes the partial shading and parasitic capacitance effects on PV array source. Due to the substantial compatibility between natural characteristics of switched reluctance motor (SRM) drive and WPS, a four-phase SRM drive is utilized in the proposed scheme. In addition, a single current sensor based maximum power point tracking technique is utilized in the proposed system, which helps to reduce the cost and improve the accuracy of the overall system. Analytical, simulated, and experimental results of the developed system are presented to demonstrate the performance of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unipolar-pulsewidth modulation (UP-PWM) inverter takes advantages of high power efficiency and small output chokes which is widely used in the industry. However, UP-PWM inverters cannot be used in parallel operation due to a current unbalance problem. This paper studies the current unbalance problem of paralleled UP-PWM inverters with common dc bus and ac bus. First, the problem of unbalanced inductor current is defined and analyzed. Second, a technique to eliminate unbalanced currents is proposed. The proposed current balancing technique only requires one more current sensor in an inverter module rather than changing converter topology or modulation method, which makes it possible to apply UP-PWM inverters in parallel-operation while keeping the advantages of unipolar switching. The proposed current balancing method is verified by both simulation and hardware experiment. Experimental verification is performed on two 1 kW, 400 V input, and 120 V/60 Hz output prototypes, which shows a good agreement to the analytical study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inductor–capacitor (LC) filter in current source converter (CSC) exits resonance peak, which result in reducing control stability and amplifying harmonic component near resonance frequency. This study proposed a simply self-adjust notch filter active damping method for CSC. A notch filter is inserted into control loop to damp the control gain at resonance frequency, no need of additional sensor. The grid inductance varies as power system operating conditions change, which deteriorates notch filter damping performance because of resonance frequency changing. The harmonic impedance estimation method is used in the paper to estimate grid inductance and actively adjust notch filter centre frequency. Both simulation and experimental results verified the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel integrated-stage light-emitting diode (LED) driver based on Flyback and resonant converters. The Flyback converter realizes power factor correction in the discontinuous conduction mode. The resonant converter is operated as a dc–dc converter to support the LED loads. Moreover, the resonant converter can clearly decrease the drain–source voltage of the active switch and exhibits zero-voltage-switch characteristics. Therefore, a cost-effective MOSFET can be chosen as the main control component that can decrease the cost of the whole system. Compared to a single-active-switch converter (such as Class-E converter), the number of passive components in the resonant converter can be limited to four. Therefore, the power density of the system can be improved drastically. In this paper, a 100-W prototype is presented under the experimental condition to validate the proposed integrated-stage LED driver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new family of impedance source inverters is presented. It employs high-frequency electrical isolation between the inverter bridge switches and the load along with voltage clamping across the dc-link voltage. Conventional Z-source inverters (ZSIs) employs an impedance network that consists of inductors and capacitors. It has unique features that realize both step-up/step-down functions and eliminates the need of dead/overlap times. This paper extends this novel concept by using electrical isolation in impedance source inverters. High-frequency isolation has many advantages in terms of immunity and reliability; when applied with impedance source inverters this makes ZSIs a preferable choice for industrial applications. In photo-voltaic systems, the addition of the high-frequency transformer provides safety by avoiding the injection of dc circulating current into the grid, without the need of an external bulky line frequency transformer. The gain of the proposed inverter design can be accurately selected by choosing the turns ratio of the high frequency transformer (HFT) or by adjusting the shoot-through duty cycle (STDC) to the inverter. This allows for greater freedom especially when utilizing a higher modulation index, with the STDC allowing dynamic gain adjusts to be done speedily during operation of the inverter. Additionally, a dc-rail voltage clamping technique for the proposed class of isolated ZSIs is also discussed. This technique provides benefits not only in improving the output voltage quality, but also in reducing voltage stress of the active and passive components by minimizing the voltage spikes across the switching devices. In this paper, several high-frequency isolated ZSIs are presented, and an example isolated improved ΓZSI design is shown and discussed in detail. Simulations are provided for the proposed class of isolated inverters to verify their working. Further experimental investigation has been done for which results for the isolated improved ΓZSI are reported. These empirical results have largely confirmed the expected benefits that were determined through simulation and accurate model-based testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an adaptive multi-loop control scheme for inverters interlinking dc voltage sources to single-phase, low-voltage ac grids. Control self-adaptation is particularly useful in the case of weak grids that, due to frequent physical modifications (e.g., network reconfigurations and disconnection of generators/loads) and intrinsic lack of inertia, present strongly time-variant characteristics. The solution presented in this paper is based on a high-performance converter controller with auto-tuning capabilities. It is shown that the applied auto-tuning method can significantly widen the stability region of the interlinking converter, covering a broad range of grid impedance values. In addition, within the stable region, the controller maintains the nominal performance. Experimental results are reported validating the proposed approach in realistic operating conditions, including grid voltage distortion and variations of amplitude and frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an interleaved boost converter with a bifold Dickson voltage multiplier suitable for interfacing low-voltage renewable energy sources to high-voltage distribution buses and other applications that require a high-voltage-gain conversion ratio. The proposed converter was constructed from two stages: an interleaved boost stage, which contains two inductors operated by two low-side active switches, and a voltage multiplier cell (VMC) stage, which mainly consists of diodes and capacitors to increase the overall voltage gain. The proposed converter offers a high-voltage-gain ratio with low voltage stress on the semiconductor switches as well as the passive components. This allows the selection of efficient and compact components. Moreover, the required inductance that ensures operation in the continuous conduction mode (CCM) is lower than the one in the conventional interleaved boost converter. The distinction of the proposed converter is that the inductors’ currents are equal, regardless of the number of VMCs. Equal sharing of interleaved boost-stage currents reduces the conduction loss in the active switches as well as the inductors and thus improves the overall efficiency, as the conduction power loss is a quadratic function. In this paper, the theory of operation and steady-state analysis of the proposed converter are illustrated and verified by simulation results. A $\text{200-W}$ hardware prototype was implemented to convert a $\text{20-V}$ input source to a $\text{400-V}$ dc load and validate both the theory and the simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a dual active bridge (DAB) dc–dc converter, modulating the phase-shift ratios can suppress reactive power and increase the efficiency under non-unity voltage gain conditions. Derivation of the optimal phase-shift ratios to achieve the minimum reactive power is challenging because a DAB can operate in four different scenarios (forward/backward, buck/boost) and each scenario has five operating modes. This paper first introduces a transformation in which different DAB operating scenarios (forward/backward, buck/boost) can be equivalent to one another; then optimization of only one scenario (forward/buck) is required. Next, for the five modes in forward/buck scenario, based on a graphical method, this paper proves that each operating point of Modes 1, 2, and 5 can be mapped into that of Mode 3 with lower conduction losses, and only two modes require detailed analysis. The optimization process of these two modes are derived step-by-step. Global optimal phase-shift signals that minimize the reactive power under four different DAB operating scenarios (forward/backward, buck/boost) are presented. A simple table and control block diagram are presented for practical implementation of global reactive-power minimization control. Experimental comparison with other modulation schemes verifies the efficiency improvement of the proposed control method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fast dc line protection is one of the key techniques for the multi-terminal flexible dc grid whose main technical difficulty lies in quick and reliable fault identification. The traditional protection principles for the ac system are not suitable for the flexible dc grid, and those for the conventional dc transmission system can also not be applied directly. Therefore, the frequency-domain traveling-wave boundary characteristics after faults are analyzed first in this paper to find the critical condition for distinguishing the internal and external faults as well as the forward and backward faults. And then, a novel single-ended transient-voltage-based protection strategy for flexible dc grid was proposed, which mainly consists of the fault identification criterion and the direction criterion. The protection scheme used wavelet transform to extract transient voltage energy. In order to eliminate the influences of the wavelet transform boundary effect and converter blocking, the principle to select the proper data window was proposed. Compared with the existing traveling-wave-based dc protection, the proposed method has a higher reliability and stronger ability to endure high transition resistance, which was verified by lots of simulation cases based on the PSCAD/EMTDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study on the high-voltage compact solid-state pulsed-power modulator for parallel reactor operation. The current capacity of the pulsed modulator has been improved to drive multiple reactors in parallel. The pulse discharge switch uses the IXYK120N120C3 (1200 V/120 A) insulated-gate bipolar transistor for a high current output. The gate driver has been improved according to the characteristics of the replaced switch. The output specifications of the modified pulsed-power modulator are a maximum output voltage of 40 kV, a maximum output current of 300 A, a pulsewidth ranging from 1.5 to $5~\mu \text{s}$ , a maximum repetition rate of 3 kHz, and an average power of 13 kW. The modulator has the dimensions of $450 \times 475 \times 600$ mm3, a maximum peak power of 12 MW, and a maximum power density of 93 kW/L. A resistive load experiment and a plasma reactor parallel drive test were performed. Four parallel reactors were driven using one modulator. In addition, a 50% reduction in the concentration of toluene was obtained through the experiment of the toluene gas treatment using only parallel plasma reactors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a current controller for a parallel operation of inverters is described. When inverters operate in parallel, it is a well-known fact that the inverter current is composed of the average current (AVC) and the zero-sequence circulating current (henceforth ZSCC), which inevitably flows between inverters under the parallel operation. Considering this, previous studies concentrated on reducing ZSCC. However, in this paper, it is found that the inverter current has another component, a differential current, in addition to the two components of AVC and ZSCC. Based on these three decomposed current components, three equivalent circuits are derived from n-paralleled inverters. To minimize the differential current and improve the regulation performance of the total output phase current, a decomposed current control scheme is proposed from equivalent circuit models. The proposed algorithm is applied to a system consisting of three paralleled two-level inverters with small shared inductance whose dc links are connected in common. Additionally, synchronous pulsewidth modulation is employed as the PWM method for each inverter. The proposed current controller is compared with two conventional current controllers, one where each inverter controls its own currents and the other where only AVC is controlled. Through experiments, it is shown that these conventional controllers have limitations and the proposed current controller overcomes these limitations. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed control scheme are verified through experimental results. Especially, both theoretical analysis and experiment results verify that the proposed method is robust with regard to parameter errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Switching behavior analysis is an indispensable step for evaluating the steady-state performance of a bidirectional dc–dc converter and a prerequisite for soft-switching modulation design. For dual-bridge series resonant dc–dc converters (DBSRCs), the commonly used fundamental harmonic approximation (FHA) does not usually provide predictions accurate enough for reliable analysis and design. This paper discloses the exact closed-form solution for the zero-voltage switching (ZVS) operation conditions of DBSRCs for the most general case, in which all modulation quantities—i.e., phase shift, duty cycles, and switching frequency—are included. The proposed approach relies on a geometrical analysis of the converter state-plane trajectory, and allows us to analytically predict the ZVS or hard-switching state of any switch and for any given converter operating point. By inherently capturing the effects of all tank harmonics, the model disclosed in this paper shows higher accuracy than the conventional FHA-based approach, and translates into a practical tool for ZVS prediction and optimization at the converter design stage. Based on the derived analytical results, switching behavior of DBSRCs with minimum rms current trajectory (MCT) modulation is investigated, and an effective design choice of resonant-to-switching frequency ratio is presented, which contributes to reduced switching losses and enhanced efficiency. Furthermore, a variable frequency modulation scheme is formulated, achieving ZVS operation of all transistors over a wide input/output voltage range and efficiency improvement versus MCT technique. The analysis and conclusions are validated via extensive experimental tests on a 700 W DBSRC prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a three-port three-phase current-fed dc–dc converter with high-frequency isolation and bidirectional power flow. Port I is fed by a battery bank, port II employs a set of photovoltaic modules, and port III is connected to a dc link. The topology uses three single-phase H-bridge cells in the primary side and a three-phase H-bridge converter in the secondary one. High-frequency isolation is ensured by three single-phase transformers connected in an open delta-wye configuration. The theoretical analysis is performed considering the fundamental component of the voltage across the transformers. Maximum power point tracking, the battery current, and the power flow between the primary and secondary sides are controlled by the use of variable duty cycle technique in the primary side and the use of phase-shift technique between the primary and secondary bridges. In order to validate the study, experimental results of the proposed system considering the dc rated voltages as 48 V/96 V/380 V for Ports I/II/III, respectively, and rated power of 3.5 kW are carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]