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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]

Contribution: This paper identifies key personal and academic factors in successful transfer to electrical, computer, and mechatronics (ECM) engineering programs. The findings support prior research on engineering transfer shows that successful students accumulate knowledge and behaviors in their sending institution that enable their progress in the receiving institution. Background: Institutional arrangements and processes, inclusive cultures and practices, social integration, and clear academic requirements support the transfer of students who go from two-year colleges and similar to follow engineering programs at four-year institutions. Various personal attributes are also associated with successful transfer. Research Question: What factors enable transferees to succeed in four-year ECM engineering degree programs? Methodology: Student data were obtained from the receiving institution’s registration database and grades administration system. Database queries were used to identify transfer and non-transfer students’ performance. Averages and frequencies of passes, fails, repeats, withdrawals, etc., were calculated and compared. There were limited data on students’ personal challenges and non-academic strengths. Findings: All the students who attained Bachelor of Science degrees in ECM showed persistence and resilience in their journeys toward an engineering qualification, and had achieved high grades in mathematics at the sending institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a family of single-phase transformer based Z-source ac–ac converters (ZSACs). The proposed converters inherit all the benefits associated with the classical single-phase ZSAC, which are providing the buck–boost operation, maintaining or reversing the phase angle, and improving reliability. The proposed converters also have the improved input profile, continuous input current, and shared ground between input and output. Moreover, they use the turns ratio of transformers to produce the required voltage gain, which can be tuned by either increasing or decreasing the turns ratio of transformer depending on the configuration of Z-source structure. A safe-commutation strategy is also presented to achieve the soft commutation, which eliminates the voltage and current spikes without any additional snubber circuits. The features of proposed converters are comprehensively discussed with the detailed theoretical analysis. Thereafter, its performances are evaluated by both simulation and experimental tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]