1.  ADVANCED POWER ELECTRONICS FOR ENERGY STORAGE, TRANSMISSION, AND DISTRIBUTION APPLICATIONS

Power electronic conversion systems (PCS) constitute major cost elements and reliability issues in most distributed generation and energy storage systems.  As these systems move to higher power levels, it is desirable to improve the functionality and manufacturability of the power conversion systems.  Several paths to improvement are possible.  Moving from silicon to silicon-carbide based devices has the potential to increase power rating and switching frequency while replacing electrolytic capacitors with other components offers the potential of significantly increasing the reliability of these devices.

a. Wide Band Gap Power Converter Application—Wide Band Gap (WBG) devices, such as Silicon Carbide (SiC), have gained a lot of interest recently in the power electronic conversion world.  WBG devices offer higher operating temperatures, higher blocking voltages, lower switching losses translating to increased efficiencies, and higher frequency of operation compared to silicon based components.  SiC-based Schottky diodes and field effect transistors and other three terminal devices are currently available in the marketplace. Advances are sought in utilizing currently available WBG devices in power conversion system design to improve performance and manufacturability.  This project will produce the design of an advanced PCS using WBG devices.  Potential follow-on projects could be the demonstration of a 100kW to 500kW power converter showing increased performance, cost reduction, better thermal management design, and decreased footprint compared to comparable Silicon based systems. 

b. Improving Capacitor Lifetime in Power Electronic Converters—Electrolytic capacitors are extensively used in power converters today.  They have been known to have the shortest lifetime of any element, active or passive, used in the power converters.  Capacitor failure is a significant problem for power electronics resulting in high maintenance and replacement costs.  Pulsed power conditioning capacitors (film capacitors) with high reliability, lower dissipation, and larger voltage transient characteristics are required for high reliability power electronics.  Advances in polymeric film capacitors are of particular interest.  This project seeks to incorporate advanced capacitor components in the design of power electronic converters with the goal of demonstrating increased reliability at reasonable (preferably lower) cost.  It is also desirable to improve the manufacturability of these devices as well as the performance.  The initial phase of the project will focus on the design of high reliability systems incorporating advanced capacitor elements with possible follow-on fabrication and testing of the concepts produced.

References:

Subtopic a:  Wide Band Gap Power Converter Applications  

1.      Cooper, J. A., Jr., et al., “Status and Prospects for SiC Power MOSFETs,” IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 49(4): 658-663, April, 2002.  (ISSN:  0018-9383)

 

 

2.      Singh, R., et al., “SiC Power Schottky and PiN Diodes,” IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 49(4): 665-672, April, 2002.  (ISSN:  0018-9383)

3.      Levinshtein, M. E., et al., “Fast Switch-Off of High Voltage 4H-SiC npn Bipolar Junction Transistor from Deep Saturation Regime,” Solid-State Electronics, 48(3): 491-493, 2004.  (ISSN:  0038-1101)

 

4.      Heinz L., “4,5kV 4H-SiC diodes with ideal forward characteristic,” ISPSD’01:  Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices & ICs, Osaka, Japan, June 4-7, 2001, Piscataway, NJ:  IEEE, 2001.  (ISBN:  4-88686-056-7)

 

5.      Baliga, J., B., “Power Semiconductor Devices for Variable-Frequency Drives”, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 82(8): 1112-1122, August 1994.  (ISSN:  0018-9219)(Also appears as Chapter 2 of:  Bose, B. K., Power Semiconductor Devices and Variable-Frequency Drives, John Wiley & Sons, September 1996.  ISBN: 0780310845)

      Subtopic b:  Improving Capacitor Lifetime in Power Electronic Converters

6.      Bently, J., et al., High Frequency Performance and Packaging of Power Film Capacitors, Piscataway , NJ :  IEEE, 1995.  (IEEE Paper No. 0-7803-3008)(Full text available at:  http://www.aerovox.com/technical/T5.html)

 

 

7.      Sarjeant, W., A Report on Packaging Implications of Advances in Capacitor Technologies, Piscataway , NJ :  IEEE, 2000.  (Full text available at:  http://www.esi.buffalo.edu/iwipp_CapRev.pdf)

 

 

8.      Parler, S. G. and Laird, L. M., Predicting Operating Temperature and Expected Lifetime of Aluminum-Electrolytic Bus Capacitors with Thermal Modeling, Cornell Dubilier, PCIM, November 1999.  (Full text available at:  http://www.cornell-dubilier.com/tech/cde_applet_thermal_model.pdf)

 

 

9.      Parler, S. G., “Deriving Life Multipliers for Electrolytic Capacitors,” IEEE Power Electronics Society Newsletter, 16(1): 11-12, February 2004.  (ISSN:  1054-7231)

 

 

10.  Paul, J. C., “An Analysis of Capacitor Failure Mechanism During Production/Utilization and its Remedies,” 3rd International Conference on Properties & Applications of Dielectric Materials, Tokyo, Japan, July 8-12, 1991, 1: 474-476, 1991.  (ISBN:  0879425687)  

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