In this dissertation, new high frequency link power conversion systems for the fuel cell power conditioning are proposed to improve the performance and optimize the cost, size, and weight of the power conversion systems. The first study proposes a new soft switching technique for the phase-shift controlled bi-directional dc-dc converter. The described dc-dc converter employs a low profile high frequency transformer and two active full-bridge converters for bidirectional power flow capability. The proposed new soft switching technique guarantees soft switching over wide range from no load to full load without any additional circuit components. The load range for proposed soft switching technique is analyzed by mathematical approach with equivalent circuits and verified by experiments. The second study describes a boost converter cascaded high frequency link direct dc-ac converter suitable for fuel cell power sources. A new multi-loop control for a boost converter to reduce the low frequency input current harmonics drawn from the fuel cell is proposed, and a new PWM technique for the cycloconverter at the secondary to reject the low order harmonics in the output voltages is presented. The performance of the proposed scheme is verified by the various simulations and experiments, and their trade-offs are described in detail using mathematical evaluation approach. The third study proposes a current-fed high frequency link direct dc-ac converter suitable for residential fuel cell power systems. The high frequency full-bridge inverter at the primary generates sinusoidally PWM modulated current pulses with zero current switching (ZCS), and the cycloconverter at the secondary which consists of only two bidirectional switches and output filter capacitors produces sinusoidally modulated 60Hz split single phase output voltage waveforms with near zero current switching. The active harmonic filter connected to the input terminal compensates the low order input current harmonics drawn from the fuel cell without long-term energy storage devices such as batteries and super capacitors.

The telecommunication/IT industry were rapid growing in the recent years, and the telecommunication manufacturer promoted the foundation equipment application unceasingly. In such the developing nations like China and India, the network foundation equipment demand grows gradually, in which China was already the quickest growing nation in telecommunication markets of the whole world, the growth rate will continuously maintain about 14% every year in the future. The Switching Power Supply (hereafter refers to as SPS) is rapidly growing in the country, in which the SPS has high profit potential product. By successful developing experience, integrity, vertical & horizontal conformity industrial structure, high quality, short delivery, smaller size, higher output, lower cost, better radiation, which create the industry competitive advantages. The purpose of research is to understand the industry development tendency of SPS, and will discuss how the value chain of SPS to survive under the global finance pressure, and even face with the re-shuffle effect. In this research take D Corporation as the example, discusses under the marketing demand drop pressure , how to develop the competitive business model and key successful factors to cope with. Then, using tool like SWOT, five forces analyses, discovers the way for D corporation to go forward to right direction. Finally, the concrete suggestion will be proposed, and to provide with the conclusion to D Corporation and related Department or organization as compete strategy in the future.

Begleitend zur Diplomarbeit von Markus Armann: "Untersuchung des Einsatzes von Doppelschichtkondensatoren zur Pufferung der Auswirkungen kurzzeitiger Änderungen der Einstrahlungsintensität in Photovoltaikanlagen", 4/2001.

In this research, in order to realize such nanolaminated magnetic cores for high frequency and high power conversion, the following key tasks have been accomplished: 1) electrodeposition of metallic alloy materials such as NiFe, CoNiFe, and anisotropic CoNiFe; 2) development of new fabrication technologies to realize nanolaminated cores based on metallic alloy electrodeposition; 3) reliable characterization of the structural, magnetic, and electrical properties of the nanolaminated metallic alloy cores; 4) development of microfabricated inductor windings to integrate the nanolaminated cores; 5) demonstration of high-frequency and high-flux ultracompact DC-DC power conversion using inductors integrated with nanolaminated metallic alloy cores. By achieving these tasks, nanolaminated cores comprising tens to hundreds of layers of metallic alloy films (Ni80Fe20 and Co44Ni37Fe19) has been developed. The fabricated nanolaminated core consists of sufficiently thin nanolaminations (100 – 1000 nm) that can suppress eddy currents in the MHz range, while simultaneously achieving the overall magnetic thickness (35 – 2000 µm) such that substantial power can be handled. The nanolaminated metallic alloy cores were further integrated into microfabricated inductors using CMOS-compatible fabrication processes. Finally, an ultracompact DC-DC buck converter with the nanolaminated metallic alloy cores has been developed on PCB having footprint of 14 × 7.1 mm2. The input voltage of the converter varied from 30 to 70 V and the output voltage was fixed at 20 V. The converter operated with output power of approximately 11 W and the switching frequencies of 0.7 – 1.4 MHz, demonstrating conversion efficiency of 94.2% at 30 V input and 80.8% at 60 V input.

The demand for power converters is on the rise due to their ability to achieve high power conversion efficiency, small size, light weight and reduced cost. DC-DC converters are used in many applications where, the output voltage needs to be regulated for wide variations in the input voltage and the load. They are also used in applications where electrical isolation is required. Power generation from renewable energy sources suffers from highly fluctuating output voltages. Electrical isolation of renewable energy sources from the grid is essential. Therefore, DC-DC converters are used as an integral part of the power electronic interface required for grid integration of renewable energy sources such as wave energy power conversion. In this dissertation as a first step, the power converters used in wave energy applications are classified and compared. Analysis, design, simulation and experimental results of fixed frequency controlled HF transformer isolated DC-DC resonant converters are presented. The first converter topology presented in Chapter 3 is a ‘fixed frequency controlled single-phase high frequency (HF) transformer isolated DC-DC LCL-type series resonant converter (SRC) with capacitive output filter using a modified gating scheme’. Working of this converter has been explained. Modeling and steady-state analysis of the converter using approximate complex ac circuit analysis method has been done. Various design curves have been obtained. A step-by-step design procedure has been illustrated with an example of a 200 W converter. PSIM simulation results for different operating conditions are presented. Experimental model of the designed converter has been built and the test results are given. Power loss breakdown analysis of the converter has been made. Zero-voltage switching (ZVS) is achieved for different input voltages, and load. This converter cell can be used in interleaved operation to realize higher power converters. The second topology presented in Chapter 4 is ‘a fixed-frequency controlled, 3-phase HF transformer isolated, integrated boost dual 3-phase bridge DC-DC LCL-type SRC with capacitive output filter’. Detailed modeling of the boost section and one of the two identical 3-phase inverter modules is presented. Analysis of the inverter module using approximate complex ac circuit analysis method is presented. Various design curves have been obtained. A step-by-step design procedure has been illustrated with an example of a 600 W converter. Detailed PSIM simulation results for different operating conditions are presented. Experimental model of the designed converter has been built and the test results are given. Power loss breakdown analysis has been made. Major advantage of this converter has been its ability to regulate the output voltage for wide variations in the input voltage and load, while maintaining ZVS for all the switches. Also, due to the parallel connection of the inverter modules the component stresses are significantly reduced. This encourages the converter to be used in high power applications such as wave energy. A 10 kW DC-DC converter cell of the second topology mentioned above has been designed to illustrate the design and working of a high power converter. Performance of the designed converter has been verified by PSIM simulations. This converter operates with ZVS for all the switches for a wide variation in the input voltage and the loading conditions. Power loss breakdown analysis has been performed. / Graduate

Due to the continuous power supply reduction, Charge Pumps, also referred to as DC-DC converters, circuits are widely used in integrated circuits (ICs) to generate high voltages for many applications, such as EEP-ROMs, Flash memories for programming and erasing of the floating gate, switched capacitor circuits, operational amplifiers, voltage regulators, LCD drivers, piezoelectricactuators, etc. A charge pump is a kind of DC to DC converter that uses capacitors as energy storage elements to create either a higher or lower voltage power source. The development of the charge pumps is motivated by ever increasing the needs for the small form factor (i.e small size and low weight), high-conversion-efficiency and low costpower management system, which is the best candidate suitable to meet the needs of continuosly shrinking portable electronic devices like MP3 players, cellular phones, PDA's. / text

In the modern world of technology, highly sophisticated electronic systems pave the way for future's information technology breakthroughs. However, rapid growth on complexity and functions in such systems has also been a harbinger for the power increase. Power management techniques have thus been introduced to mitigate this urgent power crisis. Switching power converters are considered to be the best candidate due to their high efficiency and voltage conversion flexibility. Moreover, switching power converter systems are highly nonlinear, discontinuous in time, and variable. This makes it viable over a wide operating range, under various load and line disturbances. However, only one control scheme cannot optimize the whole system in different scenarios. Hybrid control schemes are thus employed in the power converters to operate jointly and seamlessly for performance optimization during start-up, steady state and dynamic voltage/load transient state.In this dissertation, three switching power converter topologies, along with different hybrid control schemes are studied. First, an integrated switching buck converter with a dual-mode control scheme is proposed. A pulse-train (PT) control, employing a combination of four pulse control patterns, is proposed to achieve optimal regulation performance. Meanwhile, a high-frequency pulse-width modulation (PWM) control is adopted to ensure low output ripples and avoid digital limit cycling. Second, an integrated buck-boost converter with a tri-mode digital control is presented. It employs adaptive step-up/down voltage conversion to enable a wide range of output voltage. This is beneficial to ever-increasing dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) enabled, modern power-efficient VLSI systems. DVS adaptively adjusts the supply voltage and operation frequency according to instantaneous power and performance demand, such that a system is constantly operated at the lowest possible power level without compromising its performance. Third, a digital integrated single-inductor multiple-output (SIMO) converter, tailored for DVS-enabled multicore systems is addressed. With a multi-mode control algorithm, DVS tracking speed and line/load regulation are significantly improved, while the converter still retains low cross regulation.All three integrated CMOS DC-DC converters have been designed and fabricated successfully, demonstrating the techniques proposed in this research. The measurements results illustrate superior line and load regulation performances and dynamic response in all these designs.

This thesis aims to develop proposals and models for a modular electronics construction to a future D250S Dual battery charger. The aim also includes investigation of possibilities to use some of Texas Instruments C2000 microprocessors. The reason for this is that CTEK SWEDEN AB wants to renew the present D250S Dual battery charger and lower the manufacturing costs. The thesis work has involved gathering theoretical facts for the development of a design on the modular electronic construction, the choice on which microprocessor to use, the choice of electronic components and facts about peripheral equipment to the D250S Dual. With the theoretical there has been developed different solutions to the proposed hardware and software solutions with comparisons in aspects of positive and negative. The thesis work is only a feasibility study to a future D250S Dual. The development of a future D250S Dual needs more work to make it possible to do a proof of concept.

This work presents a new wireless Visible Light Communication lighting system targeted to future Smart Buildings. A digitally controlled LLC resonant dc-dc converter targeted to white LED luminaires is demonstrated. Visible Light Communication is implemented with minimal incremental cost, by operating the LLC converter in burst mode, without causing any visible disturbance. The converter operates with a regulated average LED current by adjusting the switching frequency, while the burst pulse timing is controlled to minimize the current disturbance and minimize the value of the output capacitor. Variable Pulse Position Modulation is used to modulate the data, while supporting a range of dimming settings. A digital demodulation scheme that supports variable frequency transmission is demonstrated. The 80 W, 400 V to 23 V converter experimental prototype has a peak efficiency of 93.8 %. The bit error rate of the complete system is fully characterized versus distance and angle.

With fast development of semiconductor industry, the transistors in microprocessors increase dramatically, which follows the Moore’s law. As a result, the operating voltages of the future microprocessors follow the trend of decreasing (sub 1V) while the demanding currents increase (higher than 100A). Furthermore, the high slew rates during the transient will reach 1200 A/us. All these impose a serious challenge on a Voltage Regulator (VR) or Voltage Regulator Module (VRM). In order to meet requirements of the next generation microprocessors, four new ideas are proposed in this thesis. The first contribution is an accurate analytical loss model of a power MOSFET with a Current-Source Driver (CSD). The impact of the parasitic components is investigated. Based on the proposed loss model, a general method to optimize the CSD is presented. With the proposed optimization method, the CSD improves the efficiency from 79.4% using the conventional voltage source driver to 83.6% at 12V input, 1.5V/30A output and 1MHz. The second contribution is a new continuous CSD for a synchronous buck converter. The proposed CSD is able to drive the control and Synchronous Rectifier (SR) MOSFETs independently with different drive currents enabling optimal design. At 12V input, 1.5 V/30A output and 1MHz, the proposed CSD improves the efficiency from 79.4% using a conventional voltage source driver to 83.9%. The third contribution is a new discontinuous CSD. The most important advantage of the new CSD is the small inductance (typically, 20nH at 1MHz switching frequency). A hybrid gate drive scheme for a synchronous buck converter is also proposed. The idea of the hybrid gate driver scheme is to use the CSD to achieve switching loss reduction for the control MOSFET, while use the conventional voltage source driver for the SR. At 12V input, 1.3V/25A output and 1MHz, the proposed CSD improves the efficiency from 80.7% using the voltage source driver to 85.4%. The final contribution is new self-driven zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) non-isolated full-bridge converters for 12V input VRM applications. The proposed converter achieves the duty cycle extension, ZVS operation and SRs gate energy recovery. At 12V input, 1.3V output and 1MHz, the proposed converter improves the efficiency from 80.7% using the buck converter to 83.6% at 50A. / Thesis (Ph.D, Electrical & Computer Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-23 08:59:12.699