Rapidly-increasing medium-voltage power electronics applications in emerging industry systems, including electrical ships, more electric aircraft, and microgrids, have emphasized the critical need for highly energy-efficient, reliable, and fast switching devices. As a result, Wide-Bandgap (WBG) devices have gained considerable interest over conventional silicon-based switches in recent years. For example, emerging WBG devices have unlocked new dimensions for modern motor drive systems with increased efficiency, switching frequency, and superior power density. Commercially-developed WBG devices such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) offer promising opportunities to meet those pressing requirements. However, the fast switching operation of WBG devices may cause substantially increased EMI emissions in medium-voltage applications, which can decrease the overall system’s performance or merits of power converters. This will be particularly an issue in a system where electric ground is unavailable, such as an electric ship, as a large Electro-Magnetic Interference current will be circulating within the system. The EMI in the WBG switch module will be emitted up to 500 MHz. This is the near radio-frequency (RF) band whose impact had not been clearly understood or properly analyzed in the power electronics field until recently. With new and critical challenges in recent years, to reliably adopt WBG devices in emerging power systems, there has been significant effort to improve electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) with new EMI mitigation techniques that comply with existing standards, including International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Department of Defense (DOD), International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC), etc. This research investigates the common-mode EMI in networked power electronics-enabled power systems. Common-mode EMI phase information is a vital degree of freedom in EMI study that has not been considered in the state of the art. The EMI phase information reduces EMI without implementing any active or passive filter circuit. An effective and less complex method is introduced to reduce EMI in power electronics network. The work includes developing hybrid filter with passive and virtual filter. Including virtual filter reduces the passive common mode choke weight and volume significantly. Finally, a simplified switching node capacitance characterization technique for packaged WBG SiC has been introduced.

An approach with ¡§consecutive orthogonal arrays (COA)¡¨ is proposed for solving the problems in designing power electronic circuits. This approach is conceptually based on the orthogonal array method, which has been successfully implemented in quality engineering. The circuit parameters to be determined are assigned as the controlled variables of the orthogonal arrays. Incorporating with the inferential rules, the average effects of each control variable levels are used as the indices to determine the control variable levels of the subsequent orthogonal array. By manipulating on COA, circuit parameters with the desired circuit performances can be found from an effectively reduced number of numerical calculations or experimental tests. In this dissertation, the method with COA is implemented on solving four problems often encountered in the design of power electronic circuits. The first problem one has to deal with is to find a combination with the best performance from a great number of analyzed results. The illustrative example is the design of LC passive filters. Using COA method, the desired component values of the filter can be effectively and efficiently found with far fewer calculations. The second design problem arises from the non-linearity of circuit. An experienced engineer may be able to figure out circuit parameters with satisfactory performance based on their pre-knowledge on the circuit. Nevertheless, they are always questioned whether a better choice can be made. The typical case is the self-excited resonant electronic ballast with the non-linear characteristics of the saturated transformer and the power transistor storage-time. In this case, the average effects of COA obtained from experimental tests are used as the observational indexes to search a combination of circuit parameters for the desired lamp power. The third problem is that circuit functions are mutually exclusive. The designers are greatly perplexed to decide the circuit parameters, with which all functions should be met at the same time. The method with COA is applied to design a filter circuit to achieve the goals of low EMI noise and high power factor simultaneously. Finally, one has to cope with the effects of the uncontrolled variables, such as: ambient temperature, divergence among different manufacturers, and used hours. By applying COA with inferential rules, electronic ballasts can be robustly designed to operate fluorescent lamps at satisfied performance under the influence of these uncontrolled variables.

The challenge to put power electronics on the same cost reduction spiral as integrated signal electronics has yet to be met. In the ongoing work for achieving complete power electronic converter integration, it has proven to be essential to develop a technology for integration of electromagnetic power passives. This integration will enable the incorporation of resonant circuits, transformers, EMI filters and the like into the integrated power electronics modules. These integrated electromagnetic power passives have been realized in terms of distributed structures, utilizing magnetic layers, conductive layers and dielectric layers. Because of the compact structures and the special implementation techniques of these integrated modules, the high frequency parasitic resonance are normally significant and may have negative impact on the performance and EMI characteristics. However, the existing modeling technique can only predict the fundamental resonant frequency and showed neither the causes of the high frequency resonance nor how to calculate those accurately. In this dissertation, comprehensive research work towards higher order electromagnetic modeling of integrated passive components is presented. Firstly, an L-C cell is identified as the basic building block of integrated passives such as an integrated series resonator. As an essential mistake in the structure evolution process of the original resonant transmission line primitive, the well-known conventional transmission line equivalent circuit as well as the equations are not applicable for the unbalanced current in an integrated passive module. For this particular application, a generalized transmission structure theory that applies to both balanced and unbalanced current has to be developed. The impedances of a generalized transmission structure with various loads and interconnections have been studied. An open-circuited load and a short-circuited load lead to series resonance and parallel resonance, respectively. The equations are substantiated with experimental results. Some preliminary study indicates the advantages of this unbalanced current passives integration technique. Since the existing integrated passive components are no other than some combination of this generalized transmission line primitive, the theoretical analysis may be applied to the further modeling of all integrated passive components. As the extension of the generalized two-conductor transmission structure model developed for the two-conductor approach, the generalized multi-conductor transmission structure theory has been proposed. As multiple L-C cells are putting in parallel, magnetic and capacitive coupling between cells cannot be neglected. To determine the capacitance between two adjacent conductors on top of the same dielectric substrate, Schwarz-Christoffel transformation and its inverse transformation have been applied with the calculation results verified by measurement. Based on the original voltage and current equations written in matrix form, modal analysis has been conducted to solve the equations. All these provide the basis for any further modeling of an integrated passive structure. Based on the basic L-C cell structure, this dissertation proposes an alternative multi-cell approach to the integration of reactive components and establishes the principles for its design and operation. It achieves the 3-D integration and has a PCB-mount chip-like structure which may have the potential to be more manufacturable, modularizable and mechanically robust. Different functional equivalents can be obtained by different PCB interconnections. The experimental results confirm the functionality as integrated reactive components for applications such as high frequency resonators. To apply the multi-conductor generalized transmission structure model to practical integrated passives structures, three typical cases have been studied: spiral-winding structure integrated series resonator, multi-cell structure integrated series resonator and integrated RF EMI filter. All these structures can be treated as one or more multi-conductor transmission structures connected in certain patterns. Different connection patterns only determine the voltage and current boundary conditions with which the equations can be solved. After obtaining the voltages and currents at each point, the impedance or transfer gain of a structure can be obtained. The MATLAB calculation results correlate well with the measurement results. The calculation sensitivities with respect to variation of various parameters are also discussed and causes of resonance at different frequency range are identified. The proposed generalized transmission structure model based on matrix modal analysis is rather complex and takes a lot of computer time especially when the number of turns is large. Furthermore, the operating frequency of an integrated resonant module is normally around its 1st resonant frequency and up to the 2nd resonant frequency. Therefore, a more simplistic higher order lumped element model which covers the operating range up to the 2nd resonant frequency may be good enough for the general design purpose. A higher order equivalent circuit model for integrated series resonant modules as an example of integrated power passives is presented in this dissertation. Inter-winding capacitance is also considered compared to the conventional 1st order approximation model. This model has been verified by small-signal test results and can be easily implemented into the design algorithm as part of the high frequency design considerations. The wide band modeling and proposed new structure mentioned above provide a comprehensive basis for better design of integrated passive components. As a general frequency plane modeling approach, the work presented in this dissertation may be extended to other passive structures, such as multi-layer capacitors, planar magnetics, etc.. / Ph. D.

The continual development of high-power-density power electronic converters is driven particularly by modern transportation applications like electrical vehicles and more electric aircraft where the space and carrier capability is limited. However, there are several challenges related to transportation applications such as fault tolerance for safety concern, high temperature operation in extreme environments and more strict electromagnetic compatibility requirement. These challenges will increase difficulties for more electrical system adoption in the transportation applications. In this dissertation, comprehensive methodologies including more efficient energy storage solution, better power electronics devices capability, better packaging performance and more compact EMI filter design are analyzed and proposed for the goal of high power density converter design in transportation applications. / Ph. D.

L'autonomie moyenne des voitures électriques commercialisées actuellement reste limitée par rapport aux véhicules thermiques. Pour pallier ce problème, la capacité de la batterie peut être augmentée ou bien la charge peut être facilitée en réduisant le temps de charge et ceci en augmentant la puissance de charge.L'infrastructure de charge rapide de type DC étant encore limitée, un progrès considérable consiste à embarquer le chargeur dans le véhicule en réutilisant tout, ou une partie de l'électronique de puissance déjà disponible pour propulser le véhicule. Le chargeur est alors nommé chargeur intégré.Au cours des dernières années, plusieurs chargeurs intégrés ont été proposés, mais peu d'entre eux ont été industrialisés vue qu'ils présentent des inconvénients que l'on cherchera à surmonter ou réduire.Dans le cadre de cette thèse notre objectif principal est donc de concevoir une nouvelle topologie de convertisseur permettant la charge de la batterie à moindre coût.Plusieurs idées permettant l'innovation sont proposées et une solution répondant au mieux au cahier de charges est retenue. Cette topologie est étudiée en détails (contrôle, dimensionnement, harmoniques, CEM, etc.). Finalement un prototype est réalisé pour valider le concept proposé. / To date, the range autonomy of most electric vehicles is still lower than conventional fuel based vehicles and charging times are significantly longer. To overcome this problem, battery capacity could be increased but more importantly high power fast charging should be accessible everywhere.The widespread deployment of public DC fast charging stations is still difficult to achieve. So, in order to have a better spreading of the charge spots and a better coverage, it is also necessary for the vehicle to be charged from an on-board charger that could be plugged into three-phase AC power outlets.Furthermore, because the battery is charged only when the car is parked -except for regeneration at braking-, using the on-board traction system components to form an integrated charging device is possible. This kind of topology is called an integrated charger which allows designing a charger small enough to be embedded in a vehicle at an affordable cost.Several non-isolated on-board integrated charging topologies are proposed in this thesis and the one that best meets some predefined specifications is selected. This topology is studied in details and validated by simulation software. A laboratory prototype is also built to verify the performance of this multi-purpose traction/charger converter.

Five chapters of this dissertation concentrate on the characterization and cancellation of high frequency parasitic parameters in EMI filters. One chapter addresses the interaction between the power interconnects and the parasitic parameters in EMI filters. The last chapter addresses the characterization, evaluation and design of noise separators. Both theoretical and experimental analyses are applied to each topic. This dissertation tries to explore several important issues related to EMI filters and noise separators. The author wishes to find some helpful approaches to benefit the understanding and design of EMI filters. The contributions of the dissertation can be summarized below: 1) Identification of mutual couplings and their effects on EMI filter performance 2) Extraction of mutual couplings using scattering parameters 3) Cancellation of mutual couplings to improve EMI filter performance 4) Cancellation of equivalent series inductance to improve capacitor performance 5) Analysis of mode transformations due to the imperfectly balanced parameters in EMI filters 6) Analysis of interaction between power interconnects and EMI filters on filter high-frequency performance 7) Modeling and design of high-performance noise separator for EMI diagnosis 8) Identification of the effects of parasitics in boost PFC inductor on DM noise Although all topics are supported by both theory and experiments, there may still be some mistakes in the dissertation. The author welcomes any advice and comments. Please send them via email to shuowang@ieee.org. Thanks / Ph. D.

Depuis une bonne dizaine d'année, l'aéronautique a entamé sa mutation vers le "plus électrique".L'objectif étant de réduire la consommation de carburant, une des contraintes majeures de ces nouvelles solutions est de réduire la masse embarquée. Les filtres dimensionnés pour les convertisseurs statiques doivent donc être optimisés au mieux vis-à-vis de ce critère, ainsi que du volume. Il y a donc un fort besoin du côté des concepteurs d’avions de savoir quels choix parmi les différentes possibilités technologiques sont optimaux, et de connaître l'impact de ces choix sur le poids, le coût global et le volume de l'équipement. Le filtre CEM représente généralement environ 30% du coût et du volume d'un convertisseur électronique de puissance. Il va de soi que le volume et/ou la masse de ces filtres doit être optimisé. L'impact de la loi de commande du convertisseur, le choix des semi-conducteurs, du packaging, câbles (longueur et intégration dans l’avion), des machines électriques,...doivent être parfaitement connus pour atteindre un dimensionnement optimal.Dans cette perspective, les objectifs de ces travaux de thèse visent à fournir non seulement une démarche méthodologique pour la modélisation haute fréquence des variateurs de vitesse dédiés aux applications aéronautiques mais aussi une approche de dimensionnement par optimisation des filtres CEM. Pour cela, un outil logiciel évolutif d’aide à la génération rapide des modèles CEM est proposé. Une description modulaire et une mise en équation automatique du modèle fréquentiel complet ainsi que des gradients en facilitent l'utilisation en procédures d’optimisation sous contraintes. L’approche présentée dans ces travaux est relativement générique : la topologie du filtre, de la structure du convertisseur, du câblage et la loi de commande peuvent être facilement recalculées, grâce à cet environnement logiciel. / The More Electrical Aircraft concept is very promising regarding energy saves, but generates new problems, and especially the emergence of new power electronics loads on the electrical network. Keeping the same level of safety in the aircraft means developing these switching mode converters in accordance with the aircraft standards, as the DO160. This is not obvious since weights of equipments are especially constrained: indeed, the objective of weight and energy save needs to be balanced with the additional weight and volume of the required EMI filters. There is thus a strong need in helping the aircraft designers to choose among the various technological possibilities, and to know the impact of these choices on the global weight, cost and volume of the embedded equipments. The EMI filter usually represents roughly 30% of the cost and volume of a power electronics converter, and it is very important to optimize it. The impact of the converter control law, semiconductors choice, interconnects realization, harness selection and placement, electrical motors characteristics… should be perfectly known in order to reach a good system design. In this perspective, the objectives of this thesis are to provide not only an approach for modelling high frequency variable speed drives dedicated to aerospace applications but also a methodology to optimize the required EMI filters. For this purpose, new architecture software dedicated to the rapid generation of EMC models is proposed. A modular description and a complete automatic model generation facilitate the use by the designer in optimization procedures thanks to automatic gradient computation.The methodology presented in this work is not specifically developed for a given application. It is a very generic approach: the topology of the filter, the structure of the inverters, interconnects and the control law can be easily recalculated, using this software environment. Consequently, the impact of all these elements on the electromagnetic disturbances can be characterized, and the EMI filter optimized.