Nanofibres are useful in a broad range of applications in areas such as medical science, food science, materials engineering, environmental engineering, and energy and electronics due to their outstanding characteristics: their small size, high surface-to-volume ratio, high porosity, and superior mechanical performance. Recently, controlled drug delivery systems have gained significant attention, especially with respect to the use of polymer nanofibres. For these systems, the ability to control of the length of the polymer nanofibre is important because the amount of drug released depends on the length of the fibre. Electrospinning is the simplest and most cost-effective method of fabricating polymer nanofibres. In the process, a high voltage is used to create an electrified jet which will eventually become a nanofibre. The electrified jet ejects when a high voltage is applied to the electrospinning setup. On the other hand, the jet does not eject when the applied voltage is below the threshold voltage. It is therefore possible to fabricate and chop nanofibres by controlling the values of the voltages applied and a special high-voltage pulsed power supply has been developed for this purpose. In this research, an IGBT-based pulsed power supply has been designed and built to be used for non-continuous-mode electrospinning. The IGBTs are connected in series to deliver high voltage pulse voltages to an electrospinning setup. The IGBT-based pulsed power supply is capable of producing controllable square pulses with a width of a few hundred microseconds to DC and amplitudes up to 10 kV. The technique of non-continuous-mode electrospinning was tested using the pulsed power supply designed in this work. The new system was able to fabricate and chop nanofibres with PEO and alginate/PEO solutions. It was concluded that the minimum pulse width that can initiate an electrified jet is approximately 80 ms for the parameters used in this study. A longer period produces a more constant jet during the pulse-on voltage when the duty ratio is the same value. It is also highly likely that a jet is always ejected during the pulse-on voltage when the duty ratio is more than 40 %.

Nanofibres are useful in a broad range of applications in areas such as medical science, food science, materials engineering, environmental engineering, and energy and electronics due to their outstanding characteristics: their small size, high surface-to-volume ratio, high porosity, and superior mechanical performance. Recently, controlled drug delivery systems have gained significant attention, especially with respect to the use of polymer nanofibres. For these systems, the ability to control of the length of the polymer nanofibre is important because the amount of drug released depends on the length of the fibre. Electrospinning is the simplest and most cost-effective method of fabricating polymer nanofibres. In the process, a high voltage is used to create an electrified jet which will eventually become a nanofibre. The electrified jet ejects when a high voltage is applied to the electrospinning setup. On the other hand, the jet does not eject when the applied voltage is below the threshold voltage. It is therefore possible to fabricate and chop nanofibres by controlling the values of the voltages applied and a special high-voltage pulsed power supply has been developed for this purpose. In this research, an IGBT-based pulsed power supply has been designed and built to be used for non-continuous-mode electrospinning. The IGBTs are connected in series to deliver high voltage pulse voltages to an electrospinning setup. The IGBT-based pulsed power supply is capable of producing controllable square pulses with a width of a few hundred microseconds to DC and amplitudes up to 10 kV. The technique of non-continuous-mode electrospinning was tested using the pulsed power supply designed in this work. The new system was able to fabricate and chop nanofibres with PEO and alginate/PEO solutions. It was concluded that the minimum pulse width that can initiate an electrified jet is approximately 80 ms for the parameters used in this study. A longer period produces a more constant jet during the pulse-on voltage when the duty ratio is the same value. It is also highly likely that a jet is always ejected during the pulse-on voltage when the duty ratio is more than 40 %.

The growing demand for high voltage, compact pulsed power supplies has gained great attention. It requires power supplies with high power density, low profile and high efficiency. In this thesis, topologies and techniques are investigated to meet and exceed these challenges. Non-isolation type topologies have been used for this application. Due to the high voltage stress of the output, non-isolation topologies will suffer severe loss problems. Extremely low switching frequency will lead to massive magnetic volume. For non-isolation topologies, PWM converters can achieve soft switching to increase switching frequency. However, for this application, due to the large voltage regulation range and high voltage transformer nonidealities, it is difficult to optimize PWM converters. Secondary diode reverse recovery is another significant issue for PWM techniques. Resonant converters can achieve ZCS or ZVS and result in very low switching loss, thus enabling power supplies to operate at high switching frequency. Furthermore, the PRC and LCC resonant converter can fully absorb the leakage inductance and parasitic capacitance. With a capacitive output filter, the secondary diode will achieve natural turn-off and overcome reverse recovery problems. With a three-level structure, low voltage MOSFETs can be applied for this application. Switching frequency is increased to 200 kHz. In this paper, the power factor concept for resonant converters is proposed and analyzed. Based on this concept, a new methodology to measure the performance of resonant converters is presented. The optimal design guideline is provided. A novel constant power factor control is proposed and studied. Based on this control scheme, the performance of the resonant converter will be improved significantly. Design trade-offs are analyzed and studied. The optimal design aiming to increase the power density is investigated. The parallel resonant converter is proven to be the optimum topology for this application. The power density of 31 W/inch3 can be achieved by using the PRC topology with the constant power factor control. / Master of Science

This dissertation proposes a high-power, high-frequency and high-density three-level parallel resonant converter for capacitor charging. DC-DC pulsed power converters are widely used in military and medical systems, where the power density requirement is often stringent. The primary means for reducing the power converter size has been to reduce loss for reduced cooling systems and to increase the frequency for reduced passive components. Three-level resonant converters, which combine the merits of the three-level structure and resonant converters, are an attractive topology for these applications. The three-level configuration allows for the use of lower-voltage-rating and faster devices, while the resonant converter reduces switching loss and enhances switching capability. This dissertation begins with an analysis of the influence of variations in the structure of the resonant tank on the transformer volume, with the aim of achieving a high power density three-level DC-DC converter. As one of the most bulky and expensive components in the power converter, the different positions of the transformer within the resonant tank cause significant differences in the transformer's volume and the voltage and current stress on the resonant elements. While it does not change the resonant converter design or performance, the improper selection of the resonant tank structure in regard to the transformer will offset the benefits gained by increasing the switching frequency, sometimes even making the power density even worse than the power density when using a low switching frequency. A methodology based on different structural variations is proposed for a high-density design, as well as an optimized charging profile for transformer volume reduction. The optimal charging profile cannot be perfectly achieved by a traditional output-voltage based variable switching frequency control, which either needs excess margin to guarantee ZVS, or delivers maximum power with the danger of losing ZVS. Moreover, it cannot work for widely varied input voltages. The PLL is introduced to overcome these issues. With PLL charging control, the power can be improved by 10% with a narrow frequency range. The three-level structure in particular suffers unbalanced voltage stress in some abnormal conditions, and a fault could easily destroy the system due to minimized margin. Based on thoroughly analysis on the three-level behaviors for unbalanced voltage stress phenomena and fault conditions, a novel protection scheme based on monitoring the flying capacitor voltage is proposed for the three-level structure, as well as solutions to some abnormal conditions for unbalanced voltage stresses. A protection circuit is designed to achieve the protection scheme. A final prototype, built with a custom-packed MOSFET module, a SiC Schottky diode, a nanocrystalline core transformer with an integrated resonant inductor, and a custom-designed oil-cooled mica capacitor, achieves a breakthrough power density of 140W/in3 far beyond the highest-end power density reported (<100 W/in3) in power converter applications. / Ph. D.

Ce projet de recherche s’inscrit dans le parcours international de la maitrise de Physique (option plasma) de l’Université de Montréal en collaboration avec l’Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse (France). Il concerne la caractérisation des décharges électriques (Sparks) dans les liquides diélectriques et ses applications dans la synthèse de nanoparticules. L’objectif est d’amélioré la connaissance des conditions de formation des nanoparticules. Cela implique de caractériser l’ensemble du système expérimental et de développer sa métrologie d’une part, et d’autre part d’obtenir l’évolution des paramètres plasma lors de la synthèse. Dans un premier temps, sur le site du LAPLACE (UMR5213), Toulouse, il a fallu développer une alimentation électrique impulsionnelle destinée à réaliser des décharges dans les liquides. En se basant sur un dispositif existant qui fût amélioré, le fonctionnement a été caractérisé du point de vue électrique (courant - tension). L’application à la synthèse de nanoparticules a été ensuite abordée pour différentes conditions expérimentales, en considérant l’aspect énergétique (bilan d’énergie, caractéristiques de la décharge…). Les travaux se sont poursuivis à l’Université de Montréal, où un circuit électrique équivalent du système expérimental est réalisé afin de visualiser l’évolution temporelle des paramètres plasma (température et densité électronique) en fonction des paramètres électriques choisis. Aussi, la synthèse de nanoparticules de Co et Ni par la décharge a été évaluée et les nanoparticules formées sont caractérisées à l’aide du microscope électronique à Transmission de Polytechnique Montréal. / This research project is part of the international master's program in Physics (plasma option) between Université de Montréal and Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse (France). It concerns the synthesis of nanoparticles by pulsed electrical discharges in liquids. The objective is to develop the synthesis process while improving the knowledge of the formation conditions of nanoparticles. This involves characterizing the entire experimental system and developing its metrology on the one hand, and on the other hand obtaining the evolution of plasma parameters during synthesis. Initially, at the LAPLACE lab (UMR5213), Toulouse, it was necessary to develop a pulsed electrical supply to produce discharges in liquids. Based on an existing device that, after being improved, the discharge process is characterized from the electrical point of view (current, voltage). The application of the device in the synthesis of nanoparticles was tested under different experimental conditions, considering the energy aspect (energy balance, characteristics of the discharge, etc.). The second part was conducted at Université de Montréal, where the synthesized nanoparticles are characterized using the transmission electron microscope of Polytechnique Montreal. Also, the electrical circuit equivalent to the experimental system was determined to visualize the time evolution of the plasma parameters (Temperature and Electron Density) based on the electrical characteristics.