In an ideal world, unwanted or undesirable effects in a system could and would be completely ignored. In fact, this was the case in mid-80s' PC design when an 80286 microprocessor running at a "blazing" 12 MHz was considered leading-edge technology. As technology continued to push the envelope and ever-faster designs were realized, more demanding software packages were developed and utilized efficiently. These increasingly sophisticated software packages in turn allowed designers of all disciplines to test systems of escalating complexity. These more complex models placed a heavier burden on the hardware, prompting a push for better and faster hardware designs. The cycle repeats to this day. As such, we are now in an environment where a 1 GHz microprocessor is considered somewhat dated. More importantly, whereas a small 1 nH (1 billionth of a Henry) inductance in a power delivery path was considered inconsequential a decade ago, it is now a barrier to implementing a design. Similarly, the equivalent series inductance (ESL) of a capacitor plays an increasing (and detrimental) role in the behavior and design of today's VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) design. In fact, it is the ESL of the capacitor that hinders proper voltage regulation at high frequencies by increasing the output impedance beyond a desired level. This dilemma has been recognized and several topologies have been proposed to overcome this problem. One category is improved passive devices, with the latest involving array capacitors to achieve near-zero ESL. As passive devices are almost always preferable to active solutions due to their lower losses, these technologies hold great promise, though they are inherently limited in small-footprint applications. A second category is the addition of active devices, which involves the use of some filtering technique to inject or absorb current during a fast transient by the use of semiconductor switches connected to a power source. These switching-state topologies have been shown to be prone to unstable oscillations, often caused by over-reactions or over-corrections of one transient prompting the opposite switch to engage its power source. The research goal is to develop a methodology to use active filters to more-seamlessly extend the control bandwidth of today's VRM technology. A hybrid active power filter is developed which uses bipolar junction transistors (BJT) in the forward-active region to connect a power supply source to the microprocessor. In this way, the switches are used in a way analogous to a dimmer switch (vs. simply 'on' or 'off'). By proper design of the compensator in the feedback loop, the active power filter can be used to suppress transients in any desired frequency range, limited only by the amplifier's current rating and bandwidth. The compensator design's derivation shows the relationship to the output impedance of the active filter. In essence, we are 'designing' a capacitor with a very low ESL, having more desirable output impedance vs. frequency relationship than either a capacitor, or a more complicated VRM with an extended bandwidth. Using this design, however, at very high frequencies (i.e., approaching 1 GHz, or one trillion cycles per second) requires state-of-the-art packaging designs to limit unwanted impedances, and also an ultra-wide GHz bandwidth, high-current operational amplifier. Both of these barriers are outside the scope of this research. As is often the case in research efforts, we have not '˜solved' the problem, but have shifted it to a frequency range where the effect isn't problematic. Experimental results show the use of a hybrid power filter with a VRM with Adaptive Voltage Positioning (AVP) can significantly suppress voltage undershoot during fast transient load current changes. In addition, the design is modified to reduce and possibly eliminate bulk output capacitors. This provides a promising alternative to a Voltage Regulator Module with a very high control bandwidth. Lastly, simulations give an estimate of the required IC design to use an APF to augment packaging capacitors. / Master of Science

In response to energy crisis and power quality concerns, three different methodologies to integrate the concept of active filtering into the alternators are proposed. Wind energy, due to its free availability and its clean and renewable character, ranks as the most promising renewable energy resource that could play a key role in solving the worldwide energy crisis. An Integrated Doubly-fed Electric Alternator/Active filter (IDEA) for wind energy conversion systems is proposed. The proposed IDEA is capable of simultaneous capturing maximum power of wind energy and improving power quality, which are achieved by canceling the most significant and troublesome harmonics of the utility grid and power factor correction and reactive power compensation in the grid. The back-to-back current regulated power converters are employed to excite the rotor of IDEA. The control strategy of rotor-side power converter is based on position sensoreless field oriented control method with higher power density. Analysis and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed IDEA. In next step, an integrated synchronous machine/active filter is discussed. The proposed technology is essentially a rotating synchronous machine with suitable modification to its field excitation circuit to allow dc and ac excitations. It is shown that by controlling the ac excitation, the 5th and 7th harmonics currents of the utility are compensated. The proposed method is cost effective because it can be applied to existing standby generators in commercial and industrial plants with minimal modification to the excitation circuits. To boost the gain of harmonic compensatory, an advanced electric machine is proposed. An Asymmetric Airgap Concentrated Winding Synchronous Machine (AACWSM) with ac and dc excitation was designed and employed. It is shown that the AACWSM with its unique design, in addition to power generation capability, could be used to compensate the most dominant current harmonics of the utility. The proposed AACWSM can compensate for the 5th and 7th harmonics currents in the grid by controlling the ac field excitation. In addition, the 11th and 13th harmonics currents are also significantly reduced. This system can be used at medium and low voltages for generation or motoring mode of operation.

Due to the drastic development of semiconductor, nonlinear loads are widely used in high-power applications, which results in harmonic distortion of current and voltage in the power system. Installation of passive filter is one of the conventional solutions to harmonic distortion. But line impedance, load inductors and/or filter components may result in harmonic resonance, which amplifies the harmonic components, and worsens the harmonic distortion and power quality. This thesis proposed a control algorithm of shunt hybrid active filter to suppress the harmonics and prevent harmonic resonance in industrial facilities. The hybrid active filter is composed of an active filter and a seventh-harmonic frequency tuned passive filter. The hybrid active filter functions as damping conductance for harmonic frequencies. A dynamical tuning control is realized to adjust the damping conductance for maintaining the voltage harmonic distortion. The suppressed harmonic distortion is conformed to the harmonics limitation, such as IEEE std. 519-1992. The capacitors of the hybrid filter sustain fundamental grid voltage and allow the inverter to operate in lower kVA rating. In addition, a dc bus controller was designed to hold the capacitor voltage by controlling the fundamental leading current. The simulations and laboratory results are provided to verify the effectiveness on suppressing harmonic resonance.

In response to energy crisis and power quality concerns, three different methodologies to integrate the concept of active filtering into the alternators are proposed. Wind energy, due to its free availability and its clean and renewable character, ranks as the most promising renewable energy resource that could play a key role in solving the worldwide energy crisis. An Integrated Doubly-fed Electric Alternator/Active filter (IDEA) for wind energy conversion systems is proposed. The proposed IDEA is capable of simultaneous capturing maximum power of wind energy and improving power quality, which are achieved by canceling the most significant and troublesome harmonics of the utility grid and power factor correction and reactive power compensation in the grid. The back-to-back current regulated power converters are employed to excite the rotor of IDEA. The control strategy of rotor-side power converter is based on position sensoreless field oriented control method with higher power density. Analysis and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed IDEA. In next step, an integrated synchronous machine/active filter is discussed. The proposed technology is essentially a rotating synchronous machine with suitable modification to its field excitation circuit to allow dc and ac excitations. It is shown that by controlling the ac excitation, the 5th and 7th harmonics currents of the utility are compensated. The proposed method is cost effective because it can be applied to existing standby generators in commercial and industrial plants with minimal modification to the excitation circuits. To boost the gain of harmonic compensatory, an advanced electric machine is proposed. An Asymmetric Airgap Concentrated Winding Synchronous Machine (AACWSM) with ac and dc excitation was designed and employed. It is shown that the AACWSM with its unique design, in addition to power generation capability, could be used to compensate the most dominant current harmonics of the utility. The proposed AACWSM can compensate for the 5th and 7th harmonics currents in the grid by controlling the ac field excitation. In addition, the 11th and 13th harmonics currents are also significantly reduced. This system can be used at medium and low voltages for generation or motoring mode of operation.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in moving away from large centralized power generation toward distributed energy resources. Solar energy generation presents several benefits for use as a distributed energy resource, especially as a peaking power source. One drawback of solar energy sources is the need for energy storage for the system to be utilized for a significant percentage of the day. One way of avoiding adding energy storage to a solar generation system while still maintaining high system utilization is to design the power conversion subsystem to also provide harmonic and reactive compensation. When the sun is unavailable for generation, the system hardware can still be utilized to correct for harmonic and reactive currents on the distribution system. This system's dual-purpose operation solves both the power generation need, and helps to improve the growing problem of harmonic and reactive pollution of the distribution system. A control method is proposed for a system that provides approximately 1 kW of solar generation as well as up to 10 kVA of harmonic and reactive compensation simultaneously. The current control for the active was implemented with the synchronous reference frame method. The system and controller was designed and simulated. The harmonic and reactive compensation part of the system was built and tested experimentally. Due to the delay inherent in the control system from the sensors, calculation time, and power stage dynamics, the system was unable to correct for higher order harmonics. To allow the system to correct for all of the harmonics of concern, a hybrid passive - active approach was investigated by placing a set of inductors in series with the AC side of the load. A procedure was developed for properly sizing the inductors based on the harmonic residuals with the compensator in operation. / Master of Science

This thesis presents a new output passive filter for voltage source inverter applications which is based on a shunt connected single tuned filter topology. The proposed circuit has the advantage of tracing harmonic components wherever its location in the frequency spectrum. The change in the harmonic location might be as a result of a change in the inverter operating frequency. Also, the proposed filter achieves harmonic reduction close to the traditional single tuned passive filter. In order to show the superiority of the proposed model, a comparison is introduced with other self tuning harmonic filters showing merits and drawbacks of each technique. The proposed circuit (when integrated in square wave inverter) has also shown a tremendous reduction in the switching losses in comparison with high frequency Pulse Width Modulation inverter. Mathematical analyses showing the design of the proposed filter together with extensive simulation results to verify the design are also introduced. The practical implementation of the system is presented and the results show excellent agreement with the theory and simulation. In order to appreciate the proposed filter a new method for classifying passive power filters is introduced. The review includes a comparison of these configurations showing their merit and drawbacks.

<p>The first part of this thesis contains a literature study of current tuning techniques for continuous-time integrated filters. These tuning methods are characterised by which quantity they measure, their dependence on certain characteristics of the input signal, or matching of components on chip. The structure of the different tuning schemes are explained. The merits and drawbacks as well as achieved accuracies of previous works are summarised. </p><p>The second part is a study of wave active filters (WAFs), a less common structure for implementing active filters. In this structure the filter is realised by simulating the forward and reflected voltage waves present in the prototype filter. The main advantage of this is that the inherent low sensitivity of doubly terminated ladder-filters is better preserved than in many other structures. Two Mosfet-C realisations of Wave Active Filters have been suggested and high-level simulations have been used to compare them to the originally proposed implementation as well as a leapfrog implementation.</p>

The deterioration in power quality due to the increase in non linear loads has sparked a new interest in the filtering techniques used in transmission and distribution systems. Unlike passive filters, active filters are adaptable to rapidly changing source impedance and provide the necessary harmonic compensation for varying non-linear loads. This thesis models a Voltage Source Converter (VSC) based shunt active filter (SAF) to filter harmonics due to large non linear loads. SAF compensates the harmonics by injecting a compensating current which is equal in magnitude but opposite in phase to the disturbance in the system. The power circuit of this SAF consists of a three-phase VSC and the switching signals for this converter is generated by hysteresis based current modulation method. The controller uses the sinusoidal current control strategy of the generalized instantaneous p-q control theory to calculate the reference compensating current. Proposed SAF is simulated using EMTP-RV simulation package under steady state and dynamic conditions and its effectiveness in mitigating harmonics is tested. The stability and response of the SAF is also tested satisfactorily under transient load and severe AC / DC fault conditions. / UOIT

The first part of this thesis contains a literature study of current tuning techniques for continuous-time integrated filters. These tuning methods are characterised by which quantity they measure, their dependence on certain characteristics of the input signal, or matching of components on chip. The structure of the different tuning schemes are explained. The merits and drawbacks as well as achieved accuracies of previous works are summarised. The second part is a study of wave active filters (WAFs), a less common structure for implementing active filters. In this structure the filter is realised by simulating the forward and reflected voltage waves present in the prototype filter. The main advantage of this is that the inherent low sensitivity of doubly terminated ladder-filters is better preserved than in many other structures. Two Mosfet-C realisations of Wave Active Filters have been suggested and high-level simulations have been used to compare them to the originally proposed implementation as well as a leapfrog implementation.

DNA detection has an increasing importance in our everyday lives, with applications ranging from microbial diagnostics to forensic analysis. Currently, as the associated costs decrease, DNA diagnostic techniques are routinely used not only in research laboratories, but also in clinical and forensic practice. The present thesis aims to unravel the potential of cellulose filter paper to be a viable candidate for DNA array support. There are two papers in this study. In Paper I, we studied the method of functionalizing the surface of filter paper and the possibility to detect DNA on acitve paper using fluorescence. In Paper II, we investigated visualization and throughput of DNA detection with magnetic beads on active filter papers, an assay which requires no instrumentation (scanner). The findings in Paper I show that XG-NH2 and PDITC can functionalize the cellulose filter paper and that the activated filter papers can covalently bind oligonucleotides modified with amino groups to detect DNA. The detection limit of the assay is approximately 0.2 pmol. In Paper II, visualization of DNA detection on active paper is achieved without instrumentation, based on the natural color of magnetic beads. Furthermore, successful multiplex detection supports the potential to increase the throughput of DNA detection on active papers. In summary, these studies show that active cellulose filter paper is a good DNA array support candidate as it provides a user-friendly and cost-efficient DNA detection assay. The methods described in Paper I and II are possible sources of development to a point-of-care device for on-site analysis of DNA contents in a sample. / <p>QC 20131111</p>