The core used to build power inductors and transformers are soft magnetic materials. When there is alternating external field, the magnetic moments rotate and consume energy, which is the core loss. The core loss depends on the AC flux frequency, amplitude, waveform, DC bias and temperature. These dependences are nonlinear and difficult to predict. How to measure, model and analyze the core loss is a challenge for decades. In this dissertation, two new core loss measurement methods are introduced first. These two methods use the reactive cancellation concept to reduce the sensitivity to phase discrepancy, which will destroy the accuracy in classic two-winding method for high frequency high quality factor sample measurements. By using the new measurement techniques the accuracy can be improved by several orders. The first is for sinusoidal waveforms, and the second is for non-sinusoidal wave. The new methods enable high frequency core loss characterization capability, which will help scientists and engineers on material research and inductor/transformer design. Measurement examples, considerations and error analysis are demonstrated and discussed in detail. With the measurement techniques, the core loss under rectangular AC voltage and DC bias current are investigated. A new core loss model named rectangular extension Steinmetz equation (RESE) is proposed based on the measurement results. The new model is shown to be more accurate than the existing core loss models. Several commercially available MnZn ferrites are characterized and modeled. Other than conventional MnZn ferrite materials, three commercial LTCC ferrite materials are characterized for integrated power supply applications. Based on characterized properties of these LTCCs, a group of new LTCC ferrites are fabricated and tested. The new LTCC is fabricated by laminating commercial LTCC tapes and co-firing. The new LTCC is demonstrated to have over 50% more inductance over the commercial LTCC materials. This work indicates that the power electronics engineers should work with material engineers to get the optimum material for a given application. In the last part, the core loss of the partially saturated lateral flux planar inductor is analyzed. The challenge of the analysis is the complexity of the distribution of bias field and flux density in a highly biased planar inductor. Each point in the core is working at different excitation and bias condition, and the core loss density is very non-uniform. The proposed method combines the characterization tested in previous chapters and the commercial finite element tool. Experiments verified that the calculation errors are within about 10%. In conclusion, the research in this dissertation proposed a complete solution to measure, model and analyze the high frequency core loss. This solution will not only facilitate fundamental research on physics understanding and material innovation, but also development of power electronics and RF applications. / Ph. D.

The wind energy conversion system considered in this thesis is based on a vertical axis wind turbine with a cable wound direct drive PM generator. Diode rectifiers are used to connect several such units to a single DC-bus and a single inverter controls the power flow from the DC-bus to a utility grid. This work considers the described system from a generator perspective i.e. the turbine is primarily seen as a torque and the inverter is seen as a controlled load. A 12 kW VAWT prototype with a single turbine has been constructed within the project. The power coefficient of this turbine has been measured when the turbine is operated at various tip speed ratios. This measurement determines both how much energy the turbine can convert in a given wind and at what speed the turbine should be operated in order to maximise the energy capture. The turbine torque variation during the revolution of the turbine has also been studied. A PM generator prototype has been constructed in order to study power loss in the stator core at low electrical frequencies. Heat exchange between the stator and the air-gap between the stator and the rotor has been studied. Heat exchange between the stator and the air-gap is increased by turbulence caused by the rotor. The generator was also used in a demonstration of a DC-grid where two diode rectified PM generators supplied power to a single DC load.  An initial study of an inverter suitable for grid connection of the 12 kW PM generator has been performed. Several turbine control strategies are evaluated in simulations. The control strategies only require the parameter "turbine speed" to determine the optimal system load.

No description available.

Thermal modeling is an important aspect of electric motor design. Numerous techniques exist to predict the temperatures in a motor, and they can be incorporated in the design of a thermal model for a new type of electric motor. This work discusses the available modeling techniques and determines which methods are applicable for medium-sized motors with either natural convection or forced convective cooling over irregular geometry. A time-dependant thermal model, with thermal transport parameters based upon geometric and simplified air flow information, is developed based on a discrete lumped parameter model with several modifications to improve accuracy. The model was completed with the aid of nine experiments, and the result is a thermal model that exhibits an absolute error of less than 6.1??C for the nine test runs at three different currents between 8.4 A rms and 28.2 A rms and three cooling levels, natural, 10.7 CFM and 24.4 CFM.

abstract: As the world becomes more electronic, power electronics designers have continuously designed more efficient converters. However, with the rising number of nonlinear loads (i.e. electronics) attached to the grid, power quality concerns, and emerging legislation, converters that intake alternating current (AC) and output direct current (DC) known as rectifiers are increasingly implementing power factor correction (PFC) by controlling the input current. For a properly designed PFC-stage inductor, the major design goals include exceeding minimum inductance, remaining below the saturation flux density, high power density, and high efficiency. In meeting these goals, loss calculation is critical in evaluating designs. This input current from PFC circuitry leads to a DC bias through the filter inductor that makes accurate core loss estimation exceedingly difficult as most modern loss estimation techniques neglect the effects of a DC bias. This thesis explores prior loss estimation and design methods, investigates finite element analysis (FEA) design tools, and builds a magnetics test bed setup to empirically determine a magnetic core’s loss under any electrical excitation. In the end, the magnetics test bed hardware results are compared and future work needed to improve the test bed is outlined. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2019

Moore's Law has been used to describe and predict the blossom of IC industries, so increasing the data density is clearly the ultimate goal of all technological development. If the power density of power electronics converters can be analogized to the data density of IC's, then power density is a critical indicator and inherent driving force to the development of power electronics. Increasing the power density while reducing or keeping the cost would allow power electronics to be used in more applications. One of the design challenges of the high-density power converter design is to have high-density magnetic components which are usually the most bulky parts in a converter. Increasing the switching frequency to shrink the passive component size is the biggest contribution towards increasing power density. However, two factors, losses and parasitics, loom and compromise the effect. Losses of high-frequency magnetic components are complicated due to the eddy current effect in magnetic cores and copper windings. Parasitics of magnetic components, including leakage inductances and winding capacitances, can significantly change converter behavior. Therefore, modeling loss and parasitic mechanism and control them for certain design are major challenges and need to be explored extensively. In this dissertation, the abovementioned issues of high-frequency transformers are explored, particularly in regards to high-power converter applications. Loss calculations accommodating resonant operating waveform and Litz wire windings are explored. Leakage inductance modeling for large-number-of-stand Litz wire windings is proposed. The optimal design procedure based on the models is developed. / Ph. D.

<p>U radu je predložena modifikovana vatmetarska metoda za merenje snage gubitaka u toroidnim feritnim jezgrima koja je prilagođena osciloskopima male ulazne impedanse. Metoda je verifikovana na komercijalnim uzorcima od Mn-Zn i Ni-Zn feritnih materijala. Metoda je upotrebljena za merenje kompleksne permeabilnosti i gustine snage gubitaka dodatno obrađenih komercijalnih Mn-Zn feritnih prahova. Utvrđeno je da se dodatnim tehnološkim procesima (mlevenjem i prosejavanjem) početnog komercijanog praha mogu napraviti feritna jezgra manje gustine snage gubitaka i veće permeabilnosti.</p> / <p>The thesis proposes a modified Watt-meter method for measuring core loss of ferrite cores, which is adjusted to oscilloscopes with the small input impedance. The method is verified on comercial Mn-Zn and Ni-Zn ring cores. The method is used to measure the influence of starting powder sieving and milling on the core loss density and permeability of Mn-Zn ferrite. The experimental results and calculations show the significance of the additional milling and sieving process on magnetic properties of Mn-Zn ferrite in the frequency range from 0.1MHz to 10MHz. These processes increase the relative permeability about 3 times and decrease the core loss 4 times by milling of the starting powder.</p>

A pulse hysteresisgraph system was constructed capable outputting current source and voltages source waveforms. MATLAB scripts were created to analyze the collected data. Three toroidal samples of soft magnetic materials were prepared. Theoretical modeling was done to predict the variation of effective applied magnetic fields inside the toroids from ideal assumptions due to three effects: wire spacing, cylindrical spreading, and eddy current generated fields. Data was collected under sinusoidal voltage source and sinusoidal current source excitation at 1 kHz. Large differences in core loss were noted especially at higher field excitations. Core loss under sinusoidal current source excitation was found to always be greater than or equal to core loss under sinusoidal voltage source. Normal magnetization curves under sinusoidal current and voltage source excitation were also compared. Significant differences were apparent in the magnetization curves of one sample toroid, and slight differences noted in the curves of the other two samples. Eddy currents were offered as a primary mechanism for the difference in core loss between sinusoidal current source and sinusoidal voltage source. A formula to predict the relative eddy current losses to be expected from an arbitrary, periodic voltage waveform shape is given. / text

Le transformateur est aujourd’hui l’un des convertisseurs statiques les plus utilisé notamment dans la distribution électrique. Les tôles magnétiques servant à la construction de leurs circuits magnétiques sont devenues de plus en plus performantes permettant une réduction des pertes produites. Néanmoins, les tests normalisés permettant de caractériser les tôles magnétiques ne reflètent pas totalement le comportement énergétique du transformateur. De plus, une autre problématique a gagné en importance durant ces dernières années : le bruit acoustique émis. Malheureusement, il n’y pas encore de lien entre la qualité de la tôle à grains orientés choisie pour construire le circuit magnétique et le bruit acoustiques que va produire celui-ci. L’objectif de cette thèse est de répondre à cette double problématique à partir de tests simplifiés. En effet, de nombreux dispositifs expérimentaux et méthodologies ont été développés tels que la méthode des trois cadres, permettant d’étudier la répartition des pertes fer dans le transformateur, les circuits magnétiques décalés, permettant d’étudier les phénomènes à l’origine des bruit acoustique, et des modèles de transformateurs monophasés et triphasés. De plus, des simulations numériques ont été effectuées afin d’approfondir nos analyses des résultats expérimentaux. L’étude des dispositifs ont permis de mettre en évidence trois paramètres relatifs à la qualité des tôles magnétiques, entrainant des différences de répartition d’induction set donc des différences de répartition de pertes fer, d’une part, et de bruit acoustique dans les transformateurs, d’autre part. / The transformer is now a static converter most notably used in electrical distribution. The electrical steel sheet used in the construction of their magnetic circuits have become more efficient to reduce losses occurred. However, standardized tests to characterize the electromagnetic steel do not fully reflect the energy behavior of the transformer. In addition, another issue has gained importance in recent years: the acoustic noise. Unfortunately, there is no link between the quality of grain oriented steel selected to construct the magnetic circuit and acoustic noise that will produce it. The objective of this thesis is to answer this dual problem from simplified test. Indeed, many experimental devices and methodologies have been developed such as the method of three frames, to study the distribution of core losses in the transformer, the magnetic circuits shifted, to study phenomena at the origin of acoustic noise, and models of single and three phase transformers. In addition, numerical simulations were performed to deepen our analysis of the experimental results. The study of the devices have allowed to identify three parameters relating to the quality of grain oriented electrical steel, resulting from differences in the distribution of the flux density and therefore, first, the differences in distribution of core loss and, hand, acoustic noise in transformers.

Point-of-load (POL) converters are used extensively in IT products. Every piece of the integrated circuit (IC) is powered by a point-of-load (POL) converter, where the proximity of the power supply to the load is very critical in terms of transient performance and efficiency. A compact POL converter with high power density is desired because of current trends toward reducing the size and increasing functionalities of all forms of IT products and portable electronics. To improve the power density, a 3D integrated POL module has been successfully demonstrated at the Center for Power Electronic Systems (CPES) at Virginia Tech. While some challenges still need to be addressed, this research begins by improving the 3D integrated POL module with a reduced DCR for higher efficiency, the vertical module design for a smaller footprint occupation, and the hybrid core structure for non-linear inductance control. Moreover, as an important category of the POL converter, the voltage regulator (VR) serves an important role in powering processors in today's electronics. The multi-core processors are widely used in almost all kinds of CPUs, ranging from the big servers in data centers to the small smartphones in almost everyone's pocket. When powering multiple processor cores, the energy consumption can be reduced dramatically if the supply voltage can be modulated rapidly based on the power demand of each core by dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS). However, traditional discrete voltage regulators (VRs) are not able to realize the full potential of DVFS since they are not able to modulate the supply voltage fast enough due to their relatively low switching frequency and the high parasitic interconnect impedance between the VRs and the processors. With these discrete VRs, DVFS has only been applied at a coarse timescale, which can scale voltage levels only in tens of microseconds (which is normally called a coarse-grained DVFS). In order to get the full benefit of DVFS, a concept of an integrated voltage regulator (IVR) is proposed to allow fine-grained DVFS to scale voltage levels in less than a microsecond. Significant interest from both academia and industry has been drawn to IVR research. Recently, Intel has implemented two generations of very high frequency IVR. The first generation is implemented in Haswell processors, where air core inductors are integrated in the processor's packaging substrate and placed very closely to the processor die. The air core inductors have very limited ability in confining the high frequency magnetic flux noise generated by the very high switching frequency of 140MHz. In the second generation IVR in Broadwell processors, the inductors are moved away from the processor substrate to the 3DL PCB modules in the motherboard level under the die. Besides computers, small portable electronics such as smartphones are another application that can be greatly helped by IVRs. The smartphone market size is now larger than 400 billion US dollars, and its power consumption is becoming higher and higher as the functionality of smartphones continuously advances. Today's multi-phase VR for smartphone processors is built with a power management integrated circuit (PMIC) with discrete inductors. Today's smartphone VRs operate at 2-8MHz, but the discrete inductor is still bulky, and the VR is not close enough to the processor to support fine-grained DVFS. If the IVR solution can be extended to the smartphone platform, not only can the battery life be greatly improved, but the total power consumption of the smartphone (and associated charging time and charging safety issues) can also be significantly reduced. Intel's IVR may be a viable solution for computing applications, but the air core inductor with un-confined high-frequency magnetic flux would cause very severe problems for smartphones, which have even less of a space budget. This work proposes a three-dimensional (3D) integrated voltage regulator (IVR) structure for smartphone platforms. The proposed 3D IVR will operate with a frequency of tens of MHz. Instead of using an air core, a high-frequency magnetic core without an air gap is applied to confine the very high frequency flux. The inductor is designed with an ultra-low profile and a small footprint to fit the stringent space requirement of smartphones. A major challenge in the development of the very high frequency IVR inductor is to accurately characterize and compare magnetic materials in the tens of MHz frequency range. Despite the many existing works in this area, the reported measured properties of the magnetics are still very limited and indirect. In regards to permeability, although its value at different frequencies is often reported, its saturation property in real DC-biased working conditions still lacks investigation. In terms of loss property, the previous works usually show the equivalent resistance value only, which is usually measured with small-signal excitation from an impedance/network analyzer and is not able to represent the real magnetic core loss under large-signal excitation in working conditions. The lack of magnetic properties in real working conditions in previous works is due to the significant challenges in the magnetic characterization technique at very high frequencies, and it is a major obstacle to accurately designing and testing the IVR inductors. In this research, an advanced core loss measurement method is proposed for very high frequency (tens of MHz) magnetic characterization for the IVR inductor design. The issues of and solutions for the permeability and loss measurement are demonstrated. The LTCC and NEC flake materials are characterized and compared up to 40MHz for IVR application. Based on the characterized material properties, both single-phase and multi-phase integrated inductor are designed, fabricated and experimentally tested in 20MHz buck converters, featuring a simple single-via winding structure, small size, ultra-low profile, ultra-low DCR, high current-handling ability, air-gap-free magnetics, multi-phase integration within one magnetic core, and lateral non-uniform flux distribution. It is found that the magnetic core operates at unusually high core loss density, while it is thermally manageable. The PCB copper can effectively dissipate inductor heat with 3D integration. In addition, new GaN device drivers and magnetic materials are evaluated and demonstrated with the ability to increase the IVR frequency to 30MHz and realize a higher density with a smaller loss. In summary, this research starts with improving the 3D integrated POL module, and then explores the use of the 3D integration technique along with the very high frequency IVR concept to power the smartphone processor. The challenges in a very high frequency magnetic characterization are addressed with a novel core loss measurement method capable of 40MHz loss characterization. The very high frequency multi-phase inductor integrated within one magnetic component is designed and demonstrated for the first time. A 20MHz IVR platform is built and the feasibility of the concept is experimentally verified. Finally, new GaN device drivers and magnetic materials are evaluated and demonstrated with the ability to increase the IVR frequency to 30MHz and realize higher density with smaller loss. / Ph. D. / This research focuses on reducing the size, footprint, and power loss of the power supply for the CPUs in different applications, ranging from the big servers in data centers to the small smartphones in almost everyone’s pocket. To achieve this goal, novel characterization, design, and integration technique is developed, especially for the bulky magnetic components, with much faster (~10X) switching speed than the nowadays practice. This research opens the door to the development of the next generation of CPUs’ power supply with very high switching speed, simple structure, high integration level, and high current handling ability.