III-nitride semiconductors suffer significant efficiency limitations; ‘efficiency’ being an umbrella term that covers an extensive list of challenges that must be overcome if they are to fulfil their vast potential. To this end, it is imperative to understand the underlying phenomena behind such limitations. In this dissertation, I combine powerful optical and structural characterization techniques to investigate the effect of different defects on the carrier dynamics in III-nitride materials for light emitting devices. The results presented herein will enhance the current understanding of the carrier mechanisms in such devices, which will lead to device efficiency improvements. In the first part of this dissertation, the effects of some important types of crystal defects present in III-nitride structures are investigated. Here, two types of defects are studied in two different III-nitride-based light emitting structures. The first defects of interest are V-pit defects in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) blue LEDs, where their contribution to the high-efficiency of such LEDs is discussed. In addition, the effect of these defects on the efficiency droop phenomenon in these LEDs is elucidated. Secondly, the optical effects of grain boundary defects in AlN-rich AlGaN/AlGaN MQWs is studied. In this study, it is shown that grain boundary defects may result in abnormal carrier localization behavior in these deep ultraviolet (UV) structures. While both defects are treated individually, it is evident from these studies that threading dislocation (TD) defects are an underlying contributor to the more undesirable outcomes of the said defects. In the second part, the dissertation reports on the carrier dynamics of III-nitride LED structures grown on emerging substrates—as possible efficiency enhancing techniques—aimed at mitigating the effects of TD defects. Thus, the carrier dynamics of GaN/AlGaN UV MQWs grown, for the first time, on (2̅01) – oriented β-Ga2O3 is studied. It is shown to be a candidate substrate for highly efficient vertical UV devices. Finally, results from the carrier dynamics investigation of an AlGaN/AlGaN MQW LED structure homoepitaxially grown on AlN substrate are discussed, where it is shown that its high-efficiency is sustained at high temperatures through the thermal redistribution of carriers to highly efficient recombination sites.

Developing etching of GaN material system is the key to device fabrications. In this thesis, we report on the fabrication of high throughput lift-off of InGaN/GaN based micro-membrane light emitting diode (LED) from sapphire substrate using UV-assisted photoelectroless chemical (PEsC) etching. Unlike existing bandgap selective etching based on unconventional sacrificial layer, the current hydrofluoric acid based wet etching process enables the selective etching of undoped GaN layer already incorporated in standard commercial LED structures, thus attaining the leverage on high performance device design, and facile wet process technology. The lift-off micro-membrane LED showed 16% alleviated quantum efficiency droop under 200 mA/cm2 current injection, demonstrating the advantage of LED epitaxy exfoliation from the lattice-mismatched sapphire substrate. The origin of the performance improvement was investigated based on non-destructive characterization methods. Photoluminescence (PL) characterization showed a 7nm peak emission wavelength shift in the micro-membrane LED compared to the GaN-on-Sapphire LED. The Raman spectroscopy measurements correlate well with the PL observation that a 0.86 GPa relaxed compressive biaxial strain was achieved after the lift-off process. The micro-membrane LED technology enables further heterogeneous integration for forming pixelated red, green, blue (RGB) display on flexible and transparent substrate. The development of discrete and membrane LEDs using nano-fiber paper as the current spreading layer was also explored for such integration.

As silicon processes scale, system-on-chips (SoCs) will require numerous hardware monitors that perform assessment of physical characteristics that change during the operation of a device. To address the need for high-speed and coordinated transport of monitor data in a SoC, we develop a new interconnection network for monitors - the monitor network on chip (MNoC). Data collected from the monitors via MNoC is collated by a monitor executive processor (MEP) that controls the operation of the SoC in response to monitor data. In this thesis, we developed the architecture of MNoC and the infrastructure to evaluate its performance and overhead for various network parameters. A system level architectural simulation can then be performed to ensure that the latency and bandwidth provided by MNoC are sufficient to allow the MEP to react in a timely fashion. This typically translates to a system level benefit that can be assessed using architectural simulation. We demonstrate in this thesis, the employment of MNoC for two specific monitoring systems that involve thermal and delay monitors. Results show that MNoC facilitates employment of a thermal-aware dynamic frequency scaling scheme in a multicore processor resulting in improved performance. It also facilitates power and performance savings in a delay -monitored multicore system by enabling a better than worst case voltage and frequency settings for the processor.

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As a result of climate change, extreme events occur more frequently and at higher severity, causing catastrophic power outages with significant economic losses. Microgrids are deployed as a technology to enhance power system resilience. A microgrid may include one or more distributed energy resources (DERs), including synchronous generators, solar panels, wind turbines, and energy storage systems which are decentralized power sources primarily in a distribution system to enable system recovery from catastrophic events. Microgrids can be operated in a utility-connected mode or an islanded mode in separation with the hosting transmission or distribution system. As major disasters occur, intentional islanding of a microgrid is a strategy to serve critical loads, within or outside the microgrids, until the utility service is restored. To operate microgrids, dispatch and control capabilities are required that would significantly improve the dynamic performance of the microgrid. An islanded microgrid can be used to serve critical load as a resiliency source when a severe outage occurs. In an islanded mode, control of a microgrid relies on the communication system significantly. Hence, microgrids are cyber-physical systems and, therefore, the cyber system plays a crucial role in the performance of the cyber-power system. Improper parameters of the cyber system can result in instability of a microgrid system. Simplification of the networked control system model is needed to enhance the computational performance, making the analytical method practical for large-scale power systems. To reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and alleviate the impact of climate change, the electric power industry has been integrating renewable energy into the power grid. The high penetration of renewable energy at an unprecedented level also raises new issues for the power grid, e.g., low inertia, degraded power quality, and higher uncertainties. Power electronics technology is used for power conversion of renewable energy. As the level of penetration of renewable energy increases, the inverter-based resources (IBRs) are being installed at a fast pace on the power grid. Compared to conventional synchronous generators (SGs), a major technical challenge of IBRs is their low inertia which can lead to system instability. In this context, the work of this dissertation results in major contributions regarding control algorithms for microgrid resilience, stability, and cyber-physical systems. Specifically, three novel contributions are presented: 1) A coordinated control scheme is proposed to achieve the goals of power dispatch and system regulation for an islanded microgrid. The proposed control scheme improves system dynamics; 2) A method is developed for the determination of critical values for the data reporting period and communication delay. Based on the proposed method, a 2-dimensional stability region of a microgrid in the space of cyber parameters is derived and critical values of cyber parameters are identified based on the stability region; 3) A control scheme is proposed to improve system stability of a hybrid-DER microgrid. The analysis serves to illustrate the stability regions of the hybrid-DER microgrid. A control methodology based on two-time scale decomposition is developed to stabilize the system. / Doctor of Philosophy / Climate change is causing more frequent and severe weather events, resulting in catastrophic power outages and significant economic losses. To enhance power system resilience, microgrids are proposed as a solution. Microgrids consist of one or more distributed energy resources, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and energy storage systems, which can be operated in a utility-connected or islanded mode. Microgrids can operate in an islanded mode to serve critical loads when an extended outage of the utility grid occurs. Proper dispatch and control capabilities are necessary for the operation and control. However, the performance of a microgrid, especially in an islanded mode, is dependent on the communication system. Excessive cyber latencies can result in system instability of the microgrid. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the power industry is integrating an unprecedented level of renewable energy into the power grid. Power electronics technology is being used for power conversion of renewable energy, and inverter-based resources are being installed at a fast pace into the power grid. One major technical challenge of inverter-based resources is their low inertia, which can lead to system instability. To address these issues, this dissertation presents three novel contributions: a coordinated control scheme to improve the microgrid dynamics and perform power dispatch and system regulation functions, a method to determine critical values of cyber parameters based on stability regions, and a control scheme to improve system stability of a hybrid-DER microgrid. These contributions provide valuable concepts and methodologies for resilient and stable microgrids that are critical to meet the operational and control challenges of an electricity infrastructure with a high-level penetration of renewable energy.

An ever present trend in the power conversion industry is to get higher performance at a lower cost. In a computer server system, the front-end converter, supplying the load subsystems, is typically a multiple output power supply. The power supply unit is custom designed and its output voltages are fully regulated, so it is not very efficient or cost effective. Most of the load systems in this application are supplied by point-of-load converters (POLs). By leaving the output voltage regulation aspect to POLs, the front-end converter does not need to be a fully regulated, multiple output converter. It can be replaced by a dc-dc transformer (DCX), which is a semi-regulated or unregulated, single output dc-dc converter. A DCX can be made using a modular design to simplify expansion of the system capacity. To realize this concept, the DCX block must have a current sharing feature. The current sharing method for a resonant DCX is discussed in this work. To simplify the system architecture, the current sharing method is based on the droop method, which requires no communication between paralleled units. With this method, the current sharing error is inversely proportional to the droop voltage. In traditional DCX implementations, the droop voltage depends on the resistive voltage drops in the power stage, which is not sufficient to achieve the desired current sharing error. The resonant converter has the inherent characteristic that its conversion gain depends on the load current, so the virtual droop resistance can realized by the resonant tank and the droop voltage can be obtained without incurring conduction loss. An LLC resonant converter is investigated for its droop characteristic. The study shows the required droop voltage is achievable at very high switching frequency. To lower the switching frequency, a notch filter is introduced into the LLC resonant tank to increase the sensitivity of the conversion gain versus the operating frequency. The design of the multi-element resonant tank is discussed. Depending soly on the resonant tank, the droop characteristic is largely varied with the component tolerance in the resonant tank. The current sharing error becomes unacceptable. The active droop control is imposed to make the output regulation characteristic insensitive to the component tolerance. The proposed resonant DCX has simpler circuit structure than the fully regulated resonant converter. Finally simulation and experimental results are presented to verify this concept. / Master of Science

DC power distribution has gained popularity in sustainable buildings, renewable energy utilization, transportation electrification and high-efficiency data centers. This dissertation focuses on two aspects of facilitating the application of dc systems: (a) system-level control to improve load sharing, voltage regulation and efficiency; (b) design of a high-efficiency interface converter to connect dc microgrids with the existing low-voltage ac distributions, with a special focus on common-mode (CM) voltage attenuation. Droop control has been used in dc microgrids to share loads among multiple sources. However, line resistance and sensor discrepancy deteriorate the performance. The quantitative relation between the droop voltage range and the load sharing accuracy is derived to help create droop design guidelines. DC system designers can use the guidelines to choose the minimum droop voltage range and guarantee that the sharing error is within a defined range even under the worst cases. A nonlinear droop method is proposed to improve the performance of droop control. The droop resistance is a function of the output current and increases when the output current increases. Experiments demonstrate that the nonlinear droop achieves better load sharing under heavy load and tighter bus voltage regulation. The control needs only local information, so the advantages of droop control are preserved. The output impedances of the droop-controlled power converters are also modeled and measured for the system stability analysis. Communication-based control is developed to further improve the performance of dc microgrids. A generic dc microgrid is modeled and the static power flow is solved. A secondary control system is presented to achieve the benefits of restored bus voltage, enhanced load sharing and high system efficiency. The considered method only needs the information from its adjacent node; hence system expendability is guaranteed. A high-efficiency two-stage single-phase ac-dc converter is designed to connect a 380 V bipolar dc microgrid with a 240 V split-phase single-phase ac system. The converter efficiencies using different two-level and three-level topologies with state-of-the-art semiconductor devices are compared, based on which a two-level interleaved topology using silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs is chosen. The volt-second applied on each inductive component is analyzed and the interleaving angles are optimized. A 10 kW converter prototype is built and achieves an efficiency higher than 97% for the first time. An active CM duty cycle injection method is proposed to control the dc and low-frequency CM voltage for grounded systems interconnected with power converters. Experiments with resistive and constant power loads in rectification and regeneration modes validate the performance and stability of the control method. The dc bus voltages are rendered symmetric with respect to ground, and the leakage current is reduced. The control method is generalized to three-phase ac-dc converters for larger power systems. / Ph. D.

Cette thèse porte sur des micro-réseaux AC isolées qui permettent l’intégration des ressources énergétiques distribuées (DER) pouvant fournir leur énergie d'alimentation existante de manière contrôlée pour assurer le bon fonctionnement global du système. L'interconnexion d'un DER à une micro-réseau s'effectue habituellement en utilisant un convertisseur d'interface distribué (DIC) (i.e. un bloc d'interface d'électronique de puissance générale) qui est constitué d’un module de convertisseur à l'entrée de la source, un onduleur de tension (VSI), un module d'interfaçage de sortie, et le module de commande. Dans cette thèse on réalise plusieurs lois de commande basées sur des méthodes décentralisées. L'accent principal est mis sur les fonctions "Droop" qui ont la tâche de maintenir un équilibre de distribution d'énergie entre les différentes sources énergétiques connectées à la micro-réseau. L'objectif est d'assurer la stabilité du système et d’améliorer les performances dynamiques en partageant la puissance entre les différents générateurs d’électricité distribués (DGs) en fonction de leur puissance nominale. Le développement d'une analyse de stabilité en boucle fermée s’avère utile pour étudier la dynamique du système afin d'obtenir une réponse transitoire souhaitée qui permet d'identifier les paramètres de contrôle de boucle appropriés. L'amélioration de la qualité d’énergie des micro-réseaux est également un objectif de cette thèse. La réduction des distorsions harmoniques de la tension de sortie en présence de charges linéaires et non linéaires est prise en compte dans nos travaux. D'autres aspects seront étudiés sur la façon de traiter les charges constantes connectées au réseau et les grandes perturbations qu’ils produisent. Cela donne lieu à d'autres études de recherche portant sur la stabilité grand signal des micro-réseaux / This thesis deals with islanded AC microgrid that allows any integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) that may provide their existing supply energy in a controlled manner to insure overall system functioning. The interconnection of a DER to a microgrid is done usually by using a Distributed Interface Converter (DIC), a general power electronics interface block, which consists of a source input converter module, a Voltage Source Inverter module (VSI), an output interface module, and the controller module. The thesis realizes several control laws based on decentralized methods. The major focus is on the Droop functions that are responsible for providing a power distribution balance between different Energy Resources connected to a microgrid. The aim is to insure system stability and better dynamic performance when sharing the power between different DGs as function to their nominal power. Developing a closed loop stability analysis is useful for studying system dynamics in order to obtain a desired transient response that allows identifying the proper loop control parameters. Power Quality enhancement in microgrids is also a purpose of this research. The reduction of harmonic distortions of the output voltage when supplying linear and non-linear loads are taken in consideration in this thesis. Further aspects will be studied about how to deal with constant power loads connected to the grid and the large perturbations exerted. This results to further research studies that deal with large-signal stability of microgrids