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Advanced power semiconductor devices have consistently proven to be a major force in pushing the progressive development of power conversion technology. The emerging wide-band-gap (WBG) material based power semiconductor devices are considered as gaming changing devices which can exceed the limit of silicon (Si) and be used to pursue groundbreaking high-frequency, high-efficiency, and high-power-density power conversion. The switching performance of cascode GaN HEMT is studied at first. An accurate behavior-level simulation model is developed with comprehensive consideration of the impacts of parasitics. Then based on the simulation model, detailed loss breakdown and loss mechanism analysis are studied. The cascode GaN HEMT has high turn-on loss due to the reverse recovery charge and junction capacitor charge, and the common source inductance (CSI) of the package; while the turn-off loss is extremely small attributing to unique current source turn off mechanism of the cascode structure. With this unique feature, the critical conduction mode (CRM) soft switching technique is applied to reduce the dominant turn on loss and significantly increase converter efficiency. The switching frequency is successfully pushed to 5MHz while maintaining high efficiency and good thermal performance. Traditional packaging method is becoming a bottle neck to fully utilize the advantages of GaN HEMT. So an investigation of the package influence on the cascode GaN HEMT is also conducted. Several critical parasitic inductance are identified, which cause high turn on loss and high parasitic ringing that may lead to device failure. To solve the issue, the stack-die package is proposed to eliminate all critical parasitic inductance, and as a result, reducing turn on loss by half and avoiding potential failure mode of the cascode GaN device effectively. Utilizing soft switching and enhanced packaging, a GaN-based MHz totem-pole PFC rectifier is demonstrated with 99% peak efficiency and 700 W/in3 power density. The switching frequency of the PFC is more than ten times higher than the state-of-the-art industry product while it achieves best possible efficiency and power density. Integrated power module and integrated PCB winding coupled inductor are all studied and applied in this PFC. Furthermore, the technology of soft switching totem-pole PFC is extended to a bidirectional rectifier/inverter design. By using SiC MOSFETs, both operating voltage and power are dramatically increased so that it is successfully applied into a bidirectional on-board charger (OBC) which achieves significantly improved efficiency and power density comparing to the best of industrial practice. In addition, a novel 2-stage system architecture and control strategy are proposed and demonstrated in the OBC system. As a continued extension, the critical mode based soft switching rectifier/inverter technology is applied to three-phase AC/DC converter. The inherent drawback of critical mode due to variable frequency operation is overcome by the proposed new modulation method with the idea of frequency synchronization. It is the first time that a critical mode based modulation is demonstrated in the most conventional three phase H-bridge AC/DC converter, and with 99% plus efficiency at above 300 kHz switching frequency. / Ph. D. / Power electronics and power conversion are enabling technologies for almost any applications that are powered by electricity. It is very widely used in consumer electronics, household and industrial appliances, automobiles, utilities, infrastructures, and etc. It is essential but at the same time people want it to be invisible. Therefore the development of power electronics is consistently moving toward high efficiency (less and less energy waste), high density (small volume and less weight), high reliability, and low cost. Thanks to the development of silicon (Si) based semiconductor technology, especially silicon based power semiconductor devices, a great amount of achievements had been made in last three decades. However such high speed progress probably cannot be maintained for any longer since Si-based power devices are approaching their glass ceiling (theoretical limit) of what can be ultimately achieved. That is why people are looking for power devices made with material different than Si but with greater potential. Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) based power devices are chosen due to its great potential. It is believed to outperform Si-based devices by 2-3 orders which means power converters made with GaN and/or SiC can be even more efficient, smaller and lighter, more reliable, and of course with less cost. The most important approach to achieve such objective is high switching frequency. In order to turn the vision into reality, there are a lot of technology barriers in front of us, which in summary are how to understand the device and how to use the device into real applications with efficient high frequency operation. Therefore the major achievement of this work is comprehensive evaluation of GaN devices, and then demonstration of GaN and SiC in several AC/DC power converters for different applications. In the evaluation of GaN devices, an accurate simulation model was built and verified. Then based on the assistance of the model, switching loss mechanism is elaborated. The major conclusion is GaN has large turn on loss and very small turn off loss so that soft switching, which at least achieves zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) turn on, is important for GaN. Packaging related issues are addressed as well including analysis of package impacts on device performance and a new proposal of advanced package. It is very proud to claim that the proposal now are widely used by GaN device manufacturers into their real commercial products. After the know-how of how to use GaN was built, the potential of GaN was demonstrated in several different applications. The focus of this dissertation is on its application in AC/DC rectifier/inverter. Critical mode based totem-pole rectifier/inverter were built for 1 kW server power, 6.6 kW on board charger, and 25 kW solar inverter. A series of challenges were identified and the corresponding solutions were proposed. Today, the proposed design is becoming a benchmark and many of the industrial people are adopting our technology and applying it into real high performance products.

This thesis describes a new concept, applicable to high-power current-sourced conversion (CSC), where a controllable firing-angle shift is introduced between series and parallel converters to enable independent active and reactive power control. The firing-shift concept solves a difficult problem, by giving thyristor based CSCs the control flexibility of pulse-width modulated (PWM) converters, but without a loss in efficiency or rating. Several configurations are developed, based on the firing-shift concept, and provide flexible, efficient solutions for both very high power HVDC transmission, and very high current industrial processes. HVDC transmission configurations are first developed for 4-quadrant high-pulse operation, based on the series connected multi-level current reinjection (MLCR) topology. Independent reactive power control between two ends of an HVDC link are proven under firing-shift control, with high-pulse operation, and without on-load tap changing (OLTC) transformers. This is followed by application of firing-shift control to a bi-directional back-to-back HVDC link connecting two weak systems to highlight the added dc voltage control flexibility of the concept. The fault recovery capability of an MLCR based ultra-HVDC (UHVDC) long distance transmis-sion scheme is also proven under firing-shift control. The scheme responds favourably to both ac disturbances and hard dc faults, without the risk of commutation failures and instability experienced during fault recovery of line-commutated conversion. The two-quadrant capability of very high current rectification is also proven with configurations based on phase-shifted 12-pulse and MLCR parallel CSCs. The elimination of the electro-mechanical OLTC/satruable reactor voltage control, the high-current CSC’s biggest shortcoming, greatly improves controllability and with firing-shift control, ensures high power-factor for all load conditions. This reduces the reactive power demands on the transmission system, which results in more efficient power delivery

The generic concept of quasi-single-stage (QSS) power conversion topology for ac-dc rectification and dc-ac inversion is proposed. The topology is reached by direct cascading and synchronized switching of two variety of buck or two variety of boost switching networks. The family of QSS power converters feature single-stage power processing without a dc-link low-pass filter, a unidirectional pulsating dc-link voltage, soft-switching capability with minimal extra commutation circuitry, simple PWM control, and high efficiency and reliability. A new soft-switched single-phase QSS bi-directional inverter/rectifier (charger) topology is derived based on the QSS power conversion concept. A simple active voltage clamp branch is used to clamp the otherwise high transient voltage on the current-fed ac side, and at the same time, to achieve zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) for the switches in the output side bridge. Seamless four-quadrant operation in the inverter mode, and rectifier operation with unity power factor in the charger (rectifier) mode are realized with the proposed uni-polar center-aligned PWM scheme. Single-stage power conversion, standard half-bridge connection of devices, soft-switching for all the power devices, low conduction loss, simple center-aligned PWM control, and high reliability and efficiency are among its salient features. Experimental results on a 3 kVA bi-directional inverter/rectifier prototype validate the reliable operation of the circuit. Other single-phase and three-phase QSS bi-directional inverters/rectifiers can be easily derived as topological extensions of the basic QSS bi-directional inverter/rectifier. A new QSS isolated three-phase zero-voltage/zero-current-switching (ZVZCS) buck PWM rectifier for high-power off-line applications is also proposed. It consists of a three-phase buck bridge switching under zero current and a phase-shift-controlled full-bridge with ZVZCS, while no intermediate dc-link is involved. Input power and displacement factor control, input current shaping, tight output voltage regulation, high-frequency transformer isolation, and soft-switching for all the power devices are realized in a unified single stage. Because of ZVZCS and single-stage power conversion, it can operate at high switching frequency while maintaining reliable operation and achieving higher efficiency than standard two-stage approaches. A family of isolated ZVZCS buck rectifiers are obtained by incorporating various ZVZCS schemes for full-bridge dc-dc converters into the basic QSS isolated buck rectifier topology. Experimental and simulation results substantiate the reliable operation and high efficiency of selected topologies. The concept of charge control (or instantaneous average current control) of three-phase buck PWM rectifiers is introduced. It controls precisely the average input phase currents to track the input phase voltages by sensing and integrating only the dc rail current, realizes six-step PWM, and features simple implementation, fast dynamic response, excellent noise immunity, and is easy to realize with analog circuitry or to integrate. One particular merit of the scheme is its capability to correct any duty-cycle distortion incurred on only one of the two active duty-cycles which often happens in the soft-switched buck rectifiers, another merit is the smooth transition of the input currents between the 60o sectors. Simulation and preliminary experimental results show that smooth operations and high quality sinusoidal input currents in the full line cycle are achieved with the control scheme. / Ph. D.