Vol. 10, No. 2 pelsmagazine.ieee.

org
June 2023

For your engineering success

Features

20 A dvanced Inverter Interactions With Electric Grids

Leo Casey, Johan H. Enslin, Géza Joós, Mark Siira,
Bogdan Borowy, and Chase Sun

28 H 2-Orange: Finding Energy Storage Solutions

for Decarbonizing Generation
Thomas Koeppe, Johan H. Enslin, Tony Putman,
Mark Johnson, and Peter Hoeflich

110 34 Energy-Storage Enhanced STATCOMs

for Wind Power Plants
Fangzhou Zhao, Xiongfei Wang, Zichao Zhou,
Lexuan Meng, Jean-Philippe Hasler, Jan R. Svensson,
Departments Lukasz Kocewiak, Haofeng Bai, and Hongyang Zhang
& Columns
40 V oltage Controlled Magnetic Components for
       4 From the Editor Power Electronics: Technologies and Applications
Enhancing the Reliability of Electric Grid An Overview
Ashok Bindra Marco Liserre, Yoann Pascal, Jeffrey McCord,
      10 President’s Message Thiago Pereira, Rainer Adelung, Lukas Zimoch,
IEEE PELS: Making an Impact on Society and S. Kaps, Xiaxin Li, and Nian X. Sun
Its Members
Brad Lehman 49 Reliability Evaluation of SiC MOSFETs
      16 PSMA Corner Under Realistic Power Cycling Tests
EnerHarv Workshop Facilitates IoT Ecosystem Masoud Farhadi, Bhanu Teja Vankayalapati, and Bilal Akin
Renee Yawger
      86 Women in Engineering
57 Industrial Adoption of Energy Harvesting:
Diverse Future Leadership Insight From
Challenges and Opportunities
Successful Managers Thomas Becker, Michail E. Kiziroglou, Maeve Duffy,
Stephanie Watts Butler Bahareh Zaghari, and Eric M. Yeatman
      88 Industry Pulse
WSTS Introduces New Category: WBG Discrete 65 Optimizing PCB Layout for HV GaN
Power Products Power Transistors
Stephanie Watts Butler and Kristen Parrish Eric Persson
      92 Students and Young Professionals Rendezvous
 The Revival of SYPS and Recent YP Activities
79 A PEC 2023 Returns to Orlando to Display Latest
Houssam Deboucha, Chen Xu,
Advances in WBG and Si Devices
Anshuman Sharma, Haifah Sambo, Ashok Bindra
Nayara Brandão de Freitas, and
Joseph P. Kozak
      96 Society News On the cover
This issue focuses on eGrid and storage.
  114 Event Calendar
IMAGE LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING

  124 White Hot

IEEE APEC 2023 Rocked!
Robert V. White

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3278178

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 1

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine
Editor-in-Chief Frede Blaabjerg Axel Mertens Tao Yang
Ashok Bindra Senior Past President Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany TC 11: Aerospace Power
Austin, TX, USA Long Range Planning Maryam Saeedifard Sanjib Kumar Panda
+1 631 672-2875 Committee Chair Georgia Tech, USA TC 12: Energy Access and
[email protected] [email protected]
2025 Members-at-Large Off-Grid Systems
Deputy Editors-in-Chief Mario Pacas Vivek Agarwal [email protected]
Stephanie Watts Butler (Industry) VP Global Relations
Indian Institute of Technology Advertising Sales
WattsButler LLC [email protected]
USA Bombay, India Kathy Naraghi
Pat Wheeler WelComm, Inc.,
[email protected] VP Technical Operations Mahshid Amirabadi
Northeastern, USA [email protected]
Leon M. Tolbert (Academic) [email protected] +1 858 279-2100
Min H. Kao Professor Yunwei (Ryan) Li Christina DiMarino
Electrical Engineering and Virginia Tech, USA IEEE Power Electronics Society Staff
VP Products Mike Kelly
Computer Science Philip Carne Kjaer
[email protected]
The University of Tennessee Executive Director
Johan Enslin Vestas, Denmark [email protected]
520 Min H. Kao Bldg
Knoxville, TN, 37996-2250, USA VP Industry and Standards Hong Li Jane Celusak
+1 865 974-2881 [email protected] Beijing Jiaotong University, China Project Manager
[email protected] Jian Sun Sudip K. Mazumder [email protected]
Magazine Advisory Board VP Conferences University of Illinois Chicago, USA Becky Boresen
Leon M. Tolbert [email protected]
Technical Committee Chairs Technical Community Program
MAB Cochair Mark Dehong Xu Specialist
Luca Corradini
Chairman VP Membership [email protected]
The University of Tennessee, TN, USA TC 1: Control and Modeling of
[email protected] Megan Cichocki
Power Electronics
Stephanie Watts Butler Pradeep Shenoy Hanh-Phuc Le Program Specialist
MAB Cochair Treasurer [email protected]
TC 2: Power Components,
WattsButler LLC [email protected] Mary Beth Schwartz
Integration, and Power ICs
USA Katherine Kim
[email protected] Publications Administrator
Robert N Guenther, Jr Constitution and Bylaws
Ali Bazzi [email protected]
GPEM LLC [email protected]
TC 3: Electrical Machines, Drives Jessica Uherek
Marysville, Ohio, USA Kevin L. Peterson Editorial Assistant/News Editor
Division II Director and Automation
Jennifer Vining [email protected]
[email protected]
University of Washington 2023 Members-at-Large IEEE Periodicals
Seattle, WA, USA Noriko Kawakami Mahesh Krishnamurthy
Magazines Department
Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric TC 4: Electrical Transportation
Annette Mutze 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854
Industrial Systems Corp., Japan Systems USA
Graz University of Technology,
Graz, Austria [email protected]
Yan-Fei Liu Brian Johnson
Soma Essakiappan Queen’s University, Canada Juan Balda Journals Production Manager
University of North Carolina- Yunwei (Ryan) Li TC 5: Sustainable Energy Systems
Katie Sullivan
Charlotte, NC, USA University of Alberta, Canada [email protected] Senior Manager, Journals Production
Tony O’Gorman Pedro Rodriguez Khurram Khan Afridi Janet Dudar
PESC Inc. University Loyola Andalusia, Spain TC 6: Emerging Power Senior Art Director
San Diego, CA, USA Jennifer Vining ElectronicTechnologies Gail A. Schnitzer
Yingying Kuai University of Washington, USA [email protected] Associate Art Director
Caterpillar Inc. Navid R. Zargari Alexis Kwasinski Theresa L. Smith
Mossville, IL, USA Rockwell Automation, Canada TC 7: Critical Power and Energy Production Coordinator
Alpha J. Zhang Storage Systems Mark David
Delta Electronics 2024 Members-at-Large
Stephanie Watts Butler [email protected] Sr. Manager Advertising and
Shanghai, China Marco Liserre
WattsButler LLC Business Development
IEEE Power Electronics Society USA TC 8: Electric Power Grid Systems Felicia Spagnoli
Officers [email protected]
Shinzo Tamai Advertising Production Manager
Brad Lehman
President Toshiba Mitsubishi-Electric Industrial Grant Covic Peter M. Tuohy
[email protected] Systems Corp., Japan TC 9: Wireless Power Transfer Systems Production Director
Liuchen Chang Ulrike Grossner [email protected] Kevin Lisankie
Immediate Past President ETH Zurich, Switzerland Kevin Hermanns Editorial Services Director
Nominations Committee Chair Giovanna Oriti TC 10: Design Methodologies Dawn M. Melley
[email protected] Naval Postgraduate School, USA [email protected] Senior Director, Publishing Operations
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IEEE Power Electronics Magazine (ISSN 2329-9207) (IPEMDG) is published quarterly by the Institute of Electrical and
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Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3278180

2 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 From the Editor
by Ashok Bindra

Enhancing the Reliability

of Electric Grid

O
ver the years, the deployment Plus, the article explains the transi- Energy (DOE) named H2 Orange. In
of distributed energy resourc- tion of the IBR from GFL mode to fact, in this collaborative industry-
es (DER) has risen rapidly GFM mode to enhance the reliability university team, with Duke Energy as
with the explosive growth in renew- of the electric grid. the asset owner and local utility, Sie-
able energy sources (RES), especially Some standards already implic- mens Energy as the technology
using the solar photovoltaic (PV) sys- itly define GFL and GFM modes of owner, and Clemson University as
tems and the wind power, as well as operation in a limited number of academia, site owner, and beneficiary
the battery storage. While the early applications. Such is the case for a of the steam, is a unique arrangement
deployments of DER were enabled by microgrid. While the IBR operates allowing for a comprehensive under-
synchronous generators (SGs), typi- in GFL mode in a grid-connected standing of the application of H 2
cally driven by diesel or natural gas microgrid, it can also be operated in energy storage systems. This study
engines, the recent growth in DER and GFM mode in an islanded microgrid. indicates a critical H2 utilization point
RES is made possible by advances in This IBR defines the microgrid volt- occurring around 2040 with increased
grid connecting inverters. Primarily, age and frequency reference for electrolyzer activity triggered by 80%
there are two types of grid connecting islanded mode. However, the opera- CO2 reduction. This work strongly
inverters, namely grid-following (GFL) tion of IBR in future grids, either in supports the reduced and zero carbon
inverters, and grid-forming (GFM) GF L mode or GF M mode, w i l l goals which all three partners share
inverters. Although inverters provide depend upon grid operating require- along with most utilities, universities,
the interface between the grid and ments as more RES are deployed, and industries in the nation.
energy sources like solar panels, wind concludes the article. While several control and hard-
turbines, and energy storage, there is I n t he second cover a r t icle ware solutions have been developed
some difference between GFL and “H2-Orange: Finding Energy Storage to address the stability and power
GFM inverters. Solutions for Decarbonizing Genera- quality issues with large-scale wind
I n t he f i r st cover a r ticle tion” by Thomas Koeppe, Johan Ens- power plants (WPPs), the energy-
“Advanced Inverter Interactions with lin, Tony Putman, Mark Johnson, and storage enhanced static synchro-
Electric Grids” by Leo Casey, Johan Peter Hoeflich, the authors argue that nous compensator (E-STATOM),
Enslin, Geza Joos, Mark Siira, Bog- hydrogen as an energy carrier and among others, recently emerged as
dan Borowy, and Chase Sun, the storage technology in hybrid net- an attractive solution, according to
authors suggest that new standards works have a very bright future in the the third cover feature “Energy-
and guides may be required for quest to decarbonize fossil fuel gener- Storage Enhanced STATCOMs for
inverter-based resources (IBR) oper- ation. The role of power electronics as Wind Power Plants” by Fangzhou
ation, and help specify the respective the interface between these different Zhao, Xiongfei Wang, Zichao Zhou,
roles of GFL and GFM operating hydrogen (H2) production and storing Lexuan Meng, Jean-Philippe Hasler,
modes. This will reduce inverter- technologies, as well as connecting Jan R. Svensson, Lukasz Kocewiak,
based system events experienced by different energy networks, will be Haofeng Bai, and Hongyang Zhang.
power utilities world-w ide a nd more important in the future. In this The E - STATCOM integrates the
increase the adoption rate of renew- article, the authors describe the energy storage system, e.g., superca-
able energy, according to the article. objectives and key results from a fea- pacitor or battery, into STATCOM,
sibility study about using H2 genera- and is equipped with the GFM con-
tion and storage in a co-firing project trol, thereby offering several bene-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3273890
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 sponsored by the U.S. Department of fits to WPPs.

4 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 The fourth feature “Voltage Con- long-term reliability of SiC MOSFETs research, through barriers in devel-
trolled Magnetic Components for using accelerated lifetime tests oping commercial off-the-shelf prod-
Power Eelectronics Tchnologies and (ALTs). ALTs accelerate the aging ucts, to a critical assessment of
Applications: An Overview” by M. mechanisms by amplifying the ther- several EH powered wireless sensor
Liserre, Y. Pascal, J. McCord, T. mal and electrical stresses. The data case studies. This is followed by
Pereira, R. Adelung, L. Zimoch, S. from ALTs serve a crucial function “PCB Design and Layout for WBG
Kaps, X. Liu, and N. X. Sun, describes for evaluating the sustained reliabil- Power Circuits” by Eric Persson of
technologies that can be used to cre- ity of SiC MOSFETs through assess- Infineon Technologies. The fast-
ate controlled magnetics, including ment of their lifespan, identification switching capability of GaN transis-
emerging technologies with high of breakdown causes, and continuous tors can make PCB layout more
potential. Furthermore, a list of pos- monitoring of their performance. challenging. In this article, Persson
sible applications is proposed, where This article introduces an ac power discusses several key concepts to
these components can provide a sig- cycling test setup for SiC MOSFETs help understand the PCB layout chal-
nificant advantage in terms of effi- and discusses the correlation of lenges, and strategies to help solve
c i e n c y, s i z e r e d u c t i o n , o r aging precursors to different failure these challenges and optimize the
controllability. Special emphasis is mechanisms. Also, the study identi- layout for best overall electrical and
laid on a use case: a 20 kW multiport fies and presents patterns of common thermal performance. Following
dc–dc converter in which power flow precursor shifts. these “tips” will help designers obtain
control is achieved using voltage con- In the “Industrial Adoption of optimal performance from high per-
trolled inductors based on partially Energy Harvesting: Challenges and formance GaN technology, according
saturable magnetic cores. Opportunities” by Thomas Becker, to the article.
The next feature “Reliability Eval- Michail. E. Kiziroglou, Maeve Duffy, Finally, the last article “APEC
uation of SiC MOSFETs Under Realis- Bahareh Zaghari, and Eric M. Yeat- 2023 Returns to Orlando to Display
tic Power Cycling Tests” by Masoud man, the authors provide an over- Latest Advances in WBG and Si
Farhadi, Bhanu Teja Vankayalapati, view of energy harvesting, ranging Devices” by yours truly focuses on
and Bilal Akin investigates the from the state-of-art technology the keynote talks presented at the

6 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

plenary session and reveals latest Kristen Parrish, announces that competition. Finally, the “Event
trends in SiC, GaN, and silicon tran- WSTS will now track WBG discrete Calendar” provides a year’s listing
sistors and ICs. power products revenue as of Janu- of conferences and workshops.
ary 2023. As a result, WSTS’ monthly Thank you for your support. The
News, Columns, and More statistics will now include WBG magazine has been growing for the
In the column President’s Message, power transistors and rectifiers. last ten years. Both, print and digital
Brad Lehman presents PELS initiatives In the White Hot column, the versions of the magazine are healthy
and activities around the world that is author wrote that APEC 2023 rocked and delivered on time to our readers.
having a profound impact on the soci- and, quite frankly, if you were not Advertisers are coming back. The
ety and its members. Likewise, in the there you missed it. While the “Stu- commitment to bringing timely arti-
PSMA Corner, Renee Yawger describes dents and Young Professionals Ren- cles, columns and news items of
the international energy harvesting dezvous” column highlights the interest and value to practicing
workshop, EnerHarv 2022, that was initiatives that S&YP is supporting, power electronics engineers world-
focused on building an ecosystem for including the 2023 IEEE PELS SYPS wide is getting stronger year over
powering the internet of things (IoT). symposium, and encourages students year. To serve you better and keep
While Stephanie Watts Butler dis- and YPs worldwide to get more this magazine a valuable resource for
cusses the career paths of success- involved with PELS. working power electronics engineers
ful managers, both female and male, A s u su a l, t he S ociet y New s around the world, we look forward to
in business and academia in the brings activities from PELS chap- your feedback and suggestions. Now
WIE column. Diversity in the career ters and student branches around we have a website (https://pelsmaga-
was also a major topic of discussion the world, and highlights an all zine.ieee.org/) which offers more
in this column. women plena r y session at than what is in the print, and where
Similarly, the Industry Pulse, writ- ECCE2023 in Nashville, TN, USA. you can easily provide your feedback.
ten by Stephanie Watts Butler and Plus, it discloses winners of EBL II Stay safe and healthy!

8 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

President’s Message
by Brad Lehman

IEEE PELS: Making an Impact

on Society and Its Members

A
re you tired of building cir- winning teams were awarded a total the U.S., showing the broad global
cuits without considering prize of US$475,000. The grand prize involvement and impact of the EBL
the impact it has on the of US$150,000 went to team Nanoé program. The teams included operat-
world? Don’t forget that you have from Madagascar who had already ing companies, start-ups, and student
the power to make a difference! installed 1550 nanogrids to provide teams. For more details on all the
IEEE Power Electronics Society’s affordable electricity to more than EBL teams and prizes, or to find out
(PELS) core mission is to promote 6500 end-users in 350 v illages. more about EBL or to get involved in
power electronics technological Thanks to the tireless work of 50 the Energy Access community, please
innovation and excellence for the employees and 100 locally recruited visit www.empowerabillionlives.org .
benefit of humanity. So, whether and trained entrepreneurs (Figure The next round of IEEE PELS EBL is
you’re improving power conversion 1), they were able to make a signifi- expected to begin in 2025.
efficiency, building electric vehicles cant impact in improving access to However, that’s not all. IEEE PELS
(EVs) and microgrids, or revolution- electricity in under-resourced com- is offering other competitions too! At
izing renewable energy, you’re help- munities. With the EBL prize, they the same IEEE APEC conference,
ing to reduce carbon emissions or plan to replicate and scale up the 10 undergraduate teams presented
maybe even bringing electricity to model with the development of dc their progress on their solution for a
impoverished communities. microgrids interconnecting neigh- single phase solid-state-transformer
To foster this impact, IEEE PELS boring nanogrids to improve the during the IEEE International Future
strives to mentor its members, pro- electrical services delivered and Energy Challenge (IFEC’23) semifi-
vide lifelong learning opportunities enable productive use of energy. nals. Seven teams were selected for
for growth, and foster technical inno- Additional prizes were awarded to the final round that will be held
vation and entrepreneurship. And the teams from Kenya, Zambia, Myanmar, between 26 and 28 July in Hanover,
h ig h l ig ht of t h i s i s t he I EEE Nigeria, Cameroon, Jordan, India, and Germany. Most of the undergraduates
Empower a Billion Lives (EBL) com-
petition—where innovation meets
impact. The competition aims to pro-
vide clean, reliable energy solutions
that can improve people’s lives, while
also protecting the environment and
promoting sustainable practices.
The most recent EBL II competi-
tion, held at the IEEE Applied
Power Electronics Conference and
Exposition (APEC) in March 2023,
wa s i n s pi r i ng, i n nov at ive a nd
impactful! Twenty five teams from
around the world competed, and the

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3271620 FIG 1 Team Nanoé from Madagascar won the EBL II grand prize. Source: Lucas
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 Richard; Nanoé.

10 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023 2329-9207/23/$31.00©2023IEEE

took the chance to visit the APEC con- mentoring. PELS has been expanding ■■Industry participation is an incen-
ference and exhibition and the student our “Ph.D. Schools”—multi-day work- tive for Ph.D. students, who can
job fair. The topic for IFEC’24 will be shops throughout the world that try learn firsthand about industry
covering an audio-amplifier. Further to cross-fertilize research and discus- needs and requirements.
information will be published soon on sions among Ph.D. students by bring- ■■Also, for the supervising professors,
http://energychallenge.weebly.com/. ing local industry and academic the Ph.D. school represents a
Plus, in the ongoing MagNet chal- experts to their region. PELS espe- unique opportunity to discuss the
lenge, global student teams will cially likes to sponsor Ph.D. schools research topics of the upcoming
develop machine learning software in regions that do not have great period and also the supervision of
models to more accurately model the financial resources or the ability to the Ph.D. students.
behavior of different shaped and dif- send many participants to interna- Our most recent Ph.D. school was
ferent materials in magnetic cores tional conferences. The advantages held in Colombia, hosted by the Univer-
when they are used in power con- of such an event are: sidad Nacional de Colombia. It was a
verter systems. For years, many of us ■■All interested doctoral students can successful event for the Ph.D. students,
have been relying on 100-year old participate regardless of the accep- and evidenced the strong commitment
Steinmetz equations to predict power tance of a paper. of many professors in the local organi-
losses in cores, even though we know ■■Ph.D. students can face the criti- zation. We hope to expand this activity
they are not accurate. With machine cism of other Ph.D. students and to dozens of Ph.D. schools in the future
learning, and the training data pro- also the industry in an atmosphere each year. Maybe some readers have
vided by the competition, PELS mem- of mutual support and friendship. interest in helping organization of a
bers can be a part of developing the ■■There is a lively intensive direct local event? Please let PELS know.
next generation models and under- exchange of experiences with valu- The 2023 IEEE APEC had a major
standings of magnetics. https://www. able tips on how to achieve specific success with its inaugural student job
princeton.edu/~minjie/magnet.html. goals, along with recommendations fair, which attracted over 250 job
However, IEEE PELS is not just for software and hardware tools seekers, mostly Ph.D. graduates, and
about competitions. We are also and on many other specific aspects provided them with the opportunity
a bout l i felong lea r n i ng a nd of research in power electronics. to meet with more than 50 potential

12 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

employers and exhibitors. This is a October to 2 November. It is antici- The 2023 ECCE in Nashville is the
relatively new initiative for PELS, as pated that more than 300 student job largest version of our ECCE series of
IEEE recently modified its policy in seekers will attend this conference, conferences. Each year PELS co-
February 2022, allowing individual which promises to be exceptional sponsors three ECCE conferences:
conferences to organize recruiting with its all-women plenary session the largest of the three is this year’s
activities at their discretion. The 2022 featuring CEO/CTO level speakers in Nashville in North America (www.
IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & the power electronics field: ieee-ecce.org). But also in late sum-
Expo (ECCE) was the first to imple- ■■Riona Armesmith, CTO, magniX mer 2023, there will be EPE 2023
ment this policy and received positive ■■Susan Hubbard, Deputy Lab Direc- ECCE Europe in Aalborg, Denmark
feedback from exhibitors who appre- tor for Science and Technology, f rom 4 to 8 September (w w w.
ciated the access to specialized job Oak Ridge National Laboratory epe2023.com). The ICPE 2023 ECCE
applicants. The student job fair will ■■ Elif Balkas, CTO, Wolfspeed Asia was 22–25 May in Jeju, Korea.
also be held at the 2023 IEEE ECCE ■■Annette Clayton, CEO, Schneider Every ECCE event is more than just
in Nashville, taking place from 30 Electric, North America. technical research presentations; it
also features a wide range of pro-
fessional development programs,
including tutorials, women in
engineering events, young profes-
sional and mentoring events, and
sometimes outreach events for
the public. With such a diverse
range of activities, these PELS
sponsored conferences are an
unmissable opportunity.
If PELS harbored a futuristic
vision of outreach, it would entail
launching an outreach program
directed towards pre-college stu-
dents. One way PELS could accom-
plish this is by developing lab
demonstrations or experimental
kits aimed at stimulating young
people’s interest in the fields of
power electronics and their appli-
cations. We have generated several
ideas, such as designing wireless
or solar cell phone chargers, con-
structing solar energy kits, power-
ing and programming robots.
Concurrently, we are also solicit-
ing any input from our PELS mem-
b er s t o g i ve u s ide a s a nd
suggestions.
In essence, IEEE PELS is com-
mitted to creating a positive
impact on its members and on the
world through the use of its time,
expertise, and resources. Conse-
quently, we invite you to consider
joining and volunteering with
IEEE PELS to help contribute to
this important cause. You will
have the opportunity to make a
meaningful difference in the field
of power electronics. Who knows,
you might even win a prize or two
along the way!
Contact Brad at brad.pels@
14 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023
ieee.org 
 PSMA Corner
by Renee Yawger

EnerHarv Workshop
Facilitates IoT Ecosystem

T
he Power Sources Manufac-
turers Association (PSMA)
(www.psma.com) strives to
identify and increase awareness and
knowledge of trends that impact the
power sources and conversion
devices community. Several PSMA
committees are focused on emerg-
ing technologies. The Energy Har-
vesting Committee (EHC) (https://
www.psma.com/technical-forums/
energy-harvesting) is focused on
FIG 1 Functional demonstrations of energy-harvesting technologies.
building an ecosystem for powering
the internet of things (IoT). The
committee hosts the biennial Ener-
Harv workshop (http://www.Ener- sessions, and networking opportuni- The keynote included some exam-
Harv.com/) to bring together experts ties to cultivate education and rela- ples of ADI’s roadmap incorporat-
working on all technical areas rele- tionship building. ing disruptive technologies in the
vant to energy harvesting, energy Each of the three days opened wearables and Industry 4.0 sectors
storage, power management, and its with a keynote address from indus- for sensors, power management,
applications in the IoT along with try and academia. The University of and wireless communications. ADI
several other related markets (i.e., San Diego opened the proceedings is also evaluating sustainability
medical wearables, ubiquitous self- with insight on the development aspects in design, including reli-
powered sensor networks, etc.). a nd integration of miniatur ized ability in ter ms of both per for-
energy harvesting, wireless power mance and lifetime.
International Energy Harvesting transfer and related components, Four technical sessions were
Workshop and the advantages of integration offered including transducer, sys-
Following a two-year COVID-related at semiconductor and module lev- tem integration, energy storage,
deferral, EnerHarv 2022 was held at els. The ASSIST Center provided an and power management. Two panel
the ASSIST Center (https://assist- overview of their activities related se s sion s i ncluded pa r t icipa nt s
center.org/) in North Carolina State to the development of technologies from a variety of backgrounds. The
University (https://www.ncsu.edu/) and demonstrators for wearables panel “Powering the Next-genera-
from 5 to 7 April 2022. Each day of including their rapid prototyping tion WSN Experience” spawned a
the workshop offered a combination group to drive technologies to high- fruitful discussion on the challeng-
of technical sessions, functional er tech nolog y rea d i nes s level s es, gaps, and opportunities associ-
demonstrations, posters, panel (TRLs) (Figure 1). The final key- ated with bringing the ubiquitous
note from Analog Devices gave a sensor a nd IoT deploy ments to
perspective on the challenges and m a i n s t r e a m a ppl ic a t ion s . T he
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3271622
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 opportunities of powering the IoT. “Power IoT E co s y s t em” pa nel

16 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 promoted the benefits of creating syner-
g i e s a n d fo s t e r i n g c o l l a b o r a t i o n s
between stakeholders thinking about
power from the onset amongst stakehold-
ers to deliver resilient, long-battery-life,
and application-oriented solutions.
A key feature of EnerHarv is the func-
tional demonstrations, where attendees
can touch and see the work in person. The
demonstrations covered the use of trans-
ducers, energy storage, PMICs, and sensor
telemetry data from various WSN imple-
mentations. Supporting aspects of the eco-
system, such as battery characterization,
were demonstrated along with some real-
world (shipping and proof-of-concept)
products and applications.
The PSMA EHC expects EnerHarv 2024
to be held in Europe and is actively recruit-
ing interested participants to help plan,
sponsor, and participate. To get involved
please contact the PSMA office at power@
psma.com.

Conclusion
PSMA sponsored workshops, such as Ener-
Harv, provide an opportunity to identify
and increase awareness and knowledge of
emerging trends that impact the power
sources and conversion devices communi-
ty. For a current listing of upcoming events
visit the PSMA website at https://www.
psma.com/news/Calendar-of-events.
To become a PSM A member v isit
h t t p s : // w w w. p s m a . c o m / w e b f o r m s /
psma-membership-application.

About the Author

Renee Yawger (renee.yawger@epc-co.
com) is the Director of Marketing at Effi-
cient Power Conversion Corporation
(EPC) and the Director of Corporate Mar-
keting at EPC Space. She has over 25
years of sales and marketing experience
within the semiconductor industry. Prior
to joining EPC, she was at Vishay Siliconix
for nearly 15 years in various positions in
sales support, customer service, and
regional marketing. At EPC, she is respon-
sible for the product marketing and mar-
keting communication functions globally.
She is also the Vice President of the Board
of Directors at PSMA.

18 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/URBANS

Advanced Inverter
Interactions
With Electric Grids
by Leo Casey, Johan H. Enslin, Géza Joós, Mark Siira,
Bogdan Borowy, and Chase Sun

T
he evolution of advanced inverter-based resources (IBR) is closely
coupled with the growth of their applications in electric power
networks. Most applications of inverters during this transition
were grid-following (GFL) inverters. As IBRs gradually displaced
rotating synchronous generators in electric power grid applica-
tions, issues such as the behavior of low-inertia grids, local needs for voltage
support, and ride-though requirements led to the first interconnection
requirements. The initial DER standard, IEEE Std 1547-2003, had to be
adapted to the new context and led to the revised standard, IEEE Std 1547-
2018 and later the IEEE Std 2800-2022 for transmission IBR systems. In this
article, the various inverter operating modes and functions of modern

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3271619

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

20 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023 2329-9207/23©2023IEEE

inverters are described. A focus on the comparison of Inverter Operating Modes
GFL and grid-forming (GFM) inverters based on a more Apart from limitations on the inverter’s short-circuit and
comprehensive white paper developed by the SCC-21 over-current capability, the operation of the inverter is
Task Force on Advanced Inverters supporting industry defined by control loops implemented to realize the
standards is needed in the next few years to reduce sys- required grid functions. In its simplest formulation, these
tem-wide IBR events on the electric system. are the pulse-width modulator, current limiters and refer-
ence voltage amplitude and frequency control.
Introduction The resulting standard control loops include the follow-
Large inverter-based system events have been experienced ing, as shown in Figure 2:
by power utilities world-wide. The Odessa events [1] a) Current or Power Control—This mode of operation
resulted in an instantaneous loss of 1,116 MW of IBRs asso- allows independent control of active and reactive cur-
ciated with photovoltaic (PV) and the ERCOT system fre- rent/power, or P-Q control, as found in GFL inverters.
quency went down from 60 to 59.2 Hz in a matter of cycles This mode requires synchronization [typically using a
(Figure 1) on 4 June 2022 during midday with high solar PV phase-locked loop (PLL)] with the electric grid to
power generation. which the inverter is connected so that power can be
These events may limit the wide-scale adoption of IBRs exchanged between the two synchronous sources, the
and thus the integration of renewable energy generation. It inverter and the grid. This operation is like that of a
is therefore important for the power community to address synchronous machine synchronized to the grid and
the concerns with IBRs. feeding active and reactive power into the grid.
This article describes the concepts of advanced invert- b) Voltage Amplitude and Angle/Frequency Control—
ers as they apply to various applications that in turn deter- This mode allows V-f control, as found in GFM inverters.
mine the inverter(s) functional characteristics. Inverter This mode of operation requires an internal oscillator to
applications include the following: set the frequency of inverter voltage and control of the
■■Inverters in distribution grids: inverters used as distribut- amplitude of the inverter voltage. This operation is simi-
ed energy resource (DER) interfaces, including wind, lar to a standalone synchronous generator (SG).
solar PV, and battery energy storage systems (BESS)
(IEEE Std 1547-2018). Inverter Control—Historical Note
■■Inverters in grid-connected and islanded microgrids The concepts of P-Q, i.e., GFL, and V-f, i.e., GFM, control
(IEEE Std 2030.7-2021). have been developed since inverters were first developed.
■■Inverters in standalone distribution grids: uninterruptible From force-commutated thyristors to controllable
power supplies (UPS), islanded systems (islanded devices, including the gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) and
microgrids), and isolated/remote grids (IEEE 1562-2019, integrated gate-commutated thyristor (IGCT), the IGBT,
IEEE Std 2030.7-2017). and the newer silicon carbide (SiC) based MOSFETs and
■■Inverters in larger transmission grids: IBR used in wind IGBTs. The terms grid-following and grid-forming inverter
and solar farms, and static synchronous compensators have been coined recently but are not new functions [2].
(STATCOMs) (IEEE Std 2800-2022, IEEE Std 1052-2018). Several groups are developing roadmaps and design
■■Aggregated DER/IBR for grid services (IEEE Std improvements to make IBRs more robust for integrating
2030.11-2021). renewables into the grid [3].

FIG 1 ERCOT system frequency during Odessa-2022 fault [1].

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 21

Inverter Interconnection ■■GFM mode, with inverter voltage amplitude and angle/
For the entire history of the grid, SGs have been the inter- frequency control, or V-f control, to mimic closely the SG
face between prime movers and the ac electric grid. SGs control modes shown in Figure 3.
have two attributes: The inverter should be able to transition from one mode
■■Direct control of the voltage (E) and frequency (ω) of operation to the other as required based on changing
and/or the phase angle (δ) of the internal voltage grid conditions.
(electromagnetic force EMF), interconnected
through the equivalent synchronous reactance XL as Standalone and Islanded Power Systems
shown in Figure 3. A standalone system is a power system that is capable of
■■Inertia of the rotating generators—The presence of generating or storing electric power to serve the ac and dc
inertia, which allows rotational energy to be stored loads of the facility. By its nature, it cannot rely on, or syn-
as a flywheel, is key from the grid control and sta- chronize with, an external distribution network to provide
bility perspectives. electric power. It uses only the power it generates and
In the early 2000s, IBRs showed minimal concerns stores to supply loads. In this mode, the inverters will oper-
since IBRs represented a small fraction of the total ate in the GFM mode to regulate voltage and frequency.
energy resources. As the penetration of inverter-inter-
faced systems increased, undesirable effects became Microgrid Operation
a concern: Microgrids have two steady-state modes of operation, as per
■■Intermittency and variability of the energy produced, IEEE Std 2030.7-2017:
which is not dispatchable. a) Grid-Connected Mode—In this mode, the microgrid-
■■Lack of inertia and inertial response capability. generating assets are directly connected to the electric
■■Need for voltage and frequency reference sources for grid to which the microgrid is connected; the inverters
inverter synchronization. within the microgrid are operated in GFL mode with
grid-connected.
Modes of Operation of Inverters b) Islanded Mode—In this mode, the microgrid-generat-
ing assets alone supply the microgrid loads. At least
Grid-Connected Inverters one of the inverters within the microgrid is operated in
As described above, two modes of operation exist for GFM mode, typically the BESS inverter, in order to
inverters, as shown in Figure 2: define the microgrid voltage and frequency and serve
■■GFL mode, with inverter current or power control, and as a reference bus. It should be noted that if an inverter
independent control of active and reactive current/power, serves as the reference bus, SGs are synchronized to
or P-Q control, and grid synchronization. this bus and operated in P-Q mode, equivalent to the
GFL mode.

Future Grid Requirements

As the penetration of IBRs increases, particularly at the
transmission level, there may be a need to transition more
inverters from the GFL to the GFM modes to ensure the sta-
bility of the transmission grid under contingency operating
conditions, particularly under momentary loss of generation
or transmission. The requirements of the percentage of
GFM versus GFL converters are not specified and may vary
based on system configuration.

FIG 2 GFL and GFM inverter control modes. FIG 3 Synchronous generator control mode.

22 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

Inverter GFL and GFM Control Modes in IEEE Std 2800-2022. This standard also defines fast fre-
quency response (in lieu of inertia emulation) and operation
GFL and GFM Operation under phase unbalance.
The answer to the following question regarding GFM versus
GFL is fundamental: Can the inverter create/support the GFL and GFM Inverter Implementation
voltage and frequency of the grid (or microgrid)? If it can, The dc source of the inverter is assumed to have a constant
then the inverter is GFM and generally has the characteris- voltage. The control is of the vector type and conducted in
tic of a voltage source typically accompanied with a droop the dq(0) plane of the Park transformation of the three-
characteristic in frequency. As the load increases, this con- phase voltages and currents. The reference angle of the
trol attribute is often referred to as frequency-watt control. Park transformation applies to both the GFM and GFL func-
If, on the other hand, the inverter derives phase, frequency, tions of the inverter.
and voltage from the grid (or from the microgrid, i.e., from For both GFM and GFL functions, a current controller
external signals), then the inverter is GFL and has charac- is implemented. It controls the flow through the ac line
teristics of a current source. according to a reference created either by a voltage control-
It may be valuable in this discussion to revisit SG opera- ler (GFM) or by active and reactive power controllers (GFL).
tion. SGs are considered as having relatively high inertia and The output is a voltage signal driving the modulation of the
low impedance. The impedance of the machine is relatively inverter power switches.
high, typically between 0.2 and 1 per unit or higher, depend- For GFM inverters, there exists a voltage controller for
ing on the time frame considered (subtransient, transient, the voltage on the PCC side of the filter. Its reference is
or steady state), and it can provide high fault currents. sourced from power controllers. The output is a reference
Considering fault currents from SGs and transformers in current for the current loop controller.
the conventional grid, from a short in the low-voltage section Active and reactive power controllers generate reference
of the distribution system, the limiting impedance for fault signals either for the voltage controller of GFM inverters or
currents is the substation transformer impedance, which is for the current controller of GFL inverters. The active power
typically 10%, or approximately 0.1 per unit, based on the controllers for GFL inverters are defined by the availability
power rating of the transformer. Faults within facilities on of the primary power source, while the power controllers
the low-voltage system are typically limited by a network for GFL are driven by controllers using frequency and volt-
transformer impedance of approximately 4% of the local age at the PCC.
(transformer) rating. In both cases, the dominant series For GFM inverters, the active power controller defines
impedance is reactive; therefore, the fault current is reactive. the angle of the inverse Park transformation for the modu-
Conversely, inverters have low output impedance, at least on lation of the inverter power switches, while a PLL serves
a dynamic/transient basis; therefore, they could/should be for GFL inverters. For the power controllers, there might
able to source a high fault current. However, inverter ther- be additional control loops defining specific operating
mal time constants are relatively short, typically less than paradigms. The voltage and current controllers are propor-
1 s; therefore, the impact of the fault on the inverter is an tional-integral controllers, while the power controllers are
I2t effect, and the fault currents must be kept low (typically proportional controllers.
1.1–1.4 per unit and only for a second or so). This level of fault
current is not typically compatible with the fuses, breakers, Grid Interconnection Requirements
and relays that make up the vast majority of protection sys-
tems today. IBR-based microgrids therefore require faster General Inverter Features and Requirements
protection, such as solid-state protection.
Inverter operation with regard to grid interactions, Inverter Control
including behavior under stressed conditions and grid Power systems balance generation and load in real time.
support (ancillary services), is largely determined by Currently, conventional power generation units are used to
applicable standards. These standards extend the operat- balance the intermittent and variable output of RES to meet
ing requirements beyond the basic GFM and GFL func- load demand and maintain power stability. However, if all of
tions and are expected to be applicable to both. A few the conventional units are retired and replaced by RES due
characteristics of operating profiles are defined in the to climate concerns and the new IBRs cannot meet the
most recent standards relevant to inverters. For invert- dynamic load demand, the grid may be difficult to operate.
ers connected to distribution systems, IEEE Std 1547- However, meeting dynamic load demand is not an intrinsic
2018 and UL 1741 define a range of requirements including function of an inverter. The backup and solution for inter-
active and reactive power support, frequency response mittency is an energy source.
with active power, and ride-through for both high- and
low-voltage events. Transitions in Inverter Connection Status
Similar operating requirements are proposed for invert- When the transition from grid-connected to standalone
ers connected at the transmission level of electrical grids modes is considered, the basic role of the inverter changes.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 23

Some commercial inverters need to pause to change modes. equipment recalls and recertifications of wind and PV
The functional changes in inverter operation include the inverters in leading renewable grids such as Germany,
following: China, and Australia over the past 15 years. Forensics
■■From managing and optimizing power and energy on the have revealed that many of the issues relate to problems
grid to managing voltage and frequency when off-grid. with following phase (and frequency) during transient
■■Island detection function used to transition to off-grid events and often the setting of parameters related to volt-
mode, replaced by a “grid returns” sensing function. age and frequency ranges, which incorrectly result in the
tripping of substantial resources. The Blue Cut, Canyon,
Fault Currents in Inverters and Odessa grid events are all hailed by many in the GFM
Fault current operation of inverters is characterized by the community as fundamental GFM events. In truth they
following: were all ride-through trip events related to frequency and/
a) Short-Circuit Capability—Typically, the short-cir- or phase deviations.
cuit current of an inverter is in the range of 1.5 pu Ride-through standards began as no-trip standards
based on the inverter rating; this current is limited by from FERC Order 661 for wind power in the bulk power
the inverter switching device’s current ratings and is a system. Ride-through, or no-trip, requirements typically
short-time rating. Therefore, either the protection defined in grid codes include the following as shown in IEEE
system needs to be changed to become more sensitive 2800-2022 (Figures 4 and 5) [12]:
and activate at lower currents, or other mechanisms
need to be employed to achieve higher fault currents Grid Support Functions
than the inverters can naturally supply. Many functions can be programmed in the inverter control
b) Nature of the Fault Currents—The inverter can pro- system to take advantage of the independent control of the
duce only positive sequence voltage and, when feeding a active and reactive power control of the inverter. The more
balanced grid, positive sequence current. Under unbal- useful functions include the following:
anced fault conditions, the inverter cannot supply nega- a) Reactive Power Control—Volt-Var Function—This
tive sequence current as an SG can. It can be equipped function implements voltage regulation and support by
with a current control loop that can provide some nega- injecting inductive or capacitive power as the voltage
tive sequence current if required. rises above, or drops below, set values.
b) Active Power Control—Volt-Watt Function—This func-
Grid Code Requirements for Inverters tion implements active power reductions, as the voltage
varies outside the allowable range. In particular, it
Ride-Through Requirements allows active power curtailment as the voltage at the
The codes and standards that relate to these ride-through inverter terminal increases. If this function is active, the
issues have evolved over time, and there have been major MPPT function must be disabled.
c) Active Power Control—Fre-
quency-Watt Function—
This function implements
active power increase, as the
frequency drops below a set
value, in support of the fre-
quency, or reductions, as the
frequency increase above a
set value.
Another function requested
in recent grid codes is the capa-
bility for inverters to inject
negative sequence current com-
ponents in proportion to the
amount of unbalance in grid
voltages. These are typically
the result of unbalanced short
circuits in the grid, mostly sin-
gle-phase to ground faults. Neg-
ative sequence current injection
is implemented to allow the use
of conventional sequence com-
FIG 4 Voltage ride-through requirements for IBRs (voltages below 500 kV) [12]. ponent relays to detect faults.

24 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

Advanced Functions voltages changes significantly: an overcurrent in the
Other advanced functions include the following: line results.
a) Fast Frequency Response—This function can be imple-
mented to support the frequency in the event of a contin- Requirements for Connecting Inverters
gency by fast injection-controlled amounts of active to the Same AC Bus
power in support of the frequency and reducing the rate If inverters are connected in parallel, there needs to be a
of change and depth of change of frequency. reference bus, which defines the voltage and frequency.
b) Power System Stabilization—This function can be used This reference bus today is provided by the grid voltage
to damp oscillation in power grids between different gen- typically defined by a large dispatchable central power
erating stations and areas (inter-area oscillations). plant, with a stable voltage and frequency output, to
c) Active Harmonic Filtering—This function can be used which all inverters are synchronized and operated in GFL
to reduce large low-frequency harmonics flowing in the mode. The central power plant could be an IBR, operated
power grid. It assumes that the inverter rating allows in GFM mode.
this function to be implemented.
Methods of Paralleling Inverters
Black Start Capabilities The conventional means of paralleling IBRs is the same as
IBRs can be used as reference generators and define a grid paralleling SGs: a droop method (frequency droop for
voltage (using a voltage regulator) and frequency (using an active power sharing and voltage for reactive power shar-
internal clock), independently of the presence of any elec- ing) can be implemented if communications systems are
tric grid. Known as the IBR GFM mode, this mode is the not used. However, it should be noted that the droop
principle of operation for UPS operated in emergency con- method may result in unacceptable frequency and voltage
ditions. However, to supply loads, sufficient energy needs variations as the load changes. In addition, setting the
to be available, e.g., a BESS or an IBR fed from renewable droop values may be difficult, given that RES generators
sources balanced by means of a BESS. Power system resto- are not dispatchable. An alternate means of paralleling is
ration is achieved by resynchronizing generators, rotating to operate rotating generators in isochronous mode, at
or IBR, to the restored grid. constant speed or frequency regardless of the load. The
isochronous method requires communication between
Inverter Power Exchange Considerations generators and a centralized control system for sharing
active power. The same approach is implemented with
Relation Between the Voltages of AC Sources Exchanging IBRs in microgrids. A control system is required in
Active Power microgrids operating in grid-connected mode.
For two ac sources to exchange active power, the
phase angle between the two sources, combined with Inverter Synchronization Mechanisms and PLL Operation
the reactance of the line connecting these sources, When two voltage sources are connected to the same
along with the magnitude of the voltages, defines the ac bus, and assuming one is setting the reference
amount of power that
can be transferred. Any
frequency change trans-
lates into an angle
change and changes the
instantaneous amount of
power exchanged. If the
angle difference exceeds
a maximum value, syn-
chronism is lost, there is
no longer any power
exchange, and the two
sources are isolated. If
any of the two sources
co ntinue s t o prod u c e
power, an overvoltage or
an overspeed results,
unless power production
is reduced to zero. A sim-
ilar phenomenon occurs
i f o n e o f t h e s o u r c e FIG 5 Frequency ride-through requirements for IBRs [12].

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 25

voltage, the second source needs to be synchronized to power regulator. Fast reactive power injection allows
the first for active power exchange to be initiated. Syn- closer tracking of the voltage variations at the node to
chronization requires that the voltage, frequency, and which the IBR is connected.
phase angle of the second source be made equal to
those of the first source before the second source can Implementing Inertial Response With Inverters
be connected to the first. Although the lack of inertia for IBRs can be compen-
For the second source to synchronize to the first one, sated to some extent by fast active power response, the
the second source must know the frequency, phase, and speed of response may be limited by the speed at which
magnitude of the voltage of the first source. In its simplest the energy can be extracted from the source feeding the
form, this knowledge can be obtained from a zero cross- IBR. RES, such solar PV generators, cannot provide fast
ing of voltage produced by the first source. However, this active power injection or absorption. In wind turbine
zero crossing is difficult to determine when the voltage is generators, power can be momentarily extracted from
distorted or has gaps and interruptions. rotating masses, but the amount of power is dependent
A better approach is the use of a circuit that tracks on the speed of rotation of the turbine (wind speed).
and locks on to the voltage waveform, a phase locked loop Absorbing and storing energy in the rotating masses of
(PLL). The PLL uses an integrator to ensure that the phase wind turbines may be difficult, as storing energy requires
error is zero. During a voltage or frequency event, the an increase in the turbine speed. Virtual inertia may be
shift in the source voltage results in an improper phase added by the IBR with adequate control and DC-link
relationship between the currents injected by the second energy storage.
source and therefore incorrect values of active and reac-
tive power injections. While an incorrect power injec- Transitioning From GFL to GFM
tion does not result in an unstable system, it may lead to SGs are capable of switching from GFL to GFM mode
large undesirable active and reactive power swings and because the prime mover defines the generator fre-
oscillations. quency and the field excitation defines the magnitude of
the generated voltage, independently of whether a grid
Impact of Grid Phase Angle Jumps connection exists. In the absence of a grid for synchroni-
A phenomenon that transiently generates a change in zation, the generator naturally produces a voltage with a
voltage angle and possibly voltage magnitude in one of frequency corresponding to the speed of the prime
the ac sources is the phase angle jump. It impacts both mover and a voltage proportional to the applied excita-
the instantaneous phase angle and the voltage differ- tion voltage and speed of rotation. In addition, the
ences between the two connected sources. It may mechanical energy stored in rotating masses can provide
result in large variations of power exchanges between the required energy to balance load and generation
the two sources and of the current flowing between the under transient loading conditions until the generator
two sources. governor adjusts its excitation and power level to supply
the additional load. SGs therefore naturally achieve the
System Strength transition from GFL in grid-connected mode to GFM in
If the electric grid is spread over a wide area, the system islanded mode and use their inertial energy to provide
strength (or capacity to maintain a constant voltage) or power balance during the transitions.
short-circuit capacity decreases. The instantaneous voltage One instance where the transition of an IBR from
and frequency, particularly in the farthest removed areas, GFL to GFM is straightforward is for microgrids tran-
may differ from those of the reference generator in the sitioning from grid-connected mode to islanded mode.
larger area. The issues then are whether the remote IBR When this transition occurs, the signal initiating the
have a strong enough reference bus to which to synchronize transition is provided by the grid operator or the island-
and whether a hybrid operation, i.e., a combination GFL and ing detection relay and the opening of the breaker feed-
GFM modes, can be devised. ing the microgrid. This transition command is used to
change the mode of operation from GFL to GFM for an
Advanced Inverter Challenges IBR used as the reference generator in islanded mode.
The transition can occur in a seamless manner or
Meeting System Ramping Requirements require a black start of the microgrid. The last option is
The transient response, or ramping rate, of the active easier to implement.
power regulator of an IBR can be made much faster than
that of an SG. The SG limitations are associated with the Conclusion
prime mover governor response. The fast response of the New standards and guides may be required for IBR opera-
IBR can be used to better track load changes and varia- tion and to specify the respective roles of GFL and GFM
tions and to provide fast frequency response. The same operating modes. This will reduce inverter-based system
fast inverter response can be obtained from the reactive events experienced by power utilities world-wide and

26 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

increase the adoption rate of renewable energy. This will IEEE-SA Standards Board. He received the M.B.A. degree
define transition of the IBR from GFL mode to GFM mode from Harvard and the B.S.M.E. degree from Kettering Uni-
to enhance the reliability of the electric grid. versity. He is a member of IEEE SCC-21Task Force on
Some standards already implicitly define GFL and Advanced Inverters.
GFM modes of operation in a limited number of applica- Bogdan Borowy, Ph.D. is the Senior Chief Engineer
tions. Such is the case for a microgrid. The IBR operate at Eaton Research Labs, Milwaukee, WI, USA. He has
in GFL mode in a grid-connected microgrid, and one IBR more than 35 years of corporate and academic research
can be operated in GFM in an islanded microgrid. This and development experience with a Ph.D. degree from the
IBR defines the microgrid voltage and frequency refer- University of Massachusetts, USA. He has domain exper-
ence for islanded mode. tise combining power electronics, power converters,
The operation of IBR in future grids, either in GFL mode motor drives, power systems, modeling and simulations,
or GFM mode, will depend upon grid operating require- dynamic control, automated reasoning, optimization,
ments as more RES are deployed. design of embedded systems, artificial intelligence, and
robotics. He is a member of IEEE SCC-21Task Force on
About the Authors Advanced Inverters.
Leo Casey, Ph.D. (Fellow, IEEE) is the Power Systems Chase Sun, P.E. is a Retired Principal Engineer with
Lead Engineer at Google X. Prior to that, he was Sat- PG&E, San Francisco, CA, USA. He joined PG&E in 1977
con’s Chief Technology Officer and EVP of Engineering. and worked in various departments including, distribution
He has over 35 years of experience in power electron- planning, switchyard engineering, alternative energy engi-
ics and power engineering, including ultimate responsi- neering, power plant engineering, station construction,
bility for the design and commercialization of numer- project management, substation asset management, distri-
ous utility scale power conversion products. He bution protection, substation maintenance, and transmis-
received the B.S. degree from the University of Auck- sion planning. He was on the IEEE-929, and Rule 21 stan-
land, Auckland, New Zealand, and the M.S. and Ph.D. dard working groups. He received the B.S.E.E. degree
degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technolo- from UC Berkeley and a licensed Electrical Engineer in
gy, Cambridge, MA, USA. He is a member of IEEE SCC- California, since 1981. He is a member of IEEE SCC-
21Task Force on Advanced Inverters. 21Task Force on Advanced Inverters.
Johan H. Enslin, Ph.D. ([email protected]) (Fel-
low, IEEE) is the Duke Energy Endowed Chaired Professor References
in Smart Grid at Clemson University, North Charleston, SC, [1] NERC, “2022 Odessa disturbance—Texas event: June 4, 2022,” North
Amer. Electr. Reliability Corp., Atlanta, GA, USA, Tech. Rep. NERC-2022,
USA. He has combined a 40-year career with leadership in Dec. 2022.
industry and academia, in the US, Europe, and South Africa. [2] D. Pattabiraman, R. H. Lasseter, and T. M. Jahns, “Comparison of grid
following and grid forming control for a high inverter penetration power sys-
He is a life-long leader in the IEEE and CIGRÉ working
tem,” in Proc. IEEE Power Energy Soc. Gen. Meeting (PESGM), Portland,
groups and committees and serves currently as the Vice- OR, USA, Aug. 2018, pp. 1–5.
President Industry and Standards at the IEEE Power Elec- [3] Y. Lin et al., “Research roadmap on grid-forming inverters,” IEEE-SA
Standards Board, Tech. Rep. NREL/TP-5D00-73476, Nov. 2020.
tronics Society. He is a member of IEEE SCC-21Task Force
[4] FERC Order 661, Final Rule on Interconnection for Wind Energy,
on Advanced Inverters. IEEE-SA Standards Board, 2005.
Géza Joós, Ph.D. (Fellow, IEEE) is a Professor of elec- [5] IEEE Recommended Practice for Utility Interface of Photovoltaic (PV)
Systems, IEEE Standard 929-2000, Jan. 2000.
trical and computer engineering at McGill University, Mon- [6] IEEE Recommended Practice for Testing the Performance of Photovol-
treal, QC, Canada, where he holds the NSERC/Hydro-Que- taic Systems, IEEE Standard 1526-2020, Dec. 2020.
bec Industrial Research Chair on the Integration of Renew- [7] IEEE Standard for Interconnection and Interoperability of Distrib-
uted Energy Resources With Associated Electric Power Systems Interfaces,
able Energies and Distributed Generation into the Electric IEEE Standard 1547-2018, Feb. 2018.
Distribution Grid. He held positions in industry (ABB Cana- [8] IEEE Recommended Practice for Sizing of Stand-Alone Photovoltaic
da), and academia (Concordia University, Canada). He is (PV) Systems, IEEE Standard 1562-2021, Jun. 2021.
[9] IEEE Standard for the Specification of Microgrid Controllers, IEEE
active in IEEE Standards Development and CIGRE working Standard 2030.7-2017, Jan. 2017.
groups. He is a member of IEEE SCC-21Task Force on [10] IEEE Standard for the Testing of Microgrid Controllers, IEEE Stan-
dard 2030.8-2018, Jun. 2018.
Advanced Inverters.
[11] IEEE Guide for Distributed Energy Resources Management Systems
Mark Siira is the Chairperson of IEEE Standards Coor- (DERMS) Functional Specification, IEEE Standard 2030.11-2021, Apr. 2021.
dinating Committee (Sponsor for IEEE 1547, IEEE 2800, [12] IEEE Standard for Interconnection and Interoperability of Inverter-
Based Resources Interconnecting With Associated Transmission Systems,
and IEEE 2030 standards) IEEE-SA. The IEEE SC21 over-
IEEE Standard 2800-2022, Feb. 2022.
sees the development of standards in the areas of smart grid [13] Inverters, Converters, Controllers and Interconnection System Equip-
interoperability, fuel cells, photovoltaics (PVs), dispersed ment for Use With Distributed Energy Resources, Standard UL 1741, 3rd ed,
Sep. 2021.
generation, and energy storage. SC21 reports directly to the

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 27

 ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/CORONA BOREALIS STUDIO

H2-Orange: Finding
Energy Storage Solutions
for Decarbonizing
Generation
by Thomas Koeppe, Johan H. Enslin, Tony Putman,
Mark Johnson, and Peter Hoeflich

T
his article describes the objectives and key results from a feasibility
study about using hydrogen (H2) generation and storage in a co-firing
project sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) named
H2 Orange. The work includes a conceptual design, including a tech-
noeconomic study, technology gap assessment, maturation plan, and
commercialization plan of a nominal 50-megawatt hours (MWh) electrolysis-
based hydrogen energy storage system. The project investigated optimal sizing,

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Date of publication: 27 June 2023

28 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023 2329-9207/23©2023IEEE

design, and integration of a hydrogen or various industries and applica-
energy storage system with an exist- tions. When hydrogen is burned, it
When utilized in an
ing 14.3-megawatt (MW) gas turbine produces thermal energy, primarily
supplying both electricity and thermal appropriate emitting water vapor as a byprod-
power at the Clemson University uct. When utilized in an appropriate
generating asset such
combined heat and power (CHP) generating asset such as a gas tur-
plant. It is anticipated that the integra- as a gas turbine, bine, hydrogen can be a zero carbon-
tion of H2 storage with CHP will be hydrogen can be a emitting load following resource
able to provide the Clemson campus (“ZELFR”), enabling more grid-con-
with backup capability (power and zero carbon-emitting nected renewable resources in grid-
steam) that includes on-site solar pho- load following tied and microgrid operations. With
tovoltaic (PV) arrays and separate appropriate modifications to the gas
battery energy storage. Power elec- resource (“ZELFR”), turbines using known available tech-
tronic conversion technologies are of enabling more grid- nologies and the development of a
key relevance to hydrogen storage for robust hydrogen supply chain, hydro-
decarbonizing fossil fuel generators at
connected renewable gen has the potential to become an
all levels of this project. resources in grid-tied economically viable resource in elec-
tric power systems. In doing this,
Introduction
and microgrid hydrogen could reduce the use of
In the essential journey to decarbonize operations. fossil fuels in electric power genera-
the electric power supply, more tion through the integration of more
renewable energy is being deployed, renewables for power generation and
representing 22% of the annual U.S. using non-carbon emitting baseload
electricity share in 2022 [1]. To maintain a reliable and resil- generating assets for load following.
ient grid, energy storage and dispatchable generation, and Since early 2021, Clemson University, Duke Energy,
controllable load assets are required to balance the intermit- and Siemens Energy have collaborated on a DOE project
tent renewable power generation. Although various individ- [4] to explore the use of electrolysis based hydrogen for
ual battery and hydroelectric energy storage technologies grid-level electric energy storage and as a low/no car-
are available today, economically viable solutions for dis- bon fuel source for a CHP as a way to cost effectively
tributed, long duration storage approaches that are resilient decarbonize a university size facility as shown in Fig-
and dispatchable need to be further developed. Although, a ure 1. The project, called H 2 -Orange, evaluated hydro-
hydrogen economy is not a new concept [2], it is of renewed gen production, storage, and co-firing with natural gas.
interest due to the improved electrolyzer technologies pro- The team studied the use of Siemens’ Silyzer electrolyzer
viding a pathway to cost reduction for hydrogen production technology to produce hydrogen fuel to help power the
to less than $1/kg [2] in one decade [3]. This motivates the existing SGT-400 natural gas turbine at the Duke Energy
need to explore the mitigation challenges with integrating operated Clemson based CHP plant. The Silyzer can use
large levels of non-dispatchable and variable renewable electricity from renewable and clean energy sources to
energy (i.e., offshore wind and solar PV) to the power grid. produce hydrogen without carbon emissions. The stra-
As an energy carrier and storage technology, hydrogen tegic project unites all three organizations in helping to
in hybrid networks, including electrical, gas, and hydro- achieve respective decarbonization goals: Duke Energy
gen have a very bright future in the quest to decarbonize aiming to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and
fossil fuel generation. The role of power electronics as the attaining net-zero by 2050, Siemens Energy supporting
interface between these different hydrogen production customers in transitioning to a more sustainable world,
and storing technologies, as well as connecting different and the university striving to achieve net neutrality of
energy networks, will be more important in the future. Sev- carbon emissions by 2030.
eral medium and high voltage (MV & HV) power electronic
converters are required in the PV and wind energy conver- Decarbonizing University Campus
sion systems, H2 electrolyzers, battery storage and variable In 2019, Duke Energy completed construction and
speed CHP generating plants, and even interconnecting started operating a state-of-the-art 14.3-MW CHP plant at
electrical transmission with H2 networks in the future. the Clemson University campus in South Carolina. The
Hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels are showing prom- CHP plant produces electricity and utilizes residual heat
ise as zero- or low-carbon alternatives to carbon-based to provide steam to the 1,400-acre campus, with an
fuels. Hydrogen can be produced by electrolysis from enrolled student body of about 25,000 students. Duke
water and electricity, stored over long durations even Energy continues to own and operate the CHP asset, dis-
for months in the form of chemical bond enthalpy, and tributing energy to the grid, and supplying steam directly
utilized for either subsequent electric power generation to Clemson University.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 29

FIG 1 Clemson University 14.3 MW CHP plant.

Using Siemens Energy’s multi-model energy system opti- determine the most cost-effective pathway to decarbon-
mization software, the various electric, heating, and cooling izing the Clemson University campus, an additional five
energy demands were analyzed for the entire campus. The scenarios were analyzed with 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and
optimization model was formulated as a mixed-integer lin- 100% reduction of CO2 levels from the reference scenario
ear program based on an energy superstructure approach, as a model constraint. In this model, H2 is assumed to be
considering both the existing energy assets along with the available whenever needed with two scenarios assuming
following new assets under consideration: an on-campus either $4.50/kg or $2.00/kg as shown in Figure 2 [4].
PV array, solar power purchase agreement (PPA), Li-ion To decarbonize the campus, the least-cost solutions
battery energy storage, chilled water storage, and thermal consist of a combination of various technologies and
storage as well as the ability to co-fire H2 in the on-campus assets. The operating (OPEX) and capital costs (CAPEX)
combined-cycle CHP facility. described here as TOTEX. Scenarios above 60% CO2 reduc-
The optimization problem was formulated for a refer- tion see a significant TOTEX costs that increase greater
ence year using a model that assumes perfect foresight than 2×. With a hydrogen price of $2.00/kg, hydrogen is
(with forecasted referenced data) selected for 40% CO2 reduction sce-
with an hourly resolution which nario in combination with Li-Ion bat-
allowed the model to capture intra- teries. For deep decarbonization, it’s
day fluctuations in energy supply
Technology not hydrogen “or” battery energy stor-
and demand while still allowing for advancements and age systems (BESS) but rather hydro-
optimization over a typical year. The gen “and” BESS to address both the
cost reductions will be
optimization model solves for the heat and electricity demand for short
lowest net present cost of supplying required before and longer term.
the required energy demands under Although, using hydrogen in re-
hydrogen storage can
varying CO2 emissions constraints. electrification or CHP applications
A reference scenario was solved become a viable long- does not provide least cost genera-
only considering the existing cam- duration storage tion today, it is a deep decarbon-
pus assets without a CO2 constraint ization technology for the future.
to establish a baseline for com- option. Technology advancements and cost
parison to further scenarios. To reductions will be required before

30 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

FIG 2 Totex of Clemson campus decarbonization scenarios[4].

hydrogen storage can become a viable long-duration electrolyzer, >20 MWh of hydrogen storage, and a 14.3 MW
storage option. Much of this required technological gas turbine with hydrogen cofiring capability as shown in
development is identical to that needed for the broader Figure 4.
adoption of hydrogen as a fuel, including improved Co-location of hydrogen production and consumption
hydrogen production efficiencies, reduced costs and introduces synergies, reducing the initial investment
scaling. In addition, hydrogen storage technologies must with limited hydrogen transportation infrastructure
be improved including non-geological storage (e.g., com- needed. In the case of the Clemson project, a CAPEX
pressed hydrogen, liquified hydrogen, metal hydride savings could be achieved by utilizing the demineralized
storage, ammonia storage, and others) to improve the water and instrument air from the existing CHP plant
viability of large-scale use. and implementing a water-cooling tower compared to a
Advancements in hydrogen technologies and com- typical fin-fan cooler. Additional savings are foreseen by
mercial demonstrations are needed to address current utilizing a common control room and personnel with the
hydrogen limitations. The industrial SGT-400 gas tur- CHP plant.
bine at Duke Energy’s CHP located on Clemson Univer- Using hydrogen in CHP applications has benefits and
sity’s campus offers a unique opportunity to evaluate challenges. With CHP plants offering 80%–90% efficien-
hydrogen as a dispatchable low-carbon fuel for decar- cies, the energy content of the fuel is effectively converted
bonization of the campus steam and grid generation. to electricity and thermal energy. High-capacity factors
The industrial combustion turbine with a 14.3 MW and seasonal operating steam profiles are challenges for
output has a similar design and uses similar technolo- hydrogen CHP applications, since a significant amount of
gies to larger combustion turbines which will allow for storage is required. Green hydrogen offers an alternative
learnings at Clemson to be scaled. feedstock that is non-fossil based,
To achieve similar hydrogen blends serving as an additional fuel or back-
at a typical utility-scale combus- up fuel improving overall reliability
tion turbine would require larger Co-location of and resiliency.
hydrogen process equipment, pip- hydrogen production It was recently projected that
ing and combustion turbine scope Duke Energy’s Carolina Combined
and significantly higher demon-
and consumption Cycles units could experience a
stration costs. introduces synergies, >3× increase in starts mainly due
The proposed 8 MW demonstra- to the increased amount of inter-
reducing the initial
tion concept is summarized below mittent renewable generation. It is
in Figure 3 [5]. investment with expected that the operating profile
of fossil fuel assets will be posi-
limited hydrogen
Demonstration Project tively impacted through the flex-
The proposed H2-Orange demonstra- transportation ibility, starting, and fast ramp-up
tion project is a hydrogen energy stor- infrastructure capability (10% power rating per
age system integrated with the CHP second) of PEM electrolyzers by co-
plant, consisting of an advanced 8 MW needed. locating a hydrogen storage system
proton exchange membrane (PEM) with a fossil asset. These operating

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 31

FIG 3 The 8 MW hydrogen storage system concept.

FIG 4 H2-Orange 8 MW demonstration plant rendering.

profiles will be evaluated as part of while simultaneously reducing the

the project where the H 2 storage sys- Hydrogen storage can assets impacts from flexible opera-
tem will be co-located on campus tion resulting from the increased
with the CHP plant and several PV leverage existing capacity of variable renewable
generating assets. assets for storage energy (VRE) resources. The
It is projected that 25% of the advancement of hydrogen combus-
global power sector is expected
while simultaneously tion in a gas turbine is integral to
to be fueled by hydrogen by 2050. reducing the assets this work and provides significant
Development, demonstration, and benefits as an option to achieve
impacts from flexible
deployment of this technology today a zero-carbon future. The Duke
is necessary to ensure our deep operation resulting Energy CHP at Clemson brings all
decarbonization goals will be met these aspects together with its 14.3
from the increased
in the future, with the H 2 -Orange MW size and corresponding avail-
project uniquely addressing mul- capacity of variable ability of hydrogen technology,
tiple aspects including hydrogen renewable energy plans of local PV installation, and
storage, combustion, and system alignments with Clemson’s, Duke
integration. Hydrogen storage can (VRE) resources. Energy’s, and Siemens Energy’s
leverage existing assets for storage decarbonization goals.

32 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

Summary responsible for energy management, electrical and
The collaborative industry-university team, with Duke water distribution, energy and wastewater treatment
Energy as the asset owner and local utility, Siemens Energy plant operations, and operational sustainability initia-
as the technology owner, and Clemson University as aca- tives for the university. He is a Registered Professional
demia, site owner, and beneficiary of the steam, is a unique Engineer, certified educational facilities professional
arrangement allowing for a comprehensive understanding with over 35 years of professional experience, holds a
of the application of hydrogen energy storage systems. The B.S.M.E. degree from Clemson University, and the mas-
study indicates a critical hydrogen utilization point occur- ters’ degree from Augusta University and University of
ring around 2040 with increased electrolyzer activity trig- South Carolina.
gered by 80% CO2 reduction. This work strongly supports Mark Johnson, Ph.D. is a Professor of materials sci-
the reduced and zero carbon goals which all three partners ence and engineering and the Director of the Center for
share along with most utilities, universities, and industries Advanced Manufacturing, Clemson University, where
in the nation. he holds the Thomas F. Hash Endowed Chair in sustain-
able development. His research focuses on the inves-
About the Authors tigation of clean-energy technologies and innovation
Thomas Koeppe is the Head of business development in advanced manufacturing, new materials, and semi-
and innovation with Siemens Energy. In this role, he is conductor technologies. In his career, he has been an
responsible for driving the development of new busi- Entrepreneur, an Academician, and a Government Offi-
ness strategies as part of the energy industry’s transi- cial. Prior to joining Clemson, he was the Director of
tion. He has over 18 years of experience in the energy the advanced manufacturing office for the U.S. Depart-
industry, including the development of the SGT-9000HL ment of Energy (DOE) and was one of the earliest Pro-
product line with key responsibilities for the modular- gram Directors in establishing ARPA-E. He received
ization strategy, product architecture, hydrogen, and the B.S. degree from MIT and the Ph.D. degree from NC
portfolio business development. He is also active in State, both in materials science and engineering.
decarbonization initiatives for both hydrogen and Peter Hoeflich is the Director of generation tech-
BESSs. He is serving on the board of directors for nology in Duke Energy’s Generation and Transmission
Southeast Hydrogen Energy Alliance and the project Strategy Organization. In his role, he evaluates emerg-
lead for H 2 -Orange. He received the B.Sc. degree in ing generation and long duration storage technologies.
mechanical engineering from the University of Additionally, his group works with appropriate internal
Waterloo, Canada. and external organizations to determine regulatory,
Johan H. Enslin, Ph.D. ([email protected]) is policy, and business implications related to the poten-
the Duke Energy Endowed Chaired Professor in Smart tial implementation of these technologies. He has over
Grid at Clemson University, North Charleston, SC, USA. 30 years of experience in the energy and power genera-
He has combined a 40-year career with leadership in tion industries. During that time, he has served in various
industry and academia, in the US, Europe, and South leadership and technical roles. He received the bachelor
Africa. He served as an Executive for private business of science degree in mechanical engineering from Grove
operations and a Professor in electrical engineering. City College and the master of business administration
He authored and co-authored more than 350 technical degree from Ohio State.
journal articles and conference papers for IEEE and
other organizations and has written several chapters References
in scientific books. He is a Life-Long Leader in the [1] STEO. (May 2023). EIA: Short-Term Energy Outlook. [Online]. Available:
https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/pdf/steo_full.pdf
IEEE and CIGRÉ working groups and committees and [2] J. Enslin and F. Profurmo, “Role of power electronics in distributed
serves currently as the PELS Vice-President Industry power and the hydrogen economy,” in Proc. FEPPCON, Aeolian Islands,
Italy, May 2004, pp. 1–7.
and Standards. He holds more than 30 provisional and
[3] (Sep. 2022). DOE National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap.
final patents. He received the 2014 Charlotte Business [Online]. Available: https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-shot
Journal Energy Leadership Award. He is a Registered [4] (Feb. 27, 2023). DOE National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap,
Draft—September 2022. [Online]. Available: https://www.hydrogen.energy.
Professional Engineer in South Africa, Fellow of the
gov/pdfs/clean-hydrogen-strategy-roadmap.pdf
SAIEE, and Fellow of IEEE. [5] T. Koeppe, “Clemson hydrogen combined heat and power storage
Tony Putman is the Executive Director of Util- system,” Siemens Energy, Charlotte, NC, USA, DOE Award, Final Rep.
DE-FE0032006, May 2022.
ity Services with Clemson University Facilities. He 
leads the Utilities and Energy Department, which is

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 33

 ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/ANDY DEAN PHOTOGRAPHY

Energy-Storage
Enhanced STATCOMs
for Wind Power Plants
by Fangzhou Zhao, Xiongfei Wang, Zichao Zhou, Lexuan Meng, Jean-Philippe Hasler,
Jan R. Svensson, Lukasz Kocewiak, Haofeng Bai, and Hongyang Zhang

T
he past years have seen a rapid increase in the deployment of large-
scale wind power plants (WPPs) in transmission grids. The dynamic
interactions between wind turbines (WTs), power transmission
cables, and other electrical infrastructure of WPPs pose challenges
to the stability and quality of electricity supply, particularly under

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3273893

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

34 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023 2329-9207/23©2023IEEE

diverse grid conditions. The interac- when it comes to providing active
tions tend to be worsened with lon- power-related grid services, such as
In real applications,
ger transmission cables [1]. A inertial response.
harmonic instability issue that fea- the available services Recently, the energy-storage
tures a 451 Hz resonance is mani- enhanced STATCOM (E-STATOM)
of E-STATCOM often
fested in an offshore WPP located in emerges as a promising alternative
the North Sea [2]. During a submarine needs to be prioritized solution [7], [8]. The E-STATCOM
cable outage, an offshore WPP situ- in different scenarios integrates the energy storage sys-
ated in England encountered instabil- tem, e.g., supercapacitor or battery,
ity due to sub-synchronous to comply with the into STATCOM, and is equipped
resonance at around 8.5 Hz [3]. specific requirements with the grid-forming (GFM) con-
Several control and hardware trol, therefore offering multiple
solutions are thus developed to outlined in local grid benefits to WPPs: 1) securing sta-
address the stability and power qual- codes due to the ble operations of WPPs under vary-
ity issues with large-scale WPPs [4], ing grid conditions, 2) supporting
[5]. One conventional solution is to
limitations of capacity WPPs to comply with the evolving
use a static synchronous compensa- and cost of grid-code requirements [9], e.g., the
tor (STATCOM) with grid-following black-start capability and islanded
(GFL) control to provide reactive
E-STATCOM. operation requirement, and 3) pro-
power and shape voltage profile, viding ancillary services for addi-
which can improve offshore WPP tional revenue [5], [8]. For ease of
performance. However, this approach is insufficient to reading, the main abbreviations used in this article is
stabilize the system when connected to an ultra-weak summarized in Table 1.
grid. In such cases, a grid-forming (GFM) control solution
is more effective in enhancing voltage stiffness [6], but E-STATCOM for WPP
note that both GFL and GFM STATCOM have limitations Figure 1 depicts a simplified system diagram of an offshore
WPP, where the E-STATCOM is deployed at the point of
interconnection (POI) of onshore grid. The WPP comprises
–– fifty 8 MW WTs that are equipped with standard grid-follow-
Table 1. Abbreviations.
ing control and is connected via a 160-kilometer-long trans-
Energy-storage enhanced static
mission cable (220 kV) to the onshore grid (400 kV). Table 2
E-STATCOM lists the potential services of E-STATCOM that are enabled
synchronous compensator
GFM Grid-forming by the integrated energy storage system. The services are
MMC Modular multilevel converter explained in more detail in capability of Table 2, which fur-
POI Point of interconnection ther categorizes them based on operation modes of WPP.
RoCoF Rate of change of frequency Grid-connected mode of a WPP is illustrated in Figure 1,
WPP Wind power plant while the islanded mode refers to the state where the WPP
WT Wind turbine is disconnected from the onshore main grid and operates as
STATCOM Static synchronous compensator a self-sustained power system. For example, the black start
SCR Short circuit ratio service in islanded mode of WPP is a process of restoring a
portion of the power system to operation without relying on

FIG 1 A simplified system diagram of an offshore WPP equipped with the E-STATCOM.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 35

 ––Table 2. Potential services/capabilities of E-STATCOM that are enabled by the energy storage for WPPs.

Super- Service Operation Mode

Battery Capability (E-STATCOM)
capacitor (E-STATCOM) (WPP)
Actively stabilize WPPs under varying grid strengths and
Active sub-synchronous
enhance the voltage stiffness to prevent adverse interactions Grid-connected mode
resonance damping
or oscillations
Selective harmonic Selectively dampen harmonic voltages at the POI of WPP with
damping enhanced passivity-based design of harmonic resistances
Use the energy storage system to provide inertial response for
Inertial response
slow down the rate of change of frequency (RoCoF)
System strength Provide grid strength support by limiting the consequences of
support power system events
Provide additional capacity to compensate/balance wind
Imbalance arbitrage
forecast error and to address ramping issues
High- and low-frequency response to support the grid and the
Frequency response Islanded mode
islanded WPP without the need for partial de-loading of WTs
Charge the local transmission system and enable the WPP to
Black start
operate in the islanded mode with block loads
Energize the cable network within WPP and provide the
Soft-charging
auxiliary power supply in the event of grid outage

the external power network, in the event of a total or partial The MMC in Figure 2 employs full-bridge submodules
shutdown. Two energy storage systems—battery and super- [10], allowing for flexible control of the centralized energy
capacitor—are also considered for different services in storage system at dc-link. The separation of MMC and
Table 2. The battery is needed for WPPs operating in energy storage furnishes several benefits: 1) customized
islanded mode and providing frequency services. Yet, for the design specifications for MMC valve room and energy stor-
inertial response, the E-STATCOM needs to react fast with age room with increased reliability, 2) being able to operate
the active power that is sustained over several seconds. it as a traditional STATCOM by using only the MMC, and
Compared to batteries, supercapacitors are more suitable 3) high flexibility for the maintenance and safety. Super-
for inertial support, due to their high-power density which capacitors can be operated across the full voltage range,
leads to a more compact footprint [7]. Further, supercapaci- facilitating efficient charging/discharging.
tors have long cycle-life, low maintenance cost, and minimal Figure 3 illustrates the conceptual GFM control dia-
power loss, which makes them a preferred energy storage gram of E-STATCOM. The GFM control has two basic
for E-STATCOM to provide active power support on a times- properties [11]:
cale of seconds. In real applications, the available services 1) The GFM controlled converter operates as a voltage
of E-STATCOM often needs to be prioritized in different sce- source behind an impedance. This is realized by the volt-
narios to comply with the specific requirements outlined in age control in Figure 3, where Vref is the voltage refer-
local grid codes due to the limitations of capacity and cost ence and ZV(s) represents the virtual impedance that is
of E-STATCOM. emulated through the control. Under grid disturbances,
the voltage-source behavior prompts the E-STATCOM to
System Configuration of E-STATCOM provide a proper level of reactive current spontaneously
Figure 2 depicts the system configuration of E-STATCOM, to return the voltage to its nominal operating level.
which employs a modular multilevel converter (MMC) and a 2) The GFM controlled converter mimics the swing equa-
centralized supercapacitor energy storage system at the dc tion of synchronous machine. Therefore, the grid-syn-
link [8]. The MMC technology is based on the use of modu- chronization of E-STATCOM is realized by the active
lar submodules, which are connected in series to create a power control to generate the angle as shown in Figure
multilevel voltage waveform. The use of multiple levels can 3, which allows for more flexible design of the inertial
effectively reduce harmonic distortion. Additionally, the cas- response and system damping than legacy synchronous
caded submodule design of MMC enables low switching machines.
loss and reduces the voltage rating requirements for power A significant advantage of using GFM control is the high
semiconductors. These features make MMCs particularly stability robustness in ultra-weak grids where the short cir-
well-suited for medium- and high-voltage power cuit ratio (SCR) approaches 1 [5], [6]. The SCR is often used
applications. as a measure to determine the grid strength to maintain

36 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

stability. The system is seen as a weak grid when SCR is interactions between harmonic control and the WPP, the
lower than 2.0 [12], while SCR approaching to 1.0 indicates passivity-based design is reported in [13]. Thus, the lossy
an ultra-weak grid that can destabilize the WPP. The GFM passive filters and the harmonic stability issues induced by
control used in the E-STATCOM allows it to act like a volt- passive filters can be avoided.
age source, which helps to strengthen the voltage stability
at the POI of the WPP. This, in turn, improves the equivalent Performance Demonstration of E-STATCOM
SCR and helps to reduce the negative effects that the WPP 1) Active Sub-Synchronous Resonance Damping
might have on the power grid. A comparison of conventional STATCOM and E-STAT-
Further, the E-STATCOM can be controlled to selec- COM is given as follows to demonstrate the active damping
tively dampen low-order (5th, 7th, …) harmonic voltages capability of the latter. A step response test (0.045 p.u.) of
at the POI of WPP [13]. The general idea is to shape the active power output of the WPP is performed under a weak-
output impedance of E-STATCOM, ZVh(s), as a resistance grid condition, where the SCR is 1.63 at the collector bus
at harmonic frequencies of concern. To prevent adverse (B1) of WPP. Three cases are evaluated—1) no STATCOM is

FIG 2 Main power circuit and system configuration of E-STATCOM.

FIG 3 Block diagram of GFM control and equivalent circuit of E-STATCOM.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 37

used, 2) conventional STATCOM with with a flywheel (SC-FW) storage sys-
GFL control, and 3) E-STATCOM with tem, both with identical inertia con-
Moreover, the GFM stants. The WPP is not involved in the
GFM control [14].
Figure 4 shows the simulation control allows for inertial response. The grid frequency
waveforms, where the active power in Figure 5(a) changes linearly with a
flexibly designing the
output of WPP and the voltage mag- RoCoF of −1 Hz/s. The E-STATCOM
nitudes at the POI of WPP are given damping effect of the exhibits similar inertial response to
in Figure 4 (a) and (b), respectively. E-STATCOM, thereby the SC-FW within the first tens of mil-
In case 1, the POI voltage is severely liseconds as depicted in Figure 5(b)
degraded due to inadequate reactive smoothening the [5]. This fast response is critical to
power compensation, which con- frequency variations. mitigate the RoCoF and reduce the
travenes grid codes and limits the frequency nadir. Moreover, the GFM
active power output of WPP. Fur- control allows for flexibly designing
ther, both voltage and active power the damping effect of the E-STAT-
present obvious oscillations around 35 Hz (lower than COM, thereby smoothening the frequency variations.
synchronous frequency 50/60 Hz), i.e., sub-synchronous 3) Selective Harmonic Damping
resonance, which sustains over 300 ms, indicating insuffi- Figure 6 presents a comparison of the performances
cient damping in the WPP when connected to a weak grid. without and with the selective harmonic voltage damping
In case 2, the conventional STATCOM effectively regulate function of E-STATCOM under an ultra-weak grid condition
the POI voltage through the provision of reactive power [13]. The harmonics injected by the offshore WPP are emu-
support. Yet, the improvement of dynamic performance lated by a paralleled harmonic current source, according to
is limited. The WPP still lacks damping. Unlike the previ- the IEC harmonic model of WT [15]. The injected harmonics
ous cases, in case 3, the E-STATCOM not only improves are 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th.
voltage stiffness (as evidenced by the significantly lower The voltages at POI are clearly distorted when the
voltage variation shown in Figure 4b), but it also actively selective harmonic damping function is disabled, and
provides the desired damping through GFM control to the total harmonic distortion (THD) is 4.3%, as shown
mitigate resonance (only small oscillations) and stabilize in the fast Fourier transform (FFT) result in Figure 6(a).
the WPP under weak grid interconnection conditions. Yet, when the selective harmonic damping control is
2) Inertial Response enabled, the concerned harmonic voltages are dampened
Figure 5 gives a comparison between the inertial effectively. The voltage THD at POI is reduced to 1.2%, as
responses of an E-STATCOM and a synchronous condenser shown in Figure 6(b).

FIG 4 Comparison of step responses [14]. (a) Active power output of WPP. (b) Voltage magnitude at POI.

FIG 5 Comparison of inertial response [7]. (a) Linear change of grid frequency. (b) Active power output of E-STATCOM.

38 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

FIG 6 Comparison of active harmonic damping [13]. (a) Voltages at POI without active damping. (b) Voltages at POI with
active damping.

Conclusion Haofeng Bai ([email protected]) is a

This paper has introduced the energy-storage enhanced Senior Scientist at Hitachi Energy, Västerås, Sweden.
STATCOM as an all-in-one solution to address the stability Hongyang Zhang (hongyang.zhang@hitachiener-
and power quality challenges with grid integration of gy.com) is a Senior Engineer at Hitachi Energy,
large-scale WPPs. With the energy storage system at the Västerås, Sweden.
dc-link and GFM control, the E-STATCOM can effectively
support the system by offering 1) adequate damping to References
system oscillations, which features reduced power over- [1] Ł. Kocewiak et al., “Overview status and outline of stability analysis in
converter-based power systems,” in Proc. Wind Integr. Workshop, Nov. 2020,
shoot and desired settling time of step response of active pp. 1–10.
power of WPP; 2) inertial response with the improved [2] C. Buchhagen et al., “Harmonic stability-practical experience of a TSO,”
in Proc. Wind Integr. Workshop, 2016, pp. 1–6.
RoCoF; and 3) selective harmonic damping with the
[3] L. Shuai et al., “Eigenvalue-based stability analysis of sub-synchronous
enhanced voltage THD. Building on the proven MMC tech- oscillation in an offshore wind power plant,” in Proc. 17th Int. Workshop
nology, E-STATCOMs exhibit high scalability, compact Large-Scale Integr. Wind Power Power Syst. Transmiss. Netw. Offshore
Wind Power Plants, Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 2018, pp. 16–18.
design, enhanced efficiency, and ease of maintenance,
[4] Ł. Kocewiak et al., “Practical aspects of small-signal stability analysis and
making it an advantageous solution for the high-power instability mitigation,” in Proc. 21st Wind Sol. Integr. Workshop (WIW), Sep.
(100 MVA and above) applications. 2022, pp. 1–13.
[5] F. Zhao et al., “Control interaction modeling and analysis of grid-forming
battery energy storage system for offshore wind power plant,” IEEE Trans.
About the Authors Power Syst., vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 497–507, Jan. 2022.
Fangzhou Zhao ([email protected]) is an Assistant Pro- [6] L. Zhang, L. Harnefors, and H.-P. Nee, “Interconnection of two very weak
AC systems by VSC-HVDC links using power-synchronization control,” IEEE
fessor at the Department of Energy, Aalborg University, Aal- Trans. Power Syst., vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 344–355, Feb. 2011.
borg, Denmark. [7] L. Meng et al., “Energy storage enhanced STATCOM for secure and stable
Xiongfei Wang ([email protected], [email protected]) power grids,” in Proc. CIGRE, Sep. 2022, pp. 1–12.
[8] Hitachi Energy. (2023). SVC Light Enhanced. [Online]. Available: https://
is a Professor at the Division of Electric Power and Energy www.hitachienergy.com/
Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, and a [9] National Grid ESO. (Feb. 2022). GC0137: Minimum Specification
Required for Provision of GB Grid Forming (GBGF) Capability (For-
Part-time Professor at the Department of Energy, Aalborg
merly Virtual Synchronous Machine/VSM Capability). [Online]. Available:
University, Aalborg, Denmark. https://www.nationalgrideso.com/
Zichao Zhou ([email protected]) is currently pursuing the [10] Hitachi Energy. (2022). STATCOM—SVC Light. [Online]. Available:
https://www.hitachienergy.com/
Ph.D. degree at the Division of Electric Power and Energy
[11] L. Harnefors et al., “Generic PLL-based grid-forming control,” IEEE
Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Trans. Power Electron., vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 1201–1204, Feb. 2022.
Lexuan Meng ([email protected]) is a [12] L. Zhang, “Modeling and control of VSC-HVDC links connected to weak
AC systems,” Ph.D. dissertation, School Elect. Eng., Stockholm, Sweden, 2011.
Senior Engineer at Hitachi Energy, Västerås, Sweden. [13] Z. Zhou et al., “Selective harmonic voltage control for STATCOMs in
Jean-Philippe Hasler (jean-philippe.hasler@hitachien- wind power plants,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., early access, Feb. 7, 2023, doi:
ergy.com) is a Senior Principal Engineer at Hitachi Energy, 10.1109/TPWRD.2023.3243137.
[14] F. Zhao et al., “Comparative study of battery-based STATCOM in grid-
Västerås, Sweden. following and grid-forming modes for stabilization of offshore wind power
Jan R. Svensson ([email protected]) plant,” Electr. Power Syst. Res., vol. 212, Nov. 2022, Art. no. 108449.
is a Research Fellow at Hitachi Energy, Västerås, Sweden. [15] Ł. H. Kocewiak et al., “Wind turbine harmonic model and its applica-
tion—Overview, status and outline of the new IEC technical report,” in Proc.
Lukasz Kocewiak ([email protected]) is a Lead Wind Integr. Workshop, Oct. 2015, pp. 1–6.
Power System Specialist at Ørsted, Copenhagen, Denmark. 

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 39

 ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/VLADVM

Voltage Controlled
Magnetic Components
for Power Electronics
Technologies and Applications

by Marco Liserre, Yoann Pascal, Jeffrey McCord, Thiago Pereira,

Rainer Adelung, Lukas Zimoch, S. Kaps, Xiaxin Li, and Nian X. Sun

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3273892

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

40 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023 2329-9207/23©2023IEEE

V
oltage controlled magnetic components, and reactive devices. Capability to bear higher currents,
which consist of dynamically controllable which are dictated by fault conditions, will also translate
inductances and transformers, are a promis- to higher volume [5]. In general, inductance and conduc-
ing yet understudied technology of growing tion losses are positively correlated. Furthermore, mag-
interest. In fact, these components offer cir- netic component selection, either custom or off-the-shelf,
cuit designers an additional degree of freedom to achieve results from trade-offs between several variables such as
multi-objective optimization with improved Pareto fronts. cost, losses, and size.
This article provides a review of some technologies that Dynamically controlled magnetics [6], which have
can be used to create controlled magnetics, including the capability to change their values online based on an
emerging technologies with high potential. Furthermore, a external control signal, constitute an opportunity for
list of possible applications are proposed, where these power electronics, by bringing an additional degree of
components can provide a significant advantage in terms freedom in finding a compromise among minimal size,
of efficiency, size reduction, or controllability. Special minimal losses, maximum filtering, limiting current rise
emphasis is laid on a use case: a 20 kW multiport dc–dc without compromising dynamic response, etc. After a
converter in which power flow control is achieved using brief introduction on magnetics and reluctance model-
voltage-controlled inductors based on partially saturable ing, this article gives an overview of technologies and
magnetic cores. physical phenomena used to create tunable magnetics. In
addition, it also provides a list of relevant possible appli-
Introduction cations, while a use case is also detailed later on. Finally,
Magnetic components constitute one of the basic devices in a conclusion closes the article.
power electronics systems. As a matter of fact, inductors
and transformers can be used for short-term energy storage, Basis of Magnetics Design
filtering, and to transfer power while providing galvanic iso- Figure 1(a) shows a schematic of a generic inductor, com-
lation between circuits [1]. posed of the winding, a magnetic core, and an air gap. Its
Nonetheless, they remain amongst the bulkiest parts equivalent reluctant model, analyzed using basic circuit
and account for a significant share of the losses [2], [3]. theory, can be derived by replacing the core and the air
Magnetic component design results from trade-offs gap by reluctances R . The winding is replaced by a mag-
between a variety of parameters. For instance, in a fil- netomotive force (MMF) source—calculated as shown in
ter, a higher inductance value will improve the filtering, Figure 1(b). lg is the length of the air-gap, l is the average
which is related to pulse width modulation choice, but length of the magnetic core, A its cross-sectional area, N
also increases the response time and, often, the losses [4]. the number of turns, and the magnetic material has a rela-
In some power converter topologies, inductance values tive permeability µ r —which characterises its ability to
result from a trade-off between power lost in the active increase or channel the magnetic flux φ .

FIG 1 (a) Physical schematics of an inductor, (b) equivalent reluctant model, and (c) inductance calculation.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 41

 The inductance, which links the magnetic flux and the values. Practical use in power applications remains
electric current (Figure 1c), can be expressed as limited to voltage regulating distribution transformers
due to the high cost and complexity of discrete imple-
−1
 l mentations [7]. On-chip integration of both the winding
L = N 2 Aµ0 ⋅ 

+ lg  .
µ
 r  and the tap-changer (MEMS- or solid-state-based) have
been demonstrated for low-value inductances, benefit-
The rms current through the coil imposes that large ing from the high-density integration enabled by wafer-
wires and few turns be used to limit losses. On the level technology [8].
other hand, the peak current through the coil dictates Magnetic cores are usually used in their linear region,
that a large number of turns (small due to the limited where they exhibit constant permeability. However, when
window area) be used to avoid magnetic saturation increasing the field and approaching saturation, the per-
which would result in a drop in permeability—and meability drops (Figure 2). This is exploited to create tun-
therefore inductance. As a matter of fact, unwanted able inductances, whereby a magnetic core is submitted
saturation may lead to over currents, increased losses, to a biasing field by means of an auxiliary winding, that
and control issues. The device must be designed such polarizes the material on its B-H curve around the target
that, given the peak current Î , the peak magnetic flux operating point. This technology has, in particular, been
density B̂ , given by used to regulate power converters [9]. The main short-
ˆ coming of this approach is the significantly increased
IL
Bˆ = , power loss in the dc-biased portion of the core. An appli-
NA
cation is detailed in the section “use case” below [10].
remains below the saturation flux density Bsat of the mate- Mechanical variability of the inductance is achieved
rial of the core. In practice, this means selecting a core of by various types of micromanipulators that vary the
sufficient size. length of the air gap (Figure 3) or move a magnetic shunt
When considering dynamically tunable magnetics, the into or out of it. Due to the large influence of the air gap
models must be updated to account for the energy stored on the inductance, this allows efficient and wide tun-
through the inductance-tuning mechanism, and that may ability. Other concepts rely on modifying the coil dimen-
sometimes be recovered. In particular, the relation between sions. Yet, the use of mechanical means results in high
the voltage vL and the current iL reads response times and is also considered a critical reliability
issue. This, added to the high cost and potentially high
power consumption, limits the practical applicability of
dφ d ( L ⋅ iL ) di dL
vL ( t ) = N ⋅ = = L ⋅ L + iL ⋅ , the concept.
dt dt dt dt
If piezoelectric materials can be used as actuators
for voltage-controlled mechanical adjustment of the
where L is a function of time. However, most applica- air gap, they offer another way to tune the inductance.
tions currently operate the tunable magnetics in quasi- In combination with magnetostrictive core materials,
static conditions, whereby the second term
can be neglected. When considering tunable
technics with low enough response time,
this effect could nonetheless be leveraged,
for instance for active filtering.
The following section highlights how these
variables can be tuned online to achieve
dynamic inductance control.

Physical Effects and Technologies for

Inductance Control
The basic model presented in the previous sec-
tion provides guidance on how the inductance
can be dynamically tuned by changing the
number of turns, the length of the air gap, the
permeability of the magnetic core, and the
overall shape of the inductor.
FIG 2 First quadrant magnetization curve of a typical ferrite for power elec-
Tapped coils with tap changers
tronics (N87): (BH) curve (blue) and incremental permeability µr,i , (red). Exter-
(mechanical or solid-state) constitute tun- nal biasing allows to move the operation point along the (BH) curve and
able inductances that can take discrete thereby tune the inductance, which is inversely proportional to µr,i .

42 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

voltage-tunable magnetoelectric composite inductors ferromagnetic bulk and wound cores, ferrite cores, and
have been realized, which allows voltage adjustment of magnetic piezoelectric material composites [11], [12],
the effective permeability of the inductors. In this case, resulting in significant inductance changes. The magnetic
a possible increase in core losses must be avoided [11]. material of choice is defined by magnetoelastic proper-
For this purpose, magnetoelectric components have ties (magnetic anisotropy and relative permeability) and
been integrated into the inductor or part of the induc- resistivity versus thickness. All these parameters must
tor as variable permeability magnetic flux valves. This be specifically tuned in terms of inductance and operat-
approach has been the subject of much research, includ- ing frequency for the intended variable inductor applica-
ing magnetic thin film and MEMS devices. Figure 4 tions. By transferring the concepts to high-power, bulk
shows the results obtained with voltage-controlled mag- material-based applications, the aforementioned limita-
netoelectric inductors, reaching a 450% tunability in the tions for the mechanical approaches in response time and
kHz-band. For power electronics applications, electric energy consumption could be overcome.
field modulation of permeabilities has been achieved for Other methods of tunable inductors rely on the use of
ferrofluids in the air gap of the inductors or as a variable
separation material in a pancake coil arrangement, or the
use of deformable magnetic composites. Although per-
meability is an intrinsic property of a material, shielding
by eddy currents may lead to some additional frequency-
dependence [14], which could be exploited for inductance
dynamic tuning. These methods are still at the proof-of-
concept stage at best and are also subject to similar reli-
ability issues as discussed above.

Applications—Brief Overview and Simple

Calculation of Gains
Tunable inductances have long been used as controlled
impedances, e.g., to adjust lighting intensity or for arc weld-
ing. Nonetheless, the wide spreading of power electronics
FIG 3 Mechanically adjustable inductor in which the length of the air gap will greatly benefit from online adjustable magnetics, which
lg can be tuned by moving the cores using an actuator (in blue). will further push optimal Pareto fronts. This will bring

FIG 4 (a) Measured inductance and (b) Q-factor of the integrated tunable inductor at voltage tuning with applied electric field from
0 to 12 kV/cm. (c) Schematic of the magnetoelectric inductor with a multiferroic composite core (reproduced from [13]).

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 43

significant improvements in the opera- reduction offered by soft switching.
tion of a wide set of circuits and appli- However, LC-circuits have resonant
Magnetic designs are
cations. This section describes some frequencies with low initial accu-
of these, summarized in Table I. constrained by trade- racy, and possibly significant shift
Magnetic designs are constrained due to ageing and temperature. This
offs, making it
by trade-offs, making it impossible is an issue when matching tanks are
to achieve optimal operation over impossible to achieve required, such as in multiport con-
a wide range of operating points optimal operation over verters or wireless power transfer.
with conventional components. The ability to dynamically tune tanks
For instance, in phase-shifted full- a wide range of is then of great interest to maximize
bridge (PSFB) and dual active bridge operating points with power delivery and efficiency—as
(DAB) converters, a high inductance showcased in section “use case.”
is required to achieve soft switch- conventional New topologies of power con-
ing—and thereby high efficiency—at components. verter could further benefit from
low load, but this increases the cop- controllable magnetics. For instance,
per loss and limits power transfer. critical conduction mode converters,
Dynamically adjusting the induc- and more generally hysteretic con-
tance therefore offers an additional degree of freedom trollers, suffer from complex control and EMI manage-
to track the maximum efficiency point. For example, the ment due to their variable switching frequency. Online
energy saving considering a lithium-ion battery charging tunable inductors would solve this issue by enabling such
cycle using a PSFB would reach 10%. converters to run at constant frequency.
Although, switching energies of wide-bandgap semi- The output filtering inductance of an inverter is limited
conductor-based devices can fall to a few percent of by the voltage drop across it at fundamental frequency
their silicon counterparts, full potential of SiC and GaN and nominal load. However, under reduced loading, the
is achieved in resonant topologies, owing to the loss inductance could be increased to keep the voltage-drop
constant. This would allow the switching frequency to be
reduced proportionally without power quality degrada-
Table– 1. Summary of the gain expected from the use
tion, resulting in a proportional reduction in switching
of tunable magnetics for some applications.
power loss. Under this control strategy, the analysis of
HVDC circuit breaker −45% breaking current the annual production profile of a wind turbine located
Wind generator inverter −20% inverter loss in northern France and equipped with an IGBT inverter
Battery charger −10% loss shows that the potential average power loss reduction
reaches 20%, assuming a tunability of ±30%.

FIG 5 Current rise after load-side short-circuit of a HVDC transmission line: constant versus tunable line inductance. Simulation
performed with VDC = 400 kV, I0 = 2 kA, L 0 = 20 mH.

44 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 In dc networks, minimal parasitic inductance is systems (ESS) with different capabilities. Nevertheless, res-
required to create a strong grid with good controllabil- onant multiport isolated converters, in particular those
ity. On the other hand, the line inductance limits the rate based on a multiwinding transformer (MWT), have been
of current rise during short circuit, thereby limiting the receiving more attention in applications where multiple dc
constraints on the circuit breaker. In such application, the sources and/or loads must be integrated (Figure 7). This
use of a low inductance value in normal operation, which results from their reduced number of conversion stages,
is then increased in case of fault, would enable a reduc- which leads to an increased power density and efficiency.
tion in the circuit breaker rating (−45% breaking current On the other hand, the increased number of windings at
in a typical HVDC network, assuming ±30% inductance the same magnetic core makes the resonant MWT-based
tunability (Figure 5), while maintaining controllability. (RES-MTB) topologies more susceptible to parameter
Although, today’s electric network is exclusively deviations on the MWT and multiple reactive networks,
either exploiting a single spectral component (typically which can lead to power flow control issues. Thus, the
50 or 60 Hz) or dc, tomorrow’s networks may exploit multiple resonant tanks must be properly tuned to reduce
a wide spectrum to transfer power: not only the fun- these parameter deviations and unbalance.
damental, but also the harmonics would be used to In this context, the integration between actively con-
convey energy between sources and loads in a targeted trolled passive elements and the RES-MTB converter can
manner (Figure 6). In such multi-frequency network, be used as an additional degree of freedom to tune individu-
tunable magnetics would enable power routing based ally the values of the resonant inductors. Hence, it allows
on spectral content [6]. not only the self-tuning of the multiple resonant tanks
against parameter deviations but also the power flow con-
Use Case: Self-Tunable Multiport trol among the ports.
Resonant Converter The concept of integrating a variable inductor into the
Several isolated dc–dc topologies have been proposed in RES-MTB converter is experimentally validated with a pro-
the literature for interconnecting multiple energy storage totype of 20 kW (Figure 8), cf. [10], [15].

FIG 6 Structure and spectrum of a multi-frequency grid in which the spectral components supplying each load or sub-network can
be dynamically selected by tuning the inductance of the respective filter.

FIG 7 RES-MTB converter embedded with actively controlled inductors (ACI) for multi-source integration (left); Power distribution in function of the load
frequencies considering the different ESSs (right) [15].

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 45

 The structure of the variable inductor is based on the the first condition, the resonant tanks RT I and RT III are
gapped E-core, cf. Figure 9(a). The control winding, which configured with the same inductance value to ensure the res-
is responsible for changing the inductance value, is divided onance frequency of 20 kHz, while RT II is configured with
into two identical parts with the number of turns equal to the maximum inductance to reduce the processed power cf.
N dc . The control winding is mounted on the outer legs of Figure 10(a). In the second case, all tanks are matched so as
the E-cores, cf. Figure 9(a) and (b), while the main winding to ensure balanced power transfer (Figure 10b).
is placed on the air-gapped center leg [16].
The control and generation of the dc bias cur- Conclusion
rent can be realized, for example, via a non-isolated Tunable magnetics bring an additional degree of freedom
switched mode dc–dc converter for optimal efficiency. to circuit designers, enabling to further push Pareto fronts
By increasing the dc bias current up to the point where in online multi-objective optimizations. A wide variety of
the magnetic flux density enters the saturation region, physical phenomena and technologies have already been
the increased reluctance of the core reduces the induc- investigated to create such devices. Further research
tance value (Figure 9c). should investigate the limitations of each technology in
Experimental results were obtained under two condi- terms of upscaling, bandwidth, response time, complexity,
tions: unbalanced and balanced operations, cf. Figure 10. In failure rate, etc. Future work should also focus on

FIG 8 Hardware prototype of the RES-MTB converter [10].

FIG 9 (a) Concept of actively controlled inductors considering the control and main windings; (b) picture of the prototype; and (c)
measured inductance as a function of bias current [10], [15]

46 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

FIG 10 Experimental results considering the steady-state operation: under (a) unbalanced and (b) balanced conditions [10].

innovative topologies and control strategies to better Award, the 2017 IEEE PELS Sustainable Energy Systems
understand the full potential of this new family of compo- Technical Achievement Award, the 2018 IEEE-IES Mittel-
nents. Although, this article focuses on tunable induc- mann Achievement Award, and six IEEE Journal Awards. He
tances, the same phenomena can be and have been applied is a Fellow of the IEEE.
to designing transformers with tunable coupling coeffi- Yoann Pascal ([email protected])
cients, leakage, and magnetizing inductances. A dramatic received the engineering degree from École polytechnique,
leap forward in tunable magnetics design for the next gen- Paris, France, and the Ph.D. degree from École normale
eration of power electronics is expected from the combi- supérieure Paris-Saclay, France, in 2015 and 2019, respective-
nation of circuit design and magnetic materials expertise. ly. His Ph.D. research was focused on PCB-embedding of
power electronics dies and magnetic components. From 2020
About the Authors to 2022, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of
Marco Liserre ([email protected]) received the M.Sc. and Power Electronics of Kiel University, Kiel, Germany. Since
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Bari Technical 2022, he has been a postdoc at the Fraunhofer ISIT—Institute
University, Bari, Italy, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. He has for Silicon Technology, Kiel. His research activities include
been an Associate Professor at Bari Technical University and thermal management and reliability, magnetic components,
a Professor in reliable power electronics at Aalborg Universi- and wide bandgap transistor-based power conversion.
ty, Aalborg, Denmark, from 2012. From 2013, he is a Full Pro- Jeffrey McCord is a Professor with the Department of
fessor and he holds the Chair of Power Electronics at Kiel Materials Science, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany. He
University, Kiel, Germany. He got offered and declined Pro- received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in materials science from the
fessorships at the Technical Universities of Ilmenau, Munich University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany,
and Hamburg. He has published more than 600 technical where he also received the Ph.D. degree, working on mag-
papers (1/3 of them in international peer-reviewed journals), netic thin films and magnetic domains. From 1997 to 2001,
a book and two granted patents, with more under evaluation, he was with the IBM Storage Division, San Jose, CA, USA,
some of them involving companies. These works have where he was responsible for the development of magnetic
received more than 50,000 citations. He is listed in ISI Thom- recording heads. From 2002 to 2009, he was a Research Sci-
son report “The world’s most influential scientific minds” entist and the Group Leader at IFW Dresden, until he accept-
from 2014. In 2022, he joined part-time Fraunhofer ISIT as ed a position as the Head of the Nanomagnetism Depart-
the Deputy Director and the Director of a new Center for ment, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. He is the Co-
“Electronic Energy Systems” funded for 5 million Euro. He is founder and the Former Managing Director with evico
a member of IAS, PELS, PES, and IES. He has been serving magnetics GmbH. In 2011, he was appointed as the Heisen-
all these societies in different capacities. At PELS, he is an berg Professor for “Nanomagnetic Materials and Magnetic
AdCom Member (second mandate), a Co-editor of the IEEE Domains” at the Department of Materials Science, Kiel Uni-
Open Access Journal in Power Electronics, an Associate Edi- versity. He has authored more than 180 articles in peer-
tor of TPEL and JESTPE, a Guest Editor of several special reviewed journals in the field of magnetic films and magnetic
issues of JESTPE, the Technical Committee Chairman of the domains and has given more than 80 invited talks. He holds
new Committee on Electronic Power Grid Systems, and a several patents related to magnetic thin film technology. He
Member of the IEEE Digital Committee, IES-Liaison Respon- has been involved in the organization of several conferences,
sible, eGrid 2021 Workshop Co-chairman, and PEDG 2022 including serving as the Program Co-chair for Intermag 2017.
Co-chairman and Organizer in Kiel. He has received the IES Thiago Pereira (S’14) received the B.S. degree in
2009 Early Career Award, the IES 2011 Anthony J. Hornfeck mechatronics from the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina
Service Award, the 2014 Dr. Bimal Bose Energy Systems (IFSC), and the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 47

engineering from the Power Electronics Institute (INEP), bioengineering, the Director of the W.M. Keck Laboratory for
Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianopo- Integrated Ferroics, Northeastern University, and the Found-
lis, SC, Brazil, in 2011, 2016, and 2018, respectively. Since er and the Chief Technology Advisor of Winchester Technol-
2019, he has been working toward the Ph.D. degree in ogies, LLC. He received the Ph.D. degree from Stanford Uni-
electrical engineering with the Chair of Power Electronics, versity. Prior to joining Northeastern University, he was a
Christian-Albrechts-Universität of Kiel, Kiel, Germany, and Scientist at IBM and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. He
since 2023 with Fraunhofer ISIT, Kiel. His research inter- was the recipient of the Humboldt Research Award, NSF
ests include dc–dc converters, power converter topolo- CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, the Søren
gies, reliability in power electronics, high-power converter Buus Outstanding Research Award, Outstanding Translation-
systems, and wide bandgap semiconductor devices. al Research Award, etc. His research interests include novel
Rainer Adelung is a Professor with the Department magnetic, ferroelectric and multiferroic materials, devices
of Materials Science, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany. He and microsystems, novel gas sensors and systems, etc. He
received his doctoral degree in physics from Kiel Univer- has over 300 publications and over 30 patents and patent
sity in the year 2000. After spending a year in the Materi- applications. One of his papers was selected as the “ten most
als Science Department, Case Western Reserve University, outstanding full papers in the past decade (2001–2010) in
USA, he returned to Kiel as a Habilitation Candidate and Advanced Functional Materials.” He has given over 200 ple-
obtained his venia legend in 2007. Initiated with a Heisen- nary/keynote/invited presentations and seminars. He is an
berg Professorship award in 2007, his research group on Elected Fellow of the IEEE, and an Editor of Sensors and
functional nanomaterials became the Chair for functional IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.
nanomaterials in 2010. Since then, he has continuously
participated in collaborative initiatives such as collabora- References
tive research centers funded by the German Science [1] V. Valchev and A. Van den Bossche, Inductors and Transformers for
Power Electronics, 1st ed. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2005.
Foundation on magnetostrictive materials and magnetic [2] R. Chen et al., “Efficiency-oriented parameter design and comparison of
composites. He has been a Professor of materials science medium voltage isolated bidirectional DC/DC converters,” IEEE Open J.
Power Electron., vol. 4, pp. 14–23, 2023.
(Heisenberg Professorship) at Christian-Albrechts-Univer-
[3] R. Guan et al., “A medium voltage input multiport isolated output DC
sität, since July 2007. He has published more than 250 transformer with power self-balancing and output fault isolation,” IEEE
peer-reviewed journals on functional nanomaterials. Trans. Power Electron., vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 4771–4786, Apr. 2023.
[4] M. Liserre, F. Blaabjerg, and S. Hansen, “Design and control of an LCL-
Lukas Zimoch received the B.Sc. degree in materials
filter-based three-phase active rectifier,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 41, no.
science and engineering and the M.Sc. degree in materials 5, pp. 1281–1291, Sep. 2005.
science and engineering from the Christian-Albrechts-Uni- [5] L. Camurca, M. Langwasser, and M. Liserre, “Design approach of induc-
tive components in medium voltage modular multilevel converter consider-
versity of Kiel, Kiel, Germany, in 2017 and 2019, respectively. ing DC side fault protection conditions,” in Proc. IEEE Appl. Power Elec-
Since 2020, he is pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the Faculty of tron. Conf. Expo. (APEC), Mar. 2020, pp. 2617–2624.
Engineering, Kiel and is currently working with magneto- [6] A. Boyajian, “Theory of D-C. Excited iron-core reactors and regulators,”
Trans. Amer. Inst. Elect. Eng., vol. 43, pp. 919–936, 1924.
strictive polymer composites in the field of magnetoelectric [7] M. Sojer, “Voltage regulating distribution transformers as new grid asset,”
and pressure sensors. Other research interests include tun- Proc. Eng., vol. 202, pp. 109-120, Jan. 2017.
able inductors, gas sensors for H2 and volatile organic com- [8] P. Park et al., “Variable inductance multilayer inductor with MOSFET
switch control,” IEEE Electron Device Lett., vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 144–146, Mar.
pounds, as well as superparamagnetic aero-magnets. 2004.
Soren Kaps is a Senior Researcher at Christian [9] S. Brandt et al., “A survey on adjustable inductances for power electronic
circuits,” in Proc. PCIM Eur., 2022, pp. 1–9.
Albrechts University Kiel (CAU), Kiel, Germany, in the
[10] T. Pereira et al., “Self-tuning multiport resonant DC/DC converter based
Chair for “Functional Nanomaterials.” He received the on actively-controlled inductors for hybrid storage system integration,”
Ph.D. degree from CAU in 2015. His primary research IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 4787–4804, Apr. 2023.
[11] Y. Yan et al., “High-power magnetoelectric voltage tunable inductors,”
revolves around porous materials and the application of
IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 68, no. 6, pp. 5355–5365, Jun. 2021.
additive manufacturing techniques. His work primarily [12] J. Cui, L. Qu, and W. Qiao, “A three-phase adjustable-voltage-ratio
aims to develop innovative design for memristive devices transformer based on magnetic flux valves,” in Proc. IEEE Energy Convers.
Congr. Expo. (ECCE), Sep. 2018, pp. 758–762.
and magnetic field sensors. Additionally, he has a keen [13] J. Lou et al., “Electrostatically tunable magnetoelectric inductors with
interest in surface interface-related materials science and large inductance tunability,” Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 94, no. 11, Mar. 2009, Art.
actively explores advancements in this field. no. 112508.
[14] W.-T. Franke et al., “Characterization of differential-mode filter for grid-
Xiaxin Li received the B.E. degree in electronic science side converters,” in Proc. 35th Annu. Conf. IEEE Ind. Electron., Nov. 2009,
and technology from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, pp. 4080–4085.
and the M.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering [15] T. Pereira et al., “Multiport resonant DC–DC converter using actively-
controlled inductors for hybrid energy storage system integration,” in
from Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA, in 2020 and Proc. IEEE Appl. Power Electron. Conf. Expo. (APEC), Mar. 2022, pp.
2023, respectively, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. 1154–1161.
degree in electrical engineering. His research interests [16] D. Medini and S. Ben-Yaakov, “A current-controlled variable-inductor
for high frequency resonant power circuits,” in Proc. IEEE Appl. Power
include new magnetoelectric antennas and sensors. Electron. Conf. Expo. (ASPEC), vol. 1. Orlando, FL, USA, 1994, pp. 219--
Nian X. Sun is a College of Engineering Distinguished 225, doi: 10.1109/APEC.1994.316396.

Professor of electrical and computer engineering and

48 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/ANDREI KUZMIK

Reliability Evaluation of
SiC MOSFETs Under
Realistic Power
Cycling Tests
by Masoud Farhadi, Bhanu Teja Vankayalapati, and Bilal Akin

T
he past decade has witnessed increasing migration from silicon (Si)
to silicon carbide (SiC) in power electronics applications. This is due
to the unique advantages of SiC over Si counterparts, like higher
breakdown field, higher band gap, and higher thermal conductivity
[1], [2]. Therefore, SiC devices can operate at faster switching

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3271621

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

2329-9207/23©2023IEEE June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 49

frequencies, higher power density, changes negatively affect the perfor-
and with exceptional thermal perfor- mance, efficiency, and lifetime of the
By conducting ALTs,
mance. However, as this technology device. To mitigate the effects of gate
progressively becomes mature, ques- manufacturers and oxide degradation, it is essential to
tions still arise regarding its long-term use high-quality gate oxide materi-
engineers observe
reliability. These questions can be als and minimize extrinsic defects
answered proactively using acceler- changes in device and impurities during the fabrication
ated lifetime tests (ALTs). ALTs accel- parameters and process.
erate the aging mechanisms by B. Package Degradation: Package
amplifying the thermal and electrical characteristics and degradation refers to the gradual dete-
stresses. The data from ALTs serve a make necessary rioration of the physical and electrical
crucial function for evaluating the properties of a power device package
sustained reliability of SiC MOSFETs improvements in device over time. The package plays a critical
through assessment of their lifespan, structure to enhance role in protecting the power device
identification of breakdown causes, and facilitating the transfer of heat
and continuous monitoring of their
reliability or develop and electrical signals between the
performance. This article introduces condition monitoring device and the external circuit. Pack-
an ac power cycling test setup for SiC age degradation can cause changes
MOSFETs and discusses the correla-
tools for field in the dimensions and physical prop-
tion of aging precursors to different applications. erties of the package, as well as lead
failure mechanisms. Also, the study to the formation of defects and impu-
identifies and presents patterns of rities. Die attachment and wire bond
common precursor shifts. solder are the dominant parts of the
package, which are subject to degradation due to tempera-
Accelerated Lifetime Tests ture cycling and mechanical stress [7], [8].
Accelerated lifetime tests are used to simulate the aging C. Body Diode Degradation: Body diode degradation
mechanisms that power semiconductor devices experi- refers to a gradual deterioration in the intrinsic p-n junction
ence in the field by exposing them to a controlled envi- diode that is formed between the source and drain termi-
ronment with elevated levels of electrical and thermal nals of the MOSFET. Over time, the performance of the body
stresses [3]. By conducting ALTs, manufacturers and engi- diode can degrade due to factors such as exposure to high
neers observe changes in device parameters and charac- temperature and high reverse-bias voltage and the accumu-
teristics and make necessary improvements in device lation of impurities in the p-n junction. This degradation
structure to enhance reliability or develop condition mon- causes an increase in the reverse-recovery time and for-
itoring tools for field applications. Additionally, ALTs help ward voltage drop of the diode, increases reverse recovery
manufacturers to provide accurate lifetime estimates. The losses, reduces its efficiency, increases the reverse-leakage
most common degradation mechanisms that SiC power current, and eventually reduces the device’s lifetime.
devices can experience include: 1) gate oxide degrada- A number of accelerated lifetime tests have been sug-
tion, 2) package degradation (including die attach degra- gested to assess the aforementioned failure mechanisms.
dation and wire bond degradation), and 3) body diode High-temperature gate bias (HTGB) and high-temperature
degradation. These degradation mechanisms can have a reverse bias (HTRB) tests accelerate gate oxide aging by
significant impact on the performance and reliability of exposing the gate and drain to high temperatures and a
SiC power devices. Therefore, it is essential to under- steady voltage, respectively. The main purpose of this test
stand and control them through rigorous testing and is to verify the stability of the gate oxide integrity over
design optimization. time and temperature. In the HTGB test, the drain and
A. Gate Oxide Degradation: The gate oxide is a thin source are connected, subjecting the channel and JFET
insulating layer of silicon dioxide (SiO2) that plays a criti- regions to an electric field. As a result, TDDB and BTI are
cal role in current flow control through the device, controls anticipated to contribute to the aging of the oxide [6]. The
the flow of current, and helps to prevent short circuits. Its HTRB test involves applying a negative bias to the gate
integrity is crucial for ensuring reliable performance and and a positive voltage to the drain-source terminals. This
preventing device failure. Gate oxide degradation can test subjects the gate oxide to static stress. HTRB can
occur due to a variety of mechanisms, including hot car- cause an increase in the electric field across the oxide-
rier injection (HCI) [4], bias temperature instability (BTI) insulating layer of the MOS transistor, leading to oxide
[5], and time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) [6]. breakdown and the formation of defects in the oxide
When gate oxide degradation occurs, it leads to an increase layer. The high-temperature gate switching (HTGS) test
in the gate leakage current, a reduction in the breakdown provides a more realistic simulation of the device’s behav-
voltage, and an increase in the gate capacitance. These ior by applying high-frequency pulses to the gate-source,

50 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

whereas HTGB and HTRB tests do not involve switching to identify potential failure mechanisms in a realistic
effects. However, there are some limitations to the HTGS manner that may not be revealed by other reliability tests.
test. One limitation is that the testing duration is rela- The ac power cycling test allows for the simulation of
tively lengthy, which can be a disadvantage in situations various converter operating conditions by adjusting the
where a fast evaluation of device reliability is required. power factor (PF), frequency, dc bus voltage, and gate
Additionally, the channel is not sufficiently stressed in voltages. To optimize the results of the ac power cycling
the HTGS test, which means that it may not accurately test, the test conditions should be chosen to provide a
reflect the long-term reliability of the device. range of conditions that represents field operations. In
The thermal cycling and dc power cycling tests expedite the ac power cycling test, an ac current is applied to the
package degradation by exposing the device to repeated device, which can simulate hot carrier injection and the
passive and active thermal cycles. The thermal cycling effect of electro-migration. Also, ac power cycling test
test can be performed using programmable hot plates or applies both positive and negative gate voltage, which can
ovens with varying thermal profiles. This test lacks chan- expedite BTI and TDDB. Table 1 summarizes the differ-
nel conduction and disregards the effects of wire bond self- ent accelerated lifetime tests and their associated aging
heating and electro-migration. In contrast, the dc power mechanisms for SiC MOSFETs.
cycling test generates thermo-mechanical stress due to
injected dc current to control thermal cycles. The dc power AC Power Cycling of SiC MOSFETs
cycling also causes degradation of the gate oxide through In Figures 1 and 2, a reconfigurable 120 KVA ac power
the applied gate-source voltage. The dc power cycling test cycling test setup is shown that has been designed to
targets different parts of the device package based on test assess power train switches and modules with a 62 mm
conditions such as heating and cooling times, and the mean package in electric vehicles. It is expected that a high-
junction temperature. As a disadvantage, this test ignores power test setup should be efficient to minimize power
the effects of switching transients and high dc bus voltage. consumption yet provide programmable losses to accel-
Die attach degradation and wire bond degradation are the erate aging processes. To meet this objective, two
potential reliability issues that the dc power cycling test 3-phase back-to-back inverters have been utilized in the
can identify. The chopper mode bias (CMB) test expedites ac power cycling test setup to recirculate power effec-
the degradation of the internal PiN diode through body tively (the setup draws power for losses only). The
diode conduction. The device is switched off by applying a required heat for thermal cycling is controlled by pre-
negative voltage to ensure complete shut-off of the channel cisely adjusting the switching and conduction losses
and reverse conduction. under high voltage and high load conditions. Even though
The described tests concentrate on specific failure it is a high-power setup, the input power supply only pro-
modes and do not fully mimic actual converter opera- vides the losses of the inverter, with most of the power
tion. To address these limitations, the ac power cycling being recirculated internally. The design consists of three
test can be used, which creates thermal stress during separate full-bridge inverters, each of which is connected
actual converter operation. The ac power cycling helps directly to the dc bus. The three-phase configuration

Table 1. Summary of accelerated aging mechanisms in different lifetime tests for SiC MOSFETs.
–

Aging
Body Diode-
Gate Oxide-Related Package-Related
Related
Aging Test
Time-Dependent Bias Hot
Die Attach Wire Bond Body Diode
Dielectric Temperature Carrier
Degradation Degradation Degradation
Breakdown Instability Injection
High-Temperature Gate Bias Very high Very high × × × ×
High-Temperature Reverse Bias High High Very Low × × ×
High-Temperature Gate Switching Medium Medium × × × ×
Thermal Cycling × × × Medium Medium ×
3rd Quadrant Chopper Mode Bias Low × Low × × Very high
DC Power Cycling Low Very Low × Very high High ×
PF = 1 Medium Medium Medium High Very high ×
AC Power
PF = −1 Medium Medium Medium Medium Medium Very high
Cycling
PF = 0 Medium Medium Medium High High High

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 51

facilitates a consistent power flow and optimizes the uti- direction of the dq-axis reference values. Figure 3 shows
lization of the high dc voltage. In this setup, one of the the phasor diagram of the ac power cycling test setup for
inverters serves as the load, while the other inverter positive and negative power factors. Where VL represents
serves as the inverter under test (IUT). The power factor the voltage of the load converter, VDUT is the voltage of
can be adjusted by modifying the magnitude and the test inverter and iXL is the voltage drop in the load. In
addition to power factor, modulation index, switching
frequency, fundamental frequency, dc-link voltage, and
current amplitudes are all programable to mimic various
operating points. This feature enables the examination of
each factor on device degradation.
Advanced gate driver boards communicate with the
main controller board through the SPI interface, and each
gate driver is capable of measuring aging indicators such
as threshold voltage, on-resistance, and body diode volt-
age for condition monitoring. Figure 4 presents the cir-
cuit diagram of the measurement circuit to monitor the
aforementioned precursors. The gate driver board has the
capability to modify the gate turn-on and turn-off voltages,
which in turn allows for the adjustment of the electric field
across the gate oxide and, as a result, the rate of gate oxide
degradation. Additionally, the gate driver board provides
FIG 1 The ac power cycling test setup for reliability assessment several protective features, such as DESAT protection,
of SiC devices. drain-source voltage clamping, and an active Miller clamp.

FIG 2 (a) Block diagram of the overall system with complete condition monitoring features. (b) Control diagram.

52 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

DESAT protection is used to protectively prevent MOSFETs
from entering the drain-to-source saturation region. By
providing DESAT protection, the gate driver board helps to
ensure that the MOSFETs are operated within safe voltage
and power limits. The drain-source voltage clamping fea-
ture helps to prevent the MOSFETs from being damaged by
high voltage spikes or transients. Additionally, the active
Miller clamp is employed to avoid the Miller capacitance
effect, which occurs when the voltage across the gate-
source capacitance (CGS) changes during the transition
from the on-state to the off-state. This change can cause a
high-frequency current to flow through the CGS, which can
cause ringing, shoot-through, and other undesirable effects
in the MOSFET.
Three 700 µH, and 400 A inductors are custom-designed FIG 3 Phasor diagram of ac power cycling test setup. (a) Motor
for power cycling and low current ripple. Two laminated mode. (b) Generator mode.
busbars with a horizontal bussing lay-
out connect the dc link capacitors and
power modules. This results in a bus-
bar assembly without bends or stand-
offs and, therefore, a low-inductance
power loop. In addition to modules,
the module-size board in Figure 5
can be used to test parallel discrete
devices. Figure 6 shows the operating
principle of ac power cycling. Initially,
the setup is turned on to heat up the
devices. Once the devices in the IUT
reach the predetermined maximum
temperature, the setup is turned off,
and the cooling system is activated to
cool down the devices. Having a high
cooling capacity is vital for shorten-
ing the overall duration of a thermal
cycle as the cooling phase takes up the
most time during the cycle. Two vac-
uum-brazed cooling plates cool down
the 62 mm power modules or discrete
devices. Each cooling plate has the
capability to transfer 1.5 KW of heat
with a fluid flow rate of 4 liters per FIG 4 Circuit diagram for precursor monitoring (on-resistance and body
minute and a maximum pressure drop diode voltage) in ac power cycling test.
of 2.2 psi. As a high-power converter,
this setup can experience significant
electromagnetic interference (EMI),
and proper grounding techniques, use
of EMI filters, and careful layout of
components and wiring is essential to
minimize EMI/EMC issues.

Precursor Evaluation for SiC

MOSFETs
In this test, third-generation SiC MOS-
FETs are utilized for the evaluation of FIG 5 Various DUT which can be used with the ac power cycling setup: (a) power
aging precursors. Systematic static module with a 62 mm package, (b) ten parallel discrete devices with a module-size
parameter evaluation of each device is board (top view), and (c) bottom view.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 53

 FIG 7 Threshold voltage change (ΔVth) over power cycles (at
ID = 2 mA).
FIG 6 Operating principle of ac power cycling.
concentration in the p-type well, ni is the intrinsic car-
carried out using the Keysight B1506A curve tracer during rier concentration, and q is the electric charge. The aging
each 300 cycles interval when the cycling is halted. The effect on the threshold voltage of SiC MOSFETs is shown in
following subsections demonstrate the changes in static Figure 7. Throughout the aging process, it is apparent from
parameters for all devices under test (DUT), which can be Figure 7 that the threshold voltages of all devices experi-
used as precursors for onboard condition monitoring. In ence an increase. The main cause of the positive shift in the
an ideal scenario, an aging precursor should exhibit threshold voltage is primarily attributed to the high density
changes with aging that are independent of operating con- of traps at the SiC/SiO2 interface (located between the SiC
ditions and easily measurable. However, such a precursor channel and the SiO2 gate oxide layer), which accumulates
with all these attributes simultaneously does not currently interface-trapped charges.
exist. Given these considerations, the on-resistance, body
∂Vth 1
diode voltage, and threshold voltage are chosen to be = > 0 (3)
∂Qit COX
monitored in this test setup. The selected precursors can
accurately monitor degradations related to the package, On-Resistance (Rds,on)
body diode, and gate oxide with sufficient precision. The on-resistance is another parameter frequently cited as
an aging precursor for SiC MOSFETs. In power MOSFET,
Threshold Voltage (Vth) the sum of individual resistances in each layer and region
The threshold voltage is one of the main precursors to mon- determines the total on-resistance. This can be mathemati-
itor the gate oxide degradation in MOSFETs. Gate oxide cally expressed as:
degradation can occur due to various factors, such as high
electric fields, high temperatures, and voltage spikes. As Rds, ON = Rch + RJFET + R A + RD + RSub (4)
the gate oxide degrades, the threshold voltage can shift up,
which can lead to changes in the MOSFET’s performance where Rch is the channel resistance, RJFET is the JFET region
and reliability. The shift in threshold voltage is primarily resistance, RA is the accumulation resistance, RD is the drift
attributed to the presence of interface-trapped charges (Qit) region resistance, and RSub is the n+ substrate resistance.
and oxide-trapped charges (Qot). The threshold voltage is The channel resistance is a significant contributor to the on-
theoretically calculated according to [9] and [10]: resistance in SiC MOSFETs, accounting for approximately
half of the total on-resistance. This is primarily attributed to
Qit − Qot
∆Vth = Vth, aged − Vth, fresh = (1) the lower mobility of inversion carriers at the SiC/SiO2 inter-
COX
face [11]. The following equation gives the expression for
the channel resistance of a MOSFET, which is calculated
N 
4ε S KT j N A ln  A  based on the channel width Wch, channel length Lch, channel
Vth, fresh =  ni  + 2 KT j ln  N A  (2) mobility μn, elementary charge q, and inversion charge den-
 
COX q  ni  sity ninv at the interface [12].
These equations give the theoretical calculation for the
Lch Lch
threshold voltage with oxide-trapped charge and interface RCh = ≈ (5)
Wch µ n qninv Wch µ nCOX (Vgs − Vth )
traps, where Vth,fresh represents the threshold voltage of a
fresh device, Cox is the gate oxide capacitance per unit area, With aging, the threshold voltage drift causes a decrease
S is the dielectric constant of oxide layer, K is the Boltzmann in the overdrive voltage (Vgs – Vth) in the denominator. This
constant, Tj is the junction temperature, NA is the doping reduction leads to an increase in the channel resistance of

54 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

the MOSFET, which is a dominant part of the on-resistance the voltage drop across the package interconnection
in SiC MOSFETs. As a result, the pattern of the on-resis- becomes remarkable, and therefore, the body diode volt-
tance shift is relatively similar to the Vth shift pattern. In age is a reliable indicator of package degradation. Never-
addition to Vth shift due to gate oxide degradation, there are theless, self-heating can cause a significant impact on
other failure modes related to the package, such as wire junction temperature at high currents. At zero gate volt-
bond liftoff, heal crack, and surface reconstruction, which age, the body diode voltage can serve as an indicator for
can also cause a sudden change in the on-resistance shift both gate oxide and package degradations. This is a con-
pattern. Figure 8 shows the on-resistance change over the sequence of the conduction of both the channel and the
power cycles. After conducting a comparison between the PiN diode at zero voltage in SiC MOSFETs, known as the
ac power cycling test and dc power cycling test, it can be “body diode effect” [13]. Negative gate bias can eliminate
observed that the ac power cycling test leads to a greater the body diode effect, and the body diode voltage change
change in on-resistance for a given threshold voltage shift. can be used as a precursor of gate oxide degradation at
Furthermore, the dc power cycling test indicates a rela- negative gate voltage and low current. To be specific, at a
tively smaller threshold voltage shift. The reason for this negative voltage, the current flow occurs exclusively
is that, during the ac power cycling test, hot carrier injec- through the PiN diode without the involvement of the
tion occurs due to the switching transients in addition to
the bias temperature effect, resulting in a negative thresh-
old voltage shift. Nevertheless, the bias temperature effect
remains the dominant factor, leading to an overall positive
shift in the threshold voltage.

Body Diode Characteristics (IS-VSD)

Another suitable precursor for aging monitoring in MOS-
FET is the reverse voltage drop (VSD). At higher currents,

FIG 8 On-resistance change over power cycles (at VGS = 15 V,

ID = 20 A).

FIG 10 Parasitic capacitances change over power cycles (at

FIG 9 Body diode characteristic change over power cycles (at f = 1 MHz, VAC = 30 mV). (a) Input capacitance. (b) Output
VGS = 0 V TCASE = 30 °C). capacitance. (c) Reverse transfers capacitance.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 55

channel. Consequently, any potential drift in the threshold Bilal Akin ([email protected]) received the
voltage will not have an impact on the voltage drop of the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Texas
body diode [14]. Body diode characteristic change over A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, in 2007.
power cycles at zero gate voltage and small drain currents From 2005 to 2008, he was a Research and Develop-
is shown in Figure 9. ment Engineer with Toshiba Industrial Division, Hous-
ton, TX, USA. From 2008 to 2012, he was a Research
Parasitic Capacitances and Development Engineer with C2000 DSP Systems,
The changes in parasitic capacitances over power cycles Texas Instruments Inc. Since 2012, he has been with
are depicted in Figure 10. The parasitic capacitance moni- The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA,
toring can provide valuable insights into the physical as a Faculty Member. His research interests include
mechanisms responsible for the gate oxide degradation design, control and diagnosis of electric motors and
and help in the development of more reliable and robust drives, digital power control and management, and
MOSFETs. One can observe that the parasitic capaci- fault diagnosis and condition monitoring of power elec-
tances of the MOSFET do not change significantly over tronics components and ac motors. He was a recipient
package degradation. To be precise, the parasitic capaci- of NSF CAREER 2015 Award, IEEE T ransactions on
tances experience a minor change due to the nominal pos- Industry Applications First Place Prize Paper Award and
itive gate voltage required for switching on the MOSFETs Top Editors Recognition Award from IEEE TVT Society,
during the power cycling test and are not significantly and two Jonsson School Faculty Research Awards. He
affected by package degradation. is currently an Area Editor of IEEE T ransactions on
Vehicular Technology. He is a Fellow of IEEE.
Conclusion
In this article, an extensive assessment of accelerated life- References
time tests and their relative failure mechanisms is provided [1] M. Farhadi et al., “Gate-oxide degradation monitoring of SiC MOS-
FETs based on transfer characteristic with temperature compensation,”
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[2] B. T. Vankayalapati et al., “A practical switch condition monitoring solu-
power cycling test setup. The key parameters of the power
tion for SiC traction inverters,” IEEE J. Emerg. Sel. Topics Power Electron.,
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cycling using a semiconductor curve tracer. The results [3] M. Farhadi, M. Abapour, and M. Sabahi, “Failure analysis and reliability
evaluation of modulation techniques for neutral point clamped inverters—A
show changes in electrical parameters with respect to aging
usage model approach,” Eng. Failure Anal., vol. 71, pp. 90–104, Jan. 2017.
cycles, and common precursors’ shift patterns are identified [4] L. C. Yu et al., “Channel hot-carrier effect of 4H-SiC MOSFET,” Mater. Sci.
and presented. Forum, vols. 615–617, pp. 813–816, Mar. 2009.
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About the Authors Devices, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 316–323, Feb. 2015.
Masoud Farhadi received the B.Sc. degree (Hons.) in [6] D. A. Gajewski et al., “SiC power device reliability,” in Proc. IEEE Int.
Integr. Rel. Workshop (IIRW), South Lake Tahoe, CA, USA, Oct. 2016,
electrical engineering and the M.Sc. degree (Hons.) in pp. 29–34.
power engineering (power electronics and systems) from [7] B. T. Vankayalapati et al., “A highly scalable, modular test bench archi-
the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of tecture for large-scale DC power cycling of SiC MOSFETs: Towards data
enabled reliability,” IEEE Power Electron. Mag., vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 39–48,
Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran, in 2013 and 2016, respectively. He is cur- Mar. 2021.
rently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the University of [8] B. T. Vankayalapati et al., “Investigation and on-board detection of gate-
open failure in SiC MOSFETs,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 37, no. 4,
Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA. His current research
pp. 4658–4671, Apr. 2022.
interests include analysis and control of power electronic [9] N. Stojadinovic et al., “Effects of electrical stressing in power VDMOS-
converters, reliability of power electronic systems, wide FETs,” in Proc. IEEE Conf. Electron Devices Solid-State Circuits, vol. 45,
Dec. 2003, pp. 291–296.
bandgap semiconductor device reliability, and renewable
[10] M. Farhadi et al., “Temperature-independent gate-oxide degradation
energy conversion systems. He received the 2020 Jonsson monitoring of SiC MOSFETs based on junction capacitances,” IEEE Trans.
School Industrial Advisory Council Fellowship, 2021 OK Power Electron., vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 8308–8324, Jul. 2021.
[11] M. Hauck et al., “Quantitative investigation of near interface traps in
Kyun Kim and Youngmoo Cho Kim Graduate Fellowship, 4H-SiC MOSFETs via drain current deep level transient spectroscopy,” in
and 2022 Excellence in Education Doctoral Fellowship from Proc. Eur. Conf. Silicon Carbide Rel. Mater. (ECSCRM), Halkidiki, Greece,
the University of Texas at Dallas. 2016, p. 1.
[12] B. J. Baliga, Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices. New
Bhanu Teja Vankayalapati received the M.Tech. York, NY, USA: Springer, 2008, pp. 278–500.
degree in power electronics from the Indian Institute of [13] J. A. O. González and O. Alatise, “A novel non-intrusive technique for
Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India, and the Ph.D. degree BTI characterization in SiC MOSFETs,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.
34, no. 6, pp. 5737–5747, Jun. 2019.
from UT Dallas, in 2017 and 2022, respectively. He is cur- [14] E. Ugur et al., “A new complete condition monitoring method for SiC
rently working as Systems Engineer at Texas Instruments, power MOSFETs,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 68, no. 2, pp. 1654–1664,
Dallas, TX, USA. His research interests include WBG device Feb. 2021.

applications, WBG reliability, converter design, and embed-

ded control. He is a member of IEEE. 

56 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/METAMORWORKS

Industrial Adoption of
Energy Harvesting:
Challenges and
Opportunities
by Thomas Becker, Michail E. Kiziroglou, Maeve Duffy,
Bahareh Zaghari, and Eric M. Yeatman

T
he Energy Harvesting Committee of the Power Supply Manufactur-
ers Association (PSMA) recently published a white paper on
Energy Harvesting (EH) for a green internet of things (IoT) [1]. In
that paper, the potential for converting ambient energy into electri-
cal energy to enable green power supplies of IoT key components,

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3271199

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

2329-9207/23©2023IEEE June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 57

such as autonomous sensor nodes is evaluated. The white are identified. For these issues, a concerted strategy in
paper provides an overview of energy harvesting, ranging research and technology is recommended, incorporating
from state-of-art technology research, through barriers in disruptive industrial product developments, and innova-
developing commercial off-the-shelf products, to a criti- tions to ensure that the advantages of EH are utilized in
cal assessment of several EH powered wireless sensor widespread future IoT deployment. Building on the find-
case studies. Issues in cost-benefit and life-cycle impacts ings of that work, this article provides a brief overview of
key innovation and emerging
research needs in order
to increase the suitability
and readiness of energy
harvesting technology for
industrial applications.

Introduction
EH devices have gathered
attention in the IoT commu-
nity, including public funding
bodies and various industry
sectors in recent years. The
central objective is to address
the power autonomy chal-
lenges of the dramatically
increasing number of inter-
connected devices. Indica-
tively, the global number of
IoT devices per person is
FIG 1 Evolution of number of IoT devices per person at worldwide scale, calculated from pub- expected to rise beyond 10 in
licly available data [2]. the short term, as shown in
Figure 1 [2]. These challenges
are especially important
because the cost of portable
power is over three orders of
magnitude higher than that of
the electrical grid. An indica-
tive cost comparison is illus-
trated in Figure 2 [2]. Many
valid technologies have been
investigated, leading to a sub-
stantial set of state-of-the-art
devices. In [3] and [4] a wide
range of underlying principles
and concepts are described.
These concepts are usually at
technology readiness level
(TRL) 2 or TRL 3 [5].
Over the years, these com-
ponents have been integrated
and successfully tested in use
case scenarios, reaching TRL
3 or even 4. However, the vali-
dation of energy harvesting
power supplies in industrially
relevant environments often
fails due to insufficient match-
FIG 2 Cost of energy from various sources and in various forms, from publicly available statis- ing to operational system
tics and prices [2]. requirements. Even though

58 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

some examples of successful validation in relevant envi- light, heat flow or vibration at a narrow frequency range.
ronments are reported [6], validation attempts at TRL 5 or Hence, customized device designs are employed for each
TRL 6 typically lack sufficient advance knowledge of device specific application.
performance in realistic operating scenarios. Despite these ■■Reliability of durable assets; such as cars, machinery,
current technology limitations, energy autonomy remains or aircraft; must not be compromised by the harvest-
vital for wireless systems that involve several edge nodes ing devices.
especially in remote or difficult to access locations. Key ■■In most cases, energy storage is required in addition to
benefits, such as reduced sensor maintenance and battery the energy harvester itself. Batteries or supercapaci-
replacement/recharging costs, and increased sensor spatial tors are often seen as a burden, which restrict applica-
resolution, are clearly visible in using autonomous wireless bility to mild environmental conditions and require
monitoring. This becomes even more emphatic when life additional hazard management. They can also suffer
cycle assessments from cradle to grave are considered, from limitations in number of lifetime charge cycles
either at power supply or integrated autonomous wireless and/or self-discharge.
sensor level. To leverage these benefits, further research ■■Adequate energy supply and endurance in non-standard
and development in energy autonomous microsystems is operations; such as during maintenance, repair, and over-
needed, which will contribute to a greener IoT ecosystem haul (MRO); is a key challenge as EH devices are typical-
by tackling the above-mentioned challenges [7]. EH does ly designed to operate in specific environments.
not consist of a single technology; therefore, a research ■■Obsolescence management is another key challenge. In
strategy (and support ecosystem of stakeholders) must deal the emerging dynamic market of energy harvesting, the
with many aspects of the various technologies and meth- provision of spare parts is critical. Lack of standards and
odologies. The research agenda discussed here focuses on the dominance of start-ups in the market make long-term
developments with direct impact on innovation and avail- supply chain sustainability unclear.
ability of EH devices. Increasing device functionality to more sporadic and
broadly occurring conditions is now a common objective
Technology Research among EH research efforts. Examples of proposed solu-
Beyond the state-of-the-art and the roadmap of evolution for tions for EH from motion include broadband, impulse
transduction materials, which is key for increasing the effi- and frequency up-conversion mechanical oscillators [8],
ciency of individual harvesting components, recent and bistable structures, and frequency up-conversion circuits.
imminent technology advances offer opportunities for over- As an example, an impulse motion energy harvested inte-
coming some of the key issues identified at overall device grated into a wireless sensor platform is shown in Figure 3.
level. EH offers many advantages over batteries or wires, In heat harvesters, advanced heat flow designs (including
but end-user perspectives may differ dramatically from an dynamic thermoelectric harvesting) and the employment of
individual technology pro-
vider. Commercial user
expectations are clearly
focused on the overall effi-
ciency enhancement instead
of individual technology
improvements. For successful
implementation in future
applications, several limita-
tions must be addressed:
■■System integrators are
accustomed to specifying a
device as a black box with
defined interfaces for input
and output parameters. EH
still requires engineering
advancements for stan-
dardization of its interfaces
to ambient energies and the
energy use.
■■Most EH solutions rely on
the availability of very spe-
cific environmental condi- FIG 3 Electrostatic impulse motion harvester integrated with pH sensing and wireless communi-
tions, such as direct sun- cation, from [11].

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 59

 a more general motion-
translation and compliance-
matching framework, or
for radio frequency and
acoustic energy harvesting
devices, as well as for wire-
less power transfer trans-
ceivers. In the case of energy
focusing, the near-linear
scaling of thermo-electric
generators (TEG) efficiency
with ΔT means that the per-
formance of thermoelectric
harvesters can be drasti-
cally enhanced by accumu-
lating thermal energy before
passing it through a TEG,
so that a given amount of
heat energy is converted at a
higher ΔT [16].
The combination of EH
FIG 4 Dynamic thermoelectric energy harvester, from [12]. devices and wireless power
transfer is also interesting,
heat storage units with phase change materials [9], provide especially for uncertain environments. An EH source nor-
access to significant ΔT on the transducer from realistic mally transduces environmental energy, but may also be
environments (Figure 4). designed to receive transmitted power on occasions, such
The power from weak lighting conditions of indoor as system installation, priming and testing, diagnostics
environments can be enhanced by employing semiconduc- and maintenance operations, or scheduled supplementary
tors with bandgaps covering the spectrum of indoor LED power support for more intense operating scenarios, e.g., a
sources, and by employing light concentration architec- full-capability sampling of a wireless sensor network that
tures initially proposed for increasing the output power per usually operates with a low duty cycle [15]. Examples of
unit mass of active material [10]. such sources include:
Functionality expansion can also be achieved by ■■A vibrational harvester driven to resonance by deliberate-
combining more than one transduction mechanism into ly induced vibrations, or acoustic waves to initiate or
hybrid energy harvesters, in which several types of envi- fully charge the target system.
ronmental energy can be harvested by single or multi- ■■A solar harvester illuminated with intense lighting on nec-
ple active materials [13], [14]. This can increase power essary occasions.
density in certain conditions, but more critically, it can ■■A thermal harvester artificially provided with heat; an
make the autonomous power supply less dependent on inductive harvester excited by an inductive power trans-
the environment. fer transmitter.
More generally, focusing the input environmental ■■A far-field RF harvester receiving a deliberately transmit-
power (or energy) on the transducing material is advan- ted signal.
tageous because it directly increases power density by ■■An inductive power line energy harvester, used as a
reducing active material mass as well as by increasing receiver for inductive wireless power transfer from a
efficiency, which often increases with the intensity of charging wand, for testing, initiation or activation of
the power source. In addition, higher intensity typically more intensive data acquisition.
leads to higher output voltage levels, which can be han- The combination of EH with wireless power transfer,
dled more efficiently by power management circuitry. including RFID (Figure 7), is expected to offer critical fea-
An example is the magnetic field focusing technique for tures, including testability, and to enhance the reliability
inductive EH from distributed structural currents (Figure of power autonomy for IoT, both during the early stages of
5) [15]. Such devices can also be designed for installation industrial adoption and in the long term.
onto power lines using modular, retrofitting, and com- At the power management level, integrated circuit
pact device designs (Figure 6). The light concentration solutions are available with sub-μW quiescent power
technique [10] is an application of this concept to solar consumption, offering impedance matching, cold-start-
harvesting. The concept of power focusing could also be ing, voltage boosting/bucking, battery and super-capac-
considered for motion energy harvesting devices within itor management, and rectification. A block diagram of

60 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

a typical power management architecture is shown in
Figure 8. The challenge of efficient cold-starting, espe-
cially in combination with low-voltage rectification,
offers an open opportunity for enhancing state-of-the-
art EH power supplies. The additional exploitation of
ambient energy, such as motion as a direct switching
mechanism, has shown significant potential for expand-
ing the applicability of EH to weaker energy sources
[20]. Furthermore, actively driving the EH transducers
by techniques such as piezoelectric pre-biasing [21] and
synchronized switch-on inductor [22], has been shown
to improve power density and should be considered
further. Super-capacitors are increasingly favored as
buffer energy stores in harvester systems due to their
high power density and number of charge cycles; how-
FIG 5 Flux funneling inductive energy harvester, from [17].
ever, their relatively high leakage currents are a bar-
rier to wider adoption, which
needs to be addressed in fur-
ther research [23].
Another advantage of energy
harvesters over batteries for
wireless applications is the time
extension between maintenance
events. For this advantage to
be realized, harvester devices
must achieve high mean-time-
between-failure (MTBF) values,
ideally of many years. Significant
work remains in this area. For
example, long-term degradation
of piezoelectric material (PZT)
performance has been shown,
but there is promise in using pre-
stress to keep the active material
always in compression [24].
The advantage of EH over
batteries will be absolute in
cases where the operating envi-
ronment prevents the use of FIG 6 Modular design for flux funnelling inductive harvesting from power lines [18].
electrolytic components due to
excess temperatures. There-
fore, development of harvesting
solutions fully compatible with
such extreme environments is
an attractive topic for future
work. Since batteries will also
be excluded as storage in such
cases, alternatives will be
needed, for example, mechanical
energy storage.
As discussed, energy har-
vesters tend to require specific
designs for each application
scenario. The lack of univer-
sal devices, particularly com-
pared to batteries and radio FIG 7 RFID like Flexible Tag Microlab, a 2D foil integrated system, from [19].

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 61

interfaces, limits the ability to manufacture energy har- actuation, communication, mechanical support, and pro-
vesters in high volume at low cost. This lack of universal- tection. As such, energy harvesting devices can be devel-
ity can be tackled in various ways. One possibility is to oped at system integration level, offering several
increase the use of modularization. For example, vibra- opportunities including 1) joint sensing and harvesting
tion harvesters could combine a use-specific motion from a common transducer, 2) combined harvesting and
adaptation module with a standard mechanical-to-elec- harsh-environment protection, e.g. by mechanical shock-
trical transduction module. Standard thermoelectric damping, smoothing temperature transients [25], radia-
modules could be combined with low-cost thermal con- tion, and field shielding [15], 3) joined power and data
ductors for geometric transformation to adapt to source (Figure 9) reception [26], and 4) a complimentary multi-
characteristics to maximize efficiency. Such modular dimensional design space in which energy harvesting can
approaches should be closely tied to standardization and support the power autonomy of portable systems.. Such
inter-operability efforts, as discussed below. functional integration would be particularly valuable for
applications with stricter size or weight constraints.
Development and Sustainability The availability of modular building blocks currently
In an integrated system, EH lies at the interface between a drives the use case development. As pointed out above, sys-
wireless system and the environment. It can be considered tem integrators do not want too many iterative steps in the
as part of an interactive package, along with sensing, development of low level components. Therefore, system
design software, such
as web-based develop-
ment tools, could pro-
vide a key medium for
communicating prin-
ciples and performance
of EH to the end users
in a comprehensive
manner, including dur-
ing early development
stages. Such software
may help foster the
FIG 8 Power management architecture of a typical energy harvesting power supply [2]. acceptance of harvest-
ing devices by indus-
trial users. Software
can also provide a key
role in predicting and
optimizing system-level
performance of parts
and predicting overall
battery life in advance
of deployments. This
can guide developers
towards optimization
and provide an effective
medium of communica-
tion and collaboration
for stakeholders in the
power IoT ecosystem
fostering interdisciplin-
ary collaborations [1].
Furthermore, recy-
clability and compli-
ance with current and
f u t u r e le g i s l a t io n s
towards green initia-
tives and international
FIG 9 Developing (a) energy harvesting and (b) wireless power transfer systems. (c) The concept of sustainable develop-
designing for dual, harvesting/transfer functionality, from [15]. ment goals is of utmost

62 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

importance to industrial applications. In this perspective,
energy autonomy is a key requirement for IoT technology
to achieve the reliability and sustainability objectives of
the global environmental roadmap. This includes private
and public industrial, network, and civil infrastructure
(including communication) as well as data acquisition,
analysis, and exploitation infrastructure.

Innovation and Outlook for Industrial Deployment

Beyond device- and system-level research and develop-
ment, innovation towards easy-to-install devices and fast
transfer into industrial products is required and will need
additional support, because start-ups or small and FIG 10 The heat-powered STRAINWISE aircraft sensor node,
medium enterprises are often the technology drivers. This from [27].
is also true for obsolescence management in dynamic
technology areas. Making commercial off-the-shelf Acknowledgment
(COTS) devices available for a broad range of power/ The authors would like to thank the Power Supply Manu-
energy requirements is a first step on which many compa- facturers Association (PSMA) and the Energy Harvesting
nies are working. However, as customized components Committee of PSMA for supporting this work.
and fabrication are often required in the production of
energy harvesting devices, supply chains must be sup- About the Authors
ported by public bodies and industry to help small compa- Thomas Becker received the M.Sc. degree in microelec-
nies enter the market in a sustainable way. tronics and the Ph.D. degree in microsystems for the work
Standardization is another step towards market on micro reactor technologies at the University of Bremen,
acceptance. EH is currently constrained between wire- Bremen, Germany. Between 1994 and 2000, he was working
less communications standards and measurement rules at DAIMLER-BENZ (Mercedes) Research, Munich, Germany,
for dedicated monitoring tasks. A more determined step as a Research Fellow on various aspects of sensor technolo-
towards standardization is strongly recommended to sup- gies for automotive applications. From 2000 to 2017, he was
port, shape, coordinate, and guide research efforts at the working for AIRBUS (EADS) Research, Munich and Ham-
component and device level, prioritizing restrictions, and burg, Germany, as the Manager of the chemical sensors lab-
accounting for future challenges. oratory, as the Key Technology Area Manager for microsys-
There are many opportunities for EH beyond the inher- tems, electronics, and microelectronics, and as an Expert
ent self-powering aspect. The vision of IoT deployment, for wireless communications, autonomous sensor systems,
high-speed wireless networking, and potential applica- and energy harvesting (EH) for aerospace applications.
tions is currently obscured by powering limitations, and From 2003 to 2019, he was a Professor for micro and nano
addressing them may open unforeseen opportunities in technologies at the Physics Department, NTA University of
fields like pervasive/autonomous sensing, computing, Applied Sciences, Isny, Germany. He is the Founder of THO-
intelligence, and virtual sensing. As EH is reaching a BECORE Consulting and Research, Bremen, Germany, sup-
technology mutation point, its combination with wire- porting public organizations, companies, and institutes in
less power transfer, fast and low-power communication research and innovation or as a Member of advisory boards.
and computation, and smart multi-functional interfac- He is the author and co-author of about 150 publications in
ing and integration will provide true wireless, mainte- textbooks, scientific journals, and conferences (h-index 26)
nance-free, and green IoT nodes for several applications. and he holds about 100 patents or pending patents. More-
As an example, an integrated and industrialized aircraft over, he is acting as a Guest Editor and a Reviewer for vari-
strain sensor powered by dynamic thermal energy har- ous scientific journals. He also served as the Chairman for
vesting, certified for flight tests is shown in Figure 10. several international conferences.
Standardization could bridge the yet-unshaped new Michail E. Kiziroglou received the diploma degree in
capabilities offered by energy harvesting to the require- electrical and computer engineering from the Aristotle Uni-
ments of industrial users, avoid compatibility and diver- versity of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, and the mas-
gence issues, and provide a harmonized research and ter’s degree in microelectronics and nanoelectronics from
investment framework for forecastable, sustainable the Democritus University of Thrace, Thrace, Greece, in
growth. Turning the power autonomy technology from 2000 and 2003, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in
a collection of niche opportunities and singular inven- microelectronics and spintronics awarded by the University
tions to a reliable research and development platform of Southampton, Southampton, U.K., in 2007. He is a
would offer benefits analogous to those of Moore’s-law Research Fellow with the Optical and Semiconductor
in microelectronics. Devices Group of Imperial College London and an Associate

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 63

Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and [5] I. Tzinis. (2012). NASA, Technology Readiness Level. [Online]. Available:
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/scan/engineering/technology/technol-
Management, International Hellenic University, Thermi, ogy_readiness_level
Greece. His research interests include energy harvesting [6] D. Samson et al., “Flight test results of a thermoelectric energy harvester
(EH) devices, microengineering, and energy autonomous for aircraft,” J. Electron. Mater., vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 1134–1137, Jun. 2012.
[7] M. Hayes et al., “EnABLES: European infrastructure powering the Inter-
wireless sensors. He is a Senior Member of IEEE. net of Things,” in Proc. Smart Syst. Integr., 13th Int. Conf. Exhib. Integr.
Maeve Duffy received the Ph.D. degree in electron- Issues Miniaturized Syst., Apr. 2019, pp. 1–8.
ic engineering at the Power Electronics Research Cen- [8] H. Jiang et al., “A motion-powered piezoelectric pulse generator for wire-
less sensing via FM transmission,” IEEE Internet Things J., vol. 2, no. 1,
tre, NUI Galway, Ireland, in 1997. She spent over four pp. 5–13, Feb. 2015.
years as a Research Assistant with PEI Technologies, [9] A. Elefsiniotis et al., “Investigation of the performance of thermoelectric
National Microelectronics Research Centre (now Tyn- energy harvesters under real flight conditions,” J. Electron. Mater., vol. 42,
no. 7, pp. 2301–2305, Jul. 2013.
dall National Institute), Cork, Ireland, where she [10] E. C. Warmann et al., “An ultralight concentrator photovoltaic system
worked on several industry and EU funded projects on for space solar power harvesting,” Acta Astronaut., vol. 170, pp. 443–451,
May 2020.
the design of planar magnetic components for integra-
[11] C. He et al., “A MEMS self-powered sensor and RF transmission
tion in different packaging technologies, including thin- platform for WSN nodes,” IEEE Sensors J., vol. 11, no. 12, pp. 3437–3445,
film, thick-film, and PCB. She returned to NUI Galway Dec. 2011.
[12] M. E. Kiziroglou et al., “Milliwatt power supply by dynamic thermoelec-
in 2001, where she is currently a Senior Lecturer in tric harvesting,” presented at the PowerMEMS, Daytona Beach, FL, USA,
electrical and electronic engineering. Dec. 2018.
Bahareh Zaghari received the M.Sc. degree (Hons.) in [13] Y. K. Tan and S. K. Panda, “Energy harvesting from hybrid indoor ambi-
ent light and thermal energy sources for enhanced performance of wireless
electromechanical engineering from the University of sensor nodes,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 9, pp. 4424–4435,
Southampton, Southampton, U.K., in 2012. She received the Sep. 2011.
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structural design, system integration to applications,” Renew. Sustain.
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in 2017. She was a Research Fellow at the School of Elec- for inductive energy receivers,” Sens. Actuators A, Phys., vol. 313, Oct. 2020,
Art. no. 112206.
tronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, [16] M. E. Kiziroglou et al., “Design and fabrication of heat storage ther-
and she was working on the design of smart systems, such moelectric harvesting devices,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 61, no. 1,
pp. 302–309, Jan. 2014.
as the next generation of jet engines and smart cities. She is
[17] M. E. Kiziroglou, S. W. Wright, and E. M. Yeatman, “Power supply based
currently a Lecturer in propulsion integration with Canfield on inductive harvesting from structural currents,” IEEE Internet Things J.,
University, Canfield, U.K. vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 7166–7177, May 2022.
[18] S. W. Wright, M. E. Kiziroglou, and E. M. Yeatman, “Inductive power line
Eric M. Yeatman received the B.Sc. degree from Dal-
harvester with flux guidance for self-powered sensors,” IEEE Sensors J.,
housie University, Halifax, Canada, and the Ph.D. degree early access, Dec. 2, 2022, doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2022.3225050.
from Imperial College London, London, U.K., in 1983 and [19] B. Zahnstecher et al., “Integrated power electronics,” in Heterogeneous
Integration Roadmap 2021 Edition. Piscataway, NJ, USA: IEEE EPS,
1989, respectively. He is currently a Professor of micro-engi- 2021, ch. 10.
neering and the Head of the Electrical and Electronic Engi- [20] G. Lombardi et al., “A piezoelectric self-powered active interface for AC/
neering Department, Imperial College London. His research DC power conversion improvement of electromagnetic energy harvesting,”
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interests include motion and thermal energy harvesting [21] A. D. T. Elliott and P. D. Mitcheson, “Implementation of a single supply
(EH) for wireless devices, pervasive sensing, and sensor pre-biasing circuit for piezoelectric energy harvesters,” Proc. Eng., vol. 47,
networks. He is a Fellow and Silver Medalist of the Royal pp. 1311–1314, Jan. 2012.
[22] D. Guyomar et al., “Toward energy harvesting using active materials and
Academy of Engineering, and is the Cofounder and the conversion improvement by nonlinear processing,” IEEE Trans. Ultrason.,
Director of Microsaic Systems, which develops and markets Ferroelectr., Freq. Control, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 584–595, Apr. 2005.
[23] G. V. Merrett and A. S. Weddell, “Supercapacitor leakage in energy-
miniature mass spectrometers for portable chemical analy-
harvesting sensor nodes: Fact or fiction?’’ in Proc. 9th Int. Conf. Netw. Sens.
sis. He is a Fellow of IEEE. (INSS), Jun. 2012, pp. 1–5.
[24] P. Pillatsch et al., “Degradation of bimorph piezoelectric bending beams
in energy harvesting applications,” Smart Mater. Struct., vol. 26, no. 3, Mar.
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vesting,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 64, no. 9, pp. 7284–7292, Sep. 2017.
heim, Germany: Wiley-VCH, 2015.
[4] M. Belleville and C. Condemine, Energy Autonomous Micro and Nano

Systems. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley, 2012.

64 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/SPAINTER_VFX

Optimizing PCB Layout

for HV GaN Power
Transistors
by Eric Persson

P
rinted circuit board (PCB) layout has been an integral aspect of
power electronic design since the first switching power supplies
appeared more than 40 years ago. Regardless of the transistor
technology, the parasitic impedances added to the circuit by the
PCB layout must be understood and managed for the circuit to
function correctly, reliably, and without causing undue electromagnetic inter-
ference (EMI).
Even though modern wide bandgap (WBG) power semiconductors do not
suffer the severe reverse-recovery problems of older silicon (Si) technologies,

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3275311

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

2329-9207/23©2023IEEE June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 65

their much faster switching transi- Since design of the power loop
tions result in even more extreme includes thermal as well as electrical
Depending on the path optimization, the options and
commutation dv/dt and di/dt than
their silicon predecessors. The com- geometric relationship tradeoffs of top versus bottom-side
mon advice offered by generic appli- cooled transistor packages are cov-
between source and
cation notes on power electronic ered. Finally, the design, layout and
PCB layout is to “minimize parasitic return current, the routing of the gate drive circuit, along
inductance as much as possible.” mutual inductance can with its “hidden” current paths are
However, the best way to do that is explained.
not always clear. Moreover, not all change the sign
conductive paths necessarily need resulting in subtraction What Problem are We Trying to
to be lowest possible inductance: Solve?
consider the interconnection to an rather than addition. The physical layout and packaging of
inductor—clearly there will already power electronic circuits adds “para-
be inductance in that path. sitic” circuit elements R Parasitic ,
It is of course impossible to minimize all intercon- CParasitic, and LParasitic. These parasitic elements can cause
nect inductance, and simultaneously eliminate all node- unexpected behavior and unintended consequences, circuit
to-node capacitance on a PCB. The key to successful malfunction, EMI, oscillations, and in severe cases, cross-
PCB layout is therefore to understand where the imped- conduction or “shoot-through” that can lead to transistor
ances really matter in switch-mode power electronics, failures. Resistive parasitics are comparatively easy to
and how to mitigate any undesired consequences of this understand—especially for dc current. The solution to mini-
inevitable impedance. mize parasitic resistance is to use more copper—increase
An additional complicating factor is that PCB layout not the total current-carrying cross-section. With high-frequency
only involves optimizing the electrical interconnection, but ac currents, the situation is more complex due to skin
often requires thermal pathways that conflict with electri- effect. For PCB integrated magnetics, the skin and proxim-
cal optimization goals. Even mechanical structures like ity effects need to be carefully considered, but that is out-
heatsinks, when applied to the PCB, and separated only by side of the scope of this article.
a thin thermal interface material (TIM) can behave like an The concept of parasitic capacitance is also straight-
additional electrical plane of the PCB assembly, and inter- forward. Especially in a structure like a PCB, where the
act with the switching nodes of the circuit. copper layers form parallel plates with thin dielectric lay-
This article begins by explaining the fundamentals: ers in between. We can use simple 2D tools to estimate
what is really happening during a switching transition, the C ≈ ε 0 ε R (area / spacing) and we can easily estimate
what is the cause versus effect of the transient voltages capacitance per area for a given layer-stackup. As we
and currents we see, and where exactly is the current will see later, sometimes the capacitive coupling paths
flowing. When we think about current flow, we often for- are through components rather than the PCB itself. How
get to consider the return path, which is critically impor- many pFs are too much versus acceptable? This will be
tant. An additional key concept is how we think about covered later as well.
inductance: it is often viewed as individual inductive Parasitic inductance is different: basic circuits classes
elements that all add-up around a loop. But they don’t teach us to think of inductors as discrete elements that
necessarily all add-up: depending on the geometric rela- sum like resistors in series. However, in more advanced
tionship between source and return current, the mutual magnetics courses, we learn they interact with each other
inductance can change the sign resulting in subtraction through mutual inductance, which can either increase or
rather than addition. The concepts of loop, partial and decrease the total inductance, depending on the geometry
mutual inductance help us to explain and understand and direction of current flow. Also, we often don’t have a
this interaction. good estimate of layout inductance, or know the magni-
Next, different power stage layout options are pre- tude of di/dt to expect from our switching circuit—how
sented, along with the tradeoffs involved with each. The much will cause problems?
overall goal here is to understand the best ways to mini- These layout issues are not new to power electronics,
mize power-loop inductance. With traditional through- but GaN transistors with low charge and no reverse-recov-
hole transistors mounted perpendicular to the PCB, the ery make switching transitions even shorter. Fast-switch-
inductance of the transistor package is independent of ing transistors primarily cause two inter-related issues. The
the PCB layout because they are at right angles. For sur- high transconductance of GaN, combined with its low gate-
face-mounted packages (SMT), the package inductance charge, can result in extremely fast switching dID/dt. The
itself is a function of how the return-path is routed, so fast dID/dt leads to high peak currents as the capacitance
there are more layout options and alternatives to improve of the switch-node is rapidly discharged—the resulting
overall performance. C dVDS/dt adds to the load current. And high peak switching

66 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

current combined with the low QOSS of GaN power transis- “which is the cause versus effect?” For hard-switching tran-
tors causes those fast dVDS/dt edges at turn-on. sistors, current is the forcing function. During switching,
Why are fast dI/dt and dV/dt problematic? On the one the transistor acts as a transconductance amplifier—driv-
hand, fast turn-on dI/dt reduces switching time and there- ing current in response to the gate signal. How quickly the
fore loss, so it should be desirable. But the problems that transistor turns-on (dI/dt) is limited by how quickly the gate
occur are primarily due to the L dI/dt reaction voltage that can be fully enhanced. dV/dt on the other hand, is an effect:
appears across parasitic inductive elements. Most com- it is the result of how rapidly the applied current can charge
monly the undesirable effects occur in the main commu- the node capacitances.
tation loop, or in the gate-drive loop. Voltage overshoot in Now consider the switching transients in the half-bridge.
the power-loop can increase EMI issues, and create higher Figure 2 shows a half-bridge set-up for pulse-testing: Q2 is
voltage stress on the transistors, leading to reduced reli- the active switch, and Q1 serves as a synchronous rectifier.
ability. In the gate loop, L dI/dt reaction voltage will slow The switching diagram shows the hard-switched turn-on of
switching speed by subtracting from the applied gate volt- Q2, followed by its turn-off (which is essentially ZVS). This
age, but can also lead to ringing and overshoot of VGS, or emulates the typical circuit operation of a totem-pole PFC
even oscillatory behavior which can quickly destroy the operating CCM. In both cases, the initial inductor current is
transistor. In the next sections we will analyze various lay- 10 A, and the bus voltage is 400 V.
outs, estimate the inductive impedance, and calculate the Note that when Q2 turns-on, its drain current far sur-
resulting overshoot voltages. passes the 10 A inductor current, peaks at 28 Amps, then
returns and settles down to the 10 A inductor current
A Detailed Look at the Half-Bridge in Hard-Switching after the resonances damp-out. This waveform looks sus-
The half-bridge topology is widely used in power electron- piciously like reverse-recovery, but the key is to look at
ics. It is the basis of “totem-pole” bridgeless PFC, full-bridgethe timing of vDS versus iD. Reverse recovery prevents the
dc–dc converter, LLC converter, inverters, and many others. high-side diode (Q1) from blocking voltage—so it essen-
Because GaN has low output charge and no body-diode tially remains on (conducting), until the peak of the iD
recovery, it is an ideal transistor candidate to use in a half- waveform—then vDS begins to change. That is the clas-
bridge, and it can be used interchangeably in either hard or sic signature of reverse recovery. But here, vDS is clearly
soft-switching. Consider the half-bridge as a two-port net- beginning to move as soon as the drain current exceeds
work as shown in Figure 1. the inductor current, indicating that the response is
The left-side of the circuit is a voltage port that repre- purely capacitive with no reverse recovery.
sents a dc bus. The dc bus voltage should remain steady The area under the 28 A peak, above the 10 Amp induc-
despite the current transients that occur when the transis- tor current line represents charge that Q2 has to discharge.
tors switch. It doesn’t matter if the power flow is to the left It is the sum of Q1 QOSS plus the parasitic PCB capacitance
or right, in either case, the bus should remain fixed. The represented by CP. These currents are very difficult to
right-hand side of the circuit is a current-port. Here, the accurately measure on the PCB unless a dedicated wide-
inductor current should remain steady despite the volt- bandwidth current-shunt is added to the circuit. Here we
age transients on the switch-node. This is an important use simulation to estimate the current, and a value for CP is
distinction, because it indicates that parasitic inductance added to the simulation circuit. But even with this simula-
is important for the loop on the left-side—to minimize tion, what we don’t see is the internal self-discharge cur-
L dI/dt transient voltages from appearing across the tran- rent of Q2 QOSS. While it does contribute to hard-switched
sistors. But the right-side is already an inductive path— losses, the discharge path is entirely contained on the
so here it really doesn’t
matter if some extra
parasitic inductance is
added—it will be insig-
nificant compared to
the intended inductor.
Another useful con-
cept to help understand
switching behavior, is to
think about “what is the
forcing-function?” Rap-
idly changing currents
cause a reaction voltage
v = L dI/dt, and rapidly-
changing voltage induces
current i = C dV/dt, but FIG 1 The half-bridge topology is a two-port network.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 67

transistor die, so the effect of this added capacitive current Mutual and Partial Inductance
is not seen in the PCB layout. Before addressing how to minimize parasitic inductance on
Note: the transient current during switching is diffi- a PCB layout, a few inductance concepts will be reviewed.
cult to measure, and simulation requires adding accurate Consider a piece of wire formed into a single-layer loop 100
parasitic elements. In this case, the peak current is 18 A mm in diameter. Measuring the inductance of that loop with
above inductor current, and the slew-rate is about 9 A/ an impedance analyzer would indicate about 250 nH. You
ns at turn-on. This represents a typical value measured could make a piecewise linear model of this by connecting a
on dedicated GaN test setups and characterization plat- series of n small inductors in series around a loop as shown
forms, where the turn-on dI/dt is typically measured in in Figure 3(a).
the range from 4 to 16 A/ns. This typical value will be used In this example, n = 8 for simplicity. Knowing that
in various layouts to assess what the resulting transient inductors in series sum just like resistors, each of the 8
voltages could be. elements represent a 31 nH segment of the circle. This

FIG 2 Hard-switched turn-on and turn-off of a GaN half-bridge.

FIG 3 (a) Model of inductances around a circular loop and (b) same loop flattened.

68 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

doesn’t hold true if we take the same piece of wire and Package Inductance—Is It a Fixed Value, or Layout
flatten-out the loop as shown in Figure 3(b): now the mea- Dependent?
sured inductance drops by a factor of 4 or more (depend- Generally, the calculated transistor package inductance is
ing on the insulation thickness). simply the partial inductance—no mutual inductance is pre-
The change is explained by the concept of partial sumed external to the package. In other words, the speci-
inductance [1]. The value of each segment L n is equal to fied package inductance assumes the return-path is
its intrinsic inductance in free-space (its partial induc- infinitely far away and does not affect the partial induc-
tance), plus the effect of mutual inductance M from tance. For through-hole packages like the TO-220 and
nearby segments. Note that mutual inductance has both TO-247, this assumption is valid, since the package is com-
a magnitude and a sign, so it can add-to or subtract- monly mounted perpendicular to the PCB and the current
from the intrinsic inductance. In this example from paths are orthogonal (thus no mutual inductance). But for
Figure 3(b), the direction of current flow in L1 and L8 surface-mounted packages, an optimized current return-
is opposite, thus the mutual inductance subtracts from path will significantly reduce the effective inductance of
the partial inductance of each segment. The same holds the in-situ package.
true for all pairings shown. Power electronic engineers To illustrate this, consider a simple half-bridge layout
commonly think about mutual inductance when specifi- as shown in Figure 5. The power loop runs from the +BUS
cally designing a transformer for example, but it seems pad, through Q1 and Q2, from right-to-left through the tran-
much less obvious when simply thinking about conduc- sistor packages and on the surface layer (gold color). Then
tive tracks on a PCB. the current drops to the second layer (violet color) through
Another equally valid way to consider Figure 3 round vias below Q2 source. The return current then flows the
versus flat-loop inductance change is to apply Ampere’s law opposite direction back to the GND on the far right. This
and note that the loop area has been reduced, and thus the is like the flattened-loop in Figure 3(b), where each of the
flux linked is also reduced, leading to the inductance reduc- parasitic inductances (a bondwire for example) has a cor-
tion. These are simply two different ways to think about the responding segment in the ground return plane.
same situation. The mutual inductance (or small loop-area) makes the
Consider the same wire-loop experiment in the context total loop inductance quite small. In fact, using 3D finite
of a PCB layout as shown in Figure 4. The loop begins at element analysis, the calculated loop inductance of the
Cbus+ and ends at Cbus- (the +BUS and GND power-loop). geometry shown is only 2.8 nH. However, the total pack-
The individual inductive elements represent the wirebonds age inductance in the transistor models, shows 2.1 nH per
in the transistor package, the leadframe, copper segments transistor. This is a perfect example of how the package
on the PCB and so on. Comparing the two different layer partial inductance can be misleading, because it ignores
spacings shown in Figure 4(a) and 4(b), it should be clear the effect of the return-path as discussed earlier. The expla-
that the mutual inductance will be greatest when the spac- nation is that—the 2.1 nH package inductance is reduced
ing between the surface-current and the return-path cur- by the mutual inductance of the return-path when laid-out
rent is smallest. This is also consistent with the smallest as shown here. While the loop inductance of this example
loop-area. is impressively low, there is a fundamental problem in

FIG 4 (a) Power loop with small spacing between layers maximizes mutual inductance. (b) Increased layer spacing reduces mutual
inductance, resulting in a higher overall total power-loop inductance.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 69

trying to use this layout in a real power converter. There is path (in blue) is not directly below the red path, and thus a
no space to insert a thermal via field to remove heat from lateral loop is formed, and this reduces mutual inductance,
Q1 without creating a big hole in the ground return path increasing the total loop inductance. Comparing the two
under Q1. Figure 6 illustrates the problem. otherwise identical layouts: in Figure 5 with no cutout, the
Adding a cutout for thermal vias will redirect the return- loop inductance was 2.8 nH; in Figure 7 with the cutout, the
current under Q1, and this will not only reduce the mutual loop inductance more than triples to 8.8 nH.
inductance, but it will create a lateral-loop with additional The single-sided return in Figure 7 does leave the
inductance. Figure 7 shows the addition of the thermal via gate pads open and easy to connect on either side of the
field, and the cutout necessary for clearance around the PCB. What if a second, parallel ground return-path were
voltage of the switch-node. added on the gate side of the transistors? This example
The current-path through the transistors (in red) is is shown in Figure 8. Now there are two lateral loops in
essentially the same as before. But now the ground return parallel, so the parallel combination should reduce the

FIG 5 Low power-loop inductance using surface-mounted “TOLL”-packaged GaN transistors. L = 2.8 nH.

FIG 6 The need for Q1 thermal path will make optimum electrical layout challenging.

70 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

lateral-loop inductance—and it does. The double-sided Another option to consider is using topside-cooled
return-path of Figure 8 has a total loop-inductance of 6.2 transistor packages. Sometimes these are simply the same
nH. This is still more than double compared to Figure bottom-side cooled devices with a flipped lead-bend. But
5, but a significant improvement over the single-sided in most cases, the topside-cooled transistors are packages
return-path. specifically designed to optimize both thermal and elec-
trical performance of GaN transistors. Figure 9 shows an
The Advantage of Topside-Cooled Transistor example of the same half-bridge layout, but this time using
Packages a TOLT package.
The previous layout options using bottom-side cooled pack- The big difference here is that, compared to the previ-
ages all require compromises in electrical layout to accom- ous layouts, there are NO thermal via fields required below
modate the thermal vias necessary to remove heat from the the transistors. This saves cost, and allows electrical layout
transistor(s). Adding 100 or more thermal vias per transistor optimization independent of the thermal path. An addi-
not only compromises the electrical layout, but vias cost tional benefit is that the ground and +Bus planes, which
money: every drill operation (especially for small-diameter are electrically “quiet” equipotential planes, serve as Fara-
drills) adds cost to the PCB manufacturing process. day shields between the noisy switch-node and any other

FIG 7 The ground-plane clearance around via-field creates a lateral-loop in the return-path. L = 8.8 nH.

FIG 8 Double-sided return-path around thermal via field helps to minimize lateral-loop inductance. L = 6.2 nH.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 71

circuits on the bottom-side of the board. In this example, thinner (0.18 mm for example), making the overall loop
the high-frequency bus capacitors C1 and C2 are located on slightly better than Figure 9.
the bottom-side of the board. This is sometimes necessary, The example topside-cooled packages shown here do
depending on the height of the capacitors, and the geom- not have an electrically-isolated heatslug—it is a part of the
etry of the heatsink, to avoid interference and enable proper source leadframe, so it is electrically connected to source
creepage and clearance for the heatsink on top of the tran- potential. The metal is solderable, so individual copper
sistors. This option does leave a loop above the capacitors, heatsinks could be directly soldered to each transistor.
that increases loop inductance, but using a thinner board Alternatively, thermal interface materials can be used with
(0.8 versus 1.6 mm thick for example) will help reduce that many other heatsink options as well.
added loop inductance.
As another option, if there is room to locate C1 and C2 Summary of Power-Loop Layout Options and Results
on the same side of the PCB as the transistors, then the lay- All of these SMT layout options can be compared to a stan-
out in Figure 10 can provide an excellent low-inductance dard TO-247 package to see the overall loop inductance and
power loop. Even though the return path is extended longer estimate what the overshoot voltage would be for a half-
than Figure 9 laterally, the spacing between layers is much bridge assuming 9 A/ns dI/dt as previously discussed. The

FIG 9 Topside-cooled transistors enable optimization of both electrical and thermal paths results in 5.8 nH loop inductance.

FIG 10 Moving capacitors to same side as transistors for lowest overall inductance provides 4.9 nH loop inductance.tance.

72 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

best-case TO-247 layout results in about 15 nH of total loop are quite high in the active region. This set of characteristics
inductance as shown in Figure 11. makes it imperative that the gate-drive loop must be low-
Applying this knowledge to the expected di/dt, we see impedance, otherwise CGD dVDS / dt current injected through
that the resulting overshoot voltage would peak at 135 the “Miller” capacitance (CGD) will influence the gate volt-
V. This may exceed the design limits: for example, if the age, resulting in ringing, overshoot, potentially high-fre-
nominal bus voltage is 400 V, and the design rules mandate quency oscillation, and spurious turn-on leading to
that peak voltages are ≤80% of rated voltage, then the 535 potentially destructive cross-conduction or “shoot-through.”
V peak will exceed that even for a 650 V rated transistor. One of the biggest challenges is keeping the gate off
This suggests that the solution for using TO-247 packages when a fast-rising dV/dt appears on its drain voltage. It is
and keeping overshoot voltage below 480 V is to slow-down all but impossible to make the gate-drive loop low enough
the switching, by increasing the turn-on and turn-off gate- impedance with separately-packaged transistor and
drive impedances for example. Slowing down switching will driver. This is primarily why negative gate-bias is used
of course also increase switching loss—which takes-away in discrete designs: to provide sufficient margin so that
from the benefit of using GaN transistors in the first place. gate bounce voltage does not exceed the threshold during
The surface-mount TOLL with single-sided return- switching transients.
path is the next-best option for low power-loop induc- We can use the concepts discussed earlier regarding
tance. Figure 11 shows that its layout inductance with 9 A/ power-loop inductance to optimize the gate-loop as well.
ns applied would result in an 81 V overshoot—just at the Figure 12 shows an example layout of a gate-drive IC con-
design goal of 480 V peak assuming a 400 V bus. By add- nected to a TOLL packaged transistor. Just like in the
ing the parallel return-path on the gate-side (the TOLL dual optimized power-loop, the concept here is to use a pair of
return-path), the loop inductance is now low enough that over/under PCB layers with close-spacing to maximize the
the overshoot voltage is 54 V, providing some additional mutual inductance (minimize loop area and gate drive loop
margin so that even if the bus is pumped-up to 420 V, the inductance). This example includes the RC network used
added 54 V overshoot will stay below the 480 V design goal. with the gate injection transistor (GIT) version of the GaN
All three of the bottom layouts in Figure 11 have sufficiently HEMT, including separate RON and ROFF for the separate
low loop inductance, providing suitable options for either source and sink pins on the driver.
top or bottom-side cooled packages. The 6-pin gate-driver package U1 is on the far right with
its supply bypass capacitor C3. The 4 RC components are
Considerations for Gate-Drive Layout in-line to the gate pin of the GIT, all on the surface-layer
GaN transistors have low threshold voltages, typically in the (red). The Kelvin Source (KS) pin of the GIT is the ref-
range of 1–2 V. In addition, the fully-ON VGS is in the range of erence point for the return-path, which is defined by the
3.5–5 V (depending on the gate technology), and the trans- copper-pour polygon on layer 2 (dark brown color). The
conductance of the transistor, as well as its gain-bandwidth, return-path terminates back at the “GND” connection of

FIG 11 Summary of power-loop inductance and implications.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 73

FIG 12 Example gate-drive layout with return-plane directly below the drive circuit.

U1 and C3. Figure 13 shows the routing more clearly with- To keep the gate-drive circuit on the top layer next
out the component bodies including the vias that connect to Q1 and use the double-sided power-loop return-path
the KS pin as well as GND for the driver to the plane. This from Figure 8, there are two problems: first, since layer
method of placement and routing for gate drive provides 2 for the return-plane can’t be used, a lateral gate-drive
the best overall performance for designs using discrete loop—all on the top layer—must be used as shown in Fig-
gate-drive components (not integrated into the transis- ure 14. Note that in this example, the gate drive circuit
tor package). Note that the gate-drive return-plane uses has only turn-on and turn-off resistance for the Schottky-
layer 2, the same as the power-loop return-plane to the gate HEMT, instead of the RC network of the previous
left. Thus, implementation of this gate-drive layout can be GIT example. To keep the loop as small as possible, the
used only with the single-sided return-path of the power return-path is routed right next to the drive path (follow
loop earlier described (because the gate-drive return- how the KS pin connects to the driver pin 2).
plane occupies the same space needed for the additional The second problem is much more challenging: the
power-loop return-path). If I need the lower inductance high-side gate-drive circuit is located right on top of the
power loop layout using the double-sided return, an alter- ground-plane for the dc bus. Even though the capaci-
nate layout of the gate driver is necessary. tance may be relatively small, the ΔV is large—the full

74 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

bus voltage. Moreover, the dv/dt across this capacitance vias to connect to the transistor. Side-by-side vias provide a
is the fast dv/dt of the switch-node. The simplified para- reasonably low-impedance, and the back-side of the board
sitic PCB capacitance is drawn in red on the schematic in is farther away from the ground-plane. This seems like a
Figure 14. This type of layout will most likely experience promising approach, but there is still another layer to work
problems due to the charge injected into the gate-drive with that can provide a unique solution.
circuit on every switching edge.
This is an example of one of the compromises or tradeoffs Using a Driven Faraday Shield
that often must be made during a PCB layout: optimizing the With the gate-drive circuit on the back-side of the PCB as
gate driver layout results in a less-optimal power-loop. Con- shown in Figure 15, layer 3 is available as a return-plane.
versely, optimizing the power-loop produces gate drive lay- The goal here is to minimize the effect of the common-mode
out problems. There is another approach to the gate-drive capacitance between the gate-drive circuit and the bus
layout to consider: keep the double-sided return-path for the ground plane. If I add a local plane on layer 3 (cyan color),
power-loop and move the gate-drive circuit to the back-side and connect that to the switch-node, the value of the capaci-
of the PCB. The gate drive loop would then need to include tance changes and also where the current comes from to
charge and discharge that capacitance.
The switch-node is the “local ground” for the high-
side. Adding the plane on layer 3 is really no different
than the return-plane added to the gate-drive circuit
in Figure 12, the capacitance between the circuit and
the plane will be the same. However, the layer 3 plane
shields the gate drive circuit from the problematic
capacitance to bus ground. The capacitance to bus
ground doesn’t go away, but it is now between two low-
impedance planes rather than coupling to the gate-drive
circuit and its components. Thus, the gate-drive circuit
only “sees” capacitance to its own local common, not to
the bus ground plane. The current necessary to charge
and discharge the inter-plane capacitance therefore
FIG 13 A more detailed look at the gate-drive loop routing comes directly from the low-impedance switch-node,
from Figure 12. completely bypassing the gate-drive circuit [2].

FIG 14 Double-sided return-path interferes with gate-driver routing and adds common-mode capacitance—not recommended.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 75

 Avoid driving the Faraday shield from the actual gate To better understand the problem caused by the parasitic
driver ground—the Kelvin source (KS), rather than the capacitance charge/discharge current, consider the system
switch-node. While the small voltage bounce between S shown in Figure 17. The switch-node is the low-impedance
and KS is insignificant compared to the other problem driving-point (driving the fast switching transition), shown
this connection would cause, connecting the shield to KS in red. In addition, everything in orange is also connected
would cause all of the transient charge/discharge current to this node. The difference is that everything in orange is
to flow through the KS bondwire(s). This would result in a driven indirectly—through the KS pin of the transistor. The
v = L di/dt reaction voltage that would appear as a differ- KS pin is only intended to be a part of the differential gate-
ential gate-drive signal. This can be a problem not only for drive loop, and it is commonly just a single bondwire like
shield capacitances like this, but even for “unintentional” the gate. Due to the proximity inside the transistor package,
capacitances, like the capacitance across any component G and KS bondwires have low loop area and mutual induc-
connecting the high-side circuit to bus ground. tance helping to minimize overall gate-loop inductance.
Figure 16 depicts a typical example. The high-side gate- However, when the current through the KS bondwire
drive circuit is capacitively-coupled to the low-side ground is NOT common to the gate bondwire, there is no mutual
through a signal isolator, and a dc–dc transformer (or alter- inductance cancelation and therefore a differential-mode
natively the junction capacitance of a bootstrap diode). voltage will be generated within the gate-loop. As the
While these are typically only a few pF, there are examples switch-node voltage rises, the voltage drop across KS bond-
of dc–dc converters for gate drive that have more than 50 wire subtracts from the applied gate driver voltage, and
pF of capacitance across the isolation barrier. As shown thus slows-down the switching transition. This effect can
on the right of Figure 16, when the half-bridge is capable of essentially cancel the benefit of the Kelvin source pack-
switching 400 V in a few ns, every pF is important. At 100 age by slowing switching speed much in the same way that
V/ns switching slew-rate, each pF results in 100 mA peak common-source inductance slows switching speed in a
common-mode current. The injected current spike then has conventional 3-pin transistor package.
to return to bus ground through the low-side circuits, and An additional concern illustrated in Figure 17 is
along that path, it could cause glitches in the logic or other spreading out the switch-node. It is best to keep the
circuits. There is really no way to completely eliminate this switch-node compact to: 1) keep the capacitance mini-
capacitance, so the best approach is to think about where mized, and 2) prevent it from radiating and capacitively
the return current will flow, and to minimize any effect— coupling to other parts of the circuit. Rather than placing
make sure the return current has a low-impedance path the gate-drive dc–dc converter on a separate board, it is
back to bus ground. Note that these capacitive effects can best to put that function right next to the power stage—
be just as much a problem for integrated driver + transistor on the same PCB as the half-bridge.
as a discrete design—it all depends on the interconnection The situation in Figure 17 should be avoided. Routing
inside the integrated driver + transistor. the orange traces all over the system causes distributed

FIG 15 Driven Faraday shield to mitigate the common-mode capacitance problem.

76 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

FIG 16 “Unintentional” pathways for common-mode current.

FIG 17 Common-mode currents can cause differential-mode gate-loop voltage.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 77

 by a spring-clip (not shown). This
half-bridge circuit is the high-
frequency leg of an active front-
end rectifier (bi-directional PFC),
which can deliver 3.4 kW continu-
ously to/from 240 V ac line. Oper-
ating at full-power, the voltage
overshoot of this PCB is less than
50 V on top of a 400 V dc bus.

Summary
The fast-switching capability of
FIG 18 Example of a 3.4 kW complete GaN half-bridge measuring 32 × 39 mm.
GaN transistors can make PCB lay-
out more challenging. This article
Table–– 1. Tips for optimizing performance from high speed GaN transistors. A discussed several key concepts to
summary of the key points discussed in this article. help understand the layout chal-
lenges, and strategies to help solve
Tip Further Consideration(s) these challenges and optimize the
Consider where current will flow during Be sure to include parasitic elements, and layout for best overall electrical and
switching transitions. the complete return-path of current in that thermal performance. Following
assessment and analysis.
these “Tips” will help designers
Layout inductance is more critical in some Recall the “half-bridge as a 2-port network”
obtain optimal performance from
areas than others. section.
high performance GaN technology.
Take advantage of PCB layer-pairs to Route the outbound and return currents along
minimize loop inductance the same path, but on adjacent parallel layers
in opposite directions. About the Author
Eric Persson (Eric.Persson@infi-
Avoid deviations from the “over/under same Lateral loops will introduce additional
path” that will result in lateral loops. inductance. neon.com) is a 42-year veteran of
the power electronic industry. His
Remember that SMT package inductance Datasheet values or circuit models may only
value may depend on the current return- provide the partial inductance. career spans 19 years of hands-on
path power converter and inverter
Use topside-cooled SMT transistor packages This will also reduce the cost compared to design, followed by 23 years in
to independently optimize both the adding many thermal vias applications engineering in the
electrical and thermal paths semiconductor industry at Infineon
Return gate drive current on a plane-layer And connect it to the Kelvin source pin Technologies (formerly Internation-
directly below the gate drive circuit al Rectifier), El Segundo, CA, USA.
Minimize un-necessary capacitive currents From switch-node to ground flowing through He is a Senior Principal Engineer
the KS pin for wide bandgap semiconductor
Keep ground-referenced circuits away from Use a driven Faraday-shield if necessary applications. He has presented
high-side gate-drive circuit more than 90 tutorials and papers at
Keep the switch-node compact To avoid radiation into other parts of the various international conferences.
circuit He is a Regular Lecturer for power
electronic short-courses at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin–Madison, Mad-
capacitive coupling all along the path, and it radiates onto ison, WI, USA, for 22 years. He is a Member of the Executive
several PCB paths. On the aux supply card, there is the Committee of the CPES Industrial Advisory Board, and on
additional capacitance across the transformer isolation— the APEC Steering Committee. He holds 15 patents, and is a
so that injected current will then travel back to ground recipient of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. He received
through the main PCB—potentially causing noise and the B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Minnesota, Min-
interference along the way. neapolis, MN, USA.
An example of a good GaN half-bridge layout is shown
in Figure 18. This is a half-bridge “daughtercard” that References
includes the two GaN transistors, high-frequency bus [1] C. Paul, Inductance: Loop and Partial. Hoboken, NJ, USA: Wiley, 2010.
[2] E. Persson, “PCB layout techniques for optimizing performance of sur-
capacitors, isolated high and low-side gate drivers, and the face-mounted wide-bandgap power electronic circuits,” in Proc. IEEE APEC
isolated dc–dc supply for both high and low side. A single Seminar S02, Mar. 2022, p. 50.

heatsink is attached through a thermal interface material

78 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/SCOTT PROKOP

APEC 2023
Returns to Orlando to
Display Latest Advances
in WBG and Si Devices
by Ashok Bindra

A
s the premier event in applied power electronics, IEEE Applied
Power Electronics Conference & Exposition (APEC) 2023 returned
to Orlando, FL, USA for the first time since 2012 to fully recover to
pre-COVID era with record number of attendance (5006) and
exhibitors displaying their latest wares. Cosponsored by the IEEE
Power Electronics Society (PELS), Power Sources Manufacturers Association

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3275312

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

2329-9207/23©2023IEEE June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 79

(PSMA), and the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS), that recycling of consumer batteries will reduce the
the 38th annual global event in power electronics was an forced extraction of precious minerals and create a
exciting time to bring power engineers, researchers, and domestic supply that will meet government’s and auto-
other professionals from around the world to a common makers’ EV goals. Towards that goal, the company had
venue for presenting their latest advances in the field. secured a US$2 billion Department of Energy (DoE) loan
Prior to the start of the plenary session on Monday 20 to expand its campus and scale domestic battery cell pro-
March, general chair Pradeep Shenoy welcomed the attend- duction in the U.S., stated the keynoter.
ees and extended his heartfelt gratitude to hundreds of vol- The second plenary talk was on “Developing the Tools
unteers who served on the organizing committees to make of Tomorrow: Efficient and Effective Power Electronics for
APEC a successful event. He also introduced the three Power Tools” by Brandon Verbrugge, senior vice president
presidents of sponsoring organizations to the audience. of Cordless Systems and Technology at Milwaukee Tools.
They included Brad Lehman, president of PELS, Trifon This presentation indicated that the power tool industry
Liakopoulos, president of PSMA, and Tomy Sebastian, past has been revolutionized by significant advances in power
president of IAS. Shenoy further acknowledged the contri- electronics and digitalization. According to the speaker,
butions of general chairs from the past three years for their “cordless battery-operated tools are rapidly displacing
dedicated efforts during COVID-19—Omer C. Onar (2022), corded power tools and products with small gas engines.”
Conor Quinn (2021), and José A. Cobos (2020). He further noted that significant advances in power devices
and embedded electronics helped fuel this conversion
Plenary Session as most power tools now utilize high performance Li-ion
The program chair Tim McDonald kicked off the plenary and brushless motors with advanced control algorithms.
session with a presentation from Patrick Chapman, vice Through these advances, the construction space has nat-
president of electrical engineering at Redwood Materials. urally benefited from products with significantly higher
His presentation “Recycling, Refining, and Remanufactur- capability, more user functionality, and much higher energy
ing Battery Materials,” hinted that Lithium-ion (Li-ion) conversion efficiency. Looking forward, the journey will
battery supply is constrained due to limited availability of continue to achieve a completely digital and green jobsite
critical materials for both anode and cathode compo- fueled by higher capability energy conversion devices and
nents. To address this problem, Redwood Materials will microelectronics.
remanufacture these battery-grade materials, such as “Designing for Manufacturability with Software-Based
nickel, cobalt, lithium, and copper, from recycled batter- Constraints: Shortening the Iterative Design Cycle” by Grant
ies and create a circular supply chain, thereby reducing Pitel, CTO at Magna-Power Electronics, was the focus of
their cost and environmental footprint. He further added the third keynote. “With a small diverse team of engineers,

FIG 1 Redwood’s recycling process for battery materials. Source: Redwood Materials

80 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

Magna-Power Electronics offers over 365,0000 different this context, she added, “inverter efficiency has become a
programmable power supplies and electronic loads, span- critical performance parameter, and semiconductors with
ning ratings up to 10,000 Adc, 10,000 Vdc, and 3,000 kW,” said low loss switching losses, such as SiC and GaN are get-
the keynoter. Pitel added that such a high mix of products ting into the spotlight.” Highlighting the benefits of GaN
is supported by parameterizing design inputs, creating over SiC and Si devices, the keynoter described the suc-
frameworks, and platforming hardware whenever possible cessful development of a three-phase GaN-based inverter
(Figure 3). According to Pitel, key factors helping the com- reference design with 400 V bus voltage and 400 Arms cur-
pany to launch new products faster are hardware reuse and rent (Figure 4). Plus, she presented the measured results
limiting new complexity to ensure prototypes are manu- of this reference design (Figure 5). According to this pre-
facturable with reduced costly revisions. He further noted sentation, VisIC Technologies has proven that its direct
that constraints based on physics, machinery tolerances, drive D-Mode GaN (D3GaN) semiconductor technology
and human error were discovered, and programmed into is well-suited even for the most challenging high-power
software as a way to consistently and continuously improve automotive application. Concerns about parallelization
designs and processes over the company’s 42-year history. and oscillations caused by fast-switching transients have
The keynoter also described the advanced features avail- been addressed, said Baksht.
able in commercial soft-
ware packages leveraged
by Magna-Power engineers
to achieve work efficiency,
as well as custom tools it
has developed indepen-
dently. Additionally, the
talk focused on areas of
PCB design, electronic
packaging, and large-
scale embedded software
development utilized for
taking prototypes to pro-
duction. Thus, illustrating
the impact rules/recipes/
platforms have on machin-
ery, testing, and staff, said
Pitel. Finally, Pitel empha-
sized the need for software FIG 2 With advances in power electronics, cordless battery operated tools are now more powerful.
Source: Milwaukee Tools
tools and workflow that
would facilitate co-design
with cross team collabo-
ration, which is essential
for prototyping with high
accuracy and production.
The next speaker was
Tamara Baksht, CEO and
cofounder of VisIC Tech-
nologies, who started the
talk by asking the question
“Is GaN for passenger car
inverter possible?” And
the short answer was yes.
While society and gov-
ernments are looking for
zero-emission transport,
the car makers are seek-
ing the most efficient way
to manufacture low-cost
and long-distance electric FIG 3 High mix of products at Magna-Power is supported by parameterizing design inputs, creating frameworks,
cars, stated Baksht. In and platforming hardware. Source: Magna-Power.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 81

 Major factors contributing to this success include devel- are approaching their operational limits primarily due
opment of robust high current (>100 A) 650 V GaN FET die, to their relatively low bandgap and critical electric field
development of GaN module, ability to drive 4 dies in par- that result in high conduction and switching losses, and
allel with equal current sharing, and generating smooth poor high temperature performance. On the other hand,
waveform at needed current and obtaining low voltage he continued, SiC power devices offer compelling system
overshoots on the gate and on the drain. benefits including high efficiency, high voltage/tempera-
The fifth speaker of the session was Victor Veliadis, ture operation, and low weight and volume. According to
executive director and CTO, PowerAmerica, USA. In his the talk, SiC is key in addressing environmental concerns
talk “Silicon Carbide Mass Commercialization and Future and is gaining significant market share boosted by vol-
Trends,” Veliadis first noted that Si devices are currently ume insertion in EVs (Figure 6). “Vehicle electrification
dominating the power electronics arena due to their excel- is the mass commercialization opportunity for SiC power
lent starting material quality, streamlined fabrication, electronics,” asserted Veliadis.
low-cost volume production, proven reliability and rug- Also, his presentation indicated that the 400 V–800
gedness, and design/circuit legacy. Although, he added, V vehicle battery transition leverages the competitive
Si power devices will continue to make progress, they advantages of 1200 V SiC power devices. Key benefits
include longer range (higher efficiency), faster charg-
ing, and cost reduction. For market projection, the
speaker suggested that SiC is projected to reach $6.3 B
by 2027, representing >20% of the power device market.
These numbers were based on data provided by market
and technology analyst Yole Développement. Addition-
ally, Veliadis presentation also identified key barriers
to overcome for SiC commercialization, which include
high device cost, defects and scalability of device area,
reliability/ruggedness concerns, and the need for work-
force training.
Speaking of workforce training, the last topic of the session
was “Developing the Power Electronics Workforce Through
MOOC Degree Programs and Public Educational Videos,”
presented by Robert W. Erickson, professor in the Depart-
ment of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Uni-
versity of Colorado Boulder, USA, and Katherine A. Kim,
associate professor of Electrical Engineering at National
Taiwan University, Taiwan. According to the speakers,
FIG 4 A three-phase GaN based inverter reference design. Source: VisIC online education has opened the doors to broader accessi-
Technologies. bility of power electronics education. The keynoters dis-
cussed a massively
open online course
(MOOC) degree pro-
gram and other public
educational videos
developed for power
electronics workforce,
including survey
results, successes, and
challenges.

RAP Sessions
Three high-energy
industry topics were
debated by experts in
an environment of con-
tention. Professionals,
researchers and engi-
neers from both sides,
FIG 5 Wave forms of phase voltage and currents of inverter output. Source: VisIC Technologies pros and cons, debated

82 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

on the topics in a
charged atmosphere on
Tuesday 23 March after-
noon. The topics were
as follows:
1) “Batteries Versus
Fuel Cells for Future
Electrification
Applications” with
Sheldon Williamson
of Ontario Tech Uni-
versity, Canada as
chair. The panelists
included Vivek
Sujan—Oak Ridge
National Laboratory
(OR N L), D e e a n a
Ahmed—Our Next
Energy (ONE), Uday
Deshpa nde —D&V FIG 6 All electric vehicle. Source: PowerAmerica
Electronics, and
Rick Szymczyk—Upstartz Energy. inductor current capability is advancing rapidly. The paper
While discussing the opportunities and challenges by Indumini on 2000 Amp datacenter CPU power supply ICs
posed by both batteries and fuel cells for electrified and other industry designs with high power discretes were
transportation and e-mobility of the future, the panelists quoted as examples for both approaches.
also investigated the inherent differences in the current 3) “Where Does High Impact Innovation in Power Electron-
state of batteries and hydrogen fuel cell technologies as ics Come From: Academia or Industry?” with Eric Pers-
it relates to e-propulsion and related charging infrastruc- son of Infineon Technologies as chair. The Panelists
ture. Some of the key technological barriers for current included Christina DiMarino—Virginia Tech, Center for
and future batteries, as well as fuel cells, was debated Power Electronics Systems, Johann W. Kolar—ETH
based on topics such as driving range, powertrain effi- Zurich, Power Electronic Systems Laboratory, Thomas
ciency, well-to-wheels efficiency, practicality of imple- Byrd—Lockheed Martin, Power Electronics and Power
mentation, charging/refueling facilities, durability, Systems, and Laszlo Balogh—Texas Instruments.
sustainability, and availability. A quick survey conducted This RAP session featured a panel of academic versus
by the chair at the end of the session indicated that the industry research leaders, who covered a range of topics
participants were equally divided in their views on batter- including which institutions are better suited for different
ies versus fuel cells for future electrification applications. types of research, the role of government funding, how
2) Topologies and Circuits for Power Supply on Chip intellectual property rights are handled, and how to struc-
(PwrSoC) versus Discrete Implementations with Indu- ture research partnerships that deliver the best results for
mini Ranmuthu from Texas instruments as chair. The both parties.
panelists included Alex Prodic—University of Toronto, While DiMarino and Kolar represented the Academic
Canada, Edward S. Rogers Sr. - Department of Electrical side, Byrd and Balogh represented the Industry. Initially,
& Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada, according to Persson, there was a lot of discussion defin-
Santosh Kulkarni—Renesas Electronics Corporation, ing what is even meant by the word “Innovation” - does it
Dragan Maksimovic—University of Colorado Boulder, mean fundamental research discoveries, or clever design
USA, Robert Pilawa-Podgurski—Electrical Engineering using existing technologies? Another key point was made
and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berk- by DiMarino, noted the chair. She said that the core func-
ley, USA. tion of the Universities is really teaching fundamentals
According to the session chair, both the approaches of power electronics, but industry often wants to use
were intensely debated. However, one of the main points University grad students as “job-shops” to do paid proj-
of debate was the difference in power level each approach ect work for them. This does not really fit the definition
can support. Proponents of the discrete implementations of Innovation.” In the end, added Persson, “the audience
claimed that PwrSoC is inherently limited in the power level remained split about 50/50 as to where the innovation
it can support. Proponents of PwrSoC claimed that the level really comes from, but there was general agreement that
of integration and complexity of PwrSoC far exceeds the fundamental research and related innovation more often
capability of the discrete implementation while integrated comes from Universities.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 83

 package. Meanwhile, the
company continues to
expand capacity worldwide
to meet global demand for
SiC devices. The latest addi-
tion in this race include a
200-mm semiconductor fab
in Saarland, Germany, the
world’s largest, manufactur-
ing facility, according to
Wolfspeed.
Likewise, ROHM Semi-
conductor announced that
precision power analog
company Apex Microtech-
nology is adopting its 1200
V SiC MOSFETs and 650 V
SiC Schottky barrier diode
FIG 7 PI’s new GaN power IC with 900 V GaN FET. Source: Power Integrations (SBD), supplied in bare die
form, for a new line of power
modules, which includes the
The Exposition three-phase SA310 module, ideal for driving high-voltage
The exhibition floor was filled with activity as 289 exhibi- brushless dc motors, as well as two half-bridge devices,
tors from around the world displayed their latest SA110 and SA111, ideal for a wide range of high-voltage
advances in semiconductors devices, passive compo- applications. The new line of power modules also use
nents, test and measurement equipment, including simula- ROHM’s tightly matched BM60212FV-C gate drivers in
tion and modeling tools, and thermal management and bare die format, contributing to high-efficiency operation
packaging technologies, setting new trends in perfor- of high-voltage motors and power supplies.
mance, efficiency, density, cost, and more. While wide With rapid proliferation of SiC devices across mar-
bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices and modules ket segments like e-mobility, sustainability and other
promised to keep the momentum going, silicon IGBTs and industrial applications, Microchip has readied a new
MOSFETs continue to keep the bar high and dominate the simulation tool for engineers to quickly evaluate the
power electronics arena, as indicated by plenary speaker company’s SiC power devices and modules across vari-
Veliadis. Si will continue to make progress and dominate ous topologies before committing a design to hardware.
the scene as it approaches its physical limits. Meanwhile, Called MPLAB, Microchip’s SiC power simulator is a
SiC power devices are exploiting the situation and offer- PLECS-based software environment designed in collab-
ing compelling system benefits, including high efficiency, oration with Plexim to provide an online complimentary
high voltage/temperature operation, and low weight and tool that eliminates the need to purchase a simulation
volume to gain significant market share boosted by vol- license. While Qorvo displayed its Gen4 5.4 mΩ 750 V SiC
ume adoption in EVs. FET in new surface-mount TO-leadless (TOLL) package,
which is 30% smaller in footprint and at 2.3 mm height.
Latest in SiC Developments This is the first product in a family of 750 V SiC FETs that
SiC’s progress and rapid rise was evident on the exhibit is released in the TOLL package with on-resistance rang-
floor with the presence of makers like Wolfspeed, Gene- ing from 5.4 mΩ to 60 mΩ. These devices are designed
SiC (now part of Navitas Semiconductor), Infineon Tech- for use in space-constrained applications such as ac-dc
nologies, Microchip, Onsemi, ROHM Semiconductor, power supplies ranging from several 100s of watts to
Mitsubishi, STMicroelectronics, and UnitedSiC. These multiple kilowatts, as well as solid-state relays and cir-
players revealed new developments and advances in SiC cuit breakers up to 100 A.
to stay ahead in the race. Wolfspeed, for example, demon-
strated a 22 kW three-phase bidirectional high efficiency Advances in GaN FETs and ICs
active front-end (AFE) converter reference design for EV Likewise, gallium nitride (GaN) FETs and ICs were in
on-board charger, off-board fast charging, and other spotlight on the exhibit floor as makers began to
industrial applications such as energy storage systems unwrap their advances and developments in front of
and three phase PFC power supplies. The design uses attendees who were in large numbers from around the
Wolfspeed’s 1200 V, 32-m´Ω SiC MOSFETs in a TO- 247-4 world. From 900 V FETs to 100 A devices, and more

84 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

integration in smaller packages were some of the to state-of-the-art traditional silicon devices, accord-
trends being revealed by the GaN vendors. Speaking of ing to CGD.
high voltage, power integrations unveiled a 900 V GaN Similarly, GaN Systems (to be acquired by Infineon)
extension to the company’s InnoSwitch3 family of fly- introduced a new 11 kW, 800 V on-board charger (OBC) ref-
back switcher ICs. The new ICs, which feature the com- erence design with 36% greater power density and 15%
pany’s proprietary PowiGaN technology, deliver up to lower BOM cost than SiC based OBC. Exploiting its 8-inch
100 W with better than 93% efficiency, eliminating the GaN-on-Si process, Innoscience debuted a new product
need for heat sinks and streamlining design of space- labeled SolidGaN, which integrates two 100 V low Rdson
challenged applications. InnoSwitch3 designs also offer GaN devices in half-bridge and a gate driver into one com-
exceptional light-load efficiency making them ideal for pact surface mount package.
providing auxiliary power in electric vehicles (EVs)
during low-power sleep modes. The AEC-Q100-qualified Si on the Move
InnoSwitch3-AQ family is particularly suitable for EVs Si is not slowing was evident with numerous new product
based on 400 V bus systems where the 900 V PowiGaN introductions in the Si arena. For example, onsemi, a
switch provides more power and increased design mar- major supplier of intelligent power and sensing technolo-
gin. The new 900 V InnoSwitch3-EP and InnoSwitch3- gies, announced a new range of ultra-efficient 1200 V insu-
AQ off-line CV/CC flyback switcher ICs employ lated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) that minimize
synchronous rectification, a valley switching discontin- conduction and switching losses at a performance level
uous conduction mode (DCM) and continuous conduc- that is industry-leading in the market. Intended to
tion mode (CCM) flyback controller. FluxLink enhance efficiency in fast switching applications, the new
communication technology enables the IC package to devices will be primarily used in energy infrastructure
bridge the isolation barrier, optimizing efficiency and applications like solar inverters, uninterruptible power
eliminating the need for optocouplers. supplies (UPS), energy storage and EV charging power
Flaunting its portfolio of JEDEC and AEC-Q101 quali- conversion. “As efficiency is extremely critical in all high
fied 650 V and 900 V GaN FETs, with 1200 V devices in switching frequency energy infrastructure applications,
development, Transphorm unveiled a 3 kW evaluation we focused on reducing turn-off switching losses and pro-
inverter board with Microchip’s digital signal controller viding the best switching performance in this new range
and the company’s 650 V 50 mΩ SuperGaN FET in a TO-247 of IGBTs,” said Asif Jakwani, senior vice president and
package. It is intended for developing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) general manager of the Advanced Power Division, which
charging system, solar or photovoltaic (PV) inverters, unin- is part of the Power Solutions Group at onsemi.
terruptible power supplies (UPSes), and other high voltage Other Si proponents displaying their Si products include
power applications. ADI, Amber Semiconductor, Alpha & Omega, Empower
Other vendors displaying their latest GaN devices Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies, Nexperia, Silanna
include Cambridge GaN Devices (CGD), Efficient Power Semiconductor, Taiwan Semiconductor, and Texas Instru-
Conversion Corp. (EPC), GaN Systems, Innoscience ments to name a few.
Technologies, Navitas Semiconductor, STMicroelec- In summary, 2023 APEC was a memorable event with
tronics, and Tagore Technology amongst others. While exciting activities and sessions throughout the five days of
EPC announced expansion of its family of footprint the conference and exposition. In the words of the general
compatible ePower stage ICs to boost power density chair, it was an impactful week!
and simplify design for different power requirements
in dc–dc applications, motor drives, and class-D audio About the Author
amplifiers, Navitas launched a new family of GaN- Ashok Bindra ([email protected]) received the M.S.
Sense control ICs that deliver unprecedented levels of degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer
performance and integration. An array of integrated Engineering, Clarkson College of Technology (now Clark-
protection features include 800 V transient voltage, 2 son University), Potsdam, NY, USA, and the M.Sc. degree in
kV ESD, over-voltage, over-current, and over-tempera- physics from the University of Bombay, India. He is the Edi-
ture protection. Likewise, CGD demonstrated that its tor-in-Chief of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine and a
ICeGaN GaN HEMT is more reliable and robust than member of the IEEE. He is a veteran writer and editor with
other GaN platforms. An experimental evidence was more than 40 years of editorial experience covering power
presented that showed that ICeGaN HEMTs, enabled electronics, analog/radio-frequency technologies, and power
by smart protection circuitry, offers exceptionally high semiconductors. He is a member of IEEE and PELS.
over-voltage margin of over 70 V, which is comparable 

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 85

Women in Engineering
by Stephanie Watts Butler

Diverse Future Leadership Insight

From Successful Managers

A
Diverse Future Leadership ■■Modern management and leader- audience had the opportunity to ask
event was held 6 Septem- ship questions. This led to a very lively
ber 2022 as part of the 2022 ■■Diversity and equality in the work- discussion in which the speakers dis-
European Power Electronics (EPE) place cussed with each other, while also
Energy Conversion Congress and ■■Work-life integration. the audience brought in their views.
Expo (ECCE) Europe held in Han- The moderators directed ques- The whole event benefited from the
nover, Germany. The Diverse Future tions to the speakers, a nd the fact that the speakers had different
Leadership event, sponsored by IEEE
Power Electronics Society’s (PELS)
Women in Engineering (WIE) com-
mittee, featured successful managers,
both male and female, talking about
their career paths in business and
academia in an interactive panel dis-
cussion. Diversity in the career was
also a major topic of discussion.
Approximately 60 participants
engaged with the panelists who rep-
resented a wide range of fields and
careers:
■■Dr. Silvia Bardi (Typhoon HIL)
■■Prof. Drazen Dujic (EPFL)
■■Dr. Tobias Geyer (ABB)
■■Prof. Regine Mallwitz (TU Braun-
schweig)
The panel began with the speakers
briefly introducing themselves and
their career. Next, an interactive dis-
cussion on the selected four topics
was held (Figure 1). Rebecca (Dierks) FIG 1 Professor Mallwitz and Dr. Geyer respond during Q&A.
Himker (University of Hannover) and
Alina Dinc (Wolfspeed) skillfully mod-
erated the panel event (seen in Figure
2). The four topics were:
■■Academic and industrial career
paths

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3270002

Date of publication: 27 June 2023 FIG 2 Rebecca Himker and Alina Dinc moderating Q&A with the panelist.

86 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

specializations (industry and/or aca- and thanked the participants for of power and CMOS process and
demic) and considerable job and life their questions [1]. package technology, processing
experience. The most discussed topic Another engaging event will be equipment, materials, reliability,
was managing a very demanding job sponsored by WIE at ECCE 2023 research and development manage-
and the integration of private life in Nashville, TN (USA) on 30 ment, manufacturing science, con-
(family, hobbies, …). October involv ing some of the trol, fault detection, metrology, and
A fter the panel, a casual net- ECCE 2023 Plenary speakers, lead- new product development generat-
working session between panelists er s i n t hei r re s pec t ive f ield s. ing 17 U.S. patents. She is the Co-
and audience members with food Annette Clayton, CEO, Schneider Founder and the Past-Chair of
and drinks occurred. This was the Electric North America, is looking JEDEC’s JC-70 wide bandgap stan-
first time the WIE event held with for wa rd t o enga g i ng w it h t he dards committee, the Co-Convenor
EPE ECCE Europe was in this for- extended WIE ECCE community. of IEC’s TC47/WG8. She is the
mat. Based upon feedback from The ECCE 2023 Plenary, consisting Industry Deputy Editor-in-Chief of
organizers, speakers, and partici- of keynotes from CEO, CTO, and IEEE Power Electronics Magazine,
pants, one source of the success national laboratory executives, cov- a PELS Member-at-Large (ADCOM),
wa s t he a c t ive en ga gement of ers a broad swath of technologies the Chair of the PELS Industry
a t t endee s. A n a t t endee a t t he and application areas. The Plenary Committee, and a WIE Committee
event, Nayara Brandao de Freitas, is also the first ECCE with an entire Member. She also serves on the
a s sist a nt resea rcher at INESC, lineup of women keynotes. To learn APEC Planning Committee and the
made this reflection on the event: how you can participate in the WIE PSMA Board of Directors and the
“The Diverse Future Leadership events at ECCE 2023, please see Semiconductor Committee. She is a
was a lively panel discussion in https://www.ieee-ecce.org/2023/con- Fellow of the AVS and an IEEE
which the attendees learned about ference/wie/. Senior Member.
the career path of the panelists
a nd a sked impor ta nt questions. About the Author Reference
The cha llenges of industr y a nd Stephanie Watts Butler, Ph.D., [1] LinkedIn. Silvia Bardi. Accessed: Apr. 16,
a c a dem i a wer e d i s c u s s e d a nd P.E. ([email protected]) is the 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.linkedin.
compa red. The pa nelists ta lked President of WattsButler LLC, an com/posts/silvia-bardi-b007bb11_hannover-epe-
about how to keep a work-life bal- innovation services company ieee-activity-6972817404607262720-DAii?utm_
ance and be successful.” focused on the power semiconduc- source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
A panelist, Dujic Drazen, com- tor industry. During her previous
mented “The event prov ided an career at Texas Instruments, she
opportunity for the exchange and produced innovations in the areas 
reflections on the dif-
ferent career develop-
ment paths of speakers,
coming both from
industry and academia.
In a direct exchange
with young profession-
als, mainly Ph.D stu-
dents, one could
understand the com-
mon fears and perhaps
m isconcept ion s t hat
they have about choices
ava ilable a f ter thei r
studies. Those could be
ea si ly rec t i f ied a nd
illustrated by d irect
examples from speak-
ers.” Another panelist,
Silv ia Ba rdi, com-
mented in a LinkedIn
Post about “Much food
for thoughts yesterday”

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 87

 Industry Pulse
by Stephanie Watts Butler and Kristen Parrish

WSTS Introduces New Category:

WBG Discrete Power Products

T
he World Semiconductor products in 5 world regions / coun- silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium
Trade Statistics (WSTS) is a tries. For 2023, WSTS only made one nitride (GaN) are becoming more
non-profit organization that major product category update – the important in the “silicon world” and
collects shipments data directly from ability to track Wide Bandgap (WBG) decided in early 2022 to implement
its 42 semiconductor company mem- products in discrete power products. this new product category. During
bers, and provides market analysis For years, WSTS had experience 2022, WSTS members drafted defini-
and reports back to its membership. with wide bandgap (WBG) technolo- tions for WSTS’s product classifica-
Integrated device manufacturers gies data for optoelectronics prod- tion 2023, in order to structure data
(IDM) and fabless semiconductor ucts. However, in the past WSTS did collection starting in 2023.
companies who design and market not separately track revenue from Beginning this year, WSTS has
semiconductors, either discrete or WBG discrete power products. As of started reporting on WBG shipment
integrated circuits, are eligible for January 2023, WSTS announced on revenues and units in two categories
membership with WSTS. Semicon- LinkedIn [2] that WBG semiconduc- within the Discretes hierarchy: in
ductor contract manufacturers, such tors for power transistors and rectifi- Field-Effect General Purpose Power
as a foundry, may obtain a subscrip- ers would be included in their Transistors (sometimes reported as
tion for reports directly with WSTS. monthly statistics for 2023 (Figure 1). MOSFET Power Transistors) and in
Non-semiconductor manufacturers We recently spoke with Mr. Tobias Rec t i f ier s ( Power Diode s). A s
can subscribe for reports through Proettel (Germany), administrator for shown in Figure 2, Power Transis-
direct subscription with one of their 5 the WSTS organization, to learn what tors and Rectifiers combined had a
regional distribution channels provid- drove the decision to start tracking compou nd a n nua l g row t h rate
ed by regional semiconductor indus- WBG products separately, and to (CAGR) of approximately 20%. Mr.
try associations. For example, the obtain more insight into what data Proettel said the categories of Field-
Semiconductor Industry Association WSTS will collect. Mr. Proettel said Effect General Purpose Power Tran-
(SIA), based in the United States, is that WSTS members are the ones that sistors and Rectifiers were selected
the distribution channel for the Amer- wanted the new category, and it was for the split into Silicon and WBG
icas. The SIA also utilizes statistics discussed as part of their annual
provided by WSTS in some of their meeting. He noted their members rec-
public reports and news releases [1]. ognized that WBG products including
WSTS provides 4-year forecasts
updated twice a year. Additionally,
WSTS statistics and categorizations
can indicate trends in the semicon-
ductor industry as they are continu-
ally updating product categories to
accurately reflect the market. WSTS
tracks more tha n 150 different
FIG 1 WSTS announcement on LinkedIn FIG 2 WSTS revenue data for Power
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3269987 of the new wide bandgap power prod- Transistors & Rectifiers shows significant
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 uct category [2]. growth.

88 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

because they expected WBG prod- rectifiers (power diodes) subcatego- the average sales price (ASP) can
ucts to have the highest impact to ries are now: be calculated. WSTS classifies their
these categories’ CAGR. Currently, ■■WBG Rectifiers < 1200 V member s w it h i n fou r d i f ferent
WSTS collects revenue and unit ■■WBG Rectifiers 1200 V – 1700 V regions [3]. WSTS emphasizes that
shipment data at the associated ■■WBG Rectifiers ≥ 1700 V. their information is generated by
encapsulated (package) level. Note WSTS provides reports based on semiconductor companies, specifi-
that WSTS neither tracks non-semi- monthly revenue a nd unit ship- cally for semiconductor companies,
conductor product wafers, nor sub- ments collected directly from semi- but it also holds significant value
strates (sometimes called starting c o nd u c t o r m a nu f a c t u r e r s . B y for industry organizations, govern-
wafer material). combining revenue and unit sales, ment off ices, a nd other related
Under the WSTS hierarchy of
Power Transistors, the category
Field-Effect General Purpose
Powe r T r a n s i s t o r s , w h ic h
includes JFETS, has three new
subcategories:
■■SiC Transistors ≤ 1000 V
■■SiC Transistors > 1000 V
■■GaN Transistors.
The existing categories were
clarified to be silicon only. Fur-
thermore, power transistor mod-
ules are not a new category;
however, they are now explicitly
defined to encompass power
transistors made from silicon
(Si), SiC, and GaN materials. The
Field-Effect General Purpose
Power Transistors and Modules
combined are referred to as
MOSFET Power Tra nsistors
product group.
The hierarchical organization
of the MOSFET Power Transis-
tors product group is shown in
Figure 3. The IGBT classifica-
tions, which are also within the
Power Transistors category, are
shown in Figure 3 for complete-
ness of high voltage power tran-
sistors categorization.
I n t he Recti f ier s (Power
Diodes) hierarchy, three new cat-
egories were added to track WBG
Rectifiers by voltage range. The
t h ree ex ist i ng categor ies
remained unchanged: Si and
W BG Rect i f ier s by a mpere
ranges. WBG Rectifiers assem-
bled with different types of semi-
conductor devices such as IGBTs
or MOSFETs will not be included
in WBG Rectifiers but as IGBT
Modules or Field-Effect General
Purpose Power Transistor Mod-
ules (Figure 3). The additional

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 89

 FIG 3 Field-Effect General Purpose Power Transistors subcategories, along with their modules, and IGBT categories by volt-
age, demonstrating how technologies will be separately tracked in 2023.

entities. The data quality improves At this time, WSTS is not track- in the wider acceptance and utiliza-
with an increasing number of mem- ing a separate subcategory for WBG tion of WBG power semiconductors.
ber companies. As a result, WSTS in Power Management IC categories.
actively encourages non-member However, as member companies About the Authors
semiconductor companies to join continue to contribute feedback, Stephanie Watts Butler, Ph.D.,
the organization. To ensure the WSTS will be considering proposals P.E., ([email protected]) is the
security of company data, WSTS to update this. WSTS reviews and President of WattsButler LLC, an
implements a multi-tiered process. discusses existing structure at their innovation services company
No i nd iv idua l compa ny data is bi-annual meetings and decides on focused on the power semiconduc-
shared; only aggregated market fig- changes for the coming year with a tor industry. During her previous
u res a re relea sed for a na lysis. big focus on the WBG area. WSTS’s career at Texas Instruments, she
WSTS sta r ted prov iding results inclusion of new categories to spe- produced innovations in the areas of
with the new WBG categories to cifically address the WBG power power and CMOS process and pack-
their members in February 2023. market marks another forward leap age technology, processing equip-
ment, materials,
reliability, research
and development
management, manu-
facturing science, con-
trol, fault detection,
metrology, and new
product development,
generating 17 U.S. pat-
ents. She is the Co-
Founder and the
Past-Chair of JEDEC’s
JC-70 WBG Standards
Committee and the
Co-Convenor of IEC’s
TC47/WG8. She is the
Industry Deputy Edi-
tor-in-Chief of IEEE
Power Electronics
M a g a z i n e , a PELS
M e m b e r- a t - L a r g e
(ADCOM), the Chair
of the PELS Industry

90 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

Committee, and a WIE Committee References Accessed: Apr. 12, 2023. [Online]. Available:
Member. She also serves on the [1] Semiconductor Industry Association. (Apr. 6, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/wsts-world-
APEC Planning Committee and the 2023). Global Semiconductor Sales Decrease 4% semiconductor-trade-statistics_semiconduc-
PSMA Board of Directors and the Month-to-Month in February. Accessed: Apr. tors-wsts-semiconductormarket-activity-
Semiconductor Committee. She is a 17, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.semi- 7022134579536781312-m485
Fellow of the AVS and an IEEE conductors.org/global-semiconductor-sales- [3] WSTS Member Companies. Accessed: Apr.
Senior Member. decrease-4-month-to-month-in-february/ 14, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.wsts.
Kristen Parrish (kristen@ieee. [2] LinkedIn. W S T S A n n o u n c i n g N e w org/75/Member-Companies
o r g ) ( S e n i o r M e m b e r, I E E E ) Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Categories. 
received the bachelor’s
degree from the Rose-Hul-
man Institute of Technol-
ogy, Terre Haute, IN, USA,
and the master’s and Ph.D.
degrees from The Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin, TX,
USA, before embarking on
a career spanning multiple
fields, ultimately working
in power electronics at
both Texas Instruments,
Dallas, TX, USA and Wolf-
speed, Durham, NC, USA.
Her work experience
includes Research and
Development Engineer, a
Systems Engineer, and
most recently as an Appli-
cations Engineer with
projects in packaging,
magnetics, and silicon car-
bide. During her career,
she has been involved
with IEEE at the local sec-
tion level, serving as the
Eastern North Carolina
Vice-Chair, the Women in
Engineering (WIE) Chair,
and the Webmaster, and
also at the society level on
the PELS WIE Steering
Committee. She became a
Senior Member of IEEE in
2020. She has also created
a mentoring program that
connected mentors and YP
mentees in IEEE Region 3
during the early days of
the COVID-19 pandemic,
which was nominated for
the MGA Young Profes-
sionals Achievement
Award. She is passionate
about mentoring and
career development of
women in engineering.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 91

Students and Young Professionals Rendezvous
by Houssam Deboucha, Chen Xu,
Anshuman Sharma, Haifah Sambo,
Nayara Brandão de Freitas,
and Joseph P. Kozak

The Revival of SYPS

and Recent YP Activities

T
he IEEE Power Elec-
tronics Society (PELS)
Students and Young
Professionals (S&YP) is a sub-
group within the largest IEEE
PELS community that supports
and promotes S&YP who are
interested in the field of power
electronics. PELS S&YP is an
excellent platform that pro-
vides resources and network-
ing opportunities for S&YP, it
offers many activities, such as
conferences, webinars, and FIG 1 A plenary session breaktime at APEC 2023.
workshops.
One of the initiatives that S&YP is expecting to create a global, profes- that the APEC program addresses a
supporting includes the 2023 IEEE sional, and interesting offline com- broad range of topics in the use,
PELS S&YP Symposium (SYPS). This munication platform with the young design, manufacturing, and market-
symposium will be held in Shanghai, professionals and students in the ing of all kinds of power electronics
China, on 27–29 August, and orga- field of power electronics from all devices, components, and equip-
nized by IEEE PELS Membership over the world. ment. In addition, the combination
Com m it t ee - Ch i n a , I EEE PEL S In addition to SYPS 2023 plan- of high-quality professional educa-
Shanghai Chapter, and Shanghai Uni- ning, the S&YP committee has been tion seminars, a full program of
versity. It will be the first time that busy supporting events globally, referred papers showcasing state-of-
the SYPS becomes an in-person with the most recent being APEC the-art power electronics research
event, free from the impact of 2023. For well over three decades, and an exposition that has signifi-
COVID-19. Inherited from SYPS 2021, the IEEE Applied Power Electronics cantly grown over the years has
the three focal pillars of the 2023 Conference and Exposition, popu- become an integral part of the con-
SYPS include “worldwide connec- larly known as APEC, has emerged ference and consistently provides an
tion,” “meet industry leaders,” and as a tier one conference for power invaluable education each year. The
“have some fun.” Preparations for electronics professionals across the conference features a number of
SYPS 2023 are underway, and we are globe. As a flagship conference of sessions i nclud i ng t he plena r y
the IEEE PELS, the conference has (Figure 1), industrial and RAP ses-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3271630
enjoyed an outpouring of success sions aimed to address the key
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 over the years largely due to the fact areas of technical interest for the

92 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 the attendees. The “PELS-IAS-PSMA
Sponsored Young Professiona ls
Reception” (Figure 2) took place on
21st March 2023. The 2-hour event
hosted over 150 attendees and pre-
sented a great opportunity for young
professionals and students alike to
network and engage with fellow stu-
dents, young professionals, and lead-
ers of the societies in a casual
atmosphere over food and drinks.
The second S&YP sponsored
event, the “WIE, YP and You, How to
become involved with IEEE, PELS
and PSMA, too” took place on 22
March 2023. The event, an hour-long
breakfast discussion, effectively
showcased all the different ways one
can potentially engage with PELS,
and PSMA as well. The mission was
to network and engage with volun-
FIG 2 APEC 2023 general chair, Pradeep Shenoy of Texas Instruments, a former S&YP volunteer, teers and officers and unravel all the
greets attendees at the S&YP reception. Source: APEC 2023.
exciting opportunities behind these
acronyms. An added perk to attend
practicing power electronics profes- The PELS S&YP committee was the event was the drawing off a raffle
siona l. The A PEC 2023 held in well represented throughout the con- that gave two vouchers for a compli-
Orlando, FL, USA from 19–23 March ference and several events hosted by mentary IEEE and PELS member-
2023 hosted a number of these ses- the PELS S&YP leadership commit- ship, making it a win-win situation.
sions over the course of the week. tee saw an increased participation by Wrapping up the conference, the
PELS S&Y P com m it tee saw a n About the Authors Haifah Sambo is currently pur-
encouraging involvement of students Houssam Deboucha is a Research suing the Ph.D. degree with the
and young professions at the APEC Assistant Professor at the Depart- Electrical Engineering and Com-
2023, thereby successfully achieving ment of Technology, University of puter Sciences Department, Univer-
its core objective of providing stu- Bejaia, Bejaia, Algeria. He is cur- sity of California, Berkeley, CA,
dents and young professional mem- rently a member of the IEEE PELS USA. She is a Research Fellow with
bers with networking opportunities SYP Committee. the Electrical Engineering and Com-
within the power electronics com- Chen Xu is an Associate Professor puter Sciences Department, Univer-
munity. Thus, enabling mentorship at the Department of Electrical Engi- sity of California. She is currently a
and other unique growth opportuni- neering, School of Mechatronic Engi- member of the IEEE PELS SYP
ties for PELS S&YP. The S&YP com- neering and Automation, Shanghai Committee.
mittee is poised for an exciting University, Shanghai, China. He is cur- Nayara Brandão de Freitas is
future as it plans to organize and rently a member of the IEEE PELS an Assistant Researcher at the Insti-
chalk out a number of these events at Shanghai Chapter. tute for Systems and Computer Engi-
SYPS and other upcoming Anshuman Sharma received the neering, Technology, and Science
conferences. M.A.Sc. and B.Eng. degrees from the (INESC TEC), Porto, Portugal. She is
To stay updated with IEEE PELS University of Ontario Institute of also the Current Chair of the IEEE
and its S&YP committee, follow us on Technology, Oshawa, ON, Canada. He PELS S&YP Committee.
Twitter (@ieeepels), Instagram (@ is presently employed as a Hardware Joseph P. Kozak is a Senior
ieeepels) and LinkedIn (IEEE PELS). Engineer at Hitachi Astemo, Farm- Electrical Engineer at the Johns Hop-
The S&YP committee is always ington Hills, MI, USA. He also serves kins University Applied Physics Lab
seeking motivated volunteers. If as the Vice-Chair of the IEEE Power (JHU-APL), Laurel, MD, USA. He is
interested in volunteering, please Electronics/Consumer Electronics currently the Vice-Chair of the IEEE
contact the S&YP committee chair, Chapter at the IEEE Toronto Section PELS S&YP Committee.
Naya ra Bra ndão de F reita s, at and is a member of the IEEE PELS
[email protected]. S&YP Committee. 
 Society News
by Ashok Bindra

ECCE: First Ever

All Women Keynotes

T
his year, the 14th IEEE Ener- ■■Public outreach events and partner-
gy Conversion Congress and ships with local community organi-
Expo (ECCE 2023), from 29 zations.
October to 2 November 2023 will be ■■Subsidized daycare for attendee
held in Nashville, TN, USA. It is families.
IEEE’s flagship conference on ener- Speaking of keynotes, there are
gy conversion systems and technolo- four women speakers at this year’s
gies, and is cosponsored by the plenary session. In fact, ECCE orga-
IEEE Power Electronics Society nizers are announcing the first all
FIG 1 ECCE 2023 will be held at the
(PELS) and Industrial Application women keynote in ECCE history!
Nashville Convention Center, TN, USA.
Society (IAS). Besides featuring They are Riona Armesmith, chief Source: ECCE2023.
technical presentations and tutorials technology officer (CTO) at magniX,
from some of the top experts in the Elif Balkas, CTO at Wolfspeed,
field, revealing latest advances and Annette Clayton, chief executive offi- working closely with key partners
research trends in all aspects of cer at Schneider Electric North to advance regional innovation.
electrical energy conversion, ECCE America, and Susan Hubbard, deputy Hubbard’s presentation will also
will also present a lively exposition laboratory director for science and examine topics such as advanced
and job fair. technology at Oak Ridge National mobility and decarbonization.
Offering both industry-driven and Laboratory (ORNL). “This is a must-attend event for
application-oriented technical ses- While Armesmith of magniX will anyone in the field of power elec-
sions, ECCE 2023 has launched sev- talk about her company powering tronics, renewable energy, electric
eral exciting new initiatives this year. the electric aviation revolution with machines, a nd electr ic vehicles
They include: ele c t r ic pr opu l s ion s olut ion s , and we promise it will be a stimu-
■■An all-female keynote opening ses- Balkas will focus on advances in lat i ng a nd educ at ion a l ex per i-
sion—a historic milestone for IEEE SiC technology and its impact on ence,” stated Prof. Brad Lehman,
at any major power electronics/ power conversion systems. Like- ECCE 2023 general chair and pres-
renewable energy conference. wise, the third speaker Clayton will ident of IEEE PELS.
■■A major expansion in its exhibit dive into sustainability, decarbon- The five-day conference will be
hall programs and sponsorship ization, and renewables to further held at the Nashville Convention
opportunities for better industry the mission toward an all-electric Center, TN, USA (F igure 1), 29
engagement. world. Finally, the fourth speaker October–2 November 2023. It will
■■Two-page late-breaking research Hubbard will discuss advances in br i ng toget her practici ng eng i-
papers in addition to their usual physical and materials sciences, neers, researchers, and other pro-
full-length papers. i nclud i ng energ y science s a nd fe s sion a l s for i nt er a c t ive a nd
related technologies. She will also multidisciplinary discussions on
highlight the transfer of ORNL tech- the latest advances in various areas
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3273888
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 nologies into the marketplace, while related to energy conversion.

96 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

by Ali Husain

EBL II Global Finals

O
n Tuesday, 21 March 2023, business models and cutting-edge, do not have a reliable grid connec-
the winners of the second high-impact solutions to extreme tion. EBL has just completed its
Empower A Billion Lives poverty and lack of access to energy second competition where compa-
(EBL II) competition were awarded in the developing world. nies, NGOs, and student teams sub-
a total of US$475,000 in cash prizes EBL is an IEEE Power Electron- mit, refine, field test, and share
to help them scale up their novel ics Society (PELS) sponsored pro- their energy access solutions to
gram with the mission to bring the provide economically viable and
benefits of electric power to the scalable solutions for communities
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3273891
nearly 800 million people without with average incomes of lower than
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 energy access and the 3 billion who US$2 per day.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 97

 exploring using discarded batteries
from cell phones to reduce the cost
of energy storage, while R2P Cube
developed and field tested a solar
rechargeable battery for use in agri-
cultural needs such as water pump-
ing. The student team third prize
went to IITK Smart Grid of India for
their solution to upgrade digital
meters to smart meters by adding
intelligence and connectivity.
Three honorable mentions were
also awarded. Solar freeze and scal-
able solar ice maker, both from
Kenya, were recognized for their solu-
tions to bring refrigeration to fisher-
men, farmers, and shopkeepers.
Living Energy Farm’s demonstration
project in Puerto Rico shows that
strict voltage regulation of a dc
microgrid is not necessary for pro-
ductive use of solar dc microgrids.
I ndeed, “ product ive u se” of
FIG 1 Global grand prize winner Nanoé from Madagascar.
energy was a greater focus of the
second EBL contest after learning
From more than 200 applicants utilization of the generated energy from the first competition. Providing
from 43 countries, 25 finalists were of hydro-based microgrids. electric power to communities is
invited to present to the EBL judges The Centralized Model Track win- only the f irst step; using it to
on 19–20 March 2023 at the IEEE ner was Standard Microgrid which is increase the income of the commu-
Applied Power Electronics Confer- br i n g i n g r u g ge d , s c a l a ble a c nity members improves their stan-
ence and Exposition (APEC), held microgrids to communities in Zam- dard of liv ing and pays for the
in Orlando, FL, USA. The winners bia. SolarWorx’s consumer and pro- infrastructure and energy. If busi-
presented their solutions on the fol- sumer model for dc microgrids in nesses cannot make profit from pro-
low i ng d ay a t t he I EEE PEL S Cameroon was awarded the Decen- viding energy, then the model cannot
Energy Access Workshop, a work- tralized Model Track prize. scale without continuous outside
shop dedicated to bringing together The End-Use Energy Track win- funding. The teams of EBL II demon-
the energy access community. The ner, D-Olivette of Nigeria, sells low strated an impressive knowledge of
workshop was broadcast on live cost biodigesters which are fed with what their customers value.
and is now available for viewing on local bio-waste and generate enough Besides the contests and prize
IEEE.tv. bio-gas to supply the energy for clean money, EBL seeks to create connec-
The global grand prize winner, cooking in a typical household and tions within the energy access com-
Nanoé from Madagascar (Figure 1), can be converted to electricity. munity, which includes multi-lateral
was awarded US$150,000 for their Awarded the Enabling Technol- organizations like the UN, technology
innovative method to interconnect ogy Track prize for Impact, Atutu organizations like IEEE and count-
separate “nano-grids” into a larger operates in Myanmar. A notable less small companies on the ground
dc microgrid, which allows greater aspect of their efforts is working in testing, refining, and scaling solu-
energy sharing within a community very difficult conditions—a civil tions for the people who would most
and increased the overall system war with rival militias and shifting benefit from electrification.
resiliency. In addition to the grand political landscape—by developing The global finals were organized
prize, smaller awards were given to a local network which is unaligned by the tireless work of the EBL Steer-
teams excelling in five tracks, as and has credibility within the com- ing Committee and organizational
well as prizes for student teams. The munities impacted. support from IEEE PELS. The com-
Automation Centric Track winner The Student Team First Prize petition was conceptualized by the
was Green Empowerment, operat- was shared between two team from IEEE PELS and its volunteers and
ing in Malaysia and the Philippines, Jordan—PSUT Engineering 2 and staff, with notable support from the
for their technique to maximize R2P Cube. PSUT Engineering is IEEE Standards Association and the

98 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

IEEE Control Systems Society. Other logistical, planning, and in-kind sup- The next round of IEEE PELS EBL is
contributors to the competition port and the EBL competition is an expected to begin in 2025.
include IEEE sister societies Indus- IEEE Foundation Partner.
trial Electronics and Power & Energy For more details on all the EBL About the Author
as well as Schneider Electric, the teams and prizes, or to find out more Ali Husain (alihusain@enphaseen-
Georgia Research Alliance, and about EBL or to get involved in the ergy.com) is the Director of product
Vicor. The Center for Distributed Energy Access community, please management at Enphase Energy in
Energy at the Georgia Institute of visit www.empowerabillionlives.org. Fremont, CA, USA.
Technology provided significant

by K. Deepa

Insights into IEEE PELS

A
n online talk on “Insights into to 7:00 pm (Indian Standard Time). Ch apt er who i nt roduced P rof.
IEEE PELS” was organized This event was open to all IEEE PELS Liuchen Chang, immediate past
by the IEEE Power Elec- members from all over India. president of IEEE PELS and chair of
tronics Society (PELS) Bangalore Ms. Chaitanya L., secretary IEEE ITRD. The audience were provided
Chapter on 11th April 2023 from 6:00 PELS Bangalore Chapter started the with insights on the benefits of
event with a warm welcome fol- IEEE, as well as PELS Student Mem-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3275295
lowed by Dr. Kaushik Basu, past bership and the free membership
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 c h a i r, I E E E P E L S B a n g a l o r e code for the first year. PELS Student

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 99

 Finally, Dr. Shefali, EXECOM
member, IEEE PELS Bangalore Chap-
ter, introduced Prof. Srinivas Karanki
who highlighted the India PELS hap-
pening-IEEE PELS Country Liaison
(India). A detailed discussion helped
students get a deeper understanding
about the IEEE Society linked Stu-
dent Branch Chapter and think about
their interests and opportunities.
Dr. Deepa, Chair, IEEE PELS Ban-
galore Chapter, discussed the high-
lights of PELS Bangalore Chapter
2022 and various events conducted
by the Chapter. The session ended
with an interactive questions and
answers session by the active partici-
pants. The meeting was a boon for all
the IEEE student members who will
FIG 1 IEEE PELS Bangalore Chapter organizes an online event. be able to utilize the forum and the
community for their growth and bet-
terment and contribute towards an
Membership wa s a nnounced by Dr. Manitha, SAAC Chair, IEEE ever-growing chapter. The positive
Prof. Chang. Mr. Vishal introduced PELS Bangalore Chapter, intro- comments and feedback along with
Prof. Dehong Xu, PELS vice presi- duced Regional Chair, Prof. Sanjib appreciation from nearly 246 partici-
dent of membership and chapter K. Panda (National University of pants gave the committee a motiva-
Development, who then addressed Singapore) who addressed the audi- tion to conduct even better insightful
the attendees with the benefits of ence with the benefits of IEEE PELS events in the future. Finally, this talk
IEEE, along with Student Member- student membership, funding oppor- was concluded with vote of thanks
ship opportunities. tunities, and membership strategies. by Ms. Chaitanya L.

by C. Harinatha Reddy

Dr. Singh on a Lecture Tour in India

A
s an IEEE Power Electronics bay, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and the Deere & Company since 2015.
Society (PELS) Distin- Delhi sections, India. Additionally, there were questions
guished Lecturer (DL), last related to the switching frequen-
December, John Deere Technical Fel- The Bombay Section cy selection of the SiC MOSFETs
low Dr. Brij N. Singh, also an IEEE Dr. Singh’s lecture tour started on 13 that is suitable for a heavy-duty vehi-
Fellow, was on a lecture tour of December 2022 with the first lecture cle application in its traction control.
India, invited by joint IEEE Power & delivered at IIT Bombay (Figure 1) Also, there were several questions
Energy Society/Industry Applications where he interacted with faculty and related to packaging and thermal
Society/Power Electronics Society students, followed by the lab tour on management of the 200 kW SiC
(PES/IAS/PELS) Chapters at Bom- 14 December. Majority of the ques- inverter and capacitor cooling for the
tions were on the silicon carbide power-dense (43 kW/L) WBG power
(SiC) inverter development project, electronics cooled with the 115 °C
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3275092
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 which Dr. Singh has been leading at water-ethylene glycol (WEG) for con-

100 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 tinuous 150 kW traction power. Mas-
ter and Ph.D. students enrolled in the
power electronics degree program
were satisfied with numerous advice
and suggestions provided by Dr.
Singh during his visit to IIT Bombay,
a PELS chapter.

The Hyderabad Section

The next stop was Hyderabad. In
the joint PES/IAS/PELS Chapter of
the IEEE Hyderabad section, the
post COVID-19 period is being effec-
tively utilized through off-line activi-
ties that were conducted regularly
in the year 2022. Since August 2022,
the joint chapter has started to orga-
nize various off-line physical events
with focus on IEEE-DL programs.
As a result, Dr. Singh was invited to
FIG 1 Dr. Singh delivering PELS DL lecture at IIT Bombay, India. present six DL talks to students and

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 101

faculty of engineering colleges in and machine learning, etc. Dr. Singh electronics discipline, which is a
Hyderabad section from 20 to 23 briefly narrated his career journey specialized field within core electri-
December 2022. and concluded by stating that core cal engineering, is very critical for
The Hyderabad section IEEE-DL engineering know-how and exper- 21st century engineering solutions
program was kicked off with the tise would be always in need for the to the many societal problems and
first event held at MVSR Engineer- economic well-being of a country challenges including successful
ing College with the topic “Career like India. Furthermore, he added, if realization of a clean energy trans-
Opportunities: Electrical Engi- someone is a power electronics portation system.
neering-Power Electronics.” About expert that person would be always Interestingly, the first event was
95 students, faculty, and other mem- in demand for solving challenging attended by a young artist named
bers of the community participated problems in processes of developing Chandana, who is enrolled in an
in this event (Figure 2). During unique and differentiating solutions undergraduate EE program at a
Q&A, the majority of the questions used in engineering designs. Addi- school which is quite a distance
were related to core engineering tionally, for a decarbonized econ- aw ay f r om Hyde r a b a d , I nd i a .
study versus students opting for the omy, ten s of t hou sa nd s power According to the lecturer, “when
computer science field with focus ele c t r on ic s ex p er t s wou ld b e Chandana came to know that a
on data analytics, data science, AI, needed for many decades. Power PELS DL program was being orga-
nized in the MVSR Engineering Col-
lege, she sketched Dr. Si ng h’s
picture and came to the PELS DL
event.” At the end of lecture, she
gifted this picture to Dr. Singh
(Figure 2). “I think this girl is likely
to become a great artist and an
excellent power electronics engi-
neer,” stated Dr. Singh.
This was followed by the sec-
ond t a lk g iven by Dr. Si ng h at
Bharat Heav y Electrical Limited
(BHEL), Hyderabad, Tela nga na ,
India. The topic was “Wideband
Gap Power Electronics Systems
for Heavy Duty Vehicles.” Per the
organizers, about 22 professionals
FIG 2 Dr. Singh’s picture drawn by young artist Chandana who is aspiring to become
pa r ticipated i n t h is event w it h
a power electronics engineer.

FIG 3 Dr. Singh at Vardaman College of Engineering with many female students in attendance, indicating inclusion, diversity, equi-
ty, and access (IDEA) to knowledge.

102 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

excellent interaction between the speaker
and the attendees.
The third event by Dr. Singh was at Sri
Nidhi Institute of Science and Technology,
Hyderabad, India on 21 December and the
topic was “Improved Control Algorithm for
Power Quality Controlled Converter.” The
fourth event was held in the afternoon of 21
December at Vardhaman College of Engineer-
ing Hyderabad (Figure 3). And the students
interacted with the speaker. At Vardhaman, the
questions were similar to those asked in MVSR
and Sri Nidhi. Additionally, Dr. Singh had
requests from students and faculty to guide
them in their efforts to navigate graduate
school admission in universities in the U.S.
The fifth talk by Dr. Singh was held in the
morning of 22 December at the JNTUA, Col-
lege of E n g i ne er i n g, A n a nt h a pu r a mu ,
A nd h ra P ra desh, I nd ia . T he topic wa s
“Power Electronics for Precision Farming
with the Sustainable and Cleaner Environ-
ment.” There were about 105 participants in
this event. Lastly, the sixth event of this
series was held at Sri Krishna Devaraya Col-
lege of Hor ticultural Sciences, A nantha-
puramu, India on 22 December afternoon.
The talk was on “Precision Farming with
the Sustainable and Cleaner Environment.”
According to the organizers of DL events,
Dr. Singh’s visit benefited the people from
industry, academia, and students across PELS
joint chapter of IEEE Hyderabad section and
impacted many professionals in electrical
engineering related fields. Concurrently, it
also resulted in the PELS membership growth
in the Hyderabad section. During this lecture,
Dr. Singh as a life members of IEEE PELS nar-
rated his success story and how IEEE gave
him access to power electronics experts and
professionals for mentorship and technical
guidance for fulfilment and career advances.
Dr. Singh stated that he meets many PELS
members at ECCE, APEC, ITEC and carries
out mutually beneficial and knowledge shar-
ing discussions.
As the chairman of PES joint chapter of
IEEE Hyderabad section, Dr. C. Harinatha
Reddy expressed his sincere thanks to Dr. P.
V. Rajagopal, immediate past chair of PES
joint chapter of Hyderabad section for sup-
porting the events and making it a grand suc-
ce s s . A l s o, my si ncer e t h a n k s t o t he
chairman of IEEE Hyderabad section for
supporting the PES joint chapter and facili-
tating the success of chapter events during
January to December 2022.
 confidence.” Dr. Singh encouraged
students to regularly read technical
literature, practice balanced life, and
exercise regularly. These practices
will help in coping-up with challenges
and in overcoming disappointments
in the aftermath of failures.

The Delhi Section

On 12 January 2023, Dr. Singh deliv-
ered a talk on “Wide Bandgap Power
Electronics for Heavy-Duty Vehicles”
at the Netaji Subhas University of
Technology, New Delhi, India.
According to Dr. Singh, this presenta-
tion covered publicly known informa-
tion on the 200 kW 1050 VDC SiC
inverter technology development
project at Deere & Company. The SiC
inverter converts vehicle engine
FIG 4 Dr. Singh at Amrita College of Engineering with diverse group of students and power into electrical power needed
all female faculty.
for the permanent-magnet-motor-
based electric powertrain used in
The Bangalore Section the U.S., a very intriguing and unusual heavy-duty construction and mining
On 23 December 2022, Dr. Singh deliv- question that was somewhat unex- vehicles. Dr. Singh’s presentation cov-
ered a lecture at Amrita College of pected was related to “how to over- ered the design, development, and
Engineering in Bangalore with two come disappointments in the after- test verification of WBG technology
topics covered (Figure 4), math of failures and challenges in deployed in the successful realization
1) Improved Control Algorithm for life.” Dr. Singh’s reply was “try to of a power-dense (43 kW/Litter) high-
Power Quality Controlled Convert- decompose big and insurmountable temperature (suitable for 115 °C WEG
er and 2) Career Opportunities: Elec- problems into small pieces and go coolant) high-efficiency (>98% over
trical Engineering-Power Electron- after low hanging and easier ones first the entire range of coolant) SiC dual-
ics. While the attendees asked several followed by next level of difficulty. inverter. Total number of participants
questions related to graduate study in This practice should allow re-gaining were 40, including 11 IEEE members.

by Jian Sun

IEEE Southern Power Electronics

Conference is Back to an
In-Person Event

T
he IEEE Southern Power Electronics Conference (SPEC) is the only
society-level conference that is 100% owned by IEEE Power Electron-
ics Society (PELS). Initiated in 2015 for the global power electronics
community, SPEC offers a unique forum for researchers, engineers, academics,

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3275290

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

104 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 Fiji Golf & Beach Resort, Fiji. The
conference attracted ~100 attend-
ees from around the world, includ-
i ng bot h prom i nent ex per t s i n
power electronics and young pro-
fessiona ls a s well a s Ph.D. stu-
dents. Highlights of the conference
program included:
■■Half-day tutorials presented by
Dushan Boroyevich, Robert Pilawa-
Podgurski, Spasoje Miric, Josep
Pou, and Johann Kolar.
■■Keynote speeches by Frede Blaab-
jerg, Johann Kolar, Mark Xu, Josep
Gurrerro, and Faz Rahman.
■■Invited talks by Andreas Liske and
Sheldon Williamson.
■■PELS Young Professional Cocktail
FIG 1 Indigenous cultural events during the opening ceremony of SPEC 2022. Source: and Women in Engineering Break-
SPEC 2022.
fast.
■■Indigenous cultural events during
and students from all over the world. conferences sponsored by PELS. Fol- the opening ceremony and the con-
While bringing the latest technologi- lowing the inaugurating event in Bra- ference banquet (Figure 1).
cal advances and applications to the zil, SPEC has been held in New Zea- SPEC 2022 papers and tutorials
southern regions, it also fosters net- land (2016), Chile (2017), Singapore can be viewed at https://spec-ieee.
working, and promotes the discipline (2018), Brazil (2019), and Rwanda org/program/.
to strengthen the interchanges (2021). The 2020 event was cancelled
amongst industry, academia, and pro- due to the pandemic, and the 2021 SPEC 2023 and 2024
fessionals. The conference is held conference was virtual. SPEC 2023 will take place on 26–29
towards the end of the year, usually SPEC 2022, the first in-person November at the Oceania Conven-
in late November and early Decem- event after 2019, was held from 5 tion Center, Florianopolis, Brazil, in
ber when there are no other major to 7 December 2022 in Sheraton collaboration with COBEP, the

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 105

 Brazilian Power Electronics Confer-
ence. Digest submission is open and
will close on 22 May. Please visit
https://spec-ieee.org/ for details of
the conference.
Florianopolis is the capital of
the state of Santa Catarina, in the
South region of Brazil. The city
has some of Brazil’s most beautiful
beaches with about 100 registered
beaches, making it one of the most
popular destinations in Brazil for
people looking for fun, beautiful
scener y, interesting culture and
friendly people. The city of Flori-
anopolis is quite modern (Figure
2), w it h l a rge shoppi ng m a l l s,
cha in a nd high- end restaura nts
a nd m a ny g la morou s ba r s a nd
nightclubs.
SPEC 2024 will come to Bris-
ba ne, Aust ra l ia . P rof. Ma h i nda
Vilathgamuwa of the Queensland
University of Technology will be
t he ge ne r a l c h a i r. He c a n b e
r e a c h e d a t m a h i n d a .v i l a t h -
[email protected] if you would
FIG 2 SPEC 2023 will take place in modern Florianopolis, Brazil.
like to get involved.

by S. L. Patil

Prof. Panda Delivers Distinguished

Lecture at COEP Technological
University Pune

O
n 9 March 2023, Prof. San- ing, National University of Singa- ure 1). Prof. Panda’s is also IEEE
jib K. Panda, associate pro- pore (NUS), delivered a distin- Power Electronics Society (PELS)
fessor and area director, guished lecture (DL) on “Single- membership and chapter coordina-
power and energy research group, Phase Inverter Control Techniques tor for IEEE Region 10, as well as
Department of Electrical Engineer- for Interfacing Renewable Energy chair for PELS TC-12: Energy
Sources with Microgrid.” This DL Access & Off-grid systems.
talk was presented at COEP Techno- His DL lecture was well appreci-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3275328
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 logical University Pune, India (Fig- a t e d by t he a t t ende e s , wh ich

106 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

included students and faculty members from
engineering institutes in and around Pune. As a
result, there were 140 in-person participants,
along with 15 online participants. According to
the organizers, the lecture is also available on
Yo u T u b e ( h t t p s : / / w w w.y o u t u b e . c o m /
watch?v=i8oOyaj0rwk). Prof. Panda was felici-
tated by Mr. Mandar Khurjekar, chairman of
IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Soci-
ety (IMS) chapter. During his talk, Prof. Panda
discussed his students Ph.D. research area and
related work in the domain of inverter control
with emphasis on single-phase p-q theory and
Lyapunov function based controller. Some of
the peculiar findings are as follows:
The single-phase p-q theory based approach
ensures easy control on grid active and reactive
FIG 1 Prof. Sanjib K. Panda giving the DL lecture at COEP Technological
power flow.
University Pune.
■■The suggested and value added LF based con-
troller is simpler than conventional d-q frame PI
+ multiple PR controllers.
■■The suggested controller provides better track-
ing enabling single inverter doing both power
flow control and PFC operation. The controller
was implemented in dSPACE 1104 and experi-
mental results demonstrated.
Besides the talk on single-phase inverter
control techniques, Prof. Panda also spent
some time in explaining to the attendees the
importance of IEEE student membership, and
also the activities carried out by IEEE and
IEEE PELS.
The objective of the event was to explore
the prospects of control techniques for power
elect ron ics a nd renewable energ y f ield /
domain. In addition, Prof. Panda also had
separate meeting with faculty members and
Ph .D. s chol a r s of COEP Te ch nolog y t o
explore possible ways of collaboration and
advancing forward, both academically and on
the research front. During the meeting, Prof.
Panda also discussed various collaborative
fields. Although, few domains are overlap-
pi ng, they ca n be adva nced f u r ther w ith
mutual interest, stated Prof. Panda. “We can
allot the control theory for power electronics
as topic for graduate students and the same
ca n be ex plored for student’s excha nge,”
added Prof. Panda. Few graduate students are
interested and motivated to work in the con-
trol theory for power electronics applications,
and have started exploring niche problem def-
inition for unmet needs.

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 107

 by Chandrasekhar Perumalla

IEEE PELS Joint Chapter in Kolkata

Hosts Multiple In-Person Events

R
ecently, the IEEE Power Elec-
tronics Society (PELS) joint
chapter in the IEEE Bhu-
baneswar Subsection/Kolkata Section
hosted multiple events in-person.
On 22 December 2022, the joint
chapter organized for a lecture to be
presented by Prof. Sanjib Kumar
Panda (IEEE Fellow, IEEE PELS
Asia Pacific Region Chair) at the
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
in Bhubaneswar (Figure 1). The lec-
ture covered different technical FIG 1 Prof. Panda giving his presentation at IIT in Bhubaneswar, India.
aspects of power electronics, such as
the status of Singapore’s grid and its
future plans, future grid scenarios,
different aspects and control scenar-
ios of plug and play microgrids, and
advantages of the developed and pro-
posed controls over state-of-the-art
controls. About 35 professionals
attended the distinguished lecture
and appreciated the interactive and
informative presentation. The joint
chapter would like to thank Prof.
Panda for taking the time to give his
lecture to the attendees.
From 27 to 28 January 2023, the
joint chapter co-sponsored the 3rd
National Workshop on Recent Devel-
opments in Smart-Grid Technolo- FIG 2 Speakers who had sessions at the 3rd NWSGT.
g ies (NWSGT ) at IIT i n
Bhubaneswar. The theme of the electric vehicles, control and inte- organized a technical talks series
workshop wa s “Microgr ids a nd gration of microgrids, various issues that featured presentations from Dr.
Electric Vehicles” and had sessions phasor measurement unit and wide- Alexandros Paspatis ad Ms. Alkistis
that were delivered by va r ious a rea mon it or i ng i n m icrog r id, Kontou from the National Technical
speakers from India across different advanced protection systems for University of Athens, Greece, and Dr.
reputable institutions (Figure 2). hybrid ac-dc and dc microgrids, and Mazher Syed from the University of
Some of the major topics included coordinated protection and control Strathclyde, Scotland that took place
were design and operational issues in smart microgrids. from 15 to 16 February 2023. The
of power electronic converters for In addition to these events, the joint chapter would like to thank all
joint chapter also co-organized the who helped with these events and is
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3275093
International Conference on Power looking forward to organizing more
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 Elect ron ics a nd Energ y a nd events in the future.

108 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

by Amrutha Nair

IEEE IES/PELS Joint SBC at MACE

Coordinate “Light the Lives”

L
ast year, the IEEE
Industrial Electronics
Society (IES)/Power
Electronics Society (PELS)
joint student branch chap-
ter (SBC) at the Mar Atha-
nasius College of Engineer-
ing (MACE) collaborated
with the IEEE SIGHT AG
MACE SB, National Service
Scheme (NSS), MACE at
Kothamangalam, IEEE
Humanitarian Activities
Committee (HAC), and FIG 1 Participants of the “Light the Lives” event.
Lions Club at Kothaman-
galam to organize the event
“Light the Lives” (Figure 1).
This event was created
after noticing the lack of
energy resources that faced
the Kuttampuzha’ Gram
Panchayat.
When this need was rec-
ognized, an application was
submitted to the IEEE HAC/
SIGHT projects call for pro-
posals focused on pressing
community needs. Once the
application was accepted,
arrangements were made
a nd over 4 0 volu nt e er s
worked tirelessly to install
solar off-grid systems in five
homes and a mother-child
care centre in the Uriyan-
pet t y t r iba l colon ie s i n

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3275288

Date of publication: 27 June 2023

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 109

 Kerala’s Kuttampuzha village (Fig-
ure 2). This project allowed the stu-
dents at MACE in Kothamangalam
to gain first-hand technical knowl-
edge and develop leadership skills
while facilitating a beacon of hope
and happiness for multiple families
and the community.

FIG 2 Volunteers installing a solar panel.

by Jane Celusak

IEEE PELS EBL Chair Presents

Democratization of Energy at the
UN Global Solutions Summit 2023

O
n 5 May 2023, The IEEE tions Summit 2023 at the UN head- roadmap and technology needs for
Power Electronics Soci- quarters in New York (Figure 1) 1. ensuring that the energy transition
ety’s (PELS) Past Presi- The UN Global Solutions Summit does not leave the least developed
dent and Global Steering Chair for (GSS) was co-located with the Sci- cou nt r ie s ( L DC s) beh i nd once
the PELS Energy Access Committee ence, Technology, and Innovation again. He showed that the PELS
and the Empower a Billion Lives Forum for the Sustainable Develop- sponsored Empower a Billion Lives
(EBL) program, Prof. Deepakraj ment Goals 2030. (EBL) recurring global competition
Divan, John E. Pippin Chair, and GSS2023 assembled a roster of to foster interdisciplinary solutions
Director of the Center for Distribut- thoughtful doers—women and men for energy access can be a key com-
ed Energy at the Georgia Institute of who are actively working in the ponent in developing, demonstrat-
Technology, Atlanta, GA, presented field to surmount these develop- ing, and derisking viable solutions
“Democratization of Energy Tech- ment challenges. Toward that goal, that can scale, are regionally rele-
nology Needs and Roadmap” at the Prof. Divan’s presentation showed a vant, holistic, and leverage 21st
United Nations (UN) Global Solu- century technologies with expo-
1Please access the recording of the event at nentially declining prices. He con-
https://media.un.org/en/asset/k1r/k1rv0ul8hs cluded with specific guidance for
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3276295 with Prof. Divan’s presentation starting at
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 1:47:00. policy makers on how to make

110 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 fast-moving technologies an inte-
gral part of the roadmap.
The EBL competition crowd-
sou rces solutions to ta rget the
issue that more than 700 million
people live with no electricity, and
3 billion live with extreme energy
poverty (<US$1.90/day) but pay the
most for energy. EBL seeks solu-
tions that are affordable for this
community, that achieve at least
200 Wh/day (Tier 2 access) include
con nectiv it y, lighting, cook ing,
cool i ng a nd cold cha i n, water,
t r a n s p o r t a t i o n , p r o d u c t i v i t y,
FIG 1 Prof. Deepak Divan presenting at the UN global solutions summit 2023. Source: health, sanitation, agriculture, and
Prof. Deepak Divan.
more. Importantly, solutions need

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 111

to be a ffordable, f lexible, sta r t awards at the PELS Energy Access mechanisms for sharing information
small and expand, easy to install, Work s hop. PE L S a nd t he EBL on needs defined by the energy
use and maintain, interoperable sponsors provided US$475,000 in access community and new capabil-
across vendors, and address life prizes and PELS offered all organi- ities which together can accelerate
cycle and e-waste issues. zational and administrative sup- the access to energy and its utiliza-
IEEE PELS EBL volunteers pro- p or t for t h i s e s s e nt i a l g lob a l tion at scale. Additionally, the PELS
vide expertise and support to teams competition. The winning teams Technical Committee 12—Energy
that build capacity, workforce train- can be viewed at Winners—IEEE Access and Off-Grid Systems—pro-
ing and development, develop finan- Empower A Billion Lives. vides a traditional mechanism for
cially a nd socially sustainable, IEEE PELS is building a cadre of publishing, special sessions, work-
inclusive business models for deploy- volunteers to focus on fundamental shops, and a Decentralized Energy
ing solutions during this time when technology and related issues that Access Symposium. All the PELS
there is a massive global energy tran- govern the energy transition, partic- climate positive approaches to
sition underway. ularly as it relates to the LDCs. In addressing the critical issue of
In Ma rch, EBL completed its addition to sponsoring and execut- energy access are open for volun-
second global competition at the ing on EBL, PELS also hosts the teers and more information can be
2023 IEEE Applied Power Elec- Global Energy Access Forum, which found at Globa l Energ y Access
tronics Conference and Exposition provides technical leadership, facili- Forum—IEEE Power Electronics
(APEC) in Orlando, FL where field- tates multistakeholder dialogue Society (ieee-pels.org).
tested teams came to pitch their towards alignment in goals, strat-
solutions and 12 teams received egy, and approaches to establish 

112 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 Event Calendar

2023 16–18 August

Seoul, South Korea
28 May–1 June IEEE International Symposium on Sensorless Control for
Hong Kong Electrical Drives (SLED)
35th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor
Devices and ICs (ISPSD) 27–29 August
https://ispsd2023.com/ Shanghai, China
IEEE PELS Students and Young Professionals Symposium (SYPS)
1–4 June http://syps2023.net/
Wuhan, China
IEEE International Conference on Predictive Control of 27–29 August
Electrical Drives and Power Electronics (PRECEDE) Hsinchu, Taiwan
http://www.precede2023.com/ IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and
Applications in Asia (WiPDA Asia)
4–8 June https://www.wipda-asia2023.org/
San Diego, CA, USA
IEEE Wireless Power Technology Conference and Expo (WPTCE) 28–31 August
https://ieee-wptce.org/ Chania, Greece
IEEE 14th International Symposium on Diagnostics for
9–12 June Electrical Machines, Power Electronics and Drives (SDEMPED)
Shanghai, China https://www.ieee-sdemped.org/
IEEE 14th International Symposium on Power Electronics for
Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) 1–3 September
http://www.ieee-pedg2023.org/index.html Izmir Cesme, Turkey
Joint International Aegean Conference on Electrical Machines
14–16 June and Power Electronics (ACEMP) & International Conference on
Nevsehir, Turkey Optimization of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (OPTIM)
5th Global Power, Energy and Communication Conference http://acemp.metu.edu.tr/
(GPECOM)
https://gpecom.org/2023/ 4–6 September
Mugla, Turkey
21–23 June International Conference on Smart Energy Systems and
Detroit, MI, USA Technologies (SEST)
IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference & Expo (ITEC) http://www.sest2023.org/
https://itec-conf.com/
24–26 September
25–28 June Miami, FL, USA
Ann Arbor, MI, USA IEEE Design Methodologies Conference (DMC)
IEEE 24th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power https://attend.ieee.org/dmc-2023/
Electronics (COMPEL)
https://ieee-compel.org/ 27–29 September
Hannover, Germany
18–19 July International Workshop on Power Supply On Chip (PwrSoC)
Nottingham, U.K. http://pwrsocevents.com/
IEEE Workshop on Power Electronics for Aerospace Applications
(PEASA) 12–15 October
https://www.peasa23.org/ Radnor, PA, USA
IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)
26–28 July https://ieeeghtc.org/
Hannover, Germany
EEE International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC) 16–18 October
http://energychallenge.weebly.com/ Karlsruhe, Germany
8th IEEE Workshop on the Electronic Grid (eGRID)
1–4 August https://www.egrid2023.com/index.php
Old Town Alexandria, VA, USA
IEEE Electric Ship Technologies Symposium (ESTS) 26–28 October
https://ests.mit.edu/ Monterrey, Mexico
International Symposium on Electromobility (ISEM)

29 October–2 November
Nashville, TN, USA
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3273889 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 https://www.ieee-ecce.org/2023/

114 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

10–13 November 10–13 December
Guangzhou, China Bhubaneswar, India
IEEE 2nd International Power Electronics and Application IEEE 3rd International Conference on Smart Technologies for
Symposium (PEAS) Power, Energy and Control (STPEC)
http://peas.cpss.org.cn/ https://event.kiit.ac.in/STPEC2023/

15–17 November 14–16 December

Auckland, New Zealand Guwahati, India
IEEE Fifth International Conference on DC Microgrids (ICDCM) 11th National Power Electronics Conference (NPEC)
https://www.ieee-icdcm.org/ https://www.npec2023.com/

20–23 November 17–20 December

Sydney, Australia Trivandrum, India
IEEE International Future Energy Electronics Conference (IFEEC) IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Smart
https://ifeec2023.org/ Grid, and Renewable Energy (PESGRE)
https://pesgre2023.org/
26–29 November
Florianopolis, Brazil
IEEE 8th Southern Power Electronics Conference (SPEC) 2024
28 November–1 December 25–29 February
Chiang Mai, Thailand Long Beach, CA, USA
EEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo, Asia- IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition
Pacific (ITEC Asia-Pacific) (APEC)
https://itec-ap2023.com/ https://www.apec-conf.org/

4–6 December 24–27 June

Charlotte, NC, USA Lahore, Pakistan
IEEE 10th Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices & IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics
Applications (WiPDA) (COMPEL)
https://wipda.org/
White Hot (continued from page 124)

APEC unofficially kicked off

with a full day magnetics workshop
(https://www.psma.com/technical-
forums/magnetics/workshop), orga-
nized by the Power Sources Manu-
facturers Association (PSMA) and
the IEEE Power Electronics Society
(PELS), the Saturday before APEC
officially started. This workshop
featured nine lecture presentations,
11 technology demonstrations, and
four student posters – making for a
full and busy day. Matt Wilkowski,
one of the workshop organizers, told
me that there were 124 attendees
from 16 different countries. Seventy
eight percent of the attendees were
from industry and the rest from FIG 1 APEC attendees socializing during the plenary session break. Source: Craig
either academia or research institu- Huey Photography.
tions. A survey of attendees showed
that it was well rated for content leng t h desig n a nd appl ications amount of carbon dioxide and other
and value. Another pre-APEC mag- problems and how to solve them. pollutants relative to their size, this
netics workshop is being planned The seminar presenters included is a nice step forward toward a
for the Saturday before APEC 2024. distinguished speakers such a s cleaner environment.
If you are planning on attending Professor Johan Kolar, well known After the Plenary Session, the
APEC 2024, I highly recommend EMI expert Dr. Michael Schutten, Exhibit Hall opened. This year’s
that you come a day early and spend and signal integrity and power dis- exposition had about 290 exhibitors
the money for the modest registra- tribution experts Steve Sandler and covering about 49,000 ft² (4550 m²).
tion fee to attend this workshop. It Heide Barnes. Where else but at The Exhibit Hall was packed with
is well worth your time and money. APEC could you see such outstand- people visiting the booths, catching
As usual APEC started Sunday ing contributors to power electron- up with friends and colleagues old
morning with the Professional Edu- ics in just a day and a half? and new, and grabbing a quick bite
cation Seminars. As in previous or drink from the food stations.
years, there were eighteen semi- Presentations and Exposition Everyone, attendee and exhibitor,
nars presented in three sessions. The Plenary Session was held was upbeat and enthusiastic. The
One of the benefits of registering Monday afternoon (Figure 1). As atmosphere was lively and the hall
for the APEC seminars is that you much as I like APEC, the Plenary filled with the low roar of countless
get the slides for all eighteen semi- Session in past years has sometimes conversations. The exhibitors seem
nars and can freely move from sem- been lackluster with too many cor- to agree as the pre-sales for booths
inar to seminar as you like. This is porate executives and not enough at APEC 2024 have been strong. Any
different from many conferences technology. This has been changing by the way, my wife says two com-
where one must register for specif- and this year’s Plenary Session was panies tied for best swag – Wolf-
ic seminars and only get the materi- excellent. There was a diversity of speed for their wolf superhero
al for those seminars. And as usual topics and the speakers all hit the stuffed animal and Axiom Test for
the APEC seminar chairs did an right balance of technical breadth their gaily wrapped mug filled with
outsta nding job of creating the and depth. One thing I learned is various goodies.
seminar program. The seminars that advancements in batteries and The rest of the week was filled
covered topics in wide bandgap power electronics, specifically small with technical and industry ses-
device and applications, magnetics, motor drives, now makes it possible sions. There were 312 technical ses-
power supply design, gate drives, to replace gasoline engines in pro- sion lecture presentations and 222
and control. Plus, in a topic near fessional power tools used in the poster presentations (Figure 2).
and dear to me, there was a semi- construction industry with battery There were about 180 industry ses-
nar on the PMBus power manage- powered solutions. Since small gaso- sion presentations. As a reminder,
ment protocol that discussed at line engines produce an enormous at A PEC the technical sessions

116 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 The Wednesday night social event
was a trip to Disney’s Hollywood Stu-
dios. APEC attendees were free to
roam, explore, and ride as many rides
as they wished. New this year, each
attendee was given a gift card worth
US$50 to buy dinner wherever they
wished. This flexibility to eat when,
where, and what they wanted was
appreciated by many. The evening
ended with dessert served at the Indi-
ana Jones Stunt Theater.
The spouses and guests of regis-
tered APEC attendees were treated
to a welcoming breakfast on Monday
morning. There was a special pre-
sentation by Pradeep Shenoy, APEC
2023 General Chair, recognizing
FIG 2 The dialog session was busy with many lively discussions. Source: Craig Huey
Jane Wilson, who had served as the
Photography.
APEC Spouse and Guest Hospitality
Chair for 21 years. Although Jane
was not able to attend to accept the
plaque in person, her husband Tom
and son John were there to accept
on her behalf. The spouses and
guests of APEC attendees were also
able to purchase tickets for an out-
ing on Tuesday to Winter Park. More
than 25 people signed up. This out-
ing included a guided tour of the
Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of
American Art, a wonderful lunch,
and shopping at Winter Park’s stores
and boutiques.
After COVID hit many were work-
ing remotely and conferences shifted
to an on-line virtual event. Even now
with COVID no longer a significant
FIG 3 The Micromouse contest at APEC 2023. Source: Craig Huey Photography. concern there is still resistance by
many office workers to return to the
consist of papers that were accept- Other events at APEC were also office. Of course, power electronics
ed after a peer review of a submit- well attended and well regarded. The engineers who must work on the
ted digest and for which a full man- Micromouse contest was back with bench to deliver their working hard-
uscript is in the conference pro- more than ten mice competing (Fig- ware never really had the luxury of
ceedings and later the IEEE Xplore ure 3). Although I was not able to “working from home”.
digital librar y. Industr y session attend the Tuesday night Rap Ses- There were some real questions
presentations are reviewed but do sions I was told that each session was whether conferences would come
not have a full paper. This makes it full a nd the discussions lively. back to pre-COVID levels. It was
easier for those in industry to pres- Wednesday morning was the Women thought the cost savings of virtual
ent their work without the need to In Engineering (WIE)/Young Profes- events would doom in-person partici-
write a full paper. The industry ses- sionals (YP) breakfast. The purpose pation. Well, it turns out that those
sions are ver y popular at APEC of this breakfast is to not just encour- virtual events are not so low cost. For
with each of the six sessions in par- age involvement in IEEE PELS and exhibitors, it is not inexpensive to
a l l e l h a v i n g 8 0 –10 0 p e o pl e PSMA activities, but to show how to produce and deliver the videos to
in attendance. get involved as a volunteer populate a virtual exhibit booth. For

118 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

attendees, why travel when you can APEC 2024 will be held 25–29 Feb- design, systems and applications engi-
sit at your desk and watch videos? ruary 2024 at the Long Beach Con- neering, technical marketing, and
I think APEC 2023 has shown that vention Center in Long Beach, Cali- technology development. He has been
the reports of the demise of the in- fornia, USA. This is a very nice facil- an active volunteer with the IEEE
person conference were premature. ity right on the water. It is a short Power Electronics Society, serving
APEC in Orlando was a booming suc- walk from the convention center several years on the Administrative
cess. There is an immeasurable value and hotels down to the waterfront Committee, two terms as the Techni-
to meeting in person and having where you will find many different cal Vice President, and as the Chapter
face-to-face conversations. Even restaurants, bars, entertainment, Chair. He received the B.S.E.E. degree
though attending a conference takes and a waterfront park. And should from the Massachusetts Institute of
more time and costs more than you need to take a break and dip Technology and the M.S.E.E. degree
watching videos, the value of the per- your toes in the ocean, it is only a from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
son-to-person interactions is invalu- one block walk to the beach. I look He is currently pursuing the Ph.D.
able and incalculable. After years of forward to seeing you there. degree in power electronics at the
web meetings, I think everyone is University of Colorado, Boulder. Pres-
ready to start shaking hands and About the Author ently, he is the Chief Engineer of
meeting in person. Robert V. White (bob.white@ieee. Embedded Power Labs, Highlands
So start making your plans to org) has more than 40 years of indus- Ranch, CO, USA, a power electronics
join us at the beach for APEC 2024. try experience as a power electronics consulting company. He is a Life Fel-
Long Beach, California, that is. engineer. He has worked in product low of the IEEE.

120 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023

 Advertisers Index

The Advertisers Index contained in this issue is compiled as a service to our readers and advertisers: the publisher is not
liable for errors or omissions, although every effort is made to ensure its accuracy. Be sure to let our advertisers know you
found them through IEEE Power Electronics Magazine.

SALES CONTACTS PAGE COMPANY URL PHONE

Kathy Naraghi
11 Acopian Technical Company www.acopian.com +1 610 258 5441
WelComm, Inc.
13223-1 Black Mountain Road, 109 Advanced Test Equipment Corp. www.atecorp.com +1 800 404 ATEC
Suite 434
91 Applied Power Systems, Inc. www.appliedps.com +1 516 935 2230
San Diego, CA 92129
Telephone: +1 858 279 2100 101 Astrodyne TDI www.astrodynetdi.com
[email protected]
90 CalRamic Technologies LLC www.CalRamic.com +1 775 851 3580
Cov 3 Chroma Systems Solutions www.chromausa.com +1 949 600 6400
18 CKE/Dean Technology www.deantechnology.com +1 972 248 7691
5 Coilcraft www.coilcraft.com/XGL
97 Fuji Electronic Corporation americas.fujielectric.com/
ieee-power
95 ICE Components www.icecomponents.com/
gate-drive-transformers
111 Imperix Power Electronics www.imperix.com
18,87 ITG Electronics www.ITG-Electronics.com
15 Kendeil S.r.l. www.kendeil.com +39 0331 786966
12 Key Power USA, Inc./AC Power www.acpower.net +1 949 988 7799
103 KYOCERA-AVX www.kyocera-avx.com
13 Magna Power Electronics www.magna-power.com
89 Magnetic Metals Corp. www.MagneticMetals.com +1 856 964 7842
103 Magnetics, Division of Spang & Co. www.mag-inc.com
Cov 4 MATHWORKS, Inc. mathworks.com/pec
Cov 2 Mitsubishi Electric US,
Semiconductor Device Div. meus-semiconductors.com
9 Nagamori Foundation www.nidec.com/en/nagamori-f/ +81 75 935 7731
7 New England Wire Technologies newenglandwire.com +1 603 838 6624
105 NORWE norwe.com
93 Omicron Lab www.omicron-lab.com
99 Payton Planar Magnetics www.PaytonGroup.com +1 954 428 3326
107 PICO Electronics Inc. picoelectronics.com +1 800 431 1064
3 Plexim GmbH www.plexim.com
14 Premier Magnetics www.premiermag.com +1 949 452 0511
6 RTDS Technologies, Inc. rtds.com/webinars
8 Triad Magnetics www.triadmagnetics.com +1 951 277 0757

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3286948

June 2023 z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 123

 White Hot
by Robert V. White

IEEE APEC 2023 Rocked!

I
am writing this soon after arriv- old, and being able to have lengthy, be a lot of good power electronics
ing home from attending the in-person talks. The “buzz” and jobs and careers in robotics for
2023 IEEE Applied Power Elec- “energy” of the attendees, whether today’s power electronics students.
tronics Conference and Exposition in the exhibit hall, talking in the Spea k i ng of ch i ld ren, A PEC
(APEC 2023) which was held 19–23 hallways, or talking while waiting 2023 was expecting a larger than
March 2023 in Orlando, Florida. for a session to start was palpable. usual number of families. The tim-
Quite frankly, if you were not there One thing that stood out to me ing of the conference overlapped
you missed it. about APEC 2023 was the number of spring break in many parts of the
This was the first true post-COV- self ies people were posting on country and the Orlando location
ID APEC. Yes, APEC 2022 was in- social media like LinkedIn. All dur- has several major theme parks. To
person in Houston last year. But, at ing and after the conference I saw a help these families APEC arranged
the time there were still a lot of steady stream of people posting for daytime childcare at the hotel
COVID travel limitations in place. photos of themselves or themselves next to the convention center. This
COVID was still a major concern, with friends and colleagues. It was s er v ice wa s not f re e, but t he
and many people chose to not to fun for me to see so many smiling dema nd wa s h ig h enoug h t hat
attend to avoid getting sick. While faces of people enjoying their time APEC is planning to provide child-
APEC 2022 is considered a success, at the conference. care at future conferences.
the overall atmosphere at that con- The APEC conference committee Also, a first for APEC was a Stu-
ference was subdued. decided to try out several new ideas dent Job Fair. Fifty-three companies
A ll those concer ns were lef t for the APEC conference. One was a signed up to participate and the
behind this year. Approximately demonstration by a local award win- chance to talk with students attend-
5006 people attended APEC 2023 – ning FIRST Robotics team. This i ng A PEC. About 250 st udent s
new record attendance for APECs demonstration was held on Monday attended the job fair and many com-
held on the East Coast. The exhibit evening, and was popular with both panies were quite busy promoting
hall was packed with exhibitors conference attendees and their chil- their companies, jobs, and career
and attendees seeking out the lat- dren. When I speak with power elec- opportunities. This event was also
est in power electronics related tronics students, I encourage them judged a success and APEC is plan-
components, services, and equip- to think of possible careers in robot- ning to hold Student Job Fairs at
ment. The seminar and presenta- ics. I think the demand for all kinds future APECs. It should be noted
tion sessions were full all week of robots will be huge in the coming that this job fair was limited strictly
long. It seems like everyone was years. Robots consist of more or to students. Only those registering
fea s t i ng on ju s t bei ng a rou nd less equal parts mechanical (includ- for the conference as a student, and
friends and colleagues, new and ing frames, chassis, and actuators), with appropriate student identifica-
control and intelligence, and power tion, were admitted.
(energy storage, distribution, and
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2023.3270021
Date of publication: 27 June 2023 management). I think that there will (continued on page 116)

124 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE z June 2023