Overview

Applications of Resonant Converters

Reducing the size of a power converter, while maintaining high efficiency, has always been a challenge in the field of power electronics. Recent developments in power semiconductor technology have made it possible to increase the switching frequency of power converters to achieve high power density. But high frequency switching inevitably increases switching loss which degrades the converter efficiency. Here comes the resonant converters with their inherent property of soft-switching like zero voltage switching (ZVS) and zero current switching (ZCS). These switching techniques reduce the switching loss significantly and thus enables both compact design and efficient operation. This has greatly motivated us to work towards design, development and fabrication of cutting-edge resonant mode power conversion systems (converter topologies and control techniques) for the following applications:

  • Power Supply for X-Ray Generation

  • Front-end DC-DC Converter for Servers

  • Solid-state Transformers

  • Wireless Battery Chargers

Power Management ICs

Power management ICs (PMICs) are used everywhere in our day-to-day applications starting from tiny blue-tooth headphones to big servers in data centers. Most of state-of-the-art PMIC products employ buck, boost or buck-boost converters, switched in the range of 1-5 MHz, where passives (inductors and capacitors) are used as external components. Limitations of this approach are two folds. Firstly, conventional converters operating at a few MHz cannot fulfill the ultimate dream of developing "power system on chip (PwrSOC)" which will not require any external component. Secondly, ever-evolving application demands like high voltage step-down ratio point-of-load (POL) converters cannot be met by traditional power converter topologies. To address these limitations, we are working on different topologies and associated control techniques and also exploring various passive integration approaches. The following are a few power management application areas which we are currently focusing on:

  • Wearable Electronic Devices, Smartphones

  • POLs for 48V Server Power Architecture

  • Type-C USB Power Delivery

  • Multi-phase Voltage Regulators

Grants

DST INSPIRE Faculty Research Grant

Agency: Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India

Amount: 35 L (INR), Duration: 5 yrs

Invited Talks

Application of Resonant Converters in Grid Power Electronics Technology

  1. Event: Faculty Development Program on "Role of Data Analytics, Machine learning and Power Electronics in Smart Grid and Electric Vehicle Technologies"

    • Organizer: Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, Date: Sep., 2022, Duration: 2.0 hrs.

  2. Event: National Workshop on "Grid Power Electronics Technology"

  • Organizer: IIITD&M Kancheepuram, Chennai, Date: Feb., 2022, Duration: 2.0 hrs.

Wireless EV Charging: An Application of Resonant Mode Power Conversion

  1. Event: ATAL Faculty Development Program on "Challenges and Opportunities in Electric Vehicle Technology"

  • Organizer: AITS Autonomous University, Rajampet, Date: Dec., 2021, Duration: 2.0 hrs.

  1. Event: ATAL Faculty Development Program on "Electric Vehicle Technology : Innovation & Challenges"

  • Organizer: National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) Hyderabad, Date: Nov., 2021, Duration: 2.0 hrs.

  1. Event: ATAL Faculty Development Program on "Smart Grid and Electric Vehicles"

  • Organizer: SASTRA University, Kumbakonam, Date: Oct., 2021, Duration: 2.0 hrs.

An Overview of Power Management in Server Application

Event: EECS Symposium, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore

  • Organizer: EECS Division, IISc, Date: May, 2021, Duration: 20 mins

Automatic Resonant Frequency Tracking in Resonant Converters

Event: Faculty Development Program on "Research Opportunities, Challenges in Power Electronics for EV and Its Impact on Smart Grid"

  • Organizer: National Institute of Technology (NIT) Trichy, Date: Dec., 2020, Duration: 1.5 hrs.