Research

"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing." - Wernher von Braun

Research Themes

Our research aims to address fundamental questions in the area of power electronics.

Power Conversion for e-Mobility

We develop power-conversion-based solutions for electromobility to enable the widespread adoption of electrified transportation systems.

We focus on developing on-board and off-board chargers for electric vehicles, inductive wireless charging solutions and power delivery schemes for charging infrastructures. We look into soft-switched power conversion solutions using wide band-gap devices to achieve high efficiency and power density.

10 kW modular charger for E2W/E3W/E4W

1.2 kW multiport charger for E2W/E3W

Tests with commercial E2W

Coil design for inductive WPT

Multiport Power Conversion

Multiport power converters can be used to interface multiple energy sources, energy storage systems, loads and the grid. Multiport converters can reduce redundant power processing and can reduce the overall system cost by virtue of component sharing. We are looking into circuit topologies, modelling, and controlling multiport converters for interfacing renewable energy sources and battery energy storage with AC and DC grids.

Multiport DC/DC converter

Multiport AC/DC converter

Microgrids

Distributed Generation (DG) systems based on renewable energy resources are gaining popularity due to their ability to curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. With the steady increase in DG systems, microgrids (MG) play a key role in integrating scattered energy resources.

MGs are integral to electrified transportation systems like all-electric aircraft, all-electric ships, and electric vehicle charging station infrastructures. We are exploring various aspects of MGs to understand futuristic power distribution systems.

Representative Single Bus DC Microgrid

Control and Stability of Power Electronic Systems

In complex power electronic systems, the interactions among different power converters can give rise to system-level stability challenges. Analyzing these interactions is often tricky due to the non-linear nature of power converters.

We look at modeling approaches combined with advanced feedback control-based solutions to develop stabilization strategies to enhance the stability of future power electronic systems.

Feedback control-based solutions

Power Magnetics

Power magnetics constitute roughly 50% - 60% of the weight and volume of state-of-the-art power electronic converters. Design optimization of power magnetics is critical to enable highly efficient and power-dense converters.

We are looking into novel test circuits for magnetic characterization. We look at empirical and data-driven approaches for high-fidelity magnetic loss modelling. An accurate understanding of component-level characteristics is essential to develop highly efficient and power-dense converters for challenging weight-critical applications.

Magnetics Tester

Power Stage for the Magnetics Tester

Partial Power Processing

Power electronic converters that are only rated to handle a fraction of the system power are called partial (also known as differential or fractional) power processing (PPP) converters. Partial power processing enables high-efficiency power conversion solutions with a reduced footprint.

We are focused on exploiting the concept of PPP in various power electronic applications such as electric vehicle fast charging, solar photovoltaic systems, battery management, etc.

High-Frequency Power Conversion

With the advent of wide band-gap semiconductors like Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN), the boundaries of power conversion are being pushed in terms of voltage, frequency and power. However, as we move towards compact, high-efficiency converters enabled by wide band-gap semiconductors, we must tackle several challenges, such as EMI/EMC and thermal management.

We are looking into the design of 100s of kHz to MHz scale power conversion systems for various weight-critical applications.

WBG semiconductor enabled power conversion solutions

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