Vehicular Power Converter Systems

Today’s transportations are going increasingly electrical, from electric/hybrid cars, electrified trains, to all-electric ships and more-electric airplanes. CPES has been long involved in research activities on power electronics based vehicular power systems, sponsored by industry partners and agencies like ONR, NASA, AFOSR, DARPA, ARL, DOE, and NSF. The Center’s vehicular power system research is focused on three major areas:

1. High-density Power Converters – use advanced devices, passives, circuits, control and packaging to achieve small volume and low weight converters, which are essential to vehicular system applications

2. Modular Plug-Play Power Electronics Building Blocks – develop modular power converters, and corresponding control/communication strategies for multi-functionality, reconfiguration, better performance, lower cost, and higher reliability

3. System Architecture, Modeling, Analysis, and Control – develop design and evaluation methodology for optimal system architecture; develop multi-level models for characterizing system behaviors from stability, power quality, to EMI; study system control and power management strategy

Related CPES Research Volumes:

1.  Integrated Power Electronics Module - a Building Block Concept for System Integration (Volume X)
2.  Advanced Soft-Switching Techniques, Device and Circuit Applications (Volume XI)