About CPES
The Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES) was established as a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (NSF ERC) in 1998 with a consortium of 5 universities, including Virginia Tech (VT), University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT), and University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez (UPRM). The Center’s mission is to develop advanced electronic power conversion technologies for efficient electric energy utilization through multidisciplinary engineering research and education in the field of power electronics. The research vision is to enable dramatic improvements in the performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of electric energy processing systems by developing an integrated system approach via integrated power electronics modules (IPEM). The envisioned IPEM solution is based on the integration of new generation of devices, innovative circuits and functions in the form of building blocks with standard functionalities and interfaces to facilitate the integration of these building blocks into application-specific system solutions. Furthermore, proposed IPEM approach is deemed quite suitable for automated manufacturing and mass production. Various versions of IPEM have been successfully commercialized, such as, in motor drives and power management solutions for microprocessors.