Description
Power electronics is a key enabling technology for 3D E-mobility (land, water and air) and for smart energy production from renewables. The advent of the new wide bandgap technologies (silicon carbide-SiC and gallium nitride - GaN) that outperform the conventional technology based on silicon, allows the design of high efficient/ high power density power converters for E-mobility, energy production and energy storage. New topologies are explored today to exploit the new features of SiC and GaN technologies for both low voltage and high voltage levels and with power values from kW up to MW.
On the control side, new control solutions are applied on grid power converters to mimic the behavior of synchronous machines for energy production in smart-grids, using the concept of the virtual synchronous machine. Moreover, diagnostic and prognostic methods are implemented today to monitor in real time the status of power devices, such as junction temperature.
Key trends for this line of research are: design and control of WBG converters for next generation of electric/hybrid vehicles, for electrified ships and aircrafts, and for energy production from renewables, real-time monitoring of power electronic devices for their diagnosis aiming at obtaining failure-free power electronics, new control solutions of grid power converters to provide grid services and grid support for improving the grid stability, bidirectional battery chargers for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operation, stability study of micro-grids with high penetration of power electronic converters.