Grigorios Sergentanis

• PhD Student University of Nottingham
• Email: Grigorios.Sergentanis@nottingham.ac.uk

Project supervisors:

Dr Liliana De Lillo, Prof Lee Empringham, Prof Mark Johnson

Industrial Partner: 

The Thinking Pod Innovations Ltd.

Project description:

Wide band-gap (WBG) semiconductors offer many potential benefits to designers of power electronic systems. Lower switching losses allow operation at higher switching frequencies, which in principle allows a reduction in passive component values in many converter applications. However, efficient operation at higher switching frequencies requires increased voltage and current transition rates. With conventional packaging and circuit construction, parasitic inductance and capacitance can deteriorate converter performance, reducing efficiency and adding to the electromagnetic interference (EMI) emitted from the system. Outside the commutation cell, fast voltage transitions may lead to unacceptably high levels of conducted and radiated EMI.

To mitigate these effects in conventional modules, switching speeds are often deliberately limited and the potential benefits of using WBG technologies cannot be fully realized. New approaches are thus required, moving from assemblies of discrete components, each of which is designed and packaged separately, to fully integrated assemblies comprising power devices, gate drives, filters, sensing, and control functions.

The research project will examine the design and realization of Converter-in-Package (CiP) modular blocks for system power levels from 100s W to 100s kW, incorporating individual commutation cells with close-coupled gate drives, input/output filtering and reduced EMI. Potential areas with scope for detailed investigation include:

1. Converter topology and control design for high frequency operation
2. Passive component design and realization
3. Assembly and manufacturing methods for high frequency compact converters
4. Circuit layout and EMI mitigation strategies