Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Most renewable energy-based distributed generators (wind and solar systems for example) and energy storage systems need power converters to perform power conversion and to interface with grids. Various power filters are required within these power converters to filter out ripples on dc links or harmonics on ac sides. These power filters have been mostly implemented by passive components, i.e., inductors and capacitors, which normally occupy 20%-40% of the total converter volume and are heavy. Tremendous research efforts have been made in reducing the capacitance and inductance, by way of increasing the switching frequency of converters, adapting innovative control methods of converters, and developing active power filter technologies. However, these prior technologies are mostly developed for special purposes and are far from meeting the need for universal power filters with high power density and long service life. The long-term objective of the proposed research is to develop integrated and general solid-state power filter technologies with significantly reduced inductors and capacitors (i.e. replacing metal materials with silicon devices). The short-term objective is to develop solid-state power filter technologies which can achieve desired and universal transfer functions of low-pass power filters, intended for single-phase inverters in wind, solar and energy storage applications.    The proposed research will start with the development of new topologies of solid-state power filters with significantly reduced capacitance and inductance. Wide bandgap power devices will be used for solid-state filters to further reduce the passive components and to provide better dynamic performance. Control methods will be developed for the proposed solid-state power filters and bridge inverters to form integrated power converters for distributed energy resources. The new power electronic topologies and control methods will be first simulated with power electronics simulation software, then verified on the real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulator in the research lab, and eventually fully integrated into a grid-connected single-phase inverter as engineering prototypes. The complete solid-state power filter will be integrated into multi-layer PCBs along with other power and control components. Such an innovative approach will allow the entire power converters of the kW range to be integrated with automatic manufacturing methods, resulting in significantly improved power density, reliability, performance, functional flexibility, and potential cost reduction. The new technologies will offer Canadian manufacturers opportunities to produce, integrate and market the next-generation wind, solar and battery systems of small size for the national and international markets. The project will train two PhD and two MSc students through original research in power electronic topology, analysis, verification and evaluation, building their hands-on and all-around skills.