CAREER: Power Magnetics for MHz Frequencies

这个NSF职业项目旨在提高电能转换系统的规模和效率，这些系统在许多应用中都是至关重要的，这些应用促进了科学进步，促进了国家繁荣，并保障了国防安全。该项目将带来变革性的变化，使电力转换器的运行速度提高10倍，从而节省10倍的能量，缩小体积，提高效率。这将通过推进磁性部件(电感和变压器)的科学来实现，这些部件是速度和尺寸改进的最大瓶颈。该项目的智力优势包括新的快速优化模型、新的部件结构和设计、新的材料应用，以及通过能够高速研究高功率部件的工程平台实现进一步的进步。该项目的更广泛影响包括科学和教育部分。功率转换器的尺寸和效率的提高将使可再生能源、更轻和更负担得起的电动汽车、海上和航空旅行的电气化以及更负担得起的半导体得到更大的普及。该项目还将通过真正的、以项目为导向的课程和课外活动，将这些科学进步带入课堂，使所有学生，特别是第一代大学生受益。随着电源转换器开关频率的提高，以减少能量存储和尺寸，遇到的最大障碍是磁性部件的能量损失。这一障碍在兆赫(MHz)地区变得更加严重，在这种情况下，仅有的精确建模方法速度慢得令人望而却步，少数可用的抑制高频涡流的技术变得不可行，典型的铁芯材料变得非常损耗，并且现有的表征方法无法实现良好的精度。所有这些障碍都阻碍了磁性元件的设计、优化、制造和表征，而磁性元件是实现功率转换中下一个数量级改进所必需的。该项目将通过新的准确和快速的建模、涡流抑制设计、重新用于功率转换的新材料和现有材料的调查，以及在MHz或数十兆赫下准确地描述核心和部件的平台来实现MHz运行。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This NSF CAREER project aims to improve the size and efficiency of electric energy conversion systems which are critical in many applications which progress science, advance national prosperity, and secure national defense. The project will bring transformative change by allowing power converters to operate ten times faster and therefore store ten times less energy, reducing size and improving efficiency. This will be achieved by advancing the science of magnetic components (inductors and transformers) which are the most significant bottleneck to this improved speed and size. The intellectual merits of the project include new rapid models for optimization, new component structures and designs, new applications for materials, and enabling further advancement through engineered platforms capable of studying high-power components at high speed. The broader impacts of the project include both scientific and educational components. Improved size and efficiency of power converters will enable greater proliferation of renewable energy, lighter and more affordable electric vehicles, the electrification of naval and air travel, and more affordable semiconductors. This project will also bring these scientific advances into the classroom through authentic, project-oriented courses and extracurricular activities which benefit all students and especially first-generation college students.As power converters increase in switching frequency to decrease energy storage and size, the most significant barrier encountered is the energy loss in magnetic components. This barrier becomes even more significant in the megahertz (MHz) regime where the only accurate modeling methods are prohibitively slow, the few available techniques to suppress high-frequency eddy currents become unfeasible to manufacture, typical core materials become very lossy, and available characterization approaches cannot achieve good accuracy. All of these barriers stand to inhibit the design, optimization, manufacturing, and characterization of magnetic components which are required to unlock the next order-of-magnitude improvement in power conversion. This project will enable MHz operation with new accurate and rapid modeling, eddy-current suppressing designs, investigation of new materials and existing materials repurposed for power conversion, and platforms to characterize both cores and components accurately at MHz or tens of MHz.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.