Performance enhancement in power electronics, converters, inverters and renewable energy systems

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The power electronics technology has played a vital role in the evolution of power supplies, converters, inverters, electric motor drives and recently in renewable energy sources (wind and solar). It is desirable to operate these products at higher efficiency to save energy, with enhanced dynamic performance, reliability and higher power density resulting in reduced size. The proposed research is intended to achieve these goals. The following is the proposal for the five-year research program: 1. Solve the lighting flickering problems and improve the efficiency of AC-DC LED bulb power supplies (LED drivers) for domestic, street, stage and other lighting applications. Circuit topologies and control strategies will be investigated to improve their performance, making them more efficient, compact, flicker free and to extend their life time. 2. Multilevel transfomerless inverters for photovoltaic (PV) solar systems will be investigated to improve their performances, specially increasing efficiency, reducing Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and eliminating leakage current inherent in such systems. 3. Investigate rectifier-inverter topology with modern robust control techniques to improve the dynamic performance of wind energy conversion systems. 4. New semiconductor devices always brought revolution in power electronics technology. Silicon MOSFETs have been extensively used in power electronics products for several decades. It is predicted now that Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC) devices will replace Si-MOSFETS during the next 5 to 10 years. Investigation will be underway to replace MOSFETs in LED drivers, PV systems, resonant converters and wind power converter systems by GaN/SiC devices to achieve higher efficiency, compact size and performance improvements. The following scientific approaches will be undertaken: -Evaluate the existing technologies, and identify problems associated with them. -Thorough investigation of the new proposed circuit topologies and control strategies. -Analysis, computer simulation followed by prototype experimental testing to verify the anticipated improvements. The novelty of the proposed research program will be the new concept and its implementation, resulting in improved performance of the power electronics products. The research will benefit Canadian industries, enabling them to manufacture highly efficient and high quality LED drivers, PV inverters, SiC/GaN based converters and wind energy systems. The proposed research program will contribute to the training of Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) in power electronics technology, renewable energy sources (wind and solar) and robust control techniques. The HQP will acquire skills in theoretical analysis, simulation and building/testing hardware experimental prototypes. Such training will enable the HQP to contribute significantly to Canadian industries.