Ultra-efficient Power Delivery Architecture and Topologies for IT Systems (UPDATE-IT)

数据中心是当今信息时代的支柱，预计到2020年将消耗约730亿千瓦时，仅在美国就相当于约73亿美元的电力成本。由于客户对在线数据和云计算的需求飙升，这是美国和全球电网上增长最快的负荷之一。这种快速增长的消费大大增加了全球碳排放。因此，以提高的效率更新数据中心的电力输送是重要的社会需求。该项目的目标是通过使用紧凑、可扩展、超高效、低热量、低成本和可靠的新型配电和转换架构来解决这一功耗瓶颈。如果成功的话，该系统的广泛应用可能会导致超过81亿千瓦时或仅在美国的数据中心每年节省约8.1亿美元的电力消耗。这些节省将反过来减少美国道路上约130万辆乘用汽车的有害温室气体排放。通过在其他信息技术应用中采用所提出的系统及其子系统，可以进一步放大这种影响，所述其他信息技术应用例如通信系统、汽车、高性能便携式设备、该研究将由研究生和本科生进行，他们将具备集成电力电子和能源效率方面的知识和技能，为未来的专业和教育机会提供支持。发展该研究还将涉及教育工作，包括官方课程设置和针对K-12学生的外展活动。为了实现研究目标，该团队将探索一种完全不同的配电和管理架构，用于未来的绿色数据中心和其他信息技术系统。该架构采用能够有效支持大转换比的新型转换器拓扑结构，将从电网到核心电压的功率转换级数量从四个或更多减少到只有两个。第一阶段，将电网AC电压转换为DC总线电压，在服务器机架中紧密靠近地电堆叠服务器板，以允许它们中的每一个仅处理输入电网AC电压的一小部分，从而导致超高的功率转换效率、低成本和高可靠性。第一个转换阶段还采用了一种新颖的、经过实验验证的智能电缆方法，可以显著降低板上热量，从而大幅降低热管理成本。对于将DC总线转换为核心电压的第二阶段，研究团队将探索一种新的直接转换混合DC-DC转换器拓扑系列，以在极大的转换比下实现上级效率和功率密度。该研究计划包括设计、制造和验证多种新型混合转换器拓扑结构，集成不同类型的AC-DC和DC-DC混合转换器，智能电缆解决方案设计和实施，系统故障保护电路实施和测试，针对不同规格和应用的系统扩展，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估来支持。影响审查标准。

Data centers, the backbone of today's information era, are expected to consume ~73 billion kWh in 2020, which amounts to ~$7.3 billion in electricity cost in the U.S. alone. This is one of the fastest growing loads on the electric grid in the U.S. as well as worldwide, because of customers' soaring demands for online data and cloud computing. This rapid-increasing consumption significantly contributes to global carbon emissions. Therefore, updating the power delivery for data centers with improved efficiency is an important societal need. The goal of this project is to address this power consumption bottleneck by using a new power distribution and conversion architecture that is compact, scalable, ultra-efficient, low-heat, low-cost, and reliable. If successful, a wide application of the proposed system could result in more than 8.1 billion kWh or ~$810 million annual savings in electricity consumption for data centers in the U.S. alone. These savings would, in turn, reduce harmful greenhouse gas emission of ~1.3 million passenger cars from U.S. roads. The impact can be further amplified by adoptions of the proposed system and its sub-systems in other information technology applications, such as communication systems, automotive, high-performance portable devices, etc. The research will be conducted by graduate students and undergraduate students who will be equipped with the knowledge and skills in integrated power electronics and energy efficiency for future opportunities in both professional and educational development. The research will also involve educational efforts including official curriculum offerings and outreach activities to K-12 students.To achieve the research goal, the team will explore a radically different power distribution and management architecture for future green data centers and other information technology systems. Employing new converter topologies that can efficiently support large conversion ratios, the architecture reduces the number of power conversion stages from the grid to core voltages from four or more to only two. The first stage, converting grid AC voltage to a DC bus voltage, electrically stack server boards in close proximity in a server rack to allow each of them to handle only a fraction of the input grid AC voltage, leading to ultra-high power conversion efficiency, low cost and high reliability. This first conversion stage also exploits a novel, experimentally validated smart-cable method that can significantly reduce on-board heat, leading to substantial thermal management cost reductions. For the second stage converting the DC bus to core voltages, the research team will explore a new direct-conversion hybrid DC-DC converter topology family to enable superior efficiency and power density at extremely large conversion ratios. The research plan includes design, fabrication, and verification of multiple new hybrid converter topologies, integrating different types of AC-DC and DC-DC hybrid converters, smart-cable solution design and implementation, system failure protection circuit implementation and test, system scaling for different specifications and applications, and benchmarking against existing solutions.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.