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

电力电子技术在电源、转换器、逆变器、电动机驱动器以及最近的可再生能源（风能和太阳能）的发展中发挥了至关重要的作用。期望以更高的效率操作这些产品以节省能量，具有增强的动态性能、可靠性和更高的功率密度，从而导致减小的尺寸。本研究旨在实现这些目标。 以下是五年研究计划的建议： 1.解决照明闪烁问题，提高AC-DC LED灯泡电源（LED驱动器）的效率，适用于家庭、街道、舞台和其他照明应用。将研究电路拓扑和控制策略，以提高其性能，使其更高效，紧凑，无闪烁，并延长其使用寿命。 2.将研究用于光伏（PV）太阳能系统的多电平无整流器逆变器，以改善其性能，特别是提高效率，降低总谐波失真（THD）和消除此类系统中固有的泄漏电流。 3.研究整流逆变器拓扑结构与现代鲁棒控制技术，以提高风能转换系统的动态性能。 4.新的半导体器件总是带来电力电子技术的革命。几十年来，硅MOSFET已广泛用于电力电子产品。据预测，氮化镓（GaN）和碳化硅（SiC）器件将在未来5至10年内取代硅基半导体。我们正在研究如何用GaN/SiC器件取代LED驱动器、光伏系统、谐振转换器和风力发电转换器系统中的MOSFET，以实现更高的效率、紧凑的尺寸和性能改进。 将采取以下科学方法： - 评估现有技术，并确定与之相关的问题。 - 深入研究新提出的电路拓扑和控制策略。 - 分析、计算机模拟，然后进行原型实验测试，以验证预期的改进。 所提出的研究计划的新奇将是新概念及其实施，从而提高电力电子产品的性能。该研究将使加拿大工业受益，使他们能够制造高效和高质量的LED驱动器，光伏逆变器，SiC/GaN转换器和风能系统。拟议的研究计划将有助于在电力电子技术，可再生能源（风能和太阳能）和鲁棒控制技术方面培养高素质人才（HQP）。HQP将获得理论分析，仿真和构建/测试硬件实验原型的技能。这种培训将使HQP能够为加拿大工业做出重大贡献。

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.