Hybrid switch-mode power supplies with low energy storage requirements

开关模式电源（SMPS）几乎在今天的所有设备中，从通常不被良好调节的源向电负载提供良好调节的电压或电流。负载范围从医疗植入物和传感器，消耗一小部分瓦特，到工业系统需要数百千瓦。典型的SMPS由开关模式功率转换器（功率级）和互补控制器组成。本研究的重点是低功耗（LP）高频（HF）SMPS，处理功率从几分之一瓦到几百瓦，工作频率从几百kHz到几十MHz。感兴趣的应用包括微型设备，计算机，消费电子，汽车，以及许多其他空间和重量受限的系统。该研究将为当前LP SMPS上施加的相互冲突的要求提供解决方案，要求它们的尺寸减小与增加的功率处理能力相结合。 在目标应用中，SMPS，特别是其无源元件（电感器和电容器），是所提供系统的整体尺寸和成本的重要因素。因此，它们是进一步小型化和引入新特征（功能块）的主要障碍。SMPS还难以在不付出尺寸和/或功率处理效率方面的大代价的情况下跟上现代电子负载的增加的功率要求，这是由增加的数据处理能力和对电池供电的设备的更快充电的需求引起的。 最近LP HF SMPS从模拟到数字控制的转变为在LP应用中引入混合转换器拓扑创造了机会。这些拓扑结构需要比传统解决方案更复杂的控制，已被证明是更小和更高的功率效率。尽管如此，这些混合动力系统的无源（即能量存储）部件具有相当大的尺寸，留下了很大的改进空间。 这项研究的最终目标是创造新一代的混合SMPS，称为低储能混合SMPS，与最近出现的解决方案相比，将具有更小的尺寸和更好的功率处理效率。新的解决方案将有可能实现SMPS与电子负载的无缝集成（共同封装或完全片上集成），从而最大限度地减小整个系统的尺寸和功耗，同时提高电源的动态性能。 此外，低存储能量混合SMPS将具有新颖的特征，诸如固有的电流限制和即插即用操作，从而允许各种模块化架构的简单设计，以用于更高功率的处理应用。 该研究将建立在通过以前的NSERC赠款所产生的知识基础上，并将涵盖新的转换器拓扑结构和控制器的开发。此外，还将开发优化技术，为比较不同的解决方案提供具有时效性的工具。

Switch mode power supplies (SMPS) are in virtually all devices toady, providing well-regulated voltage or current to electric loads from, usually, not well-regulated source. The loads range from medical implants and sensors, consuming a fraction of watt, to industrial systems taking hundreds of kilowatts. A typical SMPS consists of a switch-mode power converter (power stage) and a complementary controller. This research focuses on low-power (LP) high-frequency (HF) SMPS, processing power from a fraction of watt to few hundreds of watts and operating at frequencies from hundreds of kHZ to tens of MHz. The applications of interest include miniature devices, computers, consumer electronics, automotive, as well as, numerous other space and weight constrained systems. The research will provide solutions for conflicting requirements imposed on current LP SMPS, demanding their size reduction combined with increased power processing capability. In the targeted applications, SMPS, especially their passive components (inductors and capacitors), are a large contributor to the overall size and cost of the supplied systems. As such, they are a main obstacle to further miniaturization and to introduction of new features (functional blocks). The SMPS also have difficulties to, without paying a large penalty in the size and/or power processing efficiency, keep up with increasing power requirements of modern electronic loads, caused by increased data processing abilities and demands for faster charging of battery-powered devices. Recent transition from analog to digital control of LP HF SMPS have created an opportunity for introduction of hybrid converter topologies in LP applications. Those topologies, requiring more complex control than the traditional solutions, have proven to be both significantly smaller and more power efficient. Still, the passive, i.e. energy storing, components of these hybrid systems are of substantial size, leaving a lot of space for improvements. The ultimate goal of this research is to create new generations of hybrid SMPS, named low stored energy hybrid SMPS, that compared to the recently emerged solutions will have even smaller size and better power processing efficiency. The new solutions will potentially allow seamless integration of the SMPS with electronic loads (co-packaging or full on chip integration) minimizing the overall system size, its power consumption, while improving dynamic performance of the supplies. Also, the low stored energy hybrid SMPS will have novel features, such as inherent current limitation and plug and play operation, allowing for simple design of various modular architectures, for higher power processing applications. The research will build on the knowledge crated through previous NSERC grants and will be covering development of both new converter topologies and controllers. Also, optimization techniques providing time-efficient tools for comparing different solutions will be developed.