The Industrial Applications Society Concordia University Student Branch, Industrial Applications Society Montreal Chapter, Power Electronics Society Chapter, Industrial Electronics Society Chapter, and Power & Energy Society Chapter cordially invite you to a technical seminar presented by Prof. Raghav Khanna, Assistant Professor, University of Toledo. Please register using the link provided below.

Abstract

Next generation power electronics will benefit from smaller, faster, more efficient conversion circuits. The silicon (Si) based transistor has been the mainstay of power switching applications for 30 years, but may be reaching a technological plateau, particularly as the demand for robust, high voltage green energy systems continues to increase. Wide bandgap semiconductors (WBGs) based on gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) are attractive candidates to replace Si transistors for future generation power electronic circuits.

This talk will present modeling and characterization techniques for GaN-based power conversion circuits. It will be shown that a converter efficiency of 96% is obtained at a voltage level of 300 V and switching frequency of 1 MHz using GaN transistors. The reported efficiency is the highest to date at the indicated voltage and frequency. It will also be shown that the fast switching capability of WBGs, although generally a beneficial feature, can also lead to detrimental transient high dv/dt effects. Modeling strategies for predicting and mitigating these high dv/dt effects in WBGs will also be presented. Such models will enable future design engineers to extract the best possible performance from the devices with limited risk of circuit/device failure. Finally, a target application for GaN/SiC devices is in photovoltaic (PV) power conversion circuits. This talk will also present a new adaptive control scheme for maximum power point tracking in PV systems. Due to the adaptive nature of the controller, it will be shown that the system will benefit from high-frequency operation, making it a suitable algorithm for integration with GaN/SiC based power conversion circuits.

Speaker(s): Prof. Raghav Khanna, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Dept., University of Toledo,

Location:
Room: 3.309
Bldg: EV Building
1515 Rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest
Concordia University
Montréal, Quebec
H3G 2W1