PEL 20161201 Dec 2016

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THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND®
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Vol. 3, No. 4 www.pels.org

December 2016
For your engineering success
Features
18 Virtual Synchronous Machines

A unified interface for smart grid integration
Qing-Chang Zhong
28 New Approaches to Reliability Assessment

Using physics-of-failure for prediction
and design in power electronics systems
Ke Ma, Huai Wang, and Frede Blaabjerg
42 Electrifying India
On the cover Using solar dc microgrids
With the rising use of renewable energy sources, Krishna Shenai, Ashok Jhunjhunwala,
electric vehicles, and energy storage systems, and Prabhjot Kaur
researchers around the world have been investigating
different ways to control power electronic converters
in power systems to address stability. Our first feature
article, “Virtual Synchronous Machines,” proposes a
unified robust and friendly interface that embeds the
dynamics and behavior of conventional synchronous
machines into power electronic converters.
IMAGES LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING,
MICROGRID IMAGE—©ISTOCKPHOTOCOM/9AMSTOCK,
COMPUTER IMAGE—GRAPHIC STOCK
50
Departments
& Columns
4 From the Editor

8 President’s Message
14 Patent Reviews
16 Entrepreneur Viewpoint
50 Society News
62 Member News
64 Expert View
68 Event Calendar
72 White Hot
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2624018
December 2016 ]IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE 1
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IEEE Power Electronics Magazine

Editor-in-Chief Don F.D. Tan Helen Li Advertising Sales
Ashok Bindra Immediate Past President, PELS hli@caps.fsu.edu
_________ Walter Chalupa
12 Magnolia Ave. Executive VP, Global Relations William Peterson United States, Africa, Asia,
Nesconset, NY 11767 USA dong.tan@ngc.com
__________
peterson@EandMPower.com Canada, Central and South
_______________
+1 631 471 5895 Dushan Boroyevich America, and Europe
bindra1@verizon.net
___________ Pradeep Shenoy Telephone: +1 973 835 7015
Sr. Past President/Strategic pshenoy@ti.com
Planning
_________ wchalupa@aol.com
__________
Deputy Editors-in-Chief Shinzo Tamai
dushan@ieee.org
_________
Ira J. Pitel (Industry) tamai.shinzo@tmeic.co.jp IEEE Power Electronics
_____________
Magna-Power Electronics, Inc. Alan Mantooth Society Staff
39 Royal Road President Elect Mike Kelly
Flemington, NJ 08822 USA VP Technical Operations 2018 Members-at-Large Executive Director
+1 908 237 2200 ext. 102 mantooth@uark.edu
___________
Liuchen Chang m.p.kelly@ieee.org
__________
ipitel@magna-power.com
_____________
lchang@unb.ca
________
Mario Pacas Donna Florek
John Shen (Academic) VP Conferences William Gerard Hurley Technical Community
Grainger Chair Professor pacas@uni-siegen.de gerard.hurley@nuigalway.ie
______________ Program Specialist
___________
Department of Electrical Katherine Kim d.florek@ieee.org
__________
and Computer Engineering Frede Blaabjerg katakim@gmail.com
__________
VP Products Becky Boresen
Illinois Institute of Technology Ernie Parker Technical Community
10 West 35th Street, Suite 1600 fbl@iet.aau.dk
_______
ernie.parker@crane-eg.com
______________ Program Specialist
Chicago, IL 60616 USA Peter Wilson b.boresen@ieee.org
__________
+1 312 567-3352 Executive VP Standards Grant Pitel
zjohnshen@gmail.com
___________ prw@ecs.soton.ac.uk
___________
grantpitel@gmail.com
___________ Alicia Tomaszewski
Seung-Ki Sul Project Manager Transportation
Magazine Advisory Board Jinjun Liu Electrification Community
sulsk@plaza.snu.ac.kr
___________
Braham Ferreira Executive VP Membership a.tomaszewski@ieee.org
_____________
President liu_jinjun@ieee.org
__________
Technical Committee Chairs IEEE Periodicals
IEEE Power Electronics Society Hirofumi Akagi John Hawkins
Division II Director Magazines Department
Don F.D. Tan Communications Energy Systems 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ
Immediate Past President akagi@ee.titech.ac.jp
___________ jmhawkins@ieee.org
___________ 08854 USA
IEEE Power Electronics Society Peter Liang
2016 Members-at-Large Jessica Barragué
John M. Miller High Performance and Emerging Managing Editor
Vladimir Blasko Technologies
JNJ Miller plc blaskov@utrc.utc.com
____________
tjliang@mail.ncku.edu.tw
_____________ Geraldine Krolin-Taylor
Philip T. Krein Silva Hiti Senior Managing Editor
University of Illinois at Uday Deshpande
silva.hiti@gm.com
__________
Motor Drives and Actuators Janet Dudar
Urbana-Champaign Senior Art Director
udayd@ieee.org
________
Robert N. Guenther Dan Kinzer
Yan-Fei Liu Gail A. Schnitzer, Mark Morrissey
NWL dan.kinzer@navitassemi.com
________________
Power and Control Core Associate Art Directors
Ira J. Pitel Mario Pacas Technologies Theresa L. Smith
Magna-Power Electronics pacas@uni-siegen.de
___________
yanfei.liu@queensu.ca
___________ Production Coordinator
Prasad Enjeti Pat Wheeler Robert Pilawa Mark David
Texas A&M University Consitution and Bylaws Chair Power Conversion Systems Sr. Manager Advertising and
John Shen Pat.Wheeler@nottingham.ac.uk
________________
and Components Business Development
Illinois Institute of Technology Zhengming Zhao pilawa@illinois.edu
__________
Felicia Spagnoli
Bob White zhaozm@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
________________
Sudip Mazumder Advertising Production Manager
Embedded Power Labs Sustainable Energy Systems Peter M. Tuohy
2017 Members-at-Large mazumder@uic.edu
__________
William A. Peterson Robert Balog Production Director
E&M Power Robert.Balog@ieee.org
____________
Anand Sathyan Dawn M. Melley
Vehicle and Transportation Editorial Director
IEEE Power Electronics Johan Enslin Systems
Society Officers jenslin@uncc.edu
_________ sathyan.anand@chrysler.com
_______________ Fran Zappulla
Braham Ferreira Staff Director,
President Publishing Operations
J.A.Ferreira@tudelft.nl
____________
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IEEE Power Electronics Magazine (ISSN 2329-9207) (IPEMDG) is published quarterly by the Institute of Electrical and
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Promoting Sustainable Forestry
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2624019 _____

SFI-01681
2 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]December 2016
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From the Editor

by Ashok Bindra
A Unified Interface
for Integrating Renewable Energy
Sources with the Smart Grid
T
he fast pace of integrating terface, called a virtual synchronous authors are investigating the design
renewable energy sources machine (VSM), for smart grid inte- phase of power electronic systems
with the traditional grid is gration. based on the physics-of-failure in
rapidly changing the power system VSM embeds the dynamics and components. According to the article,
infrastructure. From a centralized behavior of conventional synchro- the new approach provides a better
architecture, it is rapidly moving nous machines into power electronic understanding of failure causes and
toward distributed generation, converters. In the first feature article, better access/design for the reliability
which is further transforming into a “Virtual Synchronous Machines,” Prof. of converter systems. Besides present-
smart grid. In short, the power sys- Zhong shows that the converters, ing an overview of the new design
tem infrastructure is going through either on the supply flow, the article also
a paradigm shift. More and more or the load side, can discusses some of
renewable energy sources, electric all be controlled to With the growing the emerging needs
vehicles, and energy storage sys- behave like VSMs in this field.
number of renewable
tems are being connected to power to offer the dynam- Finally, the ar-
power sources, the
systems through a variety of differ- ics of synchronous ticle, “Electrifying
ent power electronic converters and machines, provid- rising deployment India” by Krishna
inverters. Likewise, the majority of ing a common roof smart meters, Shenai, Ashok Jhun-
the loads are also connected to the bust and friendly and increasing jhunwala, and Prab-
grid via numerous power electronic interface for smart communication links hjot Kaur, looks at
converters. The result is complexity grid integration. To- the shortage of elec-
to the smart grid, the
with instability. ward this solution, tricity in developing
vulnerability to
With the increased usage of wind the article presents countries like India
and solar power, this problem is fur- synchronverter tech- attacks increases and shows that solar
ther aggravated, and power system nology and its devel- exponentially. dc microgrids can
infrastructure stability is further de- opments. It shows provide a quick and
graded. To address this problem and that there is no lon- low-cost solution
improve system stability, research- ger a need to include a dedicated syn- to the electrification of India.
ers around the world have been in- chronization unit, often phase-locked
vestigating different ways to control loops, in converters that behave like A New Column
power electronic converters in power a VSM. and the Old Favorites
systems. Prof. Qing-Chang Zhong of Next, in the article “New Approa- This issue also introduces a new col-
the Illinois Institute of Technology, ches to Reliability Assessment” by umn called “Expert View,” which invites
Chicago, is proposing a unified in- Ke Ma, Huai Wang, and Frede Blaab- experienced engineers and profession-
jerg, the authors describe a new ap- als to express their opinions on issues
proach for the reliability assessment and challenges confronting the power
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 of power electronic systems. The electronics industry. It starts with a
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contribution from Patrick Le Fèvre of the country. The “White Hot” column Power Electronics for Distributed
Powerbox, who cautions the communi- looks at the virtues of silicon car- Generation Systems, which will take
ty with regards to cyberattacks. With the bide transistors and the advantages place 17–20 April 2017 in Florianópo-
growing number of they bring to high lis, Brazil. The “Member News” col-
renewable power voltage and higher umn reviews a new book, Reliabil-
sources, the rising With your support power systems. ity of Power Electronic Converter
deployment of smart and cooperation, “Society News” Systems, and announces Magna-
meters, and increas- provides an over- Power Electronics as the winner of
IEEE Power Electronics
ing communication view of the recently the 2016 New Jersey Manufacturer of
links to the smart Magazine’s third year has held IEEE Energy the Year Award.
grid, the vulnerability been invigorating. Conversion Confer- With your support and cooperation,
to attacks increases ence a nd Ex po i n IEEE Power Electronics Magazine’s
exponentially. So his Milwaukee, Wiscon- third year has been invigorating. Let’s
question is, “Are we safe?” sin, and recognizes recent winners of continue this trend in the coming year.
While the “Patent Reviews” col- the IEEE Power Electronics Society Meanwhile, please continue sending
umn draws our attention to an un- awards for outstanding contributions your comments and feedback, as they
successful software patent that to technology, society, and the engi- are important. Your ideas help us make
failed because it was only directed neering profession. In addition, newly IEEE Power Electronics Magazine a
to an abstract idea, the “Entrepre- elected IEEE Fellows are acknowl- valuable resource for practicing power
neur Viewpoint” column celebrates edged, and the Serbia and Montenegro electronics engineers around the world.
entrepreneurs as heroes of our indus- Joint Chapter is recognized as the Best Thanks for your continued support.
try, who take high levels of personal Chapter Award winner. Furthermore,
risk and work extremely hard to con- “Society News” announces the IEEE
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President’s Message
by Braham Ferreira
Looking Ahead
to a Vibrant Future
W
hile watching the new would also like to acknowledge our conferences, with a continued empha-
X-Men movie on the terrific support team at the IEEE di- sis on quality, accuracy, and timeliness.
plane flying to the IEEE rected by Mike Kelly. The executive Furthermore, it is important that the
Energy Conversion Conference and team of PELS serves a two-year term, Society structure stays flexible and
Expo (ECCE), it occurred to me that and I am handing over the reins to nimble to meet the needs of a growing,
the IEEE Power Electronics Society Alan Mantooth (Figure 1) and his evolving field. Seven strategic direc-
(PELS) presidency was like wearing new team. Many of the original tions were addressed.
the Cerebro device of Charles Xavier. team members will stay, but some 1) Publications and conferences. The
I was able to scan and observe power elected positions will be filled by Society will continue to seek new
electronics activities around the new members as elections are held global opportunities for different
globe and meet many members and for new members-at-large and vice- levels of collaborations. PELS will
volunteers. During the two years that president positions. take actions to ensure that our pub-
I have served as Society president, I lications are covering all technical
had an extraordinary view of what PELS 2021 activities within the Society and
everyone was doing in power elec- PELS had a long-range planning retreat will be proactive in seeking out
tronics around the globe. in May 2016 in Huangshan, China, and new areas that are not sufficiently
We strengthened the global net- the revised five-year strategic plan was served by our publications and
work and established closer relation- approved by the Administrative Com- conferences. Our Society plans to
ships with our volunteers, who are mittee in September. It was agreed by strengthen its worldwide network
spread out over the world, by expand- the committee that, strategically, the and visibility by organizing global
ing the team supporting regional ac- most important activities of the Society strategy workshops and creating
tivities to 12 chairs and vice chairs: will remain, along with the production high-quality products on topics
in North America, Pradeep Shenoy is of publications and the organization of with high visibility through rela-
assisted by Alireza Safaee and Kalyan tionships with strategic partners.
Sen; in Region 8, Fabio Crescimbini 2) Organization and operations. The
teamed up with Vladimir Katic; in technical committee (TC) struc-
Region 9, Marco Rivera joined Joao ture has settled, and each TC has
Pinto; and the large, growing mem- policies and procedures in place
bership in Region 10 is now served by while more volunteers are joining
five vice chairs: Toshihisa Shimizu, their activities. The TCs are now in
Zhengming Zhao, Sanjib Panda, Se- a position to act more strategically.
wan Choi, and Udaya Madawala. Various items were proposed, for
Serving as Society president is a example, better support of digital
great privilege and a fantastic expe- media and improvements to exist-
rience. I would like to thank the team ing initiatives.
volunteers whose support made it a 3) Membership. Membership is core to
joy to serve as your president, and I our mission, and PELS wants our
members’ experience to have the
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2616559 FIG 1 PELS President-Elect highest possible value and rele-
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 Alan Mantooth. vance to their individual needs. Our
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___________________
________________
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vision is to develop a robust market- digital media for providing services communities preserve global indi-
ing plan that focuses on desirability, to the power electronics community viduality but at the same time col-
value, identity, strength, and indi- including webinars covering differ- laborate in an open environment.
viduality, which are gained through ent technical levels both for indus- This will be achieved by
the membership. try and academia, improved online t improving and introducing new
4) Education. Education represents publications, eLearning courses, and programs to support the career
the single most viable new opportu- the efficient use of social media. development of young profes-
nity for the Society to better serve 6) Standards. PELS has restructured sionals in power electronics
its membership. In accordance with the standards organization to in- t developing programs to address
our mission, PELS plans to provide clude more participants and dedi- electrical energy poverty in
targeted education to enhance the cated volunteer positions. With the developing nations
careers of current and future pro- proliferation of power electronics t creating a travel grant program
fessionals. Many excellent ideas in a wide variety of technical areas, for students to attend PELS
were presented by the participants, there is a clear role for PELS to conferences.
and we will pursue business cases define and contribute to important
for the power electronics curricu- standards activities in these fields. Power Electronics in 2030
lum development, teacher’s forum In the coming years, PELS will This year, 2030 was much in the news
certification courses, distinguished target the following areas: wide due to the proposed IEEE constitu-
tutorials, continuing education bandgap devices technology, dc in tional amendment that IEEE Members
credits, and webinars. the home in smart grids and in failed to pass. The discussion was
5) Online delivery and archiving. The microgrids, and transportation packaged in a long-term view of the
goal is to provide additional online electrification. future of the IEEE as an organization.
content to our membership, consis- 7) Community collaboration and The impact of the initiatives that PELS
tent to a “think globally, act locally” providing members a home. PELS launched this year aims to facilitate
approach. Our Society wishes to be will foster a dynamic global envi- technology changes that will affect
on the forefront of using the latest ronment where power electronics power electronics systems in 2030.
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For example, the emergence of power power electronics. Therefore, it is we foresee that a new disruptive
electronic-based transmission and necessary to go back to the drawing power system technology will emerge
distribution technology as a driving board to figure out how to build due to tremendous advances and cost
force for grid modernization is coin- power systems that are softly coupled reduction in photovoltaic, battery, and
ciding with fundamental changes that to the sources of inertia, i.e., synchro- communication technologies. A wire-
are taking place in the ac power grid. nous machine rotors and large batter- less power web that operates on wire-
Whereas the old conventional grid ies, and where either harmonics are less energy from the sun and uses
was scalable and the stability easily eliminated or employed constructively wireless communication to the cloud
manageable, modernized power sys- instead of acting as sources of pollu- can become the entry-level power sys-
tems are now plagued by sub-, super-, tion and causing instability. tem, benefiting communities in emerg-
and interharmonic resonances that are ing economies that face extreme ener-
caused by the introduction of renew- The Lighting Up a Billion gy poverty. It can provide a low-cost
ables and power electronics compo- Smiles Competition alternative to the traditional wired
nents. We are now in a phase in which The goal for the new initiative project power grid in low population density
we often solve the problems caused is to reach the global tipping point for areas around the world, and it is an
by power electronics by adding more small renewable energy systems, and environmentally friendly alternative
that does not require a large capital
investment. Connecting energy devic-
es with copper cables remains possi-
ble, but it becomes an optional feature
because the management and control
of the energy devices are done
through the cloud.
The Lighting Up a Billion Smiles
competition targets the development
of appropriate wireless power web
technologies for an estimated 3 bil-
lion people across the globe in regions
such as Africa and India, where there
is no access (off grid) or extremely
limited access (poor grid) to electric-
ity. Rather than be prescriptive about
a solution, PELS feels it is critical to
harness the creativity, talent, and pas-
sion of the global community and to
have them be collaboratively involved
in finding one or multiple solutions
that can achieve the transformative
impact desired. A global competition
in combination with mash-up events
help provide a common context and
framework as well as the basis for
broad collaboration.
International Technology
Road Map for Wide-Bandgap
Power Semiconductors
In the “President’s Message” column in
the June 2016 issue of this magazine, I
reported the formation of the Interna-
tional Technology Road Map for Wide-
Bandgap Power Semiconductors
(ITRW). We hit the nail on the head
with the timing. The founding meet-
__________ ing was in December 2015, shortly
after it was decided to discontinue the
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International Technology Road Map to be addressed is the heterogeneous Power Electronics Conference and
for Semiconductors (ITRS) that influ- integration of WBG devices in power Exposition and the ECCE, respectively,
enced microelectronic technology modules and systems-in-package. In- exceeded 5,000 and 1,500 registrations.
development for 50 years. One of the tegrated filtering is essential since the There is an increasing demand for
ITRS spin-off activities that will contin- WBG devices are switching an order power electronic engineers and a grow-
ue is the Heterogeneous Integration of magnitude faster than their silicon ing number of course programs at uni-
Technology Road Map for Semiconduc- counterparts causing substantial elec- versities. These are productive times
tors (HITRS) sponsored by the IEEE tromagnetic interference. The superior for power electronics, and the Society’s
Components, Packaging, and Manufac- benefits offered by WBG devices, such finances are in very good shape. Our
turing Technology Society. The implica- as high efficiency, compactness, and Society can look ahead to a vibrant
tion is that the IEEE is taking over the high-frequency operation, can only next five years, thriving on the power
role of continuing strategic road map- become disruptive if the electromag- electronics challenges that the energy
ping of electronics technology. netic compatibility performance of the transition is bringing about. A 2030
Certain 2030 paths for wide-bandgap system components is impeccable. For horizon will bring some major technol-
(WBG) power semiconductors have this purpose, advanced heterogeneous ogy changes, some that may be disrup-
already surfaced. For example, silicon technologies need to be developed, and tive. The power electronics community
carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) are the related goals need to be mapped; will be faced with transformational
set to take over transportation appli- therefore, ITRW and HITRS have agreed concepts such as the wireless power
cations because of weight reduction to cooperate closely in the future. web described in this column, multi-
advantages. Plus, GaN is establishing tudes of energy-scavenging Internet of
a new MHz+ application field that in- A Final Word Things devices, and implementing
cludes envelope-tracking power stages Attendance milestones were set this energy requirements when virtual reali-
and wireless power applications. Still year when the 2016 IEEE Applied ty merges with physical reality.
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Patent Reviews
by Art MacCord
An Unsuccessful Software Patent
I
n the last issue of IEEE Power computer and network technology. their minds or by mathematical algo-
Electonics Magazine, we talked In other words, the court found that rithms, without more, is essentially
about the trouble that patentees the claims merely define a desirable a mental process within the abstract
are encountering with software pat- information-based result and are not idea category. Finally, presenting the
ents being held invalid because the limited to an inventive means of results of the abstract processes of
patent is directed to ineligible sub- achieving the result; therefore, they collecting and analyzing informa-
ject matter. This time we have an are only directed to an abstract idea. tion, without more, is abstract as an
example of one that has failed As we noted last time, the U.S. ancillary part of such collection and
because it was only directed to an Supreme Court has told us that these analysis. That well describes the
abstract idea. This case was recently types of claims are to undergo a two- claims under consideration in the
decided by the Court of Appeals for step analysis. The first step is to look Alstom case. The claims recited no
the Federal Circuit and involved a at the focus of the claim and its char- technological attributes for the
patent owned by Electric Power acter as a whole. If the claim does invention, other than the abstract
Group, LLC, that was asserted against not deal with ineligible subject mat- notions just mentioned. The court
Alstom et al. The patent described and ter, that ends the analysis. The sec- emphasized that performing these
claimed systems and ond-stage inquiry, if abstract ideas on a computer does
methods for per- nec e s s a r y, lo ok s not make them patent eligible.
forming real-time more precisely at T he patent wa s d i rected to
There is a critical
performance moni- what the claim ele- enumerating various types of infor-
toring of an electric
difference between ments add, specifi- mation and information sources
power grid by col- patenting a particular, cally whether the available within the power grid envi-
lecting data from concrete solution to a claim identifies an ronment, but mentions them only at a
multiple data sourc- problem and attempt- inventive concept fairly high level, using abstract ter-
es, analyzing the ing to patent the in which the appli- minology. The claim did not contain
data, and displaying cation of the ineligi- any limitations to inventive compo-
abstract idea of
the results. The pat- ble subject matter nents or methods, such as measure-
ent claims were
any solution to is directed. In the ment devices or techniques, that
found to be limited the problem. Alstom case, the court would generate new data. The claim
to only that broad found fairly readily invoked no inventive programming
idea. The court said that the claims were techniques. Moreover, the implemen-
that the claims do not go beyond directed to an abstract idea and then tation was on a conventional com-
requiring the collection, analysis, and found nothing further to take them out puter network.
display of information in a particular of that realm. Finally, in distinguishing its holding
field (power production and distribu- The court made the point that from another case, the court pointed
tion), and they did not include any information is an intangible, so out that the claims did not require an
technical advance over conventional merely collecting information is inventive distribution of functionality
within the realm of abstract ideas. within a network (such as limiting cer-
Similarly, analyzing information by tain tasks to being done by certain
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 steps people could go through in parts of the overall network), and so
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they did not even add solution may incen- The patent involved in this lawsuit
that level of concrete, Patent applicants tivize further innova- was based upon an application filed
technical detail. must keep an eye to tion (one of the goals in 2004, long before the Supreme
The court stated of the patent system) Court’s decision making patenting
the future to try to
its analysis another in the form of alter- software much more difficult. So it is
way, too: There is a
anticipate where the native methods for understandable that the claim was so
critical difference law is going, as well achieving the same broad since that type of claim was
between patenting a as the technology, result. But broad, deemed to be acceptable at the time
particular, concrete so that valuable, general claims like the patent was obtained. Patent appli-
solution to a problem enforceable rights those at issue in this cants must keep an eye to the future
and attempting to case would inhibit to try to anticipate where the law is
can be protected.
patent the abstract innovation by prohib- going, as well as the technology, so
idea of any solution to iting other inventors that valuable, enforceable rights can
the problem. The pat- from developing their be protected.
ent here made the mistake of attempt- own solutions to the problem without
ing the latter. Patenting a particular first licensing the abstract idea.
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Entrepreneur Viewpoint
by Deepak Divan
Slow and Steady Wins the Race:

Other Models for Entrepreneurship
I
have been writing consistently process for a large-scale transforma- which is sometimes based on deep
about entrepreneurs who target tion can occur. In any case, it is the domain expertise from within his or
disruption and force change in allure and magic of outsize change her industr y sector, and a high
markets, change that existing mar- and success (such as Tesla is aiming degree of perseverance, grit, and
ket leaders often will not initiate. for) coupled with the possibility of resilience under very challenging
This can lead to spectacular success outsized financial gain that drives conditions. The company’s small
or spectacular failure. Remember, many entrepreneurs. These stories size, expertise, and understanding of
every major transformative change certainly generate more sizzle, and its market segment makes it nimble
typically occurs on the backs of they are the ones we hear about more. and able to respond to needs as these
three rounds of dead investors. As I have frequently discussed in become visible.
Global communications operating at previous “Entrepreneur Viewpoint” These companies frequently func-
ultralow costs exist today because columns, this is not the only path to tion in limited geographic regions, or
companies such as Lucent put fiber becoming a n entrepreneur. The they serve as captive suppliers to
across the globe but could not traditional model, larger entities with
recover their investments. The dark particularly in the a broader market
fiber, written down to pennies on the United States, of the reach that provides
dollar, allowed low-cost communica- entrepreneur start- Remember, every them with machine
tions to thrive and the Internet to ing a small business major transformative tools, specialized
become the global phenomenon it is. using his or her per- change typically equipment, and ser-
Similarly, photovoltaics (PVs) have sonal resources or occurs on the backs of vices or components
decreased gradually from over US$5/ loans to serve a local three rounds of such as power sup-
watt to US$0.50/watt, today. In the or regional need, plies that fill custom-
dead investors.
process, many companies and their then slowly growing ized needs. An entre-
investors have had to shut their doors, the business through preneur of such a
but the PV revolution has begun in personal grit and company may often
earnest with grid parity having been sacrifice, has contributed more to job manage to grow his or her business to
achieved in many markets. In some creation and economic growth than a size that allows him/her to meet
way, when such investments are made “unicorns” or newer success stories personal expectations and financial
or subsidized by the state (as in China such as Tesla and Google have. In needs, and then the entrepreneur
for PVs), one sees that a more efficient Germany, the mittelstand companies may comfortably survive until he or
(i.e., midsize companies with a high she wishes to retire, in which case a
level of technical expertise) represent transition plan is needed. If the suc-
In subsequent columns, the colum- the backbone of the German econo- cess of the company is based on
nist will share learning and experi- my. The same is becoming increas- unique skills that the entrepreneur
ences as well as discuss the challenges ingly true in Taiwan and China and in has (as is often the case), then this
of obtaining venture capital funds. emergent countries such as India. transition to the next generation
In many cases, these companies within the family, or through a sale
thrive because of the entrepreneur’s of business or assets, can be very
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 unique skills and experience base, challenging. A strategy that is often
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employed is to have the entrepreneur growth in a slow and steady manner. in the entrepreneurial ecosystem,
and key team members join the By embracing technological advanc- and they all are equally important.
acquiring company for es, such as in mate-
a specified period of rials and advanced About the Author
time to ensure (using components (e.g., Deepak Divan (ddivan@varentec
____________
The company’s small
“golden handcuffs” wide-band gap de - .com) is a National Academy of
a nd performance- size, expertise, and vices), very early, Engineering member, IEEE Fellow,
based payouts) that understanding of its they are often the and past president of the IEEE
the two businesses market segment vehicle by which an Power Electronics Society. He is a
a re su c c e s s f u l ly makes it nimble and industry adopts new professor and director of the Center
integrated. able to respond to technologies at a for Distributed Energy at Georgia
These entrepre- gradually increasing Tech. He also serves as founder and
needs as these
neurs are all heroes sca le. Not ever y chief scientist of Varentec, a compa-
who need to be cele- become visible. entrepreneurial ven- ny focused on grid edge control that
brated. They take ture has to trans- is funded by a clean-tech venture
on high levels of form our universe, capital firm, Khosla Ventures, and
personal risk, work extremely hard and not every entrepreneur has to be investor Bill Gates. Varentec is his
away from the limelight, and contrib- an Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, or Bill third start-up company.
ute to technology and economic Gates. They all have their own roles
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Virtual Synchronous
Machines
A unified interface for smart grid integration
IMAGES LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING,

MICROGRID IMAGE—©ISTOCKPHOTOCOM/9AMSTOCK,
COMPUTER IMAGE—GRAPHIC STOCK
P
ower systems are going through a paradigm change from centralized
generation to distributed generation and further on to smart grids. More
and more renewable-energy sources, electric vehicles, energy storage
systems, and so forth are being connected to power systems through
by Qing-Chang Zhong power electronic converters. Moreover, the majority of loads are
expected to connect to the grid through power electronic converters as well. This
article shows that these converters, either on the supply side or on the load side,
can all be controlled to behave like virtual synchronous machines (VSMs) and pos-
sess the dynamics of synchronous machines, providing a unified interface for smart
grid integration. Synchroconverter technology and its developments are the focus
of this article because the mathematical model of synchronous machines is embed-
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 ded in the controller of synchronverters to provide close imitation.
18 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE ]December 2016 2329-9207/16©2016IEEE
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Smart Grid Integration set to design the parameters of a synchronverter accord-

To deal with an energy crisis and environmental problems, ing to the grid connected. It is worth noting that VISMAs
such things as renewable-energy sources, electric vehicles, act like current sources, while synchronverters act like
and energy storage systems are being connected to power voltage sources. Power systems are dominated by voltage
systems. The capacity of installed distributed generators sources, so current sources are inherently not compatible
(DGs) in power systems is growing rapidly, and a high pene- with power systems. Although today’s power systems can
tration level is expected in two to three decades. For exam- tolerate some current sources, a large number of current
ple, China has set a 15% target for the share of renewable- sources could potentially impose serious challenges on
energy sources by 2020 and over 30% by 2050. The European power systems operation. Hence, this article focuses on
Union, the United States, and India also have ambitious tar- synchronverters to implement VSMs as voltage sources.
gets for using DGs and renewable-energy sources. It is well known that demand response will play an
Most renewable-energy sources are connected to the important role in regulating system frequency and volt-
grid through inverters because the electricity generated age. Interestingly, the majority of future loads will con-
by these sources is not compatible with the grid, either nect to the grid through power electronic converters, that
with variable amplitude/frequency or in dc. The common is, rectifiers, as well. For example, the widely used motors
control method of wind- or solar-power generators is to will be equipped with motor drives, which have rectifiers
maximize the output power generation and then inject all at the front end; Internet devices will have rectifiers to
of it to the power grid as current sources. This does not convert ac into dc; and light-emitting diode (LED) lights
cause a severe power system stability problem when it will also have rectifiers to convert ac into dc. The syn-
constitutes a small portion of the grid capacity, because chronverters can be easily applied to operate rectifiers
conventional generators can handle system stability. as virtual synchronous motors, simply by changing the
However, as more and more renewable-energy sources mathematical model embedded in the controller from that
are connected to the grid, conventional generators alone of synchronous generators to that of synchronous motors.
can no longer maintain system stability. Moreover, in This makes synchronverters a unified interface for smart
comparison to conventional power plants, where synchro- grid integration.
nous machines are adopted, inverter-based DGs have no Similar to other grid-connected converters, the (origi-
rotating inertia (rotor) or damping (mechanical friction nal) synchronverters also need a dedicated synchroniza-
and damper windings). DGs cannot provide enough iner- tion unit to provide the phase and frequency of the grid
tia and damping to power systems, which makes power voltage, so that synchronverters can be connected to the
systems vulnerable to power dynamics and system faults grid smoothly. Currently, a phase-locked loop (PLL) is the
[1]. Power system stability will be further degraded as the most commonly used synchronization method [4]. How-
penetration of renewable-energy sources increases, so it ever, PLLs are inherently nonlinear, and it is very difficult
is important to address this problem from the beginning to tune the parameters. What is worse is that multiple PLLs
when the penetration level of DGs is low. in a system often compete with each other and cause many
To solve the problem, researchers worldwide have problems, for example, reduced performance, increased
been seeking different ways to control power electronic complexity, and even instability. PLLs are rarely used in
converters in power systems to enhance system stabil- current power systems because synchronous machines
ity. One very important way is to embed the dynamics have the inherent synchronization mechanism and there
and behavior of conventional synchronous machines into is no need to rely on external synchronization units to
power electronic converters as VSMs. Physically they are achieve synchronization. The synchronverter is then fur-
power electronic converters, but mathematically they ther improved by removing the dedicated synchronization
are synchronous machines. The VISMA concept [2], one unit, leading to a self-synchronized synchronverter [5]. A
implementation of the VSM, controls the inverter cur- self-synchronized synchronverter can synchronize itself
rent to follow the current reference generated according with the power grid automatically before it is connected
to a traditional synchronous machine. In this way, the to the grid, without the need of a dedicated synchroniza-
DGs will mimic the behavior of traditional synchronous tion unit. After it is connected to the grid, it is able to keep
machines and provide virtual inertia and damping to the synchronized with the grid like a synchronous machine. It
grid. The synchronverter concept [3], another implemen- is worth noting that the synchronization function is still
tation of the VSM, controls the inverter to generate an kept but implemented by the controller itself because of
output voltage via embedding the mathematical model of the embedded synchronization mechanism. Similar to
conventional synchronous generators into the controller synchronverters, self-synchronized synchronverters can
of the inverter. A synchronverter has all the major prop- also be operated as inverters or rectifiers. The self-syn-
erties of a synchronous machine and can behave in the chronization mechanism makes converters fully behave
same way as traditional synchronous generators. The like conventional synchronous machines, which improves
virtual inertia, friction coefficient, field inductance, and the performance, reduces the complexity and computa-
mutual inductance of a synchronverter can be flexibly tional burden of the controller, and improves stability.
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Operation of Inverters as a VSM in Figure 1(b), includes the mathematical model (in red)
As mentioned previously, a synchronverter [3] is an of a three-phase round-rotor synchronous machine as the
inverter that mimics a conventional synchronous genera- core. The back electromotive force e calculated accord-
tor. It acts as an interface for smart grid integration. As a ing to the mathematical model is passed through a
result, distributed generation can easily take part in the pulsewidth modulation (PWM) generation block to gen-
regulation of system frequency and voltage and provide erate PWM pulses to drive the power semiconductors in
inertia and damping to the grid, as conventional synchro- Figure 1(a). The currents flowing out of the inductors of
nous generators do. the power stage are treated as the stator current i and fed
A synchronverter consists of a power part, which is back to the mathematical model. These two-way interac-
the same as a conventional power electronic converter tions link the power stage and the controller together.
depicted in Figure 1(a), and an electronic part, which con- In current power systems, the frequency is regulated
sists of the sensoring, protection, and control circuits. via controlling the real power, and the voltage is regu-
The controller of a three-phase synchronverter, as shown lated via controlling the reactive power, which is often
+
Circuit
Ls, Rs va Lg, Rg
ia Breaker
vga
ea vb
Vdc ib
vgb
eb
ic vc
vgc
ec
C
–
(a)
.
Dp θr
– PLL
Reset θg
.
Pset p Tm 1 θ 1 θ
.
θn Js s
–
θc
Te
From/To the Power Part
Formulas
Q of Te, Q, e
PWM
e Generation
–
Qset 1 Mf if i
Ks
–
Amplitude Vfb
Dq
Vm Detection
Vr
(b)
FIG 1 The components of a synchronverter [3]: (a) the power stage and (b) controller.
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achieved through frequency droop control and voltage

droop control. As shown in Figure 1(b), these matured 1,060 50.15
technologies developed for synchronous machines can be
Grid Frequency (Hz)

1,040 50.10
easily adopted to regulate the voltage and the frequency.
1,020 50.05
The mechanical friction coefficient D p plays the role of
P (W)
the frequency droop coefficient, so there is no need to 1,000 50.00
introduce an additional control loop for frequency droop 980 49.95
control. This loop can regulate the frequency/speed io of
960 49.90
the synchronverter and generate the phase angle i for
the back electromotive force e. The reactive power is 940 49.85
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
regulated to generate the field excitation current M f i f , Time (Seconds)
and a voltage droop control is introduced to control the
voltage through the voltage droop coefficient D q . Hence, FIG 2 The frequency regulation capability of a synchronverter
the frequency control, voltage control, real power con- connected to the U.K. public grid.
trol, and reactive power control are all integrated in one
compact controller with only four parameters. It is worth for a synchronverter in the “Operation of Inverters as a
noting that, for grid-connected applications, a dedicated VSM” section, another loop is added to control the dc-
synchronization unit (PLL) is used to provide the grid bus voltage through a proportional-integral (PI) control-
information for the synchronverter to synchronize with ler to generate the virtual torque Tm . Again, a dedicated
the grid before connection and for the synchronverter to synchronization unit, which in this case is a sinusoidal
deliver the desired real and reactive powers (i.e., in the set tracking algorithm, is adopted for synchronization with
mode) after connection. the grid.
The frequency regulation capability of a synchron- Figure 4 depicts the simulation results when regulat-
verter connected to the 50-Hz U.K. public grid is depicted ing the dc-bus voltage of a rectifier. The reactive power was
in Figure 2. It can be seen that the synchronverter set to zero to obtain the unity power factor. The dc-bus volt-
responded to the var ying frequency (in red) ver y age was regulated to the reference values, even when the
quickly via autonomously changing the real power load was changed. The VSM frequency tracked the grid fre-
output. When the frequency increases, the real power quency well.
is decreased; when the frequency decreases, the real
power is increased. Similarly, a synchronverter is able Some Applications
to regulate the voltage autonomously. Note that this
controller is so compact and is close to, if not already, Integration of Wind Power
the minimal realization of any possible controllers for a A common topology for wind-power integration is shown
grid-tied inverter. in Figure 5. The wind-power generation system is
connected to the grid through a back-to-back converter.
Operation of Rectifiers as a VSM Normally, the maximum power extraction from the wind is
Various strategies have been proposed to control PWM rec- achieved by controlling the rotor-side converter, and the dc
tifiers. These strategies can achieve the same major goals, link voltage is controlled by the grid-side converter [9]–[11],
such as high power factor and near-
sinusoidal current waveforms [6], [7].
Similar to operating an inverter as a
Angular Frequency
synchronous generator, the mathe- Dp v
matical model of synchronous motors Vo – Reset STA
can be adopted as the core of the con-
.
troller for rectifiers, as shown in Fig- Vref – Ki Tm – θ
1 1 θ
ure 3, to operate rectifiers as virtual Kp +
s Js s
synchronous motors [8]. θc
To/From the Power Part
The reactive power Q can be con-

Te
trolled to track the reference Q ref Formulas
through an integrator and gener- of Te, Q,
Q e PWM
and e
ate the field excitation M f i f so the Generation
power factor can be controlled via – v
Qref 1 Mf if i
setting the reactive power reference. –
Ks
To obtain the unity power factor,
the reference value Q ref can be set
to zero. Compared to the controller FIG 3 A controller to operate a rectifier as a virtual synchronous motor [8].
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50.5 800
. . 700
θg θ Vref Vo
Frequency (Hz)
50.55 600
Voltage (V)
500
50 400
300
49.75 200
100
49.5 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time (Seconds) Time (Seconds)
(a) (b)
12 5
Qref Q
Frequency (Hz)
2.5
8
P (kW)
0
4
–2.75
0 –5
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
(c) (d)
FIG 4 The simulation results of a rectifier operated as a VSM [8]. (a) Frequency. (b) Vref and Vo (V). (c) P (W). (d) Q (Var).
mainly based on the vector control approach in the d-q The grid-side converter can be operated as a virtual syn-
reference frame. However, vector control techniques are chronous generator to inject real and reactive power to the
very sensitive to parameter variations and mismatches grid, as shown in Figure 7. The main tasks of the grid-side
because of the decoupling terms used for achieving the converter are to achieve maximum power point track-
desired field orientation. The VSM technologies described ing (MPPT), that is, maximum power extraction from
in the “Operation of Inverters as a VSM” and “Operation of the wind, and also to regulate the reactive power. As a
Rectifiers as a VSM” sections can be adopted to integrate result, the whole system behaves as a rotor–generator/
wind energy, because the back-to-back converter consists motor–generator system, which leads to a compact and
of a rectifier and an inverter [12]. effective system with the potential of utilizing the inertia
The rotor-side converter can be operated as a virtual syn- of the wind turbine.
chronous motor, as shown in Figure 6, because it receives Figure 8 shows the real-time simulation results of the
power from the permanent magnet synchronous generator rotor-side performance of such a system. Note that the dc-
(PMSG) at the ac side and injects it to the dc link. The main bus voltage is always maintained around the desired value,
tasks of the rotor-side converter are to regulate the dc link even when the wind speed changed at 6 seconds.
voltage to the desired level and to achieve unity power fac-
tor operation at the ac side. In contrast to the existing vec- Integration of Solar Power
tor control techniques, the synchronverter technology is A VSM control strategy can also be applied to the integra-
completely independent from the parameters of the PMSG, tion of solar power. In [13], a synchronverter-based single-
providing significant advantages. phase transformerless photovoltaic (PV) inverter is
proposed. The topology of the inverter
is shown in Figure 9. The PV inverter
can be formed by adding a neutral leg
LCL Filter Grid
into the conventional half-bridge
PMSG inverter. The added neutral leg con-
sists of two switches and one induc-
tor. The two switches are connected
Three-Phase Three-Phase
Rectifier Inverter
in series and then put between the
positive and negative poles of the dc
FIG 5 The connection of a wind-power generation system to the grid through a back- bus. The neutral inductor is put
to-back converter. between the midpoint of the switches
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and the midpoint of the split capaci-

tors. The main objectives of the neu- Three-Phase Rectifier
tral leg are to balance the voltages of vra ira
the capacitors and to provide a return
vrb irb
path for the dc input current. At the PMSG Vdc
vrc irc
same time, the inverter leg is used to
generate an ac output voltage with
high power quality and to control the
reactive and active power exchange
between the PV and the grid. ωn
To make the PV inverter grid .
θr
friendly, the inverter leg is controlled Dmp vr
to be a synchronverter. There are two – Reset STA
operating modes for the operation Vdc
of the single-phase synchronverter .
Vref – Tmm
1 θm 1 θm
(SPSV): the islanded mode and the PI
Jms s
grid-connected mode. In the islanded
mode, the SPSV generates the nomi-
nal voltage at the nominal frequency. Tme
The real power and reactive power
Calculation em
generated depend on the local load Qm PWM
connected (when radiation is high Generation
enough). In the grid-connected mode, – vr
Qmref 1 Mmfimf ir
the SPSV could be controlled to gen- –
erate the required amount of both Kms
real and reactive power to take part
in the grid frequency and voltage reg- FIG 6 A controller for the rotor-side converter in Figure 5 [12].
ulation or to generate the power set
by the reference values.
Figure 10 shows the real-time Three-Phase Rectifier LCL Filter Grid
simulation results of such a system, va
ia
where the grid frequency increased vga
ib vb
to 50.02 Hz at t = 4 seconds and Vdc vgb
ic vc
the grid voltage decreased by 2% vgc
at t = 5 seconds. The real power
and reactive power automatically ωn
changed according to the change of .
the frequency and the voltage. Note θg
MPPT Dp vg
that the MPPT was not included in – Reset STA
the simulation for brevity.
.
Pref 1 Tm θ θ
. 1 1
Removal of PLLs θn s
Js
As discussed in the “Smart Grid Inte- – θc
gration” section, it is crucial for DGs to
synchronize with the grid before con- Te
nection and after connection. This is P
Calculation
often achieved by adding a dedicated Q e PWM
synchronization unit, for example, Generation
PLLs, to the controller. However, PLLs –
Qref 1 Mf if i
suffer from nonlinear structure, time-
consuming tuning, and slow perfor- Ks
mance, all of which bring many prob- – Vm Amplitude v
Dq
lems to grid-connected inverters, for Detection
example, instability [14]. Because of
Vgm
the inherent synchronization mecha-
nism of synchronous machines FIG 7 A controller for the grid-side converter in Figure 5 [12].
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SP
ωn: (50 rad/s/div) .
PI θn
.
θr
Vdc: (250 V/div) ΔT –
Dp
θr: (250 rad/s/div) – .

Pset 1. Tm 1 θ 1 θ
θn Js s
–
Tm: (25 Nm/div) Te
Formulas
Q of e, Q, Te e
t : (1 s/div)
i S is 1 Vg
Qset – 1 Mf if C
1 Ls +R –
Ks ig
SQ 2
FIG 8 The rotor-side performance of a wind-power system [12]. Dq Vn
– V
g
FIG 11 The controller for a self-synchronized synchron-

Idc
Q3 Q1 verter [5].
C+
V+
N
PV Vdc iC iL
Inverters Without a Dedicated Synchronization Unit
Lo io Lg ig
The controller for a self-synchronized synchronverter [5] is
C–
V– Co shown in Figure 11. A virtual current i s generated from
vo vg ~ the voltage difference between e and v g is added to the
Q4 Q2
synchronverter controller shown in Figure 1(b), and the
current fed into the controller can be either i s or the grid
current i g . A PI controller is added to regulate the output
DT of the frequency droop block D p to be zero and to
generate the reference frequency io r for the original syn-
FIG 9 The topology of a synchronverter-based transformerless
PV inverter [13].
chronverter. Moreover, the PLL is removed. To facilitate
the operation of the self-synchronized synchronverter,
three switches, S C, S P, and S Q, are added to change the
operation mode. When switch S C is thrown at position 1
V–: (100 V/div)
(with S P turned ON and S Q turned OFF), the synchron-
verter is operated under the set mode to send the refer-
P : (100 W/div)
ence real power and reactive power to the grid [3]. If Pset
and Q set are both 0, the synchronverter is operated in the
t =0s self-synchronization mode. When the virtual current i s is
Q : (100 Var/div)
driven to zero, which means e is equal to v g, the synchron-
verter is synchronized with the grid and can be connected
to the grid by turning ON the circuit breaker in the power
part. When switch S C is at position 2, the synchronverter
t : (1 s/div) can be operated in different modes.
After being connected to the grid, when S P is turned
ON, DT is controlled to be 0 in the steady state via the PI
controller. Hence, Te is the same as Tm, which results in
FIG 10 The simulation results of a synchronverter-based trans-
P = Pset . This operation mode is called the set mode. To dif-
formerless PV inverter [13].
ferentiate the set mode for real power and reactive power,
the set mode for real power is denoted the P mode and the
embedded into synchronverters, it is possible to remove the set mode for reactive power is denoted the Q mode. When
dedicated synchronization unit while achieving synchroniza- the switch S P is turned OFF, the PI controller is taken out
tion before and after connection to the grid to improve per- of the loop, and the synchronverter is operated in the fre-
formance and reduce computational burden. quency droop mode, denoted the PD mode. Similarly, the
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voltage droop mode is denoted the Q D mode. All the pos-

Table 1. The operation modes of
sible operation modes are shown in Table 1. a self-synchronized synchronverter.
Figure 12 depicts the experimental results of a self-
synchronized synchronverter with the grid frequency Switch Sc Switch SP Switch SQ Mode
lower than 50 Hz. It can be seen that the synchron- 1 ON ON N/A
verter frequency is much smoother than the grid fre-
1 ON OFF Self-synchronization
quency obtained by a PLL, which means the perfor-
1 OFF ON N/A
mance is much worse if a PLL is adopted to provide the
frequency reference. 1 OFF OFF N/A
2 ON ON P mode, Q D mode
Rectifiers Without a Dedicated Synchronization Unit 2 ON OFF P mode, Q mode
Like synchronverters, a self-synchronized synchronverter can 2 OFF ON PD mode, Q D mode
also be operated as a rectifier [15]. The controller for three-
2 OFF OFF PD mode, Q mode
phase PWM-controlled rectifiers is shown in Figure 13.
Compared to Figure 3, similarly, three major changes are
made: 1) a virtual current i s generated from the error
between the grid voltage v and the control signal e is intro- signal is removed from the controller; and 3) a PI controller is
duced, and the current fed into the controller can be either added to generate the reference frequency/speed io r for the
the virtual current i s or the grid current i; 2) the synchroniza- virtual synchronous motor while driving the error between
tion unit to provide the grid frequency reference and the reset the reference speed io r and the virtual speed io to zero.
50.2 50.2
Frequency (Hz)
Frequency (Hz)
50.1 50.1
50 50
49.9 49.9
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
(a) (b)
1.2 0.8
Normalized E (p.u.)
0.6
1.1
Error (V)
0.4
1
0.2
0.9 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
(c) (d)
100 80
80 60
60 40
Q (Var)
P (W)
40 20
20 0
0 –20
–20
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
(e) (f)
FIG 12 The experimental results of a self-synchronized synchronverter [5]. (a) The synchronverter frequency f. (b) The grid frequency
fg from a three-phase PLL for comparison (not used for control). (c) The amplitude E of the generated voltage e. (d) The amplitude of
v – vg. (e) The real power at the terminal. (f) The reactive power at the terminal.
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. . self-synchronization mode in the self-

Kif Δθg θn synchronized synchronverter, during
Kpf +
s – the uncontrolled mode, Qref should
set at zero, and the dc-bus voltage
. . loop should be disabled. A virtual
Δθ θr
current i s is introduced in the con-
Vo – troller during the uncontrolled mode
to make sure that the control signal
.
Vref – Kiv Tm θ 1 θ e is synchronized with the grid volt-
1
Kpv + s age v. After the synchronization, the
s – Js
θc switches can be turned on at any time
to operate the rectifier in the PWM-
Te
Formulas controlled mode. In the PWM-con-
of Te, Q, e trolled mode, not only should switch
Q e S be turned to position 2, but also the
–
is 1 v Q loop and the dc-bus voltage loop
Qref – 1 M f i f
S
Ls+R should be enabled at the same time.
– 1
Ks V 2 T m is generated from the dc-bus volt-
i
age PI controller to regulate the out-
FIG 13 The controller of rectifiers without a dedicated synchronization unit [15]. put voltage Vo . The reactive power Q
can be controlled to track the refer-
ence reactive power Q ref . By feeding
It is well known that a three-phase PWM-controlled the difference between the grid frequency and the rectifier
rectifier consists of six switches with antiparallel diodes. frequency through a PI controller, the rectifier could track
When all the switches are OFF, the three-phase PWM- the grid frequency well.
controlled rectifier works as an uncontrolled rectifier. The simulation results from a rectifier without a dedi-
This is denoted the uncontrolled mode. When the switches cated synchronization unit are shown in Figure 14. The
are operated, it is called the PWM-controlled mode. In rectifier tracked the grid frequency very well. Moreover, the
the uncontrolled mode, before turning on the switches, output voltage and the reactive power tracked their refer-
the control signals e must be synchronized with the grid ences quickly and accurately under different operational
voltage v, with the same phase sequence. Similar to the conditions, respectively.
316 80
. . 70
315.5
Frequency (rad/s)
θr θ Vref Vo
60
Voltage (V)
315 50
314.5 40
314 30
20
313.5 10
313 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
(a) (b)
140 100
120 75 Qref Q
100 50
25
Q (Var)
P (W)
80
0
60
–25
40 –50
20 –75
0 –100
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
(c) (d)
FIG 14 The simulation results from a rectifier without a dedicated synchronization unit [15]. (a) Frequency (rad/s). (b) DC-bus volt-
age (V). (c) Real power (W). (d) Reactive power (Var).
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Conclusions [3] Q.-C. Zhong and G. Weiss, “Synchronverters: Inverters that mimic
This article has shown that power electronic converters, synchronous generators,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 58, no. 4, pp.
both inverters and rectifiers, can be operated to behave 1259–1267, Apr. 2011.
like virtual synchronous machines. Moreover, the dedi- [4] M. Karimi-Ghartemani and M. R. Iravani, “A nonlinear adaptive filter for
cated synchronization unit that has been deemed indis- online signal analysis in power systems: Applications,” IEEE Trans. Power
pensable for grid-connected converters can be removed. Del., vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 617–622, Apr. 2002.
This leads to a unified interface for smart grid integration [5] Q.-C. Zhong, P. L. Nguyen, Z. Ma, and W. Sheng, “Self-synchronized syn-
and a simple architecture for next-generation smart grids. chronverters: Inverters without a dedicated synchronization unit,” IEEE
The application to the integration of wind and solar power Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 617–630, Feb. 2014.
is given as an example. Other applications include vehicle- [6] J. W. Dixon and Boon-Teck Ooi, “Indirect current control of a unity power
to-grid systems [16] and static synchronous compensators factor sinusoidal current boost type three-phase rectifier,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
[17], etc. It is worth mentioning that the VSM offers the Electron., vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 508–515, Nov. 1988.
dynamics and synchronization mechanism of synchronous [7] K. Zhou and D. Wang, “Digital repetitive controlled three-phase PWM
machines to facilitate the self-balancing of real power and rectifier,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 309–316, Jan. 2003.
reactive power. The actual energy needed to support the [8] Z. Ma, Q.-C. Zhong, and J. D. Yan, “Synchronverter-based control strate-
grid comes from the energy stored in the system, for exam- gies for three-phase PWM rectifiers,” in Proc. 2012 7th IEEE Conf. Indus-
ple, in large motors, wind turbines, and energy storage sys- trial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA), Singapore, pp. 225–230.
tems. While, in this article, the VSMs are implemented [9] R. Teodorescu and F. Blaabjerg, “Flexible control of small wind turbines
based on the synchronverter technology to facilitate the with grid failure detection operating in stand-alone and grid-connected
presentation, another (actually better) way is to adopt the mode,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 1323–1332, Sept. 2004.
robust droop control technology [18], which is universal [10] R. C. Portillo, M. M. Prats, J. I. Leon, J. A. Sanchez, J. M. Carrasco, E.
for converters with different impedances. A more system- Galvan, and L. G. Franquelo, “Modeling strategy for back-to-back three-level
atic treatment on this topic can be found in [19], and vari- converters applied to high-power wind turbines,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Elec-
ous aspects about control of power electronic inverters tron., vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 1483–1491, Oct. 2006.
can be found in [20]. Live discussions and future updates [11] E. J. Bueno, S. Cóbreces, F. J. Rodríguez, Á Hernández, and F. Espinosa,
are available via joining the LinkedIn group at https://www
________ “Design of a back-to-back NPC converter interface for wind turbines with
.linkedin.com/groups/7061909. squirrel-cage induction generator,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 23,
no. 3, pp. 932–945, Sept. 2008.
About the Author [12] Q.-C. Zhong, Z. Ma, W. L. Ming, and G. C. Konstantopoulos, “Grid-friend-
Qing-Chang Zhong (zhongqc@ieee.org)
___________ received a Ph.D. ly wind power systems based on the synchronverter technology,” Energy
degree in control and power engineering from Imperial Col- Convers. Manage., vol. 8, no. 9, pp. 719–726, 2015.
lege London, United Kingdom, in 2004 and a Ph.D. degree in [13] W. L. Ming and Q.-C. Zhong, “Synchronverter-based transformerless PV
control theory and engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong Uni- inverters,” in Proc. 40th Annu. Conf. IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
versity, China, in 2000. He holds the Max McGraw Endowed (IECON 2014), Dallas, TX, pp. 4396–4401.
Chair Professor in Energy and Power Engineering in the [14] D. Dong, B. Wen, D. Boroyevich, P. Mattavelli, and Y. Xue, “Analysis of
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois phase-locked loop low-frequency stability in three-phase grid-connected
Institute of Technology, Chicago. He is a Distinguished power converters considering impedance interactions,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Lecturer of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, the IEEE Electron., vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 310–321, Jan. 2015.
Control Systems Society, and the IEEE Power and Energy [15] Q.-C. Zhong, Z. Ma, and P.-L. Nguyen, “PWM-controlled rectifiers without
Society. He serves as an associate editor for IEEE Transac- the need of an extra synchronisation unit,” in Proc. IECON 2012—38th
tions on Automatic Control, IEEE Transactions on Power Annu. Conf. IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, Montreal, pp. 691–695.
Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, [16] J. A. Suul, S. D’Arco, and G. Guidi, “Virtual synchronous machine-based con-
IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, IEEE trol of a single-phase bi-directional battery charger for providing vehicle-to-grid
Access, and IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics services,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 3234–3244, July–Aug. 2016.
in Power Electronics. He has been invited to deliver the [17] C. Li, R. Burgos, I. Cvetkovic, D. Boroyevich, and L. Mili, “Design, analy-
semiplenary talk “Synchronized and Democratized Smart sis and experimental evaluation of a virtual-synchronous-machine-based
Grids” at the 20th World Congress of the International Feder- STATCOM with LCL filter,” in Proc. 2015 IEEE Energy Conversion Congr.
ation of Automatic Control to be held in Toulouse, France, in and Exposition (ECCE), Montreal, pp. 5771–5778.
July 2017. He was elected a Fellow of the IEEE. [18] Q.-C. Zhong, “Robust droop controller for accurate proportional load
sharing among inverters operated in parallel,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron.,
References vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 1281--1290, Apr. 2013.
[1] M. P. N. van Wesenbeeck, S. W. H. de Haan, P. Varela, and K. Visscher, [19] Q.-C. Zhong, Power Electronics-Enabled Autonomous Power Systems:
“Grid tied converter with virtual kinetic storage,” in Proc. PowerTech, 2009 Next Generation Smart Grids. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2017.
IEEE Bucharest, Romania, pp. 1–7. [20] Q.-C. Zhong and T. Hornik, Control of Power Inverters in Renewable
[2] H. P. Beck and R. Hesse, “Virtual synchronous machine,” in Proc. 2007 9th Energy and Smart Grid Integration. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2013.
Int. Conf. Electrical Power Quality and Utilisation, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 1–6.
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New Approaches to
Reliability Assessment
Using physics-of-failure for prediction
and design in power electronics systems
by Ke Ma, Huai Wang, and Frede Blaabjerg
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P
ower electronics are facing continuous pressure to be cheaper and smaller,
have a higher power density, and, in some cases, also operate at higher temper-
atures. At the same time, power electronics products are expected to have
reduced failures because it is essential for reducing the cost of energy. New
approaches for reliability assessment are being taken in the design phase of
power electronics systems based on the physics-of-failure in components. In this
approach, many new methods, such as multidisciplinary simulation tools, strength testing
of components, translation of mission profiles, and statistical analysis, are involved to
enable better prediction and design of reliability for products. This article gives an over-
view of the new design flow in the reliability engineering of power electronics from the
system-level point of view and discusses some of the emerging needs for the technology in
this field.
Reliability Metrics in Power Electronics

Modern society needs to become more energy efficient and use more renewable generation
to be sustainable. A key technology in this mission is power electronics, which convert elec-
trical energy from one stage to another. In past decades, power electronics have been
widely installed in emerging energy conversion applications, such as renewables, motor
drives, aircraft, power quality/transmission, etc. The fast growth on the installed capacity
makes the failures of the power electronics system costly—due not only to the increased
maintenance and repair but also to the adverse impacts to other systems and loss of energy
commitments [1]–[6]. On the other hand, there has been continuous pressure for power
electronics manufacturers to reduce costs and keep their products competitive on the mar-
ket. To satisfy the stringent reliability requirements while limiting the cost and development/
testing time, there is strong demand for more accurate evaluation and design of reliability
performance for power electronics converters.
Different from the conventional performance metrics for power electronics, such as effi-
ciency, power density, total harmonics distortion, etc., reliability is a performance that is dif-
ficult to quantify and measure. In the past, most reliability information for power electronics
was collected at the component level from the statistics of failed products, and then experi-
ence-based handbooks were established as a foundation to predict the lifetime of the whole
converter system [1]. This approach has proven to be inaccurate as it is application indepen-
dent, providing no clues for the root cause of failures or for design improvement. Research on
power electronics reliability has advanced in the last decades. However, an understanding of
the fundamental failure mechanisms of the power electronic components, the impact on the
reliability affected by multiphysical stressors (e.g., temperature, humidity, vibration, cosmic
radiation, etc.), and the interactions among them during operation is still lacking. Moreover,
the modeling of the impact and the need for a breakthrough in time-efficient reliability verifi-
cation methods, coupled with demand from industry to reduce development costs, are great
scientific challenges.
A more advanced approach to predict the reliability of power electronics is shown in Figure 1.
In this method, a series of reliability tools are expected to be established and can be used to
transfer the mission profiles (i.e., the operating condition and environment of the system), as
well as the given converter designs, to a series of quantified reliability metrics defined in the
field of reliability engineering. In this approach, the applications of converter and reliability
performance are closely correlated, making it possible to accurately improve and verify the
design or operation of converters to achieve certain reliability specifications before they are
introduced into the market—this feature is significantly useful for power electronic system
manufacturers in reducing cost.
IMAGE LICENSED BY INGRAM PUBLISHING
The Reliability Metrics for Power Electronics

The engineering definition of reliability is the probability that an item will perform a
required function without failure under stated conditions for a specified period of time [2].

Date of publication: 20 December 2016
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ability of one sample that can function at a certain time.

Similarly, the unreliability F(t) can be defined as percentage
v of a group of samples (or probability of one sample) that fail
at a certain time t.

F(t) can simply be calculated from 1 - R (t) . The plot of
! F(t) against time t is also referred to as the cumulative dis-

! tribution function (CDF) curve, which in most cases can
!
be fitted by an analytical function with three parameters
!
?
! c, b, and h developed by Walloddi Weibull in 1951 [4], as
! shown in (1)
!......
t-c b
F (t) = 1 - exp ;- a h k E . (1)

The widely used term mean time to failure (MTTF)
represents the average time that a group of samples fails.
FIG 1 An advanced approach for the reliability prediction of a It is generally used in some reliability standards and hand-
power electronics system. books for military and aerospace applications. The MTTF
can be deduced from the reliability function F(t) by (2). It is
worth mentioning that the MTTF is an oversimplified term,
Reliability Versus Time which is independent of time and loses the whole picture
1.0 of the reliability performance, such as failure distribution
R = 0.99 R = 0.9
0.9 and hazard rate. Therefore, benchmarking the systems or
Reliability, R (t ) = 1–F (t )
0.8 components by using MTTF is discouraged if the reliability

0.7 function or CDF curve can be generated [1]–[3].
0.6 3
0.5 MTTF = # R (t) dt. (2)
0.4 0
2,003 Hours
1,000 1,277 Hours
0.3 To better quantify the lifetime of the system or compo-

0.2 nent, percentile lifetime Bx is more suitable and recom-
0.1 mended for use. It is the time when a group of samples has
0 a certain percentage of failure. For example, a B10 lifetime
0
500
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
4,500
5,000
corresponds to the time at which 10% of the samples in a

Time (Hours) group have failed or the time at which a testing sample has
10% probability of failure. The percentile lifetime can eas-
FIG 2 An example of reliability and percentile lifetime of a ily be solved from the reliability function or CDF curve,
type of 1,100-V/40-μF film capacitors under 85 °C and 85% RH and the time-varying characteristic of failure is still kept.
with a 5% capacitance drop as the end-of-life criteria [3]. R(t): Figure 2 describes the relationship between the reliability
reliability with time; F(t): unreliability. and percentile life based on an example of film capaci-
tors. The B1 lifetime (R = 0.99) and B10 lifetime (R = 0.9) in
Accordingly, a comprehensive reliability description the example are 1,277 and 2,003 hours, respectively.
includes five important aspects: definition of failure crite- The failure rate m (t) [also called hazard rate h(t)] is
ria, stress condition, reliability numbers (%), confidence another important reliability metric widely used in reliability
level (%), and the time of interest. A reliability number can engineering. It describes the frequency with which a system
vary by adjusting any one of the other four aspects. or component fails. It can be expressed in failures per unit of
Understanding the metrics used in reliability engineering time by deducting the reliability function R(t) as
is a fundamental step for the assessment of reliability per-
1 d 61 - R (t)@
formance and to be able to set the modeling targets. In the m (t) = R (t) dt . (3)
following, several important concepts and definitions are
first clarified. A typical failure rate curve against the time in the life
cycle of a power electronics product is plotted in Figure 3. It
Reliability, Failure Rates, Mean Time to Failure, and Lifetime is composed of three reliability functions and is known as
To quantify reliability from a reliability engineering perspec- the bathtub curve [2]. By examining the fitting parameters
tive, a time-varying variable R(t) as a percentage is used and b in the reliability functions, three types of failures that are
represents the percentage of a group of samples that can dominant at different stages of the life cycle can be iden-
properly function at a certain time t. From the point view of tified. The first part is dominated by early failures caused
individual sample, R(t) can be also represented as the prob- by infant mortality, with a decreasing failure rate (where
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b 1 1). The second part is dominated by random failures

in the useful life of a product, with a constant failure rate
Early Failure
(where b = 1). The third part is dominated by wear-out fail- Random Failure
Failure Rate λ (t )
ures in the end of life of the product, with an increasing fail- Wear-Out Failure
ure rate (where b 2 1). Total
β >1
The reliability/unreliability function (or CDF curve) pro- β <1
vides a clear picture of the probability of failure as well as β =1
the characteristics of failures developing with time. By this
function, many other reliability metrics can be deduced.
The early failure shown in Figure 3 is more related to the Time in Operation
production capability of a manufacturer, while the failures
in the useful life of a product are more related to random FIG 3 The bathtub curve, or failure rate, in the life cycle of a
typical power electronics product.
events/usages. These two types of failures are normally dif-
ficult to model and predict.
Mission Profiles Identification

The mission profiles indicate the operating conditions and !
functions that a power electronics converter needs to per- !Fa
form during its specified life cycle. Typical mission profiles
for power electronics could be defined as, e.g., the wind
speed/solar irradiance (for the renewable energy produc-
tion), speed and torque variations of the electric machine Stress Analysis Strength Modeling

(for the motor drive application), the operational ranges/
at Given Mission at Different Stress Levels
codes for the output voltage/current, the usage behaviors of Profiles and
customers, and also the environmental factors like tempera- verter Design
ture, humidity, vibration level, etc. The mission profiles are
closely related to the stress/loading of the components,
which is the main source of the failures in the power elec- Reliability Mapping
tronics components. Meanwhile, the mission profiles will
verter
lead to various design solutions for the converter and have a at Given Mission
strong impact on the cost of products. As a result, under- Profiles and
standing the mission profiles is also a fundamental step for verter Design
the reliability analysis of power electronics.
FIG 4 Analysis flow for assessing the reliability metrics of a

New Approach to Assess the Reliability
power electronics converter [6].
Metrics of Power Electronics
Assessing the reliability metrics of a converter system, which
contains many different kinds of components with complex reflect the strength information of the components. Finally, a
operating/loading conditions, is still a challenging task. Today, series of algorithms and statistical analysis is introduced to
most reliability information of power electronics components map the overall reliability metrics of the whole converter sys-
has to be collected by statistical analysis of failed products tem under the given mission profiles and design solutions.
[7]–[11], and then experience-based handbooks are estab- The potential methodologies in the four different activities in
lished as guidance to determine the lifetime of different Figure 4 are briefly discussed later.
devices and designs. This approach has been proven inaccu-
rate, as it is too general and application independent. An Identification of Critical Components
alternative method for assessing the reliability metrics of a and Failure Mechanism
converter is shown in Figure 4 [6], which separates the prob- Understanding of the reliability physics of power electronic
lem into four different groups of research/modeling activities. components is a starting point to assess reliability of the con-
In this structure, the critical components, as well as the major verter system. The target of this group of analyses is to iden-
failure mechanisms, in a converter system need first to be fil- tify the most critical components/assemblies in a system and
tered out and identified. Based on the interested failure then the major failure mechanisms, as well as the corre-
mechanisms in the critical components, the stress experi- sponding stressors, which trigger the failure of components.
enced by these components is translated from the given mis- This information normally has to rely on the investigations
sion profiles and design solution of a converter. On the other and statistics based on the failed products/components in
hand, the reliability of the interested components under dif- the field. Various investigations have been done into the fail-
ferent stress levels in practical use is tested and modeled to ure causes and distributions in power electronics systems
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Table 1. The FPM in reliability of power electronic components [1].

Load Focus Points
Passive Power
Climate + Design ≥ Stressor Active Power Components Components Control Circuitry, IC, PCB, Connectors
Ambient Product Stressors Die LASJ Wire Cap. Ind. Solder MLCC IC PCB Con-
Design bond Joint nectors
Relative —Thermal Temperature X X X X
humidity system swing ∆T
—RH(t) —Operation Average X X X X X X x x x
Temperature point temperature T
—T(t) —ON/OFF
power dT/dt x x x x
P(t)
Water X X x
Relative x x x X x x x X X x
humidity
Pollution Tightness Pollution x x
Mains Circuit Voltage x x x X X x x x x
Cosmic Circuit Voltage x
Mounting Mechanical Chock/ x x x x x x
vibration
LASJ: large-area solder joint; MLCC: multilayer ceramic capacitor; IC: integrated circuit; Cap.: capacitor; Ind.: inductor. Level of importance (from high to low): X-X-X-x.
[7]–[11]. However, it is continuously challenged as new mate- mechanisms. The degradation of electrolytic capacitors
rials and devices are appearing on the market. is temperature and voltage dependent. Besides these two
In a typical power electronic system, power semi- critical stressors, humidity and vibration are critical to
conductor devices, capacitors, gate drivers, connectors, film capacitors and ceramic capacitors, respectively. The
printed circuit boards (PCBs), and fans are considered reliability of these capacitors for dc-link applications is
as the vulnerable components, especially the insulated- discussed in [13] in detail.
gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules in medium- to
high-power applications and capacitors for ac filtering Stress Analysis and Translation from Mission Profiles
and dc-link applications. A focus point matrix (FPM) was After the reliability-critical components and the major fail-
presented in [1] to show the critical stressors for differ- ure mechanisms are identified for a power electronics
ent components, which are represented in Table 1. The system, the major stress of the components can be compre-
steady-state temperature, temperature swings, humid- hensively evaluated by modeling the loading conditions in a
ity, voltage, and vibrations have different levels of impact specific application with a given converter design. The tar-
on semiconductor devices, capacitors, inductors, and get of this group of analyses is to establish models that can
low-power control boards. translate the mission profiles and converter design to the
As two of the most vulnerable power electronics com- quantified stresses that will trigger the failure of devices
ponents with respect to reliability, the failure mecha- under a failure mechanism.
nisms of IGBT modules and capacitors are surveyed in
[12] and [13], respectively. Thermal cycling (i.e., tem- Challenges of Mission Profiles Translation
perature swings inside or outside the devices) is one of The correct modeling of stress in power electronics compo-
the most critical stressors in power electronics components could be a challenging task. As previously mentioned,
nents [10], [11], [14], [15]. It is widely accepted that the the device loadings are closely related to the mission pro-
temperature fluctuation on different materials with mis- files of the whole converter system, which includes compli-
matched coefficients of thermal expansion may cause cated models not only for the electrical system but also for
disconnection at the material boundaries, thus leading environmental conditions and the mechanical system. The
to wear-out failures of the devices. Similarly, it has been typical signal flows and model block diagram to assess the
found that the thermal-related failures also exist in the thermal stress of power electronics components in a grid-
capacitor and PCB, and they are claimed to be one of the tied inverter are illustrated in Figure 5, where the distur-
most important root causes of failures in these power bances, feedback loops, and relationship between physical
electronics components [10]. Different types of capaci- domains can be identified [16]. When translating the mission
tors, such as electrolytic capacitors, film capacitors, and profiles to the stress of components, multidisciplinary mod-
ceramic capacitors, also have thermal-related failure els have to be involved with different analyzing methods
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Q* Iin Tambient
Vdc* Duty Electric Device

Ratio Parameter p Loss
Thermal ΔT + Temp.
Control Converter Loss +
Impedance
Feedback Feedback
Control and Electrical Models Loss and Thermal Models
FIG 5 The typical signal flows and model block diagram to assess the thermal stress of power electronics components in a grid-tied
inverter [16].Vdc*: dc link voltage control reference; Q*: reactive power reference; Iin: input current on the dc link; PLoss: power loss
on the device; DT : temperature variation of the device; Tambient: ambient temperature.
and tools, and finding out the correct connection or interac- To establish a more complete thermal behavior of
tion among the results from different physical domains is of the power devices according to the mission profile of the
great importance. converter, newer approaches have to be used. A potential
The major disturbances and dominant time con- method is demonstrated in Figure 9 [17]. As lenses with
stants of the factors in a wind power generation sys- different focus lengths are used in the photography, the
tem—a typical application of power electronics—that
have influence on the loading of power semiconductor
Seconds
seconds
seconds
Minutes
devices are illustrated in Figure 6 [17]. These factors
Micro-
Hours
Days
Milli-
have very different time constants, ranging from micro-
seconds (power semiconductor device switching) to
Time Scale
years (ambient temperature changes).
Temp./Wind
Examples of different time scales of thermal load- Environment
Wind
ing on the chips inside the power semiconductor device Turbine Generator
Mechanical
are shown in Figures 7 and 8. In Figure 7, the simulation Control Grid Switching
results of a 2-MW full-scale wind power converter with a Electrical
1,100-V dc input, 690-V root mean square (rms) output dc/ Main Disturber
ac three-phase two-level topology is provided. In Figure 8, Ambient Wind Control, Device
the experimental results of a 10-kW power converter with Temperature, Variation, Grid Switching
a 600-V dc input, 380-V rms output dc/ac three-phase three- Wind Speed MPPT
Variation
level topology is shown by using an infrared camera [17].
The loading conditions are illustrated under different FIG 6 The multitime scale disturbances for the thermal behav-
time scales: first, at a one-year span with a 3-hour sam- iors in the wind power converter [17]. MPPT: maximum power
pling time and, then, at a 0.2-second span with a 350-Hz point tracking.
sampling rate. It can be clearly seen that the behavior of
the thermal cycling under different time scales is quite dif-
ferent. The longer-term thermal cycling in Figure 7 is quite 120
unregulated and mainly caused by the variations of con- 110
100
verting power, depending on the wind speeds and turbine/
Temperature (°C)
90
generator operating conditions, while the short-term ther- 80
mal cycling in Figure 8 is more stable and mainly disturbed 70
60
by the alternating of load current at the grid line frequency. 50
40
30
Multitime Scale Modeling Approaches 20
The existing methods/tools for the power electronics are 10 Tj Tc
0
not sufficient to model the complete stress behaviors in the
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
power device driven by the mission profiles. Either very

detailed and refined models/methods (such as finite element Time (Hours)
methods or PSpice circuit models) are used but restrained
to a very limited time span and small time steps, or only FIG 7 The simulation results of long-term thermal behaviors within
steady-state conditions are focused on with compromised one year with the temperature sampling rate at 3 hours (junction
accuracy of certain important thermal dynamics. temperature Tj and case temperature Tc of the IGBT) [16].
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Another approach to handle the widespread time scales

41 in the stress analysis of power electronics components is
Tj
40 to establish frequency-domain models, which can trans-
39 fer the various disturbances in the mission profiles to the
Temperature (°C)
38 dynamics stresses in the components regardless of the time

37 Tc scale. A frequency domain thermal impedance model for a
36 power semiconductor device is thereby proposed for this
35 purpose [20], as illustrated in Figure 10, in which a low-pass
34 filter (LPF) is added to the thermal path. The new thermal
33 impedance model can achieve more accurate modeling of
32 the thermal dynamics of the power semiconductors at dif-
0.00 0.04 0.08 0.12 0.16 0.20
ferent locations from chips to the case and heat sink, which
Time (Seconds)
have quite different thermal dynamics and are difficult to
be covered by the conventional modeling techniques.
FIG 8 The experimental results of short-term thermal behaviors
within 0.2 seconds with temperature sampling rate at 350 Hz
(junction temperature Tj and case temperature Tc of the IGBT) [16]. Strength Testing and Modeling of Components
The target of this group of analyses is to test and model the
loading analysis and modeling of the converter are sepa- reliability/lifetime of power electronics components under
rated under several time constants with different focuses different stress levels, which is also referred as reliability/
and details of the systems. As an example, for the wind lifetime models of components. By knowing this critical
turbine application, three different modeling levels can be information, the previously acquired component stress
defined with different modeling techniques/tools [17]. Each translated from the mission profiles can be mapped into the
of the modeling levels covers different aspects of the power reliability of components under given mission profiles.
converter from the component level to environmental level Accelerated testing is an important way to obtain com-
and thereby can correctly reflect different causes of ther- ponent models of degradation, lifetime, and reliability or
mal dynamics. More details of this multitime scale thermal weak design points. Among various testing concepts, accel-
modeling approach can be found in [18], and the interaction erated lifetime testing (ALT) [21], calibrated ALT (CALT)
between different levels of modeling techniques was dem- [22], multiple environment overstress tests (MEOST) [23],
onstrated in [19]. and highly accelerated limit testing (HALT) [24] have been
Environment Level (Day/Year)

Converter
3)vironmental Variance System
3-"!1--"
3)'1-% '*!"'
3*Thermal Dynamics
Converter Environment
MPPT Inverter
System Level (Second/Hour) Wind Control Control
dinverter LCL Filter
Mechanics
3" $)% 'Variance Grid

3*)-+*'1)(% , +
– +
–
Zg
3Ts /eraged Model
3'*w Thermal Dynamics
Control and Mechanics
1.1 kVdc
Circuit Level (Millisecond/Second)
Generator 690 Vrms
GBT
3'" -+ical Variance

30%- $%)#1)(% , Filter Grid
Wind Turbine
3"-%'%+ .%-*!"'
3Fast Thermal Dynamics 2L 2L
Converter Converter
Circuit and Control
FIG 9 The multitime scale stress modeling approach of the power electronics converter in wind turbine generation.
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widely studied and applied. The idea Pin Tj

of ALT is to shorten the lifetime of an + – Tref
item by testing it at a higher stress
level compared to that in the normal IGBT Module
use. CALT and MEOST can be con- Foster Model (Gain from Pin to Tjc)
sidered as two specific types of ALT.
The stress levels of CALT are well TC Rch T Heat Sink
h
calibrated according to the destruct
limit and time budget, as discussed Rh
LPF Pout Thermal
in [22]. MEOST puts emphasis on the Grease Ch
failures due to interactions among Gain from Pin to Pout
multiple environmental and opera- (a)
tional stressors. Different from the
first three testing methods, HALT is 38
a qualitative testing method at rela-
36 Foster Model
Junction Temperature Tj (°C)
tively higher stress levels, aiming to

Proposed Model
identify weak links or destruct limits,
34
not to obtain quantitative models. EqCauer Model
With respect to the application 32
for power electronic components, Experiment
it is a challenge to design an accel- 30
erated test with properly selected
stressors and stress profiles, which 28
have meaningful relevance to the
26
practical field operation condi- 0.1 1 10
tions. The pioneering work on the Time (Seconds)
ALT of IGBT modules is presented in (b)
[25], [26] from the 1990s for traction FIG 10 A frequency-domain thermal impedance model for power semiconductor devices [20].
applications. In [25], 300-A/1.2-kV IGBT
modules from different suppliers
are tested under different junction temperature variations important lifetime derating factor for dc film capacitors,
∆Tj within 30 °C and 80 °C, by circulating dc pulse cur- is proposed based on ALT results as presented in [31].
rents. The heating time is between 0.6 and 4.8 seconds, The ALT of capacitors in [31] is represented later as an
focusing on the bond wire and chip solders related fail- example to illustrate the testing procedure and testing
ure mechanisms. The study in [26] extends the investiga- data analysis methods.
tions to baseplate solder joint reliability, also by includ-
ing passive thermal cycling with a period of 4 minutes.
Instead of using dc pulse currents, a more realistic cur-
rent profile with pulsewidth modulation (PWM) switch-
ing is applied in [27] to test 600-V/200-A IGBT modules
in automotive applications. The research efforts of
power cycling testing of IGBT modules through 2014
are surveyed in [28] in terms of sample size, ∆Tj, and
cycle period. In [29], the power cycling testing of 1.7-kV/
1-kA IGBT modules in wind power applications was
investigated with PWM switching current profiles, and
real-time on-state saturation voltage monitoring. Recent
work presented in [30] is devoted to studying the impact
of the power cycling period on the cycle-to-failure of a
type of IGBT module, where it turns out to be very impor-
tant. ALT for capacitors and the corresponding lifetime
models focus mainly on the impact of voltage and tem- Ripple Current Climate Chamber Ripple Current
Tester 1 Ripple Current Tester 3
perature stresses. As discussed in [13], humidity is also LCR Meter
Tester 2
a critical stressor to film capacitors. To quantify the IR Meter
impact of humidity on the lifetime of film capacitors, a
humidity-dependent model, where it turns out to be very FIG 11 A capacitor degradation testing setup [31].
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Table 2. Testing samples of metalized

1.05
dc film capacitors [31].
1.00
Normalized Capacitance
0.95 Testing Samples Testing Conditions

0.90 Group 1 – 1,100 V /40 μF (ten pieces) 85 °C and 85% RH
0.75
0.70 Testing Time: 3,850 Hours
0.65 Figure 11 shows a capacitor testing setup. It is com-
Testing Condition: 85 °C and 55% RH
0.60 posed of a climatic chamber with a temperature range
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
from –70 to 180 °C and a relative humidity (RH) level from
10 to 95% (within a certain temperature range); three
Time (Hours)
ripple current testers to emulate electrical stresses of
Cap 1 Cap 2 Cap 3 Cap 4 Cap 5 dc-link operation; an inductance, capacitance, and re-
Cap 6 Cap 7 Cap 8 Cap 9 Cap 10 sistance (LCR) meter; and an insulation resistance (IR)
and leakage current meter. The built-up system allows
FIG 12 The normalized capacitances under 55% RH and 85 °C the testing of a wide range of film capacitors for the dc-
of ten capacitors (Cap) [31]. link applications in power electronics. Specifically, for
the testing to be presented in this
article, three groups of metalized
Probability-Weibull film capacitors with the same part
99 Probability
Testing Condition - number for dc-link applications
85 °C and 85% RH CB at 90% Two Sided
– β Data 85% RH are investigated. The specifica-
Unreliability, F(t ) = 1-R(t)
F (t) = 1– e (t/n)
β = 3.6 2P-Weibull tions and testing conditions of the
50 η = 1,686 F = 10/S = 0 capacitors are given in Table 2. The
Data Points testing for Group 1, Group 2, and
Probability Line Group 3 lasts for 2,160, 2,700, and
Top CB-I 3,850 hours, respectively. The ten
10 Bottom CB-I
5
samples in both Group 1 and Group
3 testing reach the end of life, with
criteria of 5% of capacitance drop.
1 As an example, Figures 12 and 13
100 1,000 2,000 10,000 show the measured normalized ca-
Time (Hours) pacitance values (i.e., with respect
to initial capacitance value) and the
FIG 13 A Weibull plot of the testing results under 55% RH and 85 °C with 5% capaci- corresponding Weibull plot based
tance drop as the end-of-life criteria of ten capacitors [31]. on the results from Group 3 test-
ing (see Table 2). According to the
testing results, under the three dif-
Lifetime Versus RH
100,000 ferent RH levels, a humidity-depen-
Life
B10
B1 Lifetime
Lifet
Lifet
etime
time Line
Li
Linne
e dent B10 lifetime model is obtained
Coonfi
nf den
dence
50% Confidence ce Level
ce Lev
ev
vel Stress Level RH 55% Points
Eta RH 55% Point as plotted in Figure 14, with an ex-
B10 Lifetime (Hours)
Imposed pdf RH 55% ponent constant of –1.8.

10,000 Stress Level RH 70% Points
Eta RH 70% Point
Figure 14 shows a typical life-
Imposed pdf RH 70% time model for the power electronics
3,000 Stress Level RH 85% Points components (film capacitors), which
2,000 Eta RH 85% Point
Imposed pdf RH 85% reveals the relationship between
1,000
the lifetime of the component (at
L /L 0 ∝ (RH/RH0)–1.8 a certain probability of failure) and
100 the applied stress levels that will
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
trigger a certain failure mechanism.

RH (%)
Figure 15 shows another example of
FIG 14 The B10 lifetime with 50% confidence level of the specific type of film capaci-
the power semiconductor from [25],
tors versus RH levels under 85 °C and with 5% capacitance drop as the end-of-life in which the B10 lifetime (i.e., the
criteria [31]. number of cycles or time at which
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the device has 10% probability of failure) of IGBT modules

is indicated u nd e r mu l t i pl e t h e r m a l stress levels 1E+8
like thermal cycling amplitudes ∆Tj and average mean
Cycles to Failure
temperatures Tm. 1E+7
Prediction of Reliability Metrics 1E+6

for the Converter System Tm = 333 K (60 °C)
The target of this group of analyses is to map the stress 1E+5
Tm = 353 K (80 °C)
behaviors of the components to the established lifetime Tm = 373 K (100 °C)
models of component and finally acquire the reliability met- 1E+4
10 100
rics of the components as well as the system under the
ΔTj (K)
specified mission profiles and converter design.
Reliability of a Single Component FIG 15 A strength/lifetime model tested for power semiconduc-
tor component (B10 lifetime) that is dependent on average
under Certain Mission Profiles junction temperature Tm and thermal cycling amplitude ∆Tj [25].
Most of the stress behaviors of the power electronics
components translated from mission profiles fluctuate
intensively in a time series. To facilitate the use of the 100
lifetime models of components like those in Figures 14
Δ T j (°C)
and 15, which are normally based on fixed stress levels,
some presorting and precounting methods for the stress 50
of components are normally used. The rainflow counting
[32] method, which is developed and widely used for 0
civil and mechanical engineering, can be utilized to a 0 1 2 3 4 5
certain degree in the reliability modeling of power elec- Time (Minutes) × 105
80
tronics. As an example, the thermal stress shown in Fig-
ure 7 is set as an input into this algorithm, and the sort- 60
T mj (°C)
ing results are shown Figure 16, in which the randomly 40

changed thermal loadings in the time series are trans- 20
ferred to the amplitude ∆Tj and mean level Tm for each
0
identified thermal cycle. 0 1 2 3 4 5
Since the stresses from ∆Tj and Tm for each thermal Time (Minutes) × 105
cycle are identified, it is possible to map them to the lifetime
models of the components and acquire the time-to-failure FIG 16 The rainflow sorting results for the thermal stress
shown in Figure 7.
information, if the component keeps running at this stress
level. Thereby, the consumed damage D built by one of the
identified thermal cycles can simply be calculated as consumes 100% damage, i.e., fails at a certain probability,
can be calculated as
1
D= N , (4)
F @stress T
L n total = ADn total , (6)
n total
where NF@stress represents the number of cycles or time to
failure (at a certain probability) if the component is running where the Tn total represents the total time that the n stress
at the given stress level. NF@stress can be found from the life- cycles experience.
time models of components such as that shown in Figure 15.
By adding up the consumed damages from each of the Variance of Parameters and Impacts
identified thermal cycles in Figure 16, the total accumu- Besides the deterministic physics of the failure mecha-
lated damage by the n thermal cycles ADn total can be calcu- nisms, it is necessary to consider various variances in
lated according to the minor rules [33]. It assumes that the lifetime or reliability assessment for power electronic
damage by each of the stress cycles can be accumulated, components and systems. The relevant sources of vari-
and the total accumulated damage is always less than 1 ances can be classified into four categories: 1) variances in
before the component fails: environmental conditions; 2) variances in component
parameters (e.g., tolerance); 3) variances in lifetime mod-
AD n total = D 1 + D 2 + g + D n 1 1. (5) els introduced by the statistical life data analysis, as illus-
trated in the previous example of film capacitor testing;
Assuming that the component is stressed by the n stress and 4) variances in time-dependent parameters due to
cycles repeatedly, the lifetime Ln total when the component component degradation.
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lifetime model parameters and an

IGBT electrical parameter. By adding
Input Mission
Profile the variance to the parameters for reli-
ability analysis, the lifetime of compo-
PV Inverter nents is no longer a constant value but
(with Specific Topology and
Control Scheme)
is distributed in a certain range. The
details of the procedure and the case
Mission Profile study can be found in [34].
Translation
Lifetime Distribution with
Electro- Lifetime a Required Confidence Multicomponents Reliability
Lifetime Consumption Monte-
Thermal Tj, ΔTj Level (e.g., 90%)
Assessment of Converter System
Model of Carlo
Model of
IGBTs Analysis Output After the reliability (or the curve of
IGBTs
probabilities of surviving until a spe-
cific running time) of individual power
Parameter Variations electronics components under the
given mission profiles and converter
Design Iterations to Select Proper IGBT Modules for a Given
design is generated, the overall reli-
Design Specification
ability of the whole converter system
can be decided depending on the con-
FIG 17 A Monte-Carlo-based method for lifetime prediction of IGBT bond wires [34].
nection logics of the components. For
the N components connected in series
To take into account the prior variances, a Monte-Carlo- logic, the overall reliability RN_series(t) of the system can be
based method for the lifetime prediction of an IGBT module calculated as
bond wire is proposed in [34]. The flowchart of the method N
is shown in Figure 17, which is studied based on a photovol- R N_series (t) = % R x (t), (6)
x=1
taic (PV) inverter application. The IGBT bond-wire lifetime
model proposed in [35] is applied where Rx(t), which is a time-dependent variable, repre-
sents the reliability of an individual power electronics
b2
N f = ATT hj c T b2 b4 b5 b6
m t on I V D , (7) component under the given mission profiles and con-
j.min
verter design.
where ∆Tj is the junction temperature fluctuation, Tj,min is For the N components connected in parallel logic, the
the minimum junction temperature, ton is the heating time of overall reliability RN_parallel(t) of the system can be calcu-
the power cycling, V is the blocking voltage of the chip, D is lated as
the bond wire diameter, I is the current per wire, and A,
N
b 1, b 2, b 3, b 4, b 5, and b 6 are the constant parameters as dis- R N_parallel (t) = 1 - % 61 - R x (t)@ . (7)
cussed in [35]. Figure 18 shows the considered variances in x=1
1) Probability
Distribution Function
2) Sensitivity Study of Individual Parameter Variation
pdf
pdf pdf
β1 T j, min 3) Variation of All Parameters
β1 pdf β1 T j, min
pdf β2 Δ T j
Damage Damage
pdf β2 pdf
β2 ΔTj
90% CI Lifetime
pdf
Damage Damage
Vce, On
FIG 18 A step-by-step Monte-Carlo analysis of an IGBT module based on (7). b1 and b2: fitting coefficients of the applied lifetime
model; ∆Tj,min: minimum junction temperature; ∆Tj : junction temperature fluctuation; Vce,on: collector-emitter voltage; pdf: proba-
bility distribution function [34].
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In (7) it is assumed that the failure of an individual com-

ponent will have no impacts to the loading and lifetime for 30 Vw
the rest of the components in the system. However, this
(Minutes/Seconds)
25
assumption is not always true in the power electronics
Wind Speed
20
converter; in this case, a more complicated calculation for
the system reliability needs to be performed by taking into 15
account the cross-impact matrix results and the repairabil- 10
ity of the system. More details can be found in [2]. 5
0
An Example Based on a Wind Power Inverter
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
To give a review and better understanding to the introduced
approach for assessing the reliability metrics of the power
electronics converter, a simple example is demonstrated on
a wind power inverter, as detailed in [17].
A typical wind condition and wind turbine system are first 20
Ta
Ambient Temp. (°C)

determined as a study case. As shown in Figure 19, a one-year 15
wind speed and ambient temperature profile is used with
3 hours averaged at an 80-m hub height, which was collected 10
from a wind farm located near Thyborøn, Denmark, with lati- 5
tude 56.71° and longitude 8.20°. The chosen hub wind speed
belongs to the wind class IEC I with average wind speed of 0
8.5–10 minutes/seconds [35], [36], and a 2.0-MW wind turbine –5
[37] is chosen to fit the given wind condition.
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
With respect to the wind power converter, the most
frequently selected two-level back-to-back voltage source Time (Hours)
converter is chosen, as shown in Figure 20. Only the grid-
side converter is chosen as a case study, whose param- FIG 19 The one-year mission profile of wind speed and ambi-
eters are designed according to Table 3, which is a state- ent temperature from a wind farm (3-hour average).
of-the-art configuration for the two-level wind power
converter. The generator-side converter can share the
similar approach for the analysis.
In Figure 21, a simplified diagram for the analysis of 1.1 kVdc
the given inverter is shown, where multidisciplinary mod-
els like the wind turbine, generator, converter, loss, and Generator IGBT 690 Vrms
thermal impedance of the power devices are all included
to map the reliability of the device with the mission pro-
Filter Grid
file of the wind turbines as well as the strength model Wind
of component. Based on the given mission profiles and Turbine
converter designs, the thermal loading of the power semi- 2L 2L
Converter Converter
conductor device and the rainflow counting results have
already been shown in Figures 7 and 16, respectively.
FIG 20 A wind power converter for lifetime estimation.
In this demonstration, the lifetime model provided by
[38] is used. The total one-year consumed B10 lifetime of the
IGBT module is shown in Figure 22, in which three failure
mechanisms like the crack of baseplate soldering (B solder, Table 3. The parameters of the wind power
caused by case temperature cycling), crack of chip solder- converter in Figure 20.
ing (C solder, caused by junction temperature cycling), and Rated output active power P0 2 MW
bond-wire lift-off (bond wire, caused by junction tempera- dc bus voltage Vdc 1.1 kVdc
ture cycling) are illustrated. The temperature cycling on the
*Rated primary side voltage Vp 690 Vrms
chip soldering (C solder) consumes more lifetime (i.e., is
Rated load current 1.93 kArms
quicker to failure) than the other two failure mechanisms.
It is worth mentioning that this lifetime result reflects only Fundamental frequency fa 50 Hz
those influenced by long-term thermal cycles with a period Switching frequency./’. 1,950 Hz
longer than 3 hours. Filter inductance Lf 132 μH [(0.2 p.u.)]
The quantified reliability metrics based on the mission *Line-to-line voltage in the primary windings of a transformer.
profiles and converter design are very useful information,
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Wind Ambient Lifetime

Speeds Temp. Model
Vw TA Strength of Device
Control Electric Thermal Thermal
Turbine and Ref. Control and Parameter
Device Loss Thermal Stress Rainflow Cycles Reliability Lifetime
Generator Electrical Impedance
Loss Model Counting Mapping
Models Models Model
FIG 21 A flow diagram used for the lifetime prediction of power devices with the given wind power inverter and mission profiles.
About the Authors

1.0 Ke Ma (kema@sjtu.edu.cn)
____________ received his B.Sc. and M.Sc.
0.9 degrees from the Zhejiang University, China, in 2007 and
0.8
0.8
Lifetime/Year (%)
2010, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree from Aalborg

Consumed B10
0.7
University, Denmark, in 2013, where he was an assistant pro-
0.6
0.5 fessor and a work package leader with the Center of Reliable
0.37 Power Electronics from 2014 to 2016. He was with Vestas
0.4
0.3 Wind Systems A/S, Denmark, in 2015. In 2016, he joined the
0.2 faculty of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, under the
0.1
0.018 Thousand Talents Plan Program for Young Professionals. His
0.0
B Solder C Solder Bond Wire research interests include the modeling and enhancement of
power electronics reliability in the application of renewable
FIG 22 The consumed B10 lifetime of IGBT by long-term ther- energy production and motor drive systems. Since 2014, he
mal cycles for one year (lifetime models from [38] are used, only has served as an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on
considering thermal cycles ranging from 3 hours to one year, B
Industry Applications and was the recipient of several prize
solder means base plate solder, C solder means chip solder).
paper awards from the IEEE. He is a Member of the IEEE.
Huai Wang (hwa@et.aau.dk)
_________ received his B.E. degree from
enabling evaluation of the influence of the converter opera- Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China,
tions/designs on the reliability performance of the system. in 2007 and his Ph.D. degree from City University of Hong Kong
The reliability metrics can also be used to guide the design in 2012. He is currently an associate professor and a work pack-
targets and maintenance schedules of products—leading to age leader with the Center of Reliable Power Electronics, Aal-
cost reductions in energy use. borg University, Denmark. His research addresses the funda-
mental challenges in modeling and validation of the failure
Conclusions mechanisms of active and passive power electronic compo-
Reliability engineering research on power electronics is nents and application issues in system-level predictability, cir-
currently undergoing a paradigm shift to a more cuit architecture, and robustness design. He contributed the
physics-of-failure approach, which provides a better first few concept papers in the area of power electronics reli-
understanding of failure causes and better assessment/ ability, filed four patents in capacitive dc-link inventions, and
design for the reliability performance of converter sys- coedited a book. He was with the ABB Corporate Research
tems. However, the modeling and testing methods, as well Center, Switzerland, in 2009. He received the IEEE Power Elec-
as the analyzing tools, for power electronics need to be tronics Society Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power
updated and further integrated to enable this paradigm Electronics Engineer Award in 2016. He has been an associate
shift. This article gives an overview of the new design flow editor of IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics since 2015.
in the reliability engineering of power electronics and dis- Frede Blaabjerg (fbl@et.aau.dk)
_________ received his Ph.D.
cusses some of the emerging methods in this field. A new degree from Aalborg University, Denmark. He was with ABB-
analysis flow is discussed and demonstrated, with the Scandia, Randers, Denmark, from 1987 to 1988. His research
introduction to the multidisciplinary/multitime scale simu- interests include power electronics and their applications such
lations, strength modeling of components, translation of as in wind turbines, photovoltaic systems, reliability, harmon-
mission profiles, and statistical analysis of parameters. ics, and adjustable speed drives. He has received 17 IEEE prize
Much more work has to be done in the future—not only on paper awards, the IEEE Power Electronics Society Distin-
the modeling side but also in terms of testing and valida- guished Service Award in 2009, the International Power Elec-
tion of the new methods. Finally, turning the methods into tronics and Motion Control Conference Council Award in 2010,
a more physics-based approach will enable a more the IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award in 2014,
advanced health management system of future products. and the Villum Kann Rasmussen Research Award in 2014. He
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was an editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Power Elec- [18] K. Ma, Y. Yang, and F. Blaabjerg, “Transient modelling of loss and ther-
tronics from 2006 to 2012. He was nominated in 2014 and 2015 mal dynamics in power semiconductor devices” in Proc. IEEE Energy Con-
by Thomson Reuters to be among the 250 most cited research- version Congr. Exposition (ECCE), Nov. 2014, pp. 5495–5510.
ers in engineering in the world. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. [19] A. Bahman, K. Ma, P. Ghimire, F. Iannuzzo, and F. Blaabjerg, “A 3D
lumped thermal network model for long-term load profiles analysis in high
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[2] P. O’Connor and A. Kleyner, Practical Reliability Engineering, 5th ed. [21] W. B. Nelson, Accelerated Testing—Statistical Models, Test Plans, and
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[3] H. Wang, H. Chung, F. Blaabjerg, and M. Pecht, “Reliability engineering [22] General Motors Corporation Handbook GMW8758. Calibrated Acceler-
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[8] S. Faulstich, P. Lyding, B. Hahn, and P. Tavner, “Reliability of offshore IGBT modules in high-temperature power cycling,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Elec-
turbines–identifying the risk by onshore experience,” presented at the Euro- tron., vol. 58, no. 10, pp. 4931–4941, Oct. 2011.
pean Offshore Wind, Stockholm, Sweden, 2009. [28] A. Hutzler, F. Zeyss, S. Vater, and L. M. Maerz, “Power cycling commu-
[9] L. M. Moore and H. N. Post, “Five years of operating experience at a nity 1995–2014—An overview of test results over the last 20 years,” Bodo’s
large, utility-scale photovoltaic generating plant,” J. Prog. Photovolt. Res. Power Systems, no. 05–14, pp. 78–81, May 2014.
Appl, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 249–259, 2008. [29] P. Ghimire, “Real time monitoring and wear out of power modules,”
[10] E. Wolfgang, “Examples for failures in power electronics systems,” Ph.D. dissertation, Aalborg Univ., Denmark, Sept. 2015.
presented at the ECPE Tutorial on Reliability of Power Electronic Systems, [30] U. Choi, S. Jørgensen, and F. Blaabjerg, “Advanced accelerated power
Nuremberg, Germany, Apr. 2007. cycling test for reliability investigation of power device modules,” IEEE
[11] S. Yang, A. T. Bryant, P. A. Mawby, D. Xiang, L. Ran, and P. Tavner, “An Trans. Power Electron., vol. 31, no. 12, pp. 8371–8386, Dec. 2016.
industry-based survey of reliability in power electronic converters,” IEEE [31] H. Wang, P. Reigosa, and F. Blaabjerg, “A humidity-dependent lifetime
Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 1441–1451, May/June 2011. derating factor for DC film capacitors” in Proc. IEEE Energy Conversion
[12] M. Ciappa, “Selected failure mechanisms of modern power modules,” Congr. and Exposition, Sept. 2015, pp. 3064–3068.
Microelectron. Rel., vol. 42, no. 4–5, pp. 653–667, Apr.-May 2002. [32] A. Nieslony, “Determination of fragments of multiaxial service loading
[13] H. Wang and F. Blaabjerg, “Reliability of capacitors for dc-link applica- strongly influencing the fatigue of machine components,” Mech. Syst. Signal
tions in power electronic converters—An overview,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Process., vol. 23, no. 8, pp. 2712–2721, 2009.
Appl., vol. 50, no. 5, pp. 3569–3578, Sept.–Oct. 2014. [33] M. A. Miner, “Cumulative damage in fatigue,” J. Appl. Mech., vol. 12, pp.
[14] J. Due, S. Munk-Nielsen, and R Nielsen, “Lifetime investigation of high A159–A164, 1945.
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Applications 2011, Birmingham, U.K. wire fatigue of IGBTs in a PV inverter under a long-term operation,” IEEE
[15] C. Busca, R. Teodorescu, F. Blaabjerg, S. Munk-Nielsen, L. Helle, T. Abey- Trans. Power Electron., vol. 31, no. 10, pp. 7171–7182, Oct. 2016.
asekera, and P. Rodriguez, “An overview of the reliability prediction related [35] R. Bayerer, T. Hermann, T. Licht, J. Lutz, and M. Feller, “Model for power
aspects of high power IGBTs in wind power applications,” Microelectron. cycling lifetime of IGBT Modules—Various factors influencing lifetime,” presented
Rel., vol. 51, no. 9–11, pp. 1903–1907, 2011. at the Int. Conf. Integrated Power Systems (CIPS), Nuremberg, Germany, 2008.
[16] K. Ma and F. Blaabjerg, “Multi-timescale modelling for the loading [36] Wikipedia. (June 2013). IEC 61400. [Online]. Available: http://
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behaviors of power electronics converter” in Proc. IEEE Energy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_61400#cite_note-woeb-1
_________________________
Conversion Congr. Exposition (ECCE), 2015, pp. 5749–5756. [37] Vestas Wind Power. (June 2013). Wind turbines classes. [Online]. Avail-
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and lifetime estimation for power device considering mission profiles [38] J. Berner, “Load-cycling capability of HiPak IGBT modules,” ABB Appli-
in wind power converter,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron, vol. 30, no. 2, cation Note 5SYA 2043-02, 2012.
pp. 590–602, 2015.
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by Krishna Shenai,
Ashok Jhunjhunwala,
and Prabhjot Kaur
Using solar
dc microgrids
A
ccording to a recent report by
the International Energy
Agency [1], although India
is the second most popu-
lous country on earth, it
ranks far behind other countries in
terms of per capita electricity con-
sumption and carbon footprint. As
shown in Table 1, India is well below
the world average in both per capita
Electrifying
electricity consumption and carbon
footprint indices. However, with an
ambitious plan for rapid growth and
economic development, India is poised
to quickly increase its carbon footprint
and become a major contributor to
preventing global climate change.
India also ranks at the bottom of a
list of countries in terms of per cap-
ita residential electricity usage (see
India
Figure 1) [2]. This may be largely due
to other forms of energy being used
in Indian residences, as shown in Table 2 [3]. As India programs with a focus on increasing motor efficiency are
develops, more rural areas are electrified, and more elec- implemented simultaneously, not much progress can be
tricity will be used in residences in both urban and rural made in reducing the energy intensity of an economy.
settings. The average American or Canadian household in
2010 used about 40 times more electricity than the typical What Is the Solution?
Indian household and two to three times more than a typi- Today, electricity consumption accounts for more than 40%
cal European home. More than 65% of the electricity used of greenhouse gases in India. As India develops, the per cap-
in Indian residential applications is consumed for heat- ita electricity consumption is expected to increase rapidly,
ing/cooling and lighting (see Figure 2) [4]. Nearly 60% of and with all other human activities taking place, greenhouse
electricity is used to power motors in residential applica- gas levels are likely to go up drastically. Realizing this grave
tions. In almost all major economies of the world, motors danger, the Indian government has taken important steps in
invariably consume more than 60% of overall electricity generating electricity from clean and renewable sources.
used. Unless energy efficiency and renewable energy Today, among the alternate sources of energy, nuclear, solar,
and wind are preferred for conditions in India.
With the increased harvesting of green energy from
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 renewable clean sources comes the daunting challenge
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always constructed to easily accommodate solar

panels and the electricity infrastructure. An attrac-
tive solution is to locally utilize the generated dc
electricity in its nascent form with minimal energy
conversion [5], [6].
Another problem is that India faces load shed-
ding for 1–2 hours a day in most of its cities. In
some smaller cities, power cuts can be as long as
8 hours per day. Most multistoried buildings have
diesel generators (DGs) installed to provide backup
power. Some others provide the backup using an
uninterrupted power supply (UPS) that uses a
battery backup. The commonly used battery is a
valve-regulated lead acid one because of its much
lower capital cost. The tariff for electricity begins
at INR 5 per unit (US$1 = INR 68) but could be 60%
higher for commercial establishments. The cost of
power using DG sets or battery backup is about four
times as much. The diesel used in DG sets pollutes
the environment, but the multistoried complexes do
not have any other alternatives for providing
energy at present.
The implementation of dc power distribution
combined with rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) pan-
els is a viable solution to overcome the current prob-
lem of providing uninterruptible electricity to build-
ings at much lower cost. The main benefits of using
dc power distribution are
1) significant energy savings because of a reduced
number of energy conversion (ac to dc and vice
versa) processes
2) savings of between 20 and 50% of electricity with
dc electrical loads, such as light-emitting diode
(LED) lights, fans with brushless dc motors, and
other dc-powered electronics, compared to ac-
powered appliances, such as compact fluores-
cent lamp (CFL) lighting and induction motors
connected with ac adapters.
©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/HARVEPINO The net electricity savings are substantial. A
reduction in the size of the solar PV panels used
of efficient utilization at a low cost with high reliability. and the battery needed lowers the capital costs. Because
The obvious method to integrate clean energy sources countries like India have high interest rates for capital
with the existing ac utility infrastructure is to directly deployed (over 12% per year), this cost reduction changes
feed the harvested energy into the
ac grid with minimal perturbation.
Table 1. The electricity usage and CO2 emissions
However, this traditional approach
– in major world economies in 2014 [1].
may be difficult to implement be -
cause of heavy grid congestion, Per Capita KWhr Per Capita CO2 Total CO2 Emission
grid instability, excessive power Country/Item Consumption Emission in Tons in Million Tons
loss, and exorbitant infrastructure India 760 1.58 1,954
and maintenance costs. The prob- China 3,475 6.08 8,206
lem is particularly acute in devel- Germany 7,138 9.22 755
oping countries like India where United States 12,947 16.15 5,074
cultural and societal concerns are Japan 7,753 9.59 1,223
often overwhelming. In addition, World average 2,972 4.51 31,734
buildings and communities are not
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4,714
4,517
5,000
4,500
4,000
2,883
3,500
2,691
3,000
2,241
1,985
2,500
1,731
1,530
2,000
1,157
1,500
930
844
731
548
1,000
433
449
131
500
74
0
Brazil
Nigeria
India
China
Mexico
World Average
South Africa
Russia
Italy
Spain
Germany
United Kingdom
Japan
France
United States
Canada
Australia
FIG 1 The per capita residential electricity usage in kilowatt hours per year for major world economies in 2010 [2].
the economics of deployment substantially. At the same connecting to 2.5-kW peak solar PV, 2.5-kW grid power, and
time, the lower power consumption in dc appliances a battery of 15 kWh, can drive up to 3-kW dc loads on a dc
reduces the overall electricity drawn from the grid. power line at 48 V. Such a system could provide backup
power in multistoried buildings like apartment complexes,
dc Solar Power Installations office buildings, schools, and hospitals. Two of the deploy-
We have implemented several dc solar PV power systems in ments, discussed next, illustrate the advantages of such
India. A solar dc system, the Inverterless-2500, capable of a system.
High School Deployment

Table 2. The all-India per household per month One of the deployments was in a high
– consumption of energy [3].
school. The building has 12 class-
Rural Urban rooms, as shown in Figure 3. Each
classroom has six tube lights and
Energy Sources Quantity Value (INR ) Quantity Value (INR )
four fans, and the corridors and stair-
Coke (kg) 69.78 224.7 60.7 250.13
cases have four tube lights and 14
Firewood and chips (kg) 118.02 307.57 89.42 281.07
bulbs. Previously, the school had CFL
Electricity (kWh) 60.35 176.04 124.62 435.29
lights and induction motor fans. The
Dung cake (unit) — 155.8 — 149.78
lights and fans were always on for
Kerosene—public distribution 2.8 44.41 3.27 49.89
about 8 hours during the school day.
system (liter)
Kerosene—other sources (liter) 2.3 65.96 4.72 161.8
The school was powered by the grid
Matches (box) 8.38 8.26 6.35 6.38
(230 Vac) and faced 2–3 hours of load
Coal (kg) 55.1 177.74 65.95 285.94
shedding every day. The power con-
Liquefied petroleum gas 8.69 259.39 12.37 363.76 sumption was a little over 50 kWh per
(excluding conveyance, in kg) day (with average electricity tariff
Charcoal (kg) 21.35 141.22 17.29 170.24 being INR 265 per day during school
Candle (number) 6.46 16.27 5.77 16.3 days), and load shedding was impact-
Gobar gas (kg) — 284.83 — 95.64 ing the school performance. The
Petrol (liter) 5.26 355.68 11.2 746.02 school was contemplating the use of
Diesel (liter) 3.03 127.48 3.73 155.36 a standard inverter-based UPS, han-
Other fuel (kg) — 94.73 — 65.79 dling up to 4 hours of power cuts.
Taking into account linear depreciation
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of a UPS during its lifetime and an

interest rate of 12%, the electricity
costs would have tripled if there 10% 7%
were 4-hour load shedding. Instead,
4% Air-Conditioning
the school opted for a solar PV dc
system with Inverterless-2500 and Fans
1.2-kW peak solar PV panels Evaporative Cooler
mounted on the rooftop with a bat- Refrigeration
34%
tery of 9.6 kWh at a total investment 28% Lighting
of INR 200,000, as shown in Fig-
ure 3. The school changed all lights TV
and fans to dc-powered appliances. Other
Costs of these dc appliances was 4%
13%
another INR 180,000, with the costs
for dc fans being 20% higher than
that of ac fans and the costs of dc-
powered LED lights being three FIG 2 The typical energy consumption in the residential sector in India in 2010 [4].
times that of CFL lights today (the
additional costs due to dc appliances
worked out to be INR 50,000). Wiring
Solar Panels
changes were not required, as the 1.2-kW Peak
1.5-mm copper wire, used for ac,
could be used for 48 Vdc because the
Wired/Wireless Interface for Power
power consumption for dc appliances Management and Remote Monitoring
is lower. The cable loss for the far- Inverterless
thest ac appliance with ac wiring was Grid
assumed to be 2%, which went up to Classroom
One
5% for the farthest dc appliance. This Corridors
Cloud Classroom
was found to be acceptable, as most Battery Two Four Tube Lights,
appliances were closer to the dc solar 48 V/9.6 kWh 14 LED Bulbs
PV system, where the losses did not Classroom 12
exceed 2%, even for dc appliances. Each Classroom with
The system has been operational Six Tube Lights and Four Fans
since March 2016.
Figure 4 compares the costs FIG 3 A solar-powered 48-Vdc power distribution system implemented in a school
(including depreciation and finance in India.
costs) per day, when the school is
fully operational, for the ac and dc systems, without
Electricity Cost/Day in INR ( )
considering the costs of appliances. The grid-power 1,200 1,142

cost was assumed to be INR 5 per unit of power, the ac dc
1,000 943
solar dc power cost was a bit over INR 4 per unit when
a battery was not involved, and a battery added INR 800 751
12 per unit cost. The advantage is greater for the 600 549
dc system, which keeps increasing as the number of
400 301 341
hours of load shedding increases. The additional costs 265 248
181
for dc appliances could be recovered in fewer than 18 200 107
months (considering 225 school days in a year), even 0
if there were no power cut; but in case of 4-hour power 0 2 4 6 8
Load Shedding in Hours/Day
cuts, the additional costs could be recovered in about
six months.
FIG 4 The comparison of electricity costs per day for ac and dc
power systems in an Indian school.
Powering a Low-Income
Apartment Building
The Inverterless-2500 was also deployed for a new building Table 3. Only dc-powered appliances were chosen. The corri-
with 24 apartments meant for low-income families. Each apart- dors have 36 tube lights and 36 bulbs, each operating for 8
ment has a load and corresponding usage hours as shown in hours. Apartments have to share the costs of common areas.
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(when the sun was available) and half in the evening.

Table 3. The electrical loads and their usage
in each apartment block. Also, the load was not limited to daytime but assumed to
be distributed over 24 hours, peaking once close to noon
Number of Operational and again at 8 p.m., as is typical in Indian homes. Figure
Device Numbers Hours/Day 6 shows the huge cost advantage that a solar-powered
Tube lights 2 6 dc system provides over the uninterrupted power in an
Fans 2 12 ac apartment. Once again, the advantage becomes more
Bulbs 4 8 pronounced as load shedding increases. However, the
Phone 1 8 gain here for a solar dc system is not as sharp as for the
TV 1 10 high school project case (as seen as the ratio of costs for
0-hour and 8-hour load shedding in the two cases). This
is because the usage and load shedding
in apartments are more distributed as
compared to that in the case of the high
Remote Buzzer
and Meter
school, where the load, the load shed-
Solar 48 Vdc ding, and the sun hours coincide.
Power Wired or
2.5 kW Wireless
Interface
Moving Forward
Inverterless- As India develops, we expect clean
Grid 2,500
renewable energy to power not just
homes and buildings but also larger
communities. For larger communities,
Battery we propose a scalable green energy
9.6 kWh infrastructure in which a 380-Vdc power
Cloud
bus is used for local electricity transmis-
Up to 24 Apartments sion and distribution (see Figure 7).
Highly efficient dc motors with zero
FIG 5 A solar-powered dc microgrid implemented on the rooftop of an apartment starting currents and an innovative local
building in India.
intelligent power management technol-
ogy form the core of this unique energy
infrastructure. The electricity generated
80 from solar PV panels is used first; excess
73.0
Electricity Cost /Day in INR ( )
ac dc energy generated is fed back to the ac

70
61.5 utility grid using a grid-tie inverter. The
60 proposed power system architecture
50 minimizes the energy storage require-
43.6
40 34.9 ment and leads to lowest cost. The same
30 25.3 wiring is used for distributing electricity
19.9 23.2 from the ac grid, and energy conversion
20 14.4
9.1 11.7 takes place at the appliance level to min-
10 imize cost and increase energy effi-
0 ciency. In the long run, the solar PV dc
0 2 4 6 8 power system is more efficient and less
Load Shedding in Hours/Day expensive than the conventional grid-
tied solar power system. The typical pay-
FIG 6 The comparison of electricity costs per day for ac and dc power systems in a back period to recover the initial instal-
low-income apartment building in India.
lation and maintenance cost may range
from five to eight years. Pilot demonstra-
A 2.5-kW peak solar PV panel was installed on the tions of 380-V solar dc microgrids are currently under way
roof of the apartment building with a 9.6-kWh battery, as in many parts of India. The proposed system is scalable to
shown in Figure 5. The tariff and the costs of the solar higher power levels, and other clean energy sources can be
dc power system and battery were the same as that for integrated with ease.
the high school project. In Figure 6, the daily electricity Perhaps one of the greatest challenges of the 21st cen-
costs for the dc apartment are compared to the costs for tury is the electrification of villages, where nearly 20% of
the ac apartment. The difference is that the load shed- the global population resides [7]. Furthermore, around
ding, if any, was assumed to occur half in the daytime 1.3 billion people worldwide don’t have any access to
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electricity. Low-voltage dc (LVdc) and

its associated technologies offer the
potential to deliver safe, efficient, ac Grid
415 V, 50 Hz,
and green electricity to many of them.
3 φ, 200 A Vac
In India, a draft LVdc standard of 48 V
approved by the Bureau of Indian 380 Vdc
Standards (BIS) is being finalized Battery Charger
for implementation [8]. Some 4,000 dc Appliances
homes already have 48-Vdc electricity — Fans
— Air Conditioners
380 Vdc
infrastructure deployed [6]. A 380-Vdc — Refrigerators
standard is currently being developed — Lights
by BIS for deployment in large build- ac Appliances
LVdc Loads
ings and communities. — Computers HVdc Loads
Coal, which currently provides the — Communication Equipment — Computer Server
— Other Loads — EV Charger
largest share of energy for world elec-
tricity generation in the International
Energy Outlook 2016 (IEO2016) ref- FIG 7 The proposed scalable dc power system for green sustainable buildings and
communities in India.
erence case (see Figure 8), declines
from 40% of total generation in 2012
to 29% in 2040 [9]. In addition, if the U.S. Clean Power Plan
(CPP) were included in the projections, the coal share of 40
world generation would be 28% in 2040. The liquid fuels
share of total generation also falls in the IEO2016 reference 30
case, as other fuels are substituted for higher-priced liquids
in the power generation sector. The liquids share of total
generation falls from 5% in 2012 to less than 2% in 2040. Nat- 20
ural gas and renewable energy sources account for increas-
ing shares of total generation, with the natural gas share
10
growing from 22% in 2012 to 28% in 2040 and the renewable
share growing from 22% in 2012 to 29% in 2040. If the U.S.
CPP were included, the renewable share of world genera- 0
tion would increase to 30% in 2040. 2012 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040
The IEO2016 reference case also projects significant
Renewables Natural Gas
growth in worldwide energy demand over the 28-year Nuclear Coal
period from 2012 to 2040 [9]. Total world consump- Liquids
tion of marketed energy expands from 549 quadrillion
British thermal units (BTUs) in 2012 to 629 quadrillion FIG 8 The world net electricity generation by energy source,
BTUs in 2020 and to 815 quadrillion BTUs in 2040— 2012–2040 [9].
a 48% increase from 2012 to 2040 (see Figure 9). The
IEO2016 reference case assumes known technolo-
gies and technological and demographic trends, generally
reflects the effects of current policies, and does not antici- History Projections
pate new policies that have not been announced. As can be 1,000
seen from Figure 9, some 83% growth is projected for elec- Non-OECD OECD
tricity consumption in Asia, of which China and India rep- 800
resent major consumers due to increased human activities
600
and population growth.
A decentralized low-cost clean energy infrastructure
400
with high energy efficiency is the key to address this prob-
lem. The overall energy efficiency may be further increased
200
by replacing the conventional silicon-based power con-
verters with more efficient wide-bandgap (WBG) power 0
converters [10] (see Figure 10). The state-of-the-art single- 1990 2000 2012 2020 2030 2040
chip silicon insulated gate bipolar transistors are rated to
handle up to 8 kV in the blocking state and can conduct FIG 9 The non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Devel-
a maximum current density of about 150 A/cm2 at room opment (OECD) energy consumption by region, 1990–2040 [10].
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sultant to Nitte Education Trust in Mangaluru, Karnataka,

India, and an adjunct professor of electrical engineering and
On-State Current computer science at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illi-
Density (A/cm2) nois. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the
600
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and
WBG the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engi-
Semiconductors neers (India), and he received a University Scholar Award
150 from the University of Illinois. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Silicon
i n g z) Ashok Jhunjhunwala (ashok@tenet.res.in)
____________ is an insti-
h k H 0 8 80
w itc cy ( Blocking Voltage (kV) tute professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
S e n 20
u Madras, Chennai. He started his career at Washington State
eq 40
Fr University, Pullman, in 1979 and moved to IIT Madras in
1981, with a dream to bring change in his nation through
technological innovations. He leads the telecommunications
FIG 10 A schematic illustration of silicon and WBG power
electronics application potential. and computer networks group that works with industry in
the development of telecom, banking, information technolo-
temperature. On the other hand, single-chip WBG power gy, power systems (including solar), and electrical vehicle
semiconductor devices made on silicon carbide and gal- technologies and products relevant to India, with a special
lium nitride have the potential for safe operation with much focus on rural technologies. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
higher blocking voltages and on-state current densities Prabhjot Kaur (prabhjot@tenet.res.in)
_____________ is a principal sci-
(see Figure 10). Superior electrical and thermal perfor- entist, Department of Electrical Engineering, and also serves
mances of WBG power devices also offer an opportunity as deputy director, Telecom Centre of Excellence at the Indi-
for dramatic energy savings in silicon-based power elec- an Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. She has been an
tronic appliances provided careful application engineering academician for 12 years, working as an associate professor
methods are employed with advanced system integration and deputy dean (research, development, and industrial liai-
and thermal management technologies. Higher switching son) at NorthCap University, Gurgaon, India. Her interests
frequencies possible with WBG power devices compared to include batteries, electric vehicles, and communication.
silicon may also lead to smaller power converters with lower
costs. However, at a higher switching frequency, the safe on- References
state current density for a given blocking voltage capability [1] International Energy Agency. (2015). 2015 key world energy statistics.
is reduced because of increased switching losses. Our pro- International Energy Agency. Paris, France. [Online]. Available: www.iea.org
posed power system shown in Figure 7 has the potential to [2] Average household electricity use around the world. (n.d.). [Online].
adequately address the daunting challenges presented by Available: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/average-household-electricity-
global warming that are critically hindering human devel- consumption
_______
opment, especially in emerging economies. To rapidly pro- [3] Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Energy Statistics
mote a solar PV-based dc distribution concept to realize net- 2013. New Delhi: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation,
zero-energy green buildings and communities in developing Government of India, 2013.
economies, we organized a new conference in India that was [4] Global Buildings Performance Network, “Residential buildings in India:
held 18–20 December 2016. Details may be found at ____ http:// Energy use projections and savings potentials,” GBPN, 2014.
www.sgbcconf.org.
____________ [5] R. Singh and K. Shenai. (2014, Feb. 6). DC microgrids and the virtues of
local electricity. IEEE Spectr. [Online]. Available: http://spectrum.ieee.org/
Acknowledgment green-tech/buildings/dc-microgrids-and-the-virtues-of-local-electricity
__________________________________
We are indebted to Aditya Lolla for assisting in the perfor- [6] A. Jhunjhunwala, A. Lolla, and P. Kaur, “Solar-dc microgrid for Indian
mance and cost analyses of installed dc solar PV power sys- homes: A transforming power scenario,” IEEE Electrific. Mag., vol. 4, no. 2,
tems in India. pp. 10–19, June 2016.
[7] G. A. Jiminez-Estevez, R. Palma-Behnke, D. Ortiz-Villalba, O. N. Mata, and
About the Authors C. S. Montes, “It takes a village: Rural electrification in East Africa,” IEEE
Krishna Shenai (kshenai@nitte.edu.in)
_____________ earned his B.Tech. Power Energy Mag., vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 60–69, July–Aug. 2014.
degree in electronics from the Indian Institute of Technolo- [8] Bureau of Indian Standards. [Online]. Available: www.bis.org.in
gy Madras, Chennai, in 1979; his M.S. degree in electrical [9] U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2016, May). International ener-
engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, gy outlook 2016. U.S. Energy Information Administration. Washington, D.C.
in 1981; and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from [Online]. Available: http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/ieo/world.cfm
Stanford University, California, in 1986. He is a distin- [10] K. Shenai, “Future prospects of wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor
guished professor and director of research and develop- power switching devices,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 62, no. 2, pp.
ment at Nitte Mahalinga Adyanthaya Memorial Institute of 248–257, Feb. 2015.
Technology, Nitte, Karnataka State, India. He is also a con-
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Society News
by Ashok Bindra
ECCE Charts Future Course

for Energy Conversion
S
ince its inception in 2009, the Rockwell Automation’s chief execu-
IEEE Energy Conversion Con- tive officer and president, Blake
gress and Exposition (ECCE) Moret. His talk, “Intelligent Motor
has grown impressively, which was evi- Control in a Connected Enterprise,”
dent this year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, emphasized the benefits of connectivi-
where the eighth annual conference ty and leveraging information from
was held 18–22 September. With more control processes to minimize
than 1,500 attendees from around the unscheduled downtime and save the
globe, ECCE 2016 offered 925 technical industry billions of dollars. The talk
presentations selected from an all-time presented Rockwell Automation’s
record-high 1,717 digests submitted by vision for smart manufacturing, which
engineers and professionals, represent- includes smart plants, smart machines,
ing 42 countries. and smart devices that can automati-
Concurrently, there were 60 exhibi- FIG 1 ECCE 2016 General Chair John Shen cally reconfigure in the field. With
tors this year, representing numerous welcoming the conference attendees. remote monitoring of distributed pro-
components vendors, design tools sup- cesses using virtual support engineers,
pliers, and makers of test and measure- Moret is hoping to prevent undesired
ment instruments. While exhibitors In welcoming the attendees, the downtime. In essence, he suggested
showcased their cutting-edge tech- conference general chair, Prof. John that future-proof facilities will lever-
nologies, products, and solutions, the Shen (Figure 1), stated, “ECCE pro- age intelligent motor control.
students demonstrated novel designs vides a unique opportunity to en- The second speaker, Prof. Mas-
with prototypes, and the researchers gineers, researchers, students, and soud Amin of the University of Min-
presented poster papers on the same other professionals from the broad nesota and the IEEE Smart Grid
exhibit floor, creating a highly interac- spectrum of energy conversion for ex- chair, gave a presentation, “Future
tive networking environment. change of technical knowledge, net- of the Smart Grid.” With the cost of
With sponsorship for the con- working, and exposure to the latest renewables falling drastically and
ference coming from some of the technology trends.” production increasing rapidly, Prof.
world’s leaders in energy conversion, Amin sees microgrids playing a key
industry support for ECCE is getting Plenary Talks role in integrating wind and solar
stronger year after year. Corporate Cosponsored by the IEEE Power power into the smart grid. While talk-
supporters this year included Wolong Electronics Society (PELS) and the ing about the grid of the future, he
Electric Group, ABB, Danfoss, Eaton, IEEE Industry Applications Society shed some light on predicting the pre-
General Motors, Rockwell Automation, (IAS), the conference kicked off with cursors to outages and utility prob-
Delta Group, Halla Mechatronics, and a series of plenary talks, chaired by lems and transforming the current in-
Keysight Technologies. Prof. Kaushik Rajashekara of the Uni- frastructure into a self-healing smart
versity of Houston, Texas, and Prof. grid. In his concluding remarks, Amin
Iqbal Hussain of North Carolina State told attendees to think of a grid as a
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 University. The first speaker was value resource.
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Power-Safe
In the third presentation of the plenary session, Ea-
ton’s global technology manager, Igor Stamenkovic,
who spoke in place of Michael Regelski, said that power
management in the age of data requires a different ap-
proach. The talk, “Optimized Power Management Using
Data Analytics,” suggested using predictive analytics in
data centers to indicate device health and failure prob-
ability and reduce unplanned downtime.
Prof. Arun Majumdar of Stanford University and for-
mer founding director of the U.S. Energy Department’s
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy presented
“Options to Create a Sustainable Energy Future.” For a
sustainable energy future, Prof. Majumdar is looking at
carbon-free electricity for the next decades with more
than 50% renewables contributing to the integrated grid.
With the growing penetration of renewables in the next
decades, the challenge is how to minimize the cost of
integration, he said.
In the last presentation of the session, China’s
Guangfu Tang, vice president of Global Energy Inter-
connection Research Institute, gave the talk “HVDC
Research and Development in China.” Tang presented
developments in high-voltage, dc (HVDC)-based online
commutated converter, voltage sourced converter, and
®
modular multilevel converter topologies. In addition, he
also disclosed ultra-HVDC (UHVDC) projects under-
way to address large-scale power transmission in Chi-
NC-SMQ 75
na. In fact, Tang’s presentation showed that China has
progressed from ±800-kV UHVDC transmission lines
Die-Attach Solder Paste
to ±1,100-kV UHVDC links, and a number of ±1,100-kV t1PXFS4BGF OPDMFBO
JODMJQCPOE
UHVDC projects have been commissioned in China. BQQMJDBUJPOT
Silicon Carbide Applications t-PXWPJEJOHXJUITNBMMEJF YNN
From 12 tutorials to 925 technical sessions and seven t/PWPJEJOHPSEFMBNJOBUJPOGSPNnVYJO

special seminars as well as two town hall debates and a DPOUBDUXJUIPWFSNPMEJOHDPNQPVOE
variety of novel products and technologies displayed in
the exhibit booths, ECCE offered attendees a clear t6MUSBMPXSFTJEVF XXPGQBTUF
picture of where power electronics was heading with key

technology trends shaping its course going forward.
ECCE showed the challenges ahead that must be over- $POUBDUPVSUFDIOJDBMFOHJOFFSTUPEBZ
come to solve emerging problems facing a variety of
techsupport@indium.com
____________________
applications from the integrated smart grid to wide-band-
gap (WBG) devices and advanced electrical machines. -FBSONPSF
The practical implementation of silicon carbide (SiC) XXXJOEJVNDPNNCSMQ75/IEEE
___________________________
MOSFETs for industrial applications was the topic of dis-
cussion in a special session on SiC devices (#SS4). Rep-
resentatives from Infineon Technologies, General Electric
(GE), and ABB addressed some of the real challenges that
system design engineers face when making decisions con-
cerning the use of SiC MOSFETs. In a paper titled “Practi-
cal Implementation of a Buck-Boost Converter Using SiC
MOSFETs,” Infineon’s applications engineer David Levett
demonstrated the use of 1,200-V SiC MOSFETs in a high-
performance buck-boost converter. Implementing a state-
of-the-art trench process, the new 1,200-V SiC MOSFET
is fabricated using Infineon’s CoolSiC technology. It is ASIA t CHINA t EUROPE t USA
©2016 Indium Corporation
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were performed on the devices from

Device I D,cont T max 25 °C up to 150 °C. Similarly, the dyna-
Die Size VGS
mic tests were conducted at four differ-
CREE
35 A (25 °C) 150 °C 2.25 × 3.6 mm2 –4/+15 V ent temperatures on all four devices,
X3M0050090G
which include 25, 100, 150, and 200 °C.
ROHM
40 A (25 °C) 175 °C 4.4 × 3 mm2 –4/+18 V Based on the test results presented
SCT2080KE
in this paper, which was given in ses-
GE
100 A (25 °C) 200 °C 4.5 × 4.5 mm2 –4/+18 V sion S30, the input capacitance and
GE12N65L-3
the Miller capacitance is the lowest
SEI
30 A (25 °C) 175 °C 3 × 3 mm2 –5/+15 V for CREE MOSFET in comparison
XSM3012J-ST01
to the other devices. As a result, its
turn-off losses, and thereby switching
FIG 2 The part numbers of SiC MOSFETs under testing. (Image courtesy of ECCE 2016.)
losses, are the least at highest current
investigated (Figure 3).
700 WBG in traction application was
the focus of session S68. An interest-
ROHM CREE
600 ing paper in this session came from
SEI GE
researchers at North Carolina State
500 University. In this paper, Srdjan Srdic,
Xinyu Liang, Chi Zhang, Wensong Yu,
Energy (μJ)
400
and Srdjan Lukic presented an isolat-
300 ed medium-voltage, high power quality,
high efficiency (>96%) fast charger for
200 plug-in electric vehicles using commer-
cial 1,200-V SiC power devices. Besides
100 exceeding the efficiency of the state-
of-the-art fast chargers, the SiC-based
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 fast charger provides nine times reduc-
Load Current (A) tion in volume and six times reduction
in weight.
FIG 3 Under the same switching speed, CREE MOSFET offers the smallest switching
loss across all load range. (Image courtesy of ECCE 2016.) Implementing GaN Transistors
Under WBG applications, comparative
fully compatible with voltages used for times lower than the comparable sili- studies of GaN versus silicon was the
driving silicon IGBTs. Because the inte- con IGBT module while switching at subject of discussion in session #S30.
grated commutation body diode oper- three times higher frequency. Also, the The paper “Comparison of Dead Time
ates with nearly zero reverse recovery current rating for the 1,700-V SiC MOS- Effects on the Performance of dc–dc
losses, the SiC MOSFETs lend them- FET was significantly higher at 500 A. Converters with GaN FETs and Sili-
selves to synchronous rectification Speaking of using high-voltage con MOSFETs” by Efficient Power
schemes in hard and resonant switch- SiC MOSFETs, the paper “Charac- Conversion Corporation’s John S. Gla-
ing topologies, said Infineon. Based on terization and Comparison of Latest ser and David Reusch quantified the
this high-voltage MOSFET, the German Generation 900-V and 1.2-kV SiC MOS- effects of output capacitance, reverse
manufacturer has developed 1,200-V FETs,” by Alinaghi Marzoughi, Rolan- recovery, and dead time. Additionally,
half-bridge and booster modules with do Burgos, and Dushan Boroyevich of it discussed the relationship between
RDS(on) options of 11 mΩ and 23 mΩ, the Center for Power Electronics Sys- dead time and reverse recovery, and it
respectively. Sampling now, the 1,200-V tems and Virginia Polytechnic Institute disclosed experimental results to con-
SiC MOSFETs are expected to go into and State University, Blacksburg, firm that silicon MOSFETs present far
production in 2017. fully characterizes the latest genera- greater losses than GaN FETs as a
General Electric (GE) Global Re- tion 900-V and 1,200-V SiC MOSFETs result of poor dead-time management.
search’s Chief Technology Officer from four key suppliers: CREE, ROHM, In another session on WBG applica-
Ljubisa Stevanovic disclosed a ground- GE, and Sumitomo Electric Industries tions using GaN (#S78), a joint paper,
breaking 1,700-V SiC MOSFET-based (Figure 2). All the static character- “High-Frequency dc–dc Converter in
2.5-MW photovoltaic inverter with 99% izations, which include output char- Electric Vehicle Based on GaN Tran-
European Union level power conver- acteristics, transfer characteristics, sistors,” was presented by research-
sion efficiency. GE’s paper showed that threshold voltages, specific on-state ers from China’s Nanjing University
SiC module switching losses were ten resistances, and junction capacitances, of Aeronautics and Astronautics and
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Southeast University Nanjing. The similar SiC MOSFETs, according to Why Do We Care?” and “Close to the
paper described a two-stage dc–dc the manufacturer. Edge: The New Frontier of the Grid.”
converter comprising a buck and mul- Besides previewing a new high- While the IIoT discussion was moder-
tiphase interleaved LLC-series reso- voltage fiber-optically isolated oscil- ated by Thomas Jahns, a Grainger
nant converter using GaN transistors. loscope probe rated for 1,500-Vdc professor of power electronics and
Compared to silicon MOSFETs, the common-mode testing, Teledyne LeC- electrical machines at the University
experimental results indicated that roy also displayed its latest offering in of Wisconsin–Madison, the spirited
GaN power transistors enable higher high definition oscilloscope—the 10-b debate was conducted by Johan H.
switching frequency and power den- HDO9000. It uses HD1024 high-defini- Enslin of the Energy Production and
sity in a dc–dc converter designed for tion technology that automatically op- Infrastructure Center at the University
electric vehicles. timizes vertical resolution under each of North Carolina at Charlotte. The
On the exhibit floor, VisIC Tech- measurement condition to deliver 10 b panelists at the IIoT discussion includ-
nologies displayed a 1,200-V rated of vertical resolution. Alternatively, ed Steve Collier, director of smart grid
half-bridge GaN module integrating Epcos, a Tokyo Denkikagaku Kogyo strategies at Milsoft Utility Solutions;
high-electron mobility transistors and company, discussed advances in ca- Ronnie Pattersson, global director of
isolated gate drivers with overcurrent pacitor technology with updates on its product management at Allmänna
and overtemperature protections in CeraLink capacitors for fast switching Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget–
a single compact package. With a re- and snubber applications. Brown Boveri; Joseph Salvo, director
duced gate charge and capacitance, at GE Global Research; and Cliff
and low RDS(on), the switching energy Town Hall Meetings Whitehead, manager and business
for the 1,200-V GaN module was only Two town hall meetings provided development at Rockwell Automation.
140 mJ. As a result, the switching loss- lively panel discussions: “What Does Likewise, the panelists in the grid-
es demonstrated by the GaN module the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) edge debate included Vijay Bhavaraju,
were three-to-five times lower than Have to Do with Energy Conversion? chief engineer at Eaton; Deepak
__________________________________
__________________
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Divan, founder of Varentec and direc- panelists revealed a myriad of mod- There was no clear-cut answer. In
tor of the Center for Distributed Ener- ernization efforts to integrate the grid summary, from WBG applications
gy/Georgia Tech; Ryan Kennedy of with full visibility and control at the to dc–dc converter topologies and
Atom Power; and Chad Eckhardt edge—the customer premise. Mean- renewable energy, the ECCE 2016 ses-
of GridBridge. while, the attendees wanted to know sions provided a good glimpse of ad-
With the transformation of the grid more about the transition of the ac grid vances in a wide range of technologies
from a centralized system to a dis- to the dc grid and how these advances that are charting the future course for
tributed architecture, the grid-edge were going to impact the transition. sustainable power electronics.
by Becky Boresen
IEEE ECCE Pays Tribute

to Power Electronics Professionals
F
or nearly a century, the IEEE most prized form of prestige— The first award presented at this
awards program has paid bestowed upon individuals whose ceremony went to Bruno Lequesne
tribute to technical profes- accomplishments have enhanced (Figure 1). Lequesne, an IEEE Fel-
sionals whose exceptional achieve- the global economy while improv- low and president of E-Motors
ments and outstanding contribu- ing the quality of daily life. Consulting, LLC in Menomonee
tions have made a lasting impact on One of the highlights at the IEEE Falls, W i s c o n s i n , a c c e p t e d t h e
technology, society, and the engi- Energy Conversion Congress and I E E E Nikola Tesla Award. The
neering profession. That tradition Expo (ECCE) are the awards that award is named in honor of Nikola
of public recognition continues are presented by the IEEE Indus- Tesla, a n electr ica l engi neer, a
today. IEEE awards are valued as try Applications Society (IAS) and distinguished Yugoslav-American
among the highest honors a techni- IEEE Power Electronics Society inventor, and a pioneer in many
cal professional can receive. They (PELS). At the recent ECCE, held fields, who is most renowned
are an esteemed symbol of the 18–22 September 2016 in Milwau- for the development of the coil
admiration of one’s peers—the kee, Wisconsin, PELS acknowl- that bears his name and the ac
edged some award recipients at a induction motor.
special awards luncheon on Thurs- The William E. Newell Power Elec-
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 day, 22 September. tronics Award has been presented
FIG 2 Prof. Johann W. Kolar (right) received the IEEE PELS

FIG 1 Bruno Lequesne (right) accepted the IEEE Nikola Tesla William E. Newell Power Electronics Award from IEEE President-
Award from IEEE President-Elect Karen Bartleson. Elect Karen Bartleson.
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FIG 3 Prof. Mark Dehong Xu (left) accepted the IEEE PELS FIG 4 Prof. Dushan Boroyevich (left) was honored with the IEEE
R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award from PELS President PELS Harry A. Owen, Jr. Distinguished Service Award, presented
Prof. Braham Ferreira. by PELS President Prof. Braham Ferreira.
annually since 1977 for outstanding Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. converter systems and power elec-
achievement in power electronics. This year, IEEE Fellow Johann W. tronics education.
Beginning in 2005, the award was Kolar ( Figure 2), a professor and Prof. Mark Dehong Xu (Figure 3),
elevated to an IEEE Technical Field chair of the Power Electronic Sys- IEEE Fellow and president of the
Award, sponsored by IEEE PELS. It tems Laboratory at ETH Zurich, China Power Supply Society, re-
is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Switzerland, received this award for ceived the IEEE PELS R. David Mid-
William E. Newell of the Westing- contributions to the advancement of dlebrook Achievement Award, which
house Research and Development three-phase pulsewidth modulation was established in 2011 to honor
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innovators in the field of power electronics. This award

is dedicated to the memory of Dr. R. David Middle-
brook, emeritus professor, California Institute of Tech-
nology, Pasadena, California, who is regarded as one of
the founders of the field of power electronics.
The Harry A. Owen, Jr., Distinguished Service Award
was established in 1996 to honor long and distinguished
service to the welfare of PELS at an exceptional level of
dedication and achievement. All PELS members are eli-
gible for this award. The 2016 recipient was Prof. Dushan
Boroyevich (Figure 4). A professor at Virginia Tech, he is
a Fellow of the IEEE, a recipient of the IEEE William E.
Newell Power Electronics Technical Field Award, and
a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
The Richard M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Elec-
tronics Engineer Award recognizes outstanding achieve-
ment in the field of power electronics by an engineer
younger than 35 years of age. Since 1999, it has been ded-
icated to the memory of Richard M. Bass of the Georgia
Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Accepting this award
at IEEE ECCE was Prof. Huai Wang (Figure 5), an associ-
ate professor at Aalborg University, Denmark.
The Power Electronics Society Best Chapter Award
was established in 2001 to recognize excellent service by
_________________________ a PELS Chapter to its members and to the power elec-
______________________
tronics community. This year the Best Chapter Award
SOLUTIONS
FOR SILICON
HIGH-FREQUENCY
CARBIDE (SiC) WELDING BUS BAR
A P P L I C AT I O N S
ˏȼˏˏ ˏȼˏ
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FIG 5 Prof. Huai Wang (left) accepted the IEEE PELS Richard
M. Bass Outstanding Young Power Electronics Engineer
Award from PELS President Prof. Braham Ferreira.
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FIG 6 This year’s Best Chapter Award went to the Serbia
and Montenegro Section. Prof. Vladimir Katic (left) accept-
E P. M E R S E N . C O M
______________ ed the Best Chapter Award from PELS President Prof.
Braham Ferreira.
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goes to Serbia and Montenegro Sec-

tion Joint Chapter (Figure 6). Accept-
ing this Best Chapter Award was Prof.
Vladimir Katic from Novi Sad, Serbia.
Newly Elevated Fellows

At the ECCE Awards Ceremony,
PELS also acknowledged the fol-
lowing members who became IEEE
Fellows in 2016 (Figure 7):
■Vassilios Agelidis, for contri-
butions to power electronics,
renewable energy conversion, and
integration with the electricity grid
■Henry Chung, for contributions to
FIG 7 The newly elected IEEE Fellows are pictured with IAS President David Durocher
power electronic converters for and PELS President Braham Ferreira. From left: David Durocher, Mohammad Islam,
lighting Vassilios Agelidis (elected IEEE Fellow), Henry Chung (elected IEEE Fellow), Tsorng-Juu
■Yungtaek Jang, for contributions to Liang (elected IEEE Fellow), and Braham Ferreira.
efficiency optimization of ac–dc
power supplies
■Tsorng-Juu Liang, for contributions ■Xinbo Ruan, for contributions to Congratulations to all award
to power conversion for lighting switching-mode power converter r e c ipient s a nd elev a t e d I EEE
and sustainable energy topologies and modulation strategies. Members!
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CWT wide-band
AC current probes by Vladimir Katic
5 Thin, flexible, clip-around

ac current probes
5 Wide-band from below 0.01Hz
to greater than 20MHz (-3dB)
IEEE PELS
5 Ideal for power electronics
development work
CWT Standard
5)/-.)$&-
in lengths from
Region 8 Chapter
5 Current ratings 30A
to 600kA
CWT
300mm to > 1m
5(-/&.$)(0)&."
10kV peak (coil
Chairs Meeting
Ultra- thickness 8.5mm)
T
mini he IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS)
CWT CWT LF
Region 8 Chapter Chairs meeting was held in
Mini Karlsruhe, Germany, on 7 September 2016 during
the European Power Electronics 2016 Energy Conversion
Congress and Expo Conference (EPE 2016 ECCE
5 1)'$($./, )$& 5)$&-$4 52. ( &)1
sizes (3.5mm or '2 '' !, +/ (3/.)!! Europe). The goal was to have a face-to-face meeting
4.5mm) up to ,)--- .$)( 50$&& 1$.# with PELS officers who are truly focused on promoting
200mm length 80mm length -.(,),'$($ PELS values to Society members. This was the second
5(-/&.$)(0)&." 5(-/&.$)(0)&." coil
2kV or 5kV peak 1.2kV peak such meeting, after a similar one was held in Novi Sad,
Serbia, on 29 October 2015 during the 18th International
Please contact us to discuss your application Symposium on Power Electronics.
The meeting agenda included a short overview of the
Power Electronic Measurements
PELS Region 8 Chapters, insight into PELS’s recent and fu-
North American Distribution & Support
www.gmw.com sales@gmw.com
_________
ture activities, presentations of the individual PELS Chap-
+1-650-802-8292 www.pemuk.com ter activities, the results of the Best Chapter competition,
and a presentation of the Distinguished Lecturer program.
Although it was a great opportunity, as we met dur-
ing the most important PELS conference in Europe,
High tech,
representatives of only four Chapters attended the
meeting: the Latvia Section, the Serbia and Montenegro
low risk
Section, the Lebanon Section, and the Delft Student Sec-
tion). Also in attendance were PELS President Prof. Bra-
ham Ferreira and IEEE Piscataway, New Jersey, PELS
officer Becky Boresen (PELS Technical Communication
program specialist). Still, we had a good mixture of at-
tendees, including Chapter chairs, main PELS officers,
and student representatives (Figure 1).

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Austria, Czech Republic, South Africa and Singapore. (IEEE PELS), Walid Kamali (Lebanon Section), Prof. Vladimir
Katic (regional chair and Serbia and Montenegro Section), and
SIBA GmbH (Headquarters and Production)
')$")+) /
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The meeting highlighted the membership is thus lowered. On the Electronics Society/Industry Ap-
main issues troubling the IEEE other hand, the Chapters are orga- plications Society operation, which
community. A decrease in member- nizing many meetings, workshops, was followed with special interest
ship (especially academics) in some and conferences during the year, as their Chapter won this year’s Best
Chapters is due to free access to and some of them are faring well. Chapter Award.
IEEE Xplore, the IEEE digital library, Prof. Katic (Serbia and Montenegro In essence, it was a very useful
at some universities. As the main ben- Section) presented some of the best meeting. Such an exchange of experi-
efit of membership is access to IEEE practices of the Serbia and Montene- ence could help improve activities and
Xplore, the incentive to join or renew gro Joint Chapter PELS/Industrial better serve IEEE Members.
2016 Best Chapter Award Goes

to Serbia and Montenegro Joint Chapter
T
he annual IEEE Power Elec-
tronics Society (PELS) Best
Chapter Award this year was
given to the Serbia and Montenegro
Joint Chapter of PELS/Industrial
Electronics Society (IES)/Industry
Applications Society (IAS). The
Chapter organized a record number
of activities last year—eight techni-
cal meetings, seven technical lec-
tures, and a Distinguished Lecturer
visit by Ralph Kennel, plus the 18th
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2016.2615587 FIG 1 In 2013, Serbia celebrated 40 years of hosting the International Symposium on
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 Power Electronics.
Inductors Transformers
Your Special Application ...

Our Specialty!
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Manufacturing Quality Magnetics since 1973

#+#'('!$ '-)()&"&#)"-) (#,#)&'$
-

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PELS, the EPE Association (Brus-

sels), and the University of Novi Sad.
The conference general chair was
Prof. Vladimir Katic, and the co-
chair was Prof. Dushan Boroyevich.
The conference attracted more than
500 participants from 47 countries
around the world.
The Chapter is also well known
for cosponsoring a biannual confer-
ence, the International Symposium
on Power Electronics. It is a well-
FIG 2 The 19th International Symposium on Power Electronics will be held established forum for the exchange
in Novi Sad, Serbia, 19–21 October 2017. of the latest research results from
academia and industry. The sym-
International Symposium on Power and social meetings characterize the posium typically attracts 150–200
Electronics in Novi Sad, Serbia. work of this Chapter. Additionally, a participants, with an average of 100
Since it was officially established number of conferences are organized peer-reviewed papers. In 2013, the
on 30 March 2001, the IEEE Serbia by the Chapter. symposium celebrated 40 years of
and Montenegro Joint Chapter PELS/ In 2012, the Chapter was the host activity as one of the oldest scien-
IES/IAS celebrated its 15th anniver- of the European Power Electron- tific events in Serbia (Figure 1).
sary this year. The Chapter’s activities ics–Power Electronics and Motion The next symposium, scheduled
are organized by a group of ambitious Control 2012 Energy Conversion Con- for 2017, is being cosponsored by
IEEE Members at the University of gress and Expo Europe Conference the IEEE PELS, the IEEE Serbia and
Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Scienc- (EPE-PEMC 2012 ECCE Europe), Montenegro Section, and the Joint
es. Every year, a number of technical which was sponsored by the IEEE Chapter PELS/IES/IAS (Figure 2).
IEEE PEDG 2017 to Be Held in

Florianópolis, Brazil
B
ringing together the world’s
experts in sustainable energy
and distributed generation,
the IEEE Eighth International Sympo-
sium on Power Electronics for Dis-
tributed Generation Systems (PEDG)
will take place 17–20 April 2017 in
Florianópolis, Brazil (Figure 1).
This symposium, sponsored by
the IEEE Power Electronics Society
(PELS) and organized by the PELS
Technical Committee on Sustain-
able Energy Systems (TC5), will al-
low experts on power electronics
and distributed generation to meet,

Date of publication: 20 December 2016 FIG 1 IEEE PEDG 2017 will take place 17–20 April 2017 in Florianópolis, Brazil.
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This symposium will

allow experts on power
electronics and
distributed generation
to meet, exchange
ideas, and present
their latest technical
advances in this
booming field.
exchange ideas, and present their latest technical

advances in this booming field.
The symposium will feature keynote speeches, tu-
torials, regular technical sessions, and visits to local
technical installations related to the theory, analysis,
design, testing, and deployment of power electronics
for distributed generation and renewable energy sys-
tems. The event is organized in three main tracks:
1) Power Electronics in Distributed Systems: Wind
farms, photovoltaic (PV) farms, wave energy sys-
tems, and cogeneration; ac versus dc distribu-
tion, smart grid, and micro/nano grid; power
components, inverters, power quality, and con-
trol; solid-state transformers, medium-voltage dc ____________________________________
distribution, and high-power grid-connected

inverters; and off-grid and weak-grid applica-
tions (rural, remote).
2) Power Electronics for Sustainable Sources: PV,
CONGRATULATIONS
wind, combined heat and power, wave, fuel cells,
and others; power components, wide-bandgap
power semiconductor devices, dc–dc, ac–ac, and
dc–ac/ac–dc converters, and control; and high-effi- TO
ciency power converters for sustainable sources.
3) Power Electronics for Energy Storage Systems: Bat-
teries, supercapacitors, fuel cells, and hybrid stor-
age systems; bidirectional dc–dc converters, and
MAGNA-POWER
charge controllers; and charging infrastructure for
electric vehicles and wireless charge systems.
ELECTRONICS
More information can be found at http://www
.pedg2017.org. See you in Florianópolis! Manufacturer of
—Rik W. DeDoncker, Robust Programmable
PEDG 2017 general chair
DC Power Products
—Sudip K. Mazumder,
PELS TC5 chair
AWARDED
—Martin Ordonez,
PEDG 2017 cochair 2016 New Jersey
—Gerard Hurley, Manufacturer
PEDG Steering Committee chair
of the Year
—Denizar Cruz Martins,
PEDG 2017 cochair Flemington NJ www.Magna-Power.Com
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Member News
Reliability of Power Electronic

Converter Systems
R
eliability of Power Electron- ■ stochastic hybrid systems mod-
ic Converter Systems was els for the performance and reli-
recently published by the ability analysis of power elec-
Institution of Engineering and Tech- tronic systems
nology. Edited by Henry Shu-hung ■ fault-tolerant adjustable speed drive
Chung, Huai Wang, Frede Blaabjerg, systems
and Michael Pecht, the book outlines ■ a mission profile-oriented reliability
the current research into the scientif- design in wind turbine and photo-
ic modeling, experimentation, and voltaic systems
remedial measures for advancing the ■ the reliability of power conversion
reliability, availability, system robust- systems in photovoltaic appli-
ness, and maintainability of power cations
electronic converter systems (PECS) ■ the reliability of power supplies for
at different levels of complexity. It is computers
written for researchers, professionals, ■ high-power converters.
and students working with power
electronics and their applications, par- About the Book Editors
ticularly those specializing in the devel- While Henry Shu-hung Chung is a
opment and applications of power professor in the Department of Elec-
electronic converters and systems. ■ the reliability of power electronics tronic Engineering, City University
Drawing on the experience of this packaging of Hong Kong, and the director of
international team of experts, this ■ modeling for the lifetime prediction the Center for Smart Energy Con-
book covers the following topics as it of power semiconductor modules version and Utilization Research,
explores the reliability of PECS: ■ the minimization of dc-link capaci- Huai Wang is an associate profes-
■ an introduction to reliability engi- tance in power electronic convert- sor in the Department of Energy
neering in PECS systems er systems Technology, Aalborg University,
■ anomaly detection and remaining- ■ wind turbine systems Denmark. Likewise, Frede Blaab-
life prediction for power electronics ■ an active thermal control for the jerg, an IEEE Fellow, is a profes-
■ the reliability of dc-link capacitors improved reliability of power elec- sor in power electronics in the
in power electronic converters tronics systems Department of Energy Technology,
■ the lifetime modeling and prediction Aalborg University. Michael Pecht,
of power devices an IEEE Fellow, is the director of
■ a power module lifetime test and the Center for Advanced Life
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 state monitoring Cycle Engineering.
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Magna-Power Nabs the New Jersey

Manufacturer of the Year Award
F
lemington, New Jersey-based
Magna-Power Electronics, a
manufacturer of robust pro-
grammable dc power supplies, is
the recipient of the 2016 New Jer-
s e y M a n u f a c t u r e r o f t h e Ye a r
Award. The company was present-
ed with the award at the New Jer-
sey Manufacturing Extension
Program (NJMEP) “Made in New
MAGNA-POWER ELECTRONICS
Jersey” Manufacturing Day Event in
Somerset on 7 October. Criteria for
selecting the winner was based on
manufacturing strategy and growth,
community involvement, and cor-
porate culture and employee train-
ing programs. include sheet metal fabrication, ma- lead-time,” stated Vice President of
The compa ny had to demon- chining, powder coating, printed Operations Adam Pitel. “The compa-
strate that growth was fostered in circuit assembly, magnetics wind- ny and its very dedicated team are
New Jersey. To prosper and grow ing, cable har nessing, and final grateful to be recognized as a manu-
in a competitive global marketplace, testing. In addition, it has invested facturing leader.”
Magna-Power has adopted a ver- in new machinery, employee train- Magna-Power was founded in 1981
tically integrated manufacturing ing, and new facilities. It is headquar- by its president, Ira J. Pitel, an IEEE
strategy. Consequently, the com- tered in Flemington and occupies Fellow who continues to volunteer his
pa ny ha s been system ically in- a newly completed state-of-the-art time for the IEEE. Currently, he is the
sourcing operations as opposed to 73,500 sq-ft manufacturing facility. deputy editor-in-chief of IEEE Power
outsourcing. Internal manufactur- “While a vertically integrated Electronics Magazine. His son Grant
ing processes within the company approach to manufacturing is today Pitel is the vice president of engineer-
considered somewhat unconvention- ing. Adam, Grant’s younger brother,
al, it has provided Magna-Power full is vice president of operations.
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 internal control of quality, cost, and
_________________
______________
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Expert View
by Patrick Le Fèvre
Is Your Smart Grid Secured?
A
s I have been involved with that, with only 21 lines of code, hack- that was based on a case that hap-
digital power since the early ers could take control of a power pened on December 2015 in the
days of adding communica- plant and physically destroy a genera- Ukraine [4]. It was a high-level alert
tions and intelligence to power sup- tor [1]–[3]. Since then, many cyber- to smart grid operators, motivating
plies, I have frequently been asked security breaches have taken place, them to accelerate protection mech-
about software security and if the such as the case in April 2016, when a anisms and to develop preventive
power supply industry is prepared to water and electricity authority in actions policies. The Ukrainian case
address security issues. While there Michigan became the victim of a ran- combined multiple elements in the
is very little chance somware attack and attack, including physical sabotage.
that a hacker will was forced to keep In fact, the sophistication of the
reach a single digital All over the world, information tech- cyberattack reached a new level of
point-of-load (POL) nology (IT) systems intrusion, motivating the smart grid
governments, consor-
at the board level, the locked down for a community to strengthen coopera-
risk increases expo-
tiums, and groups of week. Examples such tion and efforts to accelerate sus-
nentially as we move experts are engaged as these and many tainable security within the smart
upward in the value in an amazing race others indicate that grid [5].
chain. In that chain, to deploy security the number of cyber-
the smart grid is methods and protocols attack cases reported A Black Christmas for Ukrainians
probably the highest to security authori- On 23 December 2015 at 4:00 p.m.
to make the smart
and the most ex - ties has been rapid- local time, the Ukraine region Ivano-
posed to cyberat-
grid safer. ly increasing [10]. Frankivsk was plunged into dark-
tacks (Figure 1). Florida Internation- ness for several hours and more
As time passes, al University esti- than 220,000 customers lost power.
the number of renewable power mated that, during the first six In addition, the IT and communica-
sources is growing, the deployment of months of 2015, more than 100 tions systems of the electric com-
smart meters is rising, and many other cyberincidents affected the infrastruc- panies were severely damaged by
communication links and automation ture of the United States, and the the attackers.
circuits are being connected to the energy sector had the largest number In this case, the attackers com-
smart grid. So what is the situation in of attacks. Cyberattacks on the bined a large number of attacking
terms of security? Are we safe? smart grid are a global threat and all tools: spreading phishing e-mails con-
countries are at risk, motivating taining a variant of the BlackEnergy 3
Risk Escalation power experts and networks manag- and KillDisk malware programs and
In 2007 in the Aurora Generator Test, ers to consider a global response and exploiting security holes in Microsoft
the U.S. government demonstrated methodology to prevent any damages. Office documents to get into the IT
In February 2016, the U.S. Depart- network of the electric companies
ment of Homeland Security (DHS) and inhibit the security agents in the
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 issued an alert (IR-ALERT-H-16-056-01) firewalls (Figure 2). At the same time,
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Smart Grid
Thermal Power Plant Solar Panel Gas Holder
Consumer Control Center Power Station
Windmill Dam Transformer
FIG 1 The smart grid network is very distributed and vulnerable to physical and cyberattacks. (Credit: MSSA/Shutterstock.)
The Ukrainian case is con-

sidered a real-life example
of what could happen to
larger networks.
they managed to break credential

codes to access deeper levels of the
system, controlling industrial com-
munication busses such as the ones
interconnecting uninter r uptible
power systems (UPSs) to the supervi-
sory control and data acquisition
FIG 2 Cybercriminals taking control of the smart grid is now a reality. (Image courtesy
(SCADA) systems. of Powerbox.)
SCADA systems are basically pro-
cess control systems (PCSs) that are
used for monitoring, gathering, and traffic control or power grid manage- strategic role it plays, requires an
analyzing real-time environmental ment. For the ones used to lower extremely high level of security.
data. PCSs are designed to automate energy and board power systems, it After gaining control of the SCADA
electronic systems based on a prede- is supersoftware-defined power systems, the hackers accessed the
termined set of conditions, such as architecture, which, considering the electricity network, which allowed
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them to shut down and severely for intrusions and attacks. Over the
damage equipment. years, it has shifted from managing
The Ukrainian case is considered a electricity distribution to becoming a Although the world-
real-life example of what could happen super information and communica- wide smart grid is
to larger networks. The lessons learned tion technology (ICT) machine.
slowly and steadily
from that case are part of ongoing smart Michael McElfresh, adjunct profes-
getting stronger
grid security standardization projects sor of electrical engineering at
in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Santa Clara University, California, and safer, the
summarized the situation very well potential of threats
Making the Smart Grid Safer [6], saying “Technological advances remains high.
The smart grid is an extremely com- in grid operation have made the
plex architecture with a lot of areas power grid increasingly vulnerable
Transmission Operations Distribution
Transmission Transmission Transmissions Distribution Field Operation Distribution

RTU IED Engineering Engineering Tools/Systems RTU or IED
Network Outage
Phasor Continuity Geographic Distributed
Management Management
Measurement Unit Management Information System Information
System System
Distribution Energy Storage Sensors and Data Collection

Service Provider Operator Management Metering Systems
Area Load
Retail Energy Billing Measurement Management
Customer
System and Resources
Meters
Energy Service Third-Party Transmission Distribution
(AMI/AMR Plus/ Customer
Provider Interface SCADA SCADA
AMR)
Energy
Bulk Storage Submeter Customer Premise
Management
Bulk Generation Management (EUMD) Display
System
Plant Control Security Metering, Billing, ISO/RTO Water/Gas Customer Energy

System Management Utility Back Office Operations Metering Management
Energy Service Customer

Energy AMI Customer Interface/HAN Appliance and
Capacity Reporting Headend Information System
Synchronization Gateway Equipment
Customer
Customer Service Customer Portal Electrical Vehicle
Appliance and
Interface and Access (PEV/EVSE)
Equipment
Smart Grid Overview Showing the Different Actors and Points of Interfaces Within the Grid
FIG 3 The complexity of the smart grid makes it very difficult to protect globally. (Image courtesy of Powerbox.)
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to cyberattacks.” He also stated, “The the security aspects when their prod- .whitehouse.gov/files/documents/cyber/
growth of the smart grid has created ucts are integrated within a smart Pederson%20Perry%20-%20Aurora%20and%20
_________________________
many more access grid. Introduced at the the%20Smart%20Grid.pdf
____________
points for penetrating Asia-Pacific Economic [2] CNN (2007, Sept. 26). Staged cyber attack
grid computer sys- Cooperation in 2015, reveals vulnerability in power grid. [Online].
The Ukrainian
tems—the Internet of software-defined pow- Available: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/09/26/
incident has
Things (IoT) will only er architecture is de- power.at.risk/index.html?iref=topnews
____________________
make this worse.” trigged the alarm ploying fast in the ICT [3] Internet Governance Project. (2009, Apr. 3).
All over the world, for all of us industry; some sys- A more detailed look at the proposed Cyber-
governments, consor- involved in devel- tems already installed security Act of 2009. [Online]. Available: ___
http://
tiums, and groups of oping power sys- in data centers are www.internetgovernance.org/2009/04/03/
_________________________
experts are engaged in connected to the smart a-more-detailed-look-at-the-proposed-
_________________________
tems connected to
an amazing race to grid and communicat- cybersecurity-act-of-2009/
_____________
the smart grid.
deploy security meth- ing through the SCA- [4] U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Alert
ods and protocols to DA system. In this (IR-ALERT-H-16-056-01): Cyber-attack against
make the smart grid loop, even if there is Ukrainian critical infrastructure. [Online]. Avail-
safer. In the United States, the set of little risk that a hacker can send a able: https://ics-cert.us-cert.gov/alerts/IR-ALERT-
______________________
critical infrastructure protection (CIP) command to a POL blasting local H-16-056-01
______
standards issued by the North Ameri- core processor, the risk for UPS and [5] E-ISAC. Analysis of the cyber attack on
can Electric Reliability Corporation even the front-end rectifier to re- the Ukrainian power grid. [Online]. Avail-
became mandatory in 2007 for owners, ceive a fatal command is far greater. able: http://www.nerc.com/pa/CI/ESISAC/
operators, and users of the Bulk Elec- The Ukrainian incident has triggered Documents/E-ISAC_SANS_Ukraine_
_________________________
tric System to ensure that certain the alarm for all of us involved in de- DUC_18Mar2016.pdf
___________
assets on the grid critical to reliable veloping power systems connected to [6] M. McElfresh. Can the smart grid survive a
operation are protected from both the smart grid. It is a signal that we cyberattack? [Online]. Available: http://www
cyberattacks and physical damage [7]. should never forget about the final .energypost.eu/can-smart-grid-survive-cyberattack/
_________________________
It is going through a wave of new revi- application and to be smart security [7] North American Electric Reliability Corporation.
sions, moving from CIP V3 to CIP V5— innovators to power the smart grid NERC website. [Online]. Available: http://www
skipping V4, and accelerating V6! This with excellence. .nerc.com/
revision cycle reflects the situation [8] The smart grid protection against cyber
faced by the standardization organiza- About the Author attacks (SPARKS) project. [Online]. Available:
tion, developing security standards in a Patrick Le Fèvre (patrick.le-fevre@
___________ https://project-sparks.eu/
____________
fast-evolving world of threats [11], [12]. prbx.com) is a graduate of the Paris [9] E. Lacy. BWL in limbo from cyber attack.
In Europe, despite a number of ini- Delépine-Bessière School in technical [Online]. Available: http://www.lansingstatejournal
tiatives within the European network engineering. Currently, he is the mar- .com/story/news/2016/04/27/cyberattack-bwl-
_________________________
and information security community keting and communications director keeps-fbi-silent/83590820/
_____________
to establish frameworks and stan- at Powerbox. He is a certified elec- [10] B. Fowler. (2016, Oct. 22). Attacks on the
dard operating procedures, the E.U. tronics engineer with 25 years in internet keep getting bigger and nastier.
level response to cyberincidents power electronics. He pioneered the [Online]. Available: http://www.khou.com/tech/
lacks consistency. However, projects marketing of new technologies such attacks-on-the-internet-keep-getting-bigger-and-
_________________________
such as the E.U.-funded Smart Grid as digital power and technical initia- nastier/340203887
_________
Protection Against Cyberattacks are tives to reduce energy consumption [11] U.S. Department of Energy. Cybersecu-
show ing signs of progress [8]. and has written and presented numer- rity for energy delivery systems. ______
Energy.gov.
Although the worldwide smart grid is ous white papers and articles at the [Online]. Available: http://energy.gov/oe/services/
slowly and steadily getting stronger world’s leading international power technology-development/cybersecurity-for-
________________________
and safer, the potential of threats electronics conferences. He is also energy-delivery-systems
____________
remains high. involved in several environmental [12] U.S. Department of Energy. Cybersecu-
forums, sharing his expertise and rity for energy delivery systems (CEDS) fact
Conclusions knowledge of clean energy. sheets. [Online]. Available: http://energy
Because of the complexity and the .gov/oe/downloads/cybersecurity-energy-
_________________________
variety of devices connected to the References delivery-systems-ceds-fact-sheets
_________________
smart grid (Figure 3), power supply [1] P. Pederson. Project Aurora and the
manufacturers will have to consider smart grid. [Online]. Available: https://www
_______
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Event Calendar
2017 27–29 June

Nuremberg, Germany
23–24 February
IEEE Second International Conference on DC Microgrids (ICDCM)
Champaign, Illinois, United States
IEEE Power and Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI) 9–12 July
Stanford, California, United States
26–30 March
IEEE 18th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power
Tampa, Florida, United States Electronics (COMPEL)
IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC)
24–26 July
5–7 April Blacksburg, Virginia, United States
Delft, The Netherlands IEEE International Future Energy Challenge (IFEC)
IEEE International Workshop on Integrated Power
Packaging (IWIPP) 29 August–1 September
Tinos, Greece
17–20 April
IEEE 11th International Symposium on Diagnostics for
Florianopolis, Brazil Electrical Machines, Power Electronics, and Drives (SDEMPED)
IEEE Eighth International Symposium on Power Electronics
for Distributed Generation Systems (PEDG) 4–6 September
Pilsen, Czech Republic
21–24 May
IEEE International Symposium on Predictive Control of
Miami, Florida, United States Electrical Drives and Power Electronics (PRECEDE)
IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives
Conference (IEMDC) 11–14 September
Warsaw, Poland
28 May–1 June
19th European Conference on Power Electronics and
Sapporo, Japan Applications (EPE’17 ECCE Europe)
29th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor
Devices and ICs (ISPSD) 1–5 October
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
4–7 June
IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE)
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
IEEE Third International Future Energy Electronics Conference 19–21 October
and ECCE Asia (IFEEC 2017–ECCE Asia) Novi Sad, Serbia
International Symposium on Power Electronics (Ee)
22–24 June
Chicago, Illinois, United States 22–26 October
IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC) Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia
IEEE International Telecommunications Energy
Conference (INTELEC)
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Introducing IEEE Collabratec™

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White Hot (continued from page 72)
SiC can also be used to make these devices do not have an integral cost systems where the complexity
MOSFETs. The SiC MOSFETs that body diode, which can help or hurt of the gate drive will be just another
I have seen are all enhancement depending on the application. design detail and the cost of the gate
mode and have an integral body The drivers for the adoption of SiC drive a very small part of the overall
diode. The body diode, being SiC, switches are clear: low loss in high- system cost.
has essentially no reverse recov- voltage applications that allows for In summary, I think that SiC tran-
ery loss (a huge advantage) but a higher switching frequency that can sistors have a very bright future. The
higher forward voltage than a sim- reduce the size and cost of inductors devices are steadily improving, and
ilarly rated silicon diode. One con- and capacitors. But what is holding the advantages they bring to high
cer n w it h SiC MOSF ETs is t he back SiC devices? voltage and higher power systems
reliability of the gate oxide. This First and foremost, SiC devices are cannot be denied. However, I think
has been a significant concern in still costly compared to comparably it will be many years before SiC
t he ea rly gener at ion s of t he se rated silicon IGBTs. The device costs switches completely eclipse the sili-
devices, but the device manufac- are falling and will decline further con IGBT in the 1,200- and 1,700-V
turers are making improvements. when SiC volume production is on class of devices.
SiC MOSFETs also have a transcon- 200-mm wafers. However, cost parity
ductance that is low by silicon MOS- with silicon IGBTs is still in the Disclaimer
FET standards. This means to turn the future. These cost differences are The mention of any companies and
device on fully, most manufacturers smaller when the total system cost is products in this column is not an
recommend that the considered, but the endorsement of these companies or
gate be driven to 20 higher device cost is their products by the IEEE or the
or even 25 V. The These cost differences still a barrier. In IEEE Power Electronics Society. I am
threshold voltage are smaller when the addition, there are simply reporting on the companies and
tends be low (2–4 V), lingering concerns products with which I have the most
total system cost is
and most manufac- over device reliabili- experience.
turers recommend considered, but the ty based on early
that the gate be driv- higher device cost is generation devices. About the Author
en to –5 V to fully still a barrier. Another signifi- Robert V. White (bob.white@ieee
___________
turn the device off. cant barrier is sup- .org) has over 30 years of industry
For those accus- pl ier i n s t a bi l it y. experience as a power electronics
tomed to the unipolar, 0–12-V gate Semisouth was a well-known name in engineer. He has worked in product
drive of silicon MOSFETS, this bipolar SiC switches that essentially shut design, systems and applications engi-
drive will be seen as a problem. For down overnight. Fairchild Semicon- neering, and technology development.
those accustomed to working with sili- ductor, now part of ON Semiconduc- He has been an active volunteer with
con IGBTS that require a bipolar drive tor, was at one time making SiC the IEEE Power Electronics Society,
(typically +15 to –8 V) and indepen- transistors, but those seem to have serving several years on the Adminis-
dent, floating gate drive power sup- disappeared from the market. The trative Committee, two terms as tech-
plies for each device, the gate drive evolution of CREE’s SiC transistor nical vice president, and as a Chapter
requirements of SiC MOSFETs will be business to Wolfspeed, and now part chair. He earned a B.S.E.E. degree
business as usual. of Infineon, will be unsettling to from the Massachusetts Institute of
SiC BJTs are also available on the some. Many will be wary of using SiC Technology and an M.S.E.E. degree
market but appear less common that transistors from any supplier until from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
SiC MOSFETs. They appear to offer the supply base is well established, He is currently pursuing a Ph.D.
lower on-state voltage (compared to stable, and providing second sources degree in power electronics at the
SiC MOSFETs) but, as a bipolar for popular devices. University of Colorado–Boulder. Pres-
device, do require a base current to The variety of devices, and their ently, he is the chief engineer of
turn them on. The typical current various drive requirements, is also a Embedded Power Labs, a power elec-
gain of the SiC BJT appears to be at barrier to adoption. Until one type of tronics consulting company. He is a
least 50, which is quite an improve- device is the clear market winner, Fellow of the IEEE.
ment over the current gain of 3–5 of many will wait for fear of choosing
silicon power BJTs. Even if the cur- the wrong device. Reference
rent gain is relatively high, the The gate drive requirements by [1] R. V. White, “Driving wide bandgap
requirement for base current during themselves are not much of a barri- success,” IEEE Power Electron. Mag.,
the device on time will be considered er. SiC transistors are going into vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 60, 58–59, 2016.
a drawback by many. Also, as a BJT, higher voltage, high power, higher
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®
THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND
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found them through IEEE Power Electronics Magazine.
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Walter Chalupa Associates 9 Acopian Technical Company www.acopian.com +1 800 523 9478
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51 Indium Corporation www.indium.com/NCSMQ75/IEEE
CVR 2 Infineon Technologies www.infineon.com/highpower
3 ITECH Electronics www.itechate.com
59 Lenco Electronics, Inc. www.Lenco-Elect.com +1 815 344 2900
15 Magna Power Electronics www.magna-power.com
56 Mersen ep.mersen.com
61 Micrometals www.micrometalsarnoldpowercores.com
57 Omicron Lab www.omicron-lab.com
7 OPAL-RT Technologies www.opal-rt.com
53 Payton Planar Magnetics www.PaytonGroup.com +1 954 428 3326
58 PEM Ltd. www.pemuk.com +1 650 802 8292
CVR 3 Plexim GmbH www.plexim.com/trial
11 Powersim, Inc. www.powersimtech.com +1 301 841 7445
58 SIBA GmbH www.siba.de +49 23 06 70 01 0
5 Tamura Corp. of America tamuracorp.com +1 800 472 6624
17 Teledyne Lecroy teledynelecroy.com/static-dynamic-complete
13 Triad Magnetics www.Triadmagnetics.com +1 951 277 0757
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THE WORLD’S NEWSSTAND ®
White Hot
by Robert V. White
Driving Wide Bandgap Success—

Part 2
I
n my last column [1], I talked A lower on-resistance per area also that the gate drive circuit be on and
about how the ease of driving sil- means that an SiC switch can have a powered before voltage is applied to
icon MOSFETs compared to smaller die—and a smaller die means JFET drain.
bipolar power transistors sped the less device capacitance, which means Just like for depletion mode GaN
adoption of MOSFETs. Then I talked lower switching losses. SiC also has a devices, the typical approach is to
about the wide variation of drive much higher bandgap than silicon, make a cascode with a high voltage
conditions needed for gallium which means that even at high tem- JFET and a low voltage silicon MOS-
nitride (GaN) high-electron mobility peratures it has low leakage current FET. One form of the cascode con-
transistors (HEMTs) and how, in my when blocking high voltage. nects the gate of the JFET to the
opinion, this was slowing the adop- SiC is also touted for being able to source of the MOSFET. This effective-
tion of GaN switching devices. Now I operate at very high temperatures— ly makes a three terminal device,
would like to turn our attention to sil- even into the hundreds of degrees where the gate of the MOSFET is used
icon carbide (SiC) switching devices. Celsius. However, actually making to turn on and off this compound
For me, understanding SiC devic- devices that work at very high tem- device. In another configuration, the
es is an immediate need. I am peratures is often limited by the tem- gates of the JFET and MOSFET are
working on a project designing a perature limits of the packaging independently driven. At power up,
next-generation power converter for materials. SiC does have excellent the MOSFET and JFET gates are con-
an industrial application. For the thermal conductivity, so heat gener- nected to the MOSFET source. This
switching devices, I am seriously ated in the device more easily flows allows the cascode device to be off
looking at the advantages of SiC out of the device, allowing a higher and block high voltage. Once the gate
switches rated to block 1,200 or power dissipation in a given die area. drive power and control is estab-
1,700 V and capable of switching When looking into SiC switching lished, the JFET gate is pulled to
100 A or more when compared to sili- devices, one finds three types of –15 V to turn off the JFET, and then
con IGBTs with similar ratings. For commercially available devices: junc- the MOSFET is turned on and left on
this application, the higher efficiency tion FETS (JFETs), bipolar junction continuously. Switching action is
of an SiC switch over a silicon IGBT transistors (BJTs), and MOSFETs achieved by driving the JFET gate.
is outweighing the cost issue and is (SiC IGBTs are in the research labs). This trades the complexity of control-
driving the decision toward SiC. Each of these devices has its own ling the parasitics of a MOSFET gate-
First, a quick review of what SiC advantages and disadvantages. driven cascode for a more complex
makes a good switching device when The SiC JFET was probably the gate driver.
compared to silicon devices. First, first SiC switching device on the As best I can tell, these limitations
SiC has a very high critical electric market. It is simple in structure, have reduced the popularity of SiC
field strength. This means that it can which helps with cost. However, JFETs for switching applications.
block high voltages in a thin layer most SiC JFETs are depletion mode However, they appear to be used
of SiC, and a thin layer means lower (normally on), which is not normally quite a bit for making high-voltage dc
on-resistance or conduction losses. a good thing in power electronics. circuit breakers where the normally
The typical gate drive voltage levels on characteristic is less of a problem.
are –15 V to be fully off and 1 V or so
Date of publication: 20 December 2016 to be fully on. This generally requires (continued on page 70)
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