Practical Design of Power Converers (2024)

Organizer: Prof. Remus Teodorescu, Aalborg University.

Lecturers: Asst. Prof. Abhijit Kulkarni and Asst. Prof. Arman Oshnoei

ECTS: 3.0

Date/Time: 3-5 April 2024

Deadline: 13 March 2024

Place: AAU Energy, Aalborg, Pontoppidanstraede 101, Denmark

Max no. of participants: 30

Description: Power converters are ubiquitous in a wide range of applications from mobile phone chargers rated for a few watts of power to megawatt-rated power converters for wind turbines. Power converters are essential in safety critical systems such as aerospace controllers, medical devices. There are different types of power converter topologies depending on the power rating and application. The power converters need to satisfy certain standards and operate as per the design for practical conditions.

This course is developed to provide insights and methodologies used for practical design of power converters. Practical design builds on top of the ideal design methods that select the power converter components such as semiconductor devices, inductors, capacitors, transformers and integrated chips. The practical considerations such as thermal design, snubbers for addressing parasitic effects, higher-order effects such as skin/proximity effect are discussed. Non-idealities such as the impact of high frequency response of passive elements, semiconductor device capacitances, dead-time effect are discussed and the design considering these is outlined.

This course considers a design example for an aerospace application where non-idelaities and devices stress limits as per aerospace standards are taken into account for the practical design. The power converter is an aerospace exterior light that is exposed to wide temperature range of -55oC to +45oC ambient with extreme environmental conditions. The design example will provide a realfeel to the power converter design in a safety critical application that needs to satisfy certain industrial standards.

The course will have laboratory exercises to appreciate the effects of non-idealities in a real power converter (dc-dc converter interfaced to a digital controller and a grid-connected inverter). The students will observe the waveforms and modify certain components and study their impact on the power converter response.

• Day 1: Introduction to practical design of power converters – Abhijit Kulkarni
• Day 2: Selection and use of controllers in practical power converters – Abhijit Kulkarni/Arman Oshnoei 
• Day 3: Laboratory exercises – Abhijit Kulkarni/Arman Oshnoei
  
  

Price:  6000 DKK for PhD students outside of Denmark and 8000 DKK for the Industry excl. VAT.
A link for online payment by credit card for externals participants will be annonced after deadline for registration

Prerequisites: Fundamental understanding of basic electrical engineering concepts. Experience with an introductory course on power electronics will be an advantage but not compulsory.

Note: the course language is English.

Find more information about the course here

Important information concerning PhD courses: We have over some time experienced problems with no-show for both project and general courses. It has now reached a point where we are forced to take action. Therefore, the Doctoral School has decided to introduce a no-show fee of DKK 3000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start. This can hopefully also provide new students a chance to register for courses during the year. We look forward to your registrations.