Awards of the PCIM Europe Conference 2022 announced

This year, the award-winning submissions will be presented personally by the winners during the PCIM Europe Conference from 10.05.2022 to 12.05.2022.

Throughout the two-year break of the PCIM Europe Conference, the concept of the Awards has been developed. For the first time, three Best Paper Awards will be presented, one Young Engineer Award, as well as the new Young Researcher Award in addition.

The PCIM Europe advisory board, chaired by Prof. Dr. Leo Lorenz, ECPE, Germany, selected the five winners from over 300 submissions. The awards were given on the basis of topicality and relevance of the subject matter as well as the quality of the practice-related papers submitted.

The Best Paper Award recognises the top three submissions overall. Engineers aged 30 or younger can also apply for the Young Engineer Award. For the first time this year, the Young Researcher Award honors an author from academia and research institutions aged 30 or younger. The winners of each award will receive prize money of €1,000. 

The winners of the three PCIM Europe Best Paper Awards are:

Matthias Kasper, Infineon Technologies, Austria

Next Generation GaN-Based Architectures: From 240W USB-C Adapters to 11kW EV On-Board Chargers with Ultra-High Power Density and Wide Output Voltage Range

Mario Schweizer, ABB, Switzerland

Frequency Control and Inertia Provision with UPS

Nikolina Djekanovic, Power Electronics Laboratory, EPFL, Switzerland

Design Optimisation of a MW-level Medium Frequency Transformer

The winner of the PCIM Europe Young Engineer Award is:

Fabian Nehr, SEMIKRON Elektronik, Germany

Consequences of Temperature Imbalance for the Interpretation of Virtual Junction Temperature Provided by the VCE(T)-Method

The winner of the PCIM Europe Young Researcher Award is:

Salvatore Race, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Towards Digital Twins for the Optimisation of Power Electronic Switching Cells with Discrete SiC Power MOSFETs

PCIM Europe 2022 Best Paper Abstracts:

Next Generation GaN-Based Architectures: From 240W USB-C Adapters to 11kW EV On-Board Chargers with High Power Density and Wide Output Voltage Range

Matthias Kasper, Jon Azurza Anderson, Gerald Deboy, Infineon Technologies, A; Michael Haider, Power Electronic Systems Laboratory, CH

The inherent advantages of GaN devices compared to their Silicon counterparts, i.e. absence of reverse recovery charge, lower output and gate charges, etc., enable the operation of power electronic systems based on GaN devices at considerably higher switching frequencies. This facilitates the design of systems with power densities far beyond the limits of state-of-the-art Si systems, which is demonstrated in this paper with two very different examples: a 240W mobile charger with two USB-C output ports covering very wide output voltages of 5-48V, and a three-phase 11kW on-board charger with an output voltage range of 250-1000V.

Frequency Control and Inertia Provision with UPS

Mario Schweizer, Nicola Notari, ABB, CH; Silvio Colombi, ABB Industrial Solutions, CH; Ivan Furlan, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, CH

In several countries, grid operators have started to introduce novel reserve market products that are technology-open and allow power electronic converter interfaced assets, such as BESS or UPS systems, to provide ancillary services. In this paper, the provision of frequency control and virtual inertia with a double conversion UPS is demonstrated. A novel control algorithm is presented that emulates inertia accurately without calculation of the frequency derivative. The algorithm is tested in the laboratory on a 250 kW unit of ABBs recently launched modular UPS system MegaFlex.

Design Optimization of a MW-level Medium Frequency Transformer

Nikolina Djekanovic, Drazen Dujic, Power Electronics Laboratory, EPFL, CH

Nowadays, with the increased interest in applications dealing with high-power medium-voltage conversion, there is a strong need to master the design of medium-frequency transformers, which are one of the key components of modern DC transformers. The paper presents the design and development of a 1MW, 5kHz core-type transformer prototype, which combines oil-immersed windings, realized as hollow copper conductors with internal deionised water cooling, and nanocrystalline magnetic core material. The design is achieved with the help of a model-based optimization tool, built around elaborate analysis and modeling of medium-frequency transformer specific phenomenon concerning its electrical operation. Moreover, the paper discusses some technical challenges connected to the prototype realisation.

PCIM Europe 2022 Young Engineer Award Abstract:

Consequences of Temperature Imbalance for the Interpretation of Virtual Junction Temperature Provided by the VCE(T)-Method

Fabian Nehr, Uwe Scheuermann, SEMIKRON Elektronik, D

The VCE(T)-method is the favored approach to determine the temperature of IGBTs by utilising the almost linear temperature dependence of forward voltage drop at small constant collector current. The method provides a virtual temperature value reflecting an average of the lateral temperature distribution across the IGBT. The present study reveals that averaging is strongly affected, when the lateral temperature gradient is enlarged by reduced load pulse duration and imbalanced heating of paralleled chips. This should be taken into account for interpretation of the virtual temperature value, especially when device aging by power cycling is considered.

PCIM Europe 2022 Young Researcher Award Abstract:

Towards Digital Twins for the Optimisation of Power Electronic Switching Cells with Discrete SiC Power MOSFETs

Salvatore Race, Ulrike Grossner, Ivana Kovacevic-Badstuebner, Michel Nagel, Thomas Ziemann, ETH Zurich, CH

Layout optimisation of power electronic switching cells is highly important for the design of high-efficiency fast-switching power converters. The aim of this paper is to identify PCB layout design parameters leading to an improved layout design with respect to low switching losses and low electromagnetic interference. A digital twin of the switching cells containing discrete silicon carbide power devices was developed and verified by double-pulse measurements. The results identify and quantify the non-negligible influence of the layout parasitic capacitances on the optimisation of switching losses. The observed modeling challenges point towards the need for more accurate EM modeling techniques for power electronics applications and for standardisation of SiC power MOSFET Spice models.