IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2015 - 53

100
90

PRM/VTM: Lowline (Vin = 65 V)

Efficiency (%)

80

PRM/VTM: Nominal (Vin = 70 V)

70

PRM/VTM: Highline (Vin = 75 V)

60

BCM-POL as of 11_13_08: Lowline
(Vin = 65 V)

50

BCM-POL as of 11_13_08: Nominal
(Vin = 70 V)

40
30

0

2

4

6

8

10

Iout (A)
FIG 9 The measured end-to-end efficiency with BCM and APOL, outperforming a commercial chipset.

the entire desired range of load current from 1 to 9 A. The
largest difference was observed to be more than 13%, happening at about 3 A. This demonstrated the advantage of
design-specific optimization and the superiority of the adiabatic technology and the double-regulated intermediate
bus architecture.

References
[1] D. Tan, "Emerging systems applications and technological trends in power
electronics," IEEE Power Electron. Mag., vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 38-47, June 2015.
[2] D. Tan. (2014, Mar.) Power electronics for emerging applications. presented at IEEE APEC Plenary Keynote. [Online]. Available: http://www.apecconf.org/about/previous-years/apec-2014/apec-2014-plenary-session
[3] D. Tan, T. Hsia, K. Yi, K. Hui, A. Paglinawan, and T. Nye, "Regulated intermedi-

Further Improvement Opportunities

ate bus: A technology enabler," in Proc. 27th Space Power Workshop, Apr. 2009.

The APOL design actually pushed the physical limits of available passive and active components and control ICs. To further enhance the efficiency, the following technical performance metrics are required: 1) for the high-side switching
MOSFET, rds,on 1 2 mX and Q g 1 1.9 nC; 2) for the low-side
switching MOSFET, rds,on 1 5 mX and Q g 1 1.2 nC; 3) lower
forward drop for the body diode, 1 0.3 V; 4) lower inductor
dc resistance, 1 1 mX for 300 nH at 2 10 A; and 5) lower
resistance value for the PWB traces, 1 1 mX.

[4] P. Hammarlund, A. J. Martinez, A. A. Bajwa, D. L. Hill, E. Hallnor, H. Jiang,

About the Author

cations," in Proc. Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition Plenary

Don Tan (don.tan.oc@gmail.com) is a distinguished engineer/power products development manager with Northrop
Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS). He earned his Ph.D.
degree from the California Institute of Technology. He is an
authority in power management technology within NGAS,
NASA, the U.S. Air Force, government communities, and the
space power industry. He served as the president of the IEEE
Power Electronics Society from 2013 to 2014 and is the founding editor-in-chief of IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected
Topics in Power Electronics. His recent recognitions include
NGAS Distinguished Engineer in 2011, the Chinese Institute of
Engineers USA Asian-American Engineer of the Year Award
in 2010, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Systems Award in 2008, the Joint Army Navy NASA
Air Force Outstanding Achievement Award in Spacecraft Propulsion in 2007, and the NGAS Distinguished Patent Award in
2002. His technology was licensed to a major telecom company. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Keynote, Sept. 2015.

M. Dixon, M. Derr, M. Hunsaker, R. Kumar, R. B. Osborne, R. Rajwar, R. Singhal, R. D'Sa, R. Chappell, S. Kaushik, S. Chennupaty, S. Jourdan, S. Gunther,
T.  Piazza, and T. Burton, "Haswell: The fourth-generation intel core processor," IEEE Micro, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 6-20, Mar.-Apr. 2014.
[5] D. Kanter, "Haswell FIVR extends battery life," Microprocess. Rep., July 2013.
[6] D. Tan, "Electronictization: A foundation for grid modernization," Electr.
Comput. Eng. Distinguished Speaker Series, Univ. California, Riverside, CA,
Tech. Rep., Jan. 2015.
[7] D. Tan, "AEPS: A resilient DC microgrid for mission-critical space appli-

[8] D. Tan, "Grid modernization: Fractal and structured," in Proc. ECCE Plenary Keynote, Sept. 2015.
[9] D. Tan, "Intermediate bus architecture: A practical review," in Proc. IEEE
25th Int. Symp. Power Semiconductor Devices ICs, 2013, pp. 19-22.
[10] D. Tan, "A review of intermediate bus architecture: A system perspective," IEEE J. Emerging Select. Topics Power Electron., vol. 2, no. 3, pp.
363-372, Sept. 2014.
[11] H. Wrede, V. Staudt, and A. Steimel, "Design of electronic power transformer," in Proc. IEEE 28th Annu. Conf. Industrial Electronics Society,
2002, pp. 1380-1385.
[12] A. Stupar, T. Friedli, J. Minibock, and J. W. Kolar, "Towards a 99% efficient three-phase buck-type PFC rectifier for 400V dc distribution systems,"
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 1732-1744, Apr. 2012.
[13] D. Tan and K. Yi, "Power supply systems and methods," U.S. Patent 9
143 028, Sept. 22, 2015
[14] D. Tan, et al, "NGAS converter achieves record efficiency," presented at
the 35th GOMACTech Conf., Mar. 2010, Paper 24.4.

December 2015

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2015
