IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2019 - 55

discharge, and EMI for enabling high-performance power
modules. Also, the speakers emphasized the necessity of
having a qualification standard similar to the Automotive
Electronics Council's qualification for automotive electronics or the JEDEC's standard for electronics. JEDEC
Committee JC-70 is working on standards for wide-bandgap (WBG) devices, and published its first document this
year, the JEP173.
Besides investigating the upcoming challenges of
further driving the adoption of WBG power devices in
broader markets, the session "Challenges and Successes
in Accelerating the Adoption of Wide-Bandgap Power
Electronics" also focused on the recent successes in
several key applications for SiC and GaN devices. Major
applications for SiC include electric vehicle (EV) inverters and photovoltaic (PV) inverters, while wireless power
transfer, data center power supplies, and industrial ac-dc
power supplies drove the growth of GaN HEMTs. Key
challenges highlighted by the speakers include the cost
competitiveness of WBG semiconductors for EV/hybrid
EV inverters and the need for improving production to
meet the emerging growth requirements.
In the session "Go Real: Power Electronics From simulations to Experiments in Hours," Prof. Ren introduced the
reconfigurable, open source, multifunctional power electronic converter called the SYNDEM Smart Grid Research
and Education Kit, which is designed to help researchers,
graduate students, and engineers go from simulations
to working prototypes in hours. This presentation
showed that the SYNDEM-based kit is capable of downloading codes generated by MATLAB/Simulink. Thus, using
the kit, Prof. Ren demonstrated the design and development of two power products, which included a dc-dc-ac
grid-tied energy conversion system and a motor-drive system. The kit can be used individually or collectively to form
large-scale systems.
Likewise, speakers in the session "Enabling Integrated Battery Storage Systems Towards 100% Renewable
Energy Based Society" highlighted the need to overcome
barriers, such as cost and safety, confronting the massive
deployment of energy storage systems. Several solutions
were presented to tackle the problems slowing the integration of battery systems with the grid. While Said AlHallaj of AllCell Technologies revealed improvements in
lithium-ion battery materials and construction for lowering cost and enhancing safety of energy storage, Prof. Alex
Q. Huang from the University of Texas at Austin disclosed
advanced power electronics technologies for a plug-andplay energy storage system solution that promises to
tackle these issues more effectively. Prof. Issa Batarseh
and Amit Kumar Bhattacharjee of the University of Central Florida, Orlando, proposed a multiport PV-battery
inverter solution for integrating the battery storage system with the grid (Figure 5).
Finally, the first edition of the International Technology
Roadmap for Wide Bandgap Power Semiconductors (ITRW)

1.0 was unveiled at the session "Launching of ITRW 1.0."
This project was initiated in 2015 by IEEE PELS as a strategic roadmap for WBG semiconductor devices. Chaired
by Prof. Braham Ferreira of the University of Twente,
Enschede, The Netherlands, the presenters provided a good
overview of the publication, including its goals, scope, and
relation to other roadmaps. In short, the 116-page report
offers 14 chapters with an appendix of product showcases.
It is available at the IEEE PELS Resource center at http://
resourcecenter.ieee-pels.org.
Additionally, the technical program, spread across four
days, covered a wide range of topics in 154 oral sessions and
28 poster sessions. On the exhibit floor, vendors provided
industry-driven sessions, which included topics like accelerate motor testing and development up to 100×, selecting
your power resistor for best reliability and cost, utraclean
tier 4 final diesel power blocks, and seamless multiphysics
optimization of motors. Also on the exhibit floor were 22
demonstrations of emerging technology research outcomes
by students from various universities around the world.
To name a few, Yuheng Wu of the University of Arkansas,
Fayetteville, demonstrated a 250-kW all SiC high-density
traction inverter for heavy-duty equipment application, and
Yousef Abdullah of The Ohio State University, Columbus,
demonstrated a high-temperature GaN-based integrated
motor drive with natural cooling, while Sebastian Neira of
the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, demonstrated a three-port full-bridge converter for energy storage applications.
From practicing power electronics engineers in the
industry to researchers and students in academia, the
international attendees were enriched by the latest
advances and developments in a wide variety of areas
related to energy conversion. Besides technical sessions,
the participants also benefited from the display of leading-edge products on the exhibit floor, which was also the
venue for demos from a select group of universities in the
field. In summary, the 11th annual ECCE was a treasure
trove in terms of cutting-edge energy conversion solutions
delivered to the global attendees.

About the Author
Ashok Bindra (bindra1@verizon.net) received his M.S.
degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Clarkson College of Technology (now Clarkson University), Potsdam, New York, and M.Sc. degree in
physics from the University of Bombay, India. He is the
editor-in-chief of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine and
a Member of the IEEE. He is a veteran freelance writer
and editor with more than 35 years of editorial experience
covering power electronics, analog/radio-frequency technologies, and semiconductors. He has worked for leading
electronics trade publications in the United States, including Electronics, EE Times, Electronic Design, Power
Electronics Technology, and RF Design.

December 2019

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IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2019

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