IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - December 2019 - 79

by Ashu Verma

Joint Delhi Chapters Organize Workshop
on High-Density Power Conversion

O

n 2 August 2019, a one-day
workshop was held at the
Indian Institute of Technolo-
gy Delhi (IIT-Delhi), India. Sponsored
by the joint Delhi Chapters of the IEEE
Power Electronics Society and IEEE
Power & Energy Society (PELS-PES)
and the IEEE PES and IEEE Industrial
Applications Society (IAS), the work-
shop's topic was "High-Density Power
Conversion Using Advanced Power
Semiconductor Devices." The work-
shop featured IEEE PELS Distin-
guished Lecturer Prof. Krishna Shenai
as well as IIT-Delhi researchers
Dr. Ramkrishan Maheshwari, Dr. Amit
Kumar Jain, and Dr. Sukumar Mishra.
Prof. Bhim Singh welcomed the speak-
er and delivered a keynote address.
The workshop was attended by approx-
imately 60 students, faculty, and local
industry personnel (Figure 1).
Prof. Shenai delivered an insightful
lecture on the fundamentals of power
electronics switching converters and
advanced wide-bandgap power semi-
conductor switching devices based
on silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPEL.2019.2947324
Date of current version: 17 December 2019

nitride materials. He explained a novel
power converter design technique that
uses a "top-down" application-driven
approach to extract maximum power
conversion efficiency at the lowest
cost with reliability as the key criteri-
on. To develop such optimum convert-
er designs, Prof. Shenai emphasized
the importance of using physics-based
component models in the design pro-
cess. These models incorporate both
performance and reliability param-
eters with statistical spreads that ac-
count for manufacturing variations.
He illustrated the design of a 10-kW,
20-kHz variable speed power genset
and demonstrated more than 40% in-
crease in power output for gensets
that used SiC power MOSFETs in
place of silicon insulated-gate bipolar
transistors. Plus, he also discussed ad-
vanced methods for assessing the field
reliability of compact power convert-
ers. Prof. Shenai concluded his pre-
sentation with specific recommenda-
tions for power electronics curriculum
enhancements to adequately train fu-
ture engineers who can develop such
optimum power converters.
T h e s e c o n d t a l k w a s d e l i v-
ered by Dr. Amit Jain, "Controllers

for Traction Application." In his
short presentation, he explained
the principles of motor drives and
their application in areas such as
transportation. He also stressed
the importance of accurate model-
ing of the mechanical load when
designing optimum compact motor
drives. The third speaker of the day
was Dr. Ramkrishan Maheshwari.
In his speech, "Gate Drives for Wide
Bandgap Semiconductor Devices" he
discussed a new gate driver circuit
that is suitable for SiC MOSFETs.
The last lecture of the workshop
was given by Dr. Sukumar Mishra,
who discussed the grid integra-
tion of renewables, explaining the
challenges of integrating photo-
voltaics and batteries to the con-
ventional grid.
Throughout the workshop, there
were lively discussions and the ex-
change of many research ideas. The
audience felt that there is a compel-
ling need for indigenous power semi-
conductor technology development
and manufacturing, especially in the
context of impending energy chal-
lenges and clean energy initiatives
mandated by the government.

FIG 1 The workshop attendees with Prof. Krishna Shenai (first row, sixth from right).

December 2019

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