New Technologies for Power Electronic Converters and Inverters

Dear Colleagues,

Efficient power conversion is one of the most critical problems in power electronics. DC/DC converters and DC/AC inverters are essential devices for power conversion. However, there are many other devices, including active rectifiers, power conditioning devices such as active power filters, power factor correctors, etc. Today, only switching mode solutions are used because of the low power losses. New technologies in switching components, such as wide band gap transistors (SiC, GaN) and new magnetic materials, enable faster switching with lower static and dynamic losses. Such inverters can drive high-speed electrical machines, where both smart control (e.g., modified SVM for the four-leg bridge), fast-switching components and additional circuits (the sinusoidal output filters that are absent in the standard motor drives) should be used. Supplying single-stage microinverters from renewable energy sources as the photovoltaic modules, requires a new inverter architecture (to reduce the common mode current from PV), new sinusoidal PWM schemes and new MPPT techniques. New storage energy components such as supercapacitors can be used in renewable energy-supplied systems. The new “redundant” architectures of multilevel inverters should lead to improved reliability. DC/DC converters can work in zero-voltage or zero-current switching modes to improve power efficiency. The impedance networks are recent DC/DC converter solutions. The more exact discrete model of the plant is required for the design of the sophisticated, microprocessor or FPGA, multi-input control of inverters and converters. The use of real-time interfaces (for MATLAB/Simulink) for experimental verification leads to a faster design process. Improving the EMC of switching-mode power devices is very important and can be useful for the hardware design and the software schema of the PWM modulation as well. Automotive applications of power conversion devices in hybrid or electrical cars require the development of power conversion designs.

This Special Issue will publish high-quality, original research papers in the fields of:

• Implementing new technology components (new switching WBG components, new magnetic materials) and sophisticated control techniques to increase the efficiency of DC/DC converters and DC/AC inverters;
• The study on the impact of the new components' usage on the control of converters and inverters;
• Design, discrete modeling and multi-input control with the prediction of voltage and current source inverters with new technology components (new switching WBG components, new magnetic materials);
• Increasing the reliability of multilevel inverters owing to their redundant architecture;
• Increasing EMC of switched-mode converters and inverters based on the proper component choice and different PWM modulation schemas;
• New architecture solutions of single-stage microinverters that are predicted to cooperate with photo voltaic modules to decrease the common mode current from the PV module to the ground;
• The various maximum power point tracking algorithms in PV supply systems;
• Power converters in modern automotive applications;
• Driving high-speed induction and PMSM motors that require modified architecture inverters (e.g., four-leg three-phase bridge), high switching frequency and new switching components;
• Implementing real-time interfaces (for MATLAB/Simulink) for the initial experimental verification;
• Usage of supercapacitors in power conversion systems;
• All other problems of new technologies for power electronic converters and inverters.

Prof. Dr. Zbigniew Rymarski
Prof. Dr. Przemysław Ptak
Guest Editors

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