Research Objectives and Approaches: The objective of this research is to improve power density in power electronics, while lowering the economic hurdles keeping students from participating in this field. The approach is to make efficient switching power converters with frequencies at least ten times higher than conventional designs with no magnetic materials and small-valued capacitors. Resulting designs will have all passive components embedded in an inexpensive circuit board.
Intellectual Merit: Recent advances in power density have been mostly due to improved semiconductors that switch faster but these advances are reaching a plateau when used in conventional circuit designs. This is due to frequency-dependent losses in semiconductors and in energy storage devices. This research looks to implement a value-added strategy using inexpensive printed circuit boards by fabricating all passive devices with conductive traces, transforming the printed circuit board into a three-dimensional resonant structure. This will eliminate post-fabrication tuning and component variation while maintaining extraordinary levels of performance at reduced cost.
Broader Impacts: To enhance outreach, educational modules on resonant power converters tied to the research outcomes will engage students and increase access to this developing field. This coursework is rarely available to students, specially Hispanic, who will be a particular focus of the proposed outreach. The program will follow the approach of: dramatically enhance the power electronics curriculum at the University of Michigan, employ educational outreach to encourage Hispanic students to learn power electronics, and use low-cost technologies to make the design and fabrication of resonant converters available to a wider public.
