Power Electronic Systems

Scope

The expertise of our team lies in three technological domains: Reliability and Robustness, Highly Integrated Converters and Diagnostics & Prognostics.

Activity

An increased electrification of the world, accelerating today, and the associated long-term data that this has permitted to generate, permits us to realise that the current reliability science is rather imprecise. We are thus looking into advanced methods of power cycling of power modules, that are better related to the mission profile of the converter and the actual failure physics.

We are developing gate driver technologies that permit, by careful consideration of the dynamics in a switching cell, to improve notably the robustness of the power module.

For HICon, we are inventing techniques, structures and processes for packaging that are better suited to wide band-gap devices, permitting to fully exploit their switching performance. In addition to that, by working on heterogeneous integration, we aim for a future where high performance converters will be flexibly yet mass-manufacturered in a manner similar to integrated circuit. We also develop methodologies for multi-objective optimisation of converters, necessitated by this very high level of integration.

In the domain of Diagnostics and Prognostics, we build on the expertise from both Reliability and HICon. This permits us to develop systems for condition and health monitoring that extend the lifetime of our products (for example through stress-steering) and reduce the lifecycle costs through reasoned maintenance. The acquired data is also fed back into the manufacturing process for further improve the quality of our products.

Team

The team is composed of 3 groups, corresponding to the technological domains as exposed above. They work in very close collaboration, necessitated by the topical communality of the technologies involved.

Laboratory

Our Power Cycling platforms (developed by ourselves) have unique capabilities to target specific fault modes in power modules and permits us to produce high precision fault models for power assemblies that use advanced materials and constructions.

The laboratory is equipped with a range of equipment for non-destructive and destructive packaging tests and device characterisation.

Fast prototyping facilities, such as 3D printer and cutter are also available.