High-Temperature Air-Cooled Power Electronics Thermal Design (Presentation)
This presentation discusses the status of research at NREL on high temperature air-cooled power electronics thermal design.
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
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Power Electronics Materials and Bonded Interfaces - Reliability and Lifetime
Advanced packaging technologies are currently being designed and developed by the power electronics industry however, the maximum operating temperature is still limited to 175 degrees Celsius for the silicon carbide devices. Bonded materials such as sintered copper and polymeric materials are potential candidates for high temperature operation, but it is critical to characterize and evaluate its reliability under harsh operating conditions. In this project, we discuss the results of the accelerated experiments conducted on sintered copper and polymeric materials. Additionally, a novel framework to develop the lifetime prediction model of bonded interfaces through employing statistical and machine learning models are described. In this task, scanning acoustic microscope images of bonded interfaces obtained under thermal cycling experiments are used as the data.
ENGINEERING↗
Electron energy distributions and electron impact source functions in Ar/N{sub 2} inductively coupled plasmas using pulsed power
In plasma materials processing, such as plasma etching, control of the time-averaged electron energy distributions (EEDs) in the plasma allows for control of the time-averaged electron impact source functions of reactive species in the plasma and their fluxes to surfaces. One potential method for refining the control of EEDs is through the use of pulsed power. Inductively coupled plasmas (ICPs) are attractive for using pulsed power in this manner because the EEDs are dominantly controlled by the ICP power as opposed to the bias power applied to the substrate. In this paper, we discuss results from a computational investigation of EEDs and electron impact source functions in low pressure (5–50 mTorr) ICPs sustained in Ar/N{sub 2} for various duty cycles. We find there is an ability to control EEDs, and thus source functions, by pulsing the ICP power, with the greatest variability of the EEDs located within the skin depth of the electromagnetic field. The transit time of hot electrons produced in the skin depth at the onset of pulse power produces a delay in the response of the EEDs as a function of distance from the coils. The choice of ICP pressure has a large impact on the dynamics of the EEDs, whereas duty cycle has a small influence on time-averaged EEDs and source functions.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
Advanced Power Electronics Designs - Reliability and Prognostics
The electrical interconnection and isolation design aspects within an inverter must also provide high thermal performance and thermomechanical reliability. In collaboration with ORNL, DuPont, and Indiana Integrated Circuits (IIC), NREL is evaluating new packaging materials and manufacturing techniques for wide-bandgap-based traction inverters. Thermal modeling and experimental evaluation revealed that an organic direct-bond-copper (ODBC) substrate has similar thermal resistance to traditional ceramic substrates. High-temperature thermal cycling has shown the ODBC substrates to have greater reliability than ceramic substrates which is a significant finding in the quest for low-cost, power-dense, high-temperature power electronics. IIC's direct chip-to-chip topside electrical connection will be attached to ODBC substrates and reliability evaluation for both technologies will be performed at NREL in Q4.
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
A Manufacturing Cost and Supply Chain Analysis of SiC Power Electronics Applicable to Medium-Voltage Motor Drives
Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices are increasingly being considered for use in certain power electronics applications, where they can improve efficiency, performance, footprint, and, potentially, total system cost compared to systems using traditional silicon (Si) devices. Silicon carbide (SiC) devices in particular -- which are currently more mature than other WBG devices -- are poised for growth in the coming years. Today, the manufacturing of SiC wafers is concentrated in the United States, and chip production is split roughly equally between the United States, Japan, and Europe. Established contract manufacturers located throughout Asia typically carry out manufacturing of WBG power modules. We seek to understand how global manufacturing of SiC components may evolve over time by illustrating the regional cost drivers along the supply chain and providing an overview of other factors that influence where manufacturing is sited. We conduct this analysis for a particular case study where SiC devices are used in a medium-voltage motor drive.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
Vulnerability Assessments for Power-Electronics-Based Smart Grids
Here, in this paper, a novel method is proposed to evaluate the cyber security of the power-electronics-based smart grids (PESG). The proposed method considers the performance and stability of both the individual inverter and the grid. To our knowledge, this is a first attempt to evaluate the performance and stability of PESG due to cyber attacks. We first develop impedance-based modeling and cyber-attack modeling for PESG. Then we propose innovative two security criteria to evaluate the security of PESG, including stability-based and metrics-based. For metrics-based criteria, we propose to use both total harmonic distortion (THD) and space phasor model (SPM) to evaluate the inverter performance. The simulation results with a two-inverter-based power grid verify the validity and accuracy of the proposed security evaluation method. Results have shown that the performance and stability of PESG are significantly affected by cyber attacks, and thus there is indeed a need to further study cyber security issues of PESG.
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
SiC Power Electronics in Medium Voltage Motor Drives: Trade and Manufacturing Analysis
Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices are increasingly being considered for use in certain power electronics applications, where they can improve efficiency, performance, footprint, and, potentially, total system cost compared to systems using traditional silicon (Si) devices. Silicon carbide (SiC) devices in particular -- which are currently more mature than other WBG devices -- are poised for growth in the coming years. Today, the manufacturing of SiC wafers is concentrated in the United States, and chip production is split roughly equally between the United States, Japan, and Europe. Established contract manufacturers located throughout Asia typically carry out manufacturing of WBG power modules. We seek to understand how global manufacturing of SiC components may evolve over time by illustrating the regional cost drivers along the supply chain and providing an overview of other factors that influence where manufacturing is sited. We conduct this analysis for a particular case study where SiC devices are used in a medium-voltage motor drive.
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
Power Electronics Materials and Bonded Interfaces - Reliability and Lifetime
Wide-bandgap devices have pushed the operational limit of semiconductor devices in automotive power electronics packages to higher temperatures (>200 C). While a higher efficiency can be achieved through the use of wide-bandgap devices, the entire package must be re-designed with components that can withstand the higher temperature limits. Sintered silver and transient liquid phase bonds are potential candidates as bonded materials for use in higher temperatures however, the underlying mechanics of deformation under thermal loads and the resulting failure mechanisms in these materials are not well understood. Accelerated experiments conducted at NREL reveal that high-lead solder joints have better reliability than sintered silver under extreme thermal cycling conditions. Furthermore, efforts to develop a crack propagation model for the high-temperature materials are described.
ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
Characterization of a Power Electronic Grid Simulator for Wind Turbine Generator Compliance Testing
This paper presents the commissioning results and testing capabilities of a multi-megawatt power electronic grid simulator situated in National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) new testing facility. The commissioning is done using a commercial type 4 multi-megawatt sized wind turbine generator (WTG) installed in NREL's new 5 MW dynamometer and a kilowatt sized type 1 WTG connected to the existing 2.5 MW dynamometer at NREL. The paper demonstrates the outstanding testing capability of the grid simulator and its application in the grid code compliance evaluation of WTGs including balanced and unbalanced voltage low and high fault ride-through. Furthermore, the paper provides insight into the performance of commercial WTGs during both normal and abnormal operating conditions.
17 WIND ENERGY↗
Guest Editorial Special Issue on Emerging Topics of Power Electronics Interfaced Battery Energy Storage System
No doubt, battery energy storage systems have been the enabling solution to balance generation and consumption of power systems with high-penetration renewable energy resources, long-range electric vehicles, and various smart devices. Upon the battery has been manufactured, the rest of implementation issues become how to interface battery and related systems, how to regulate the charging/discharging power, and how to keep battery energy storage systems (BESSs) safe, reliable, and long-term service. In this editorial, we discuss how power electronic converters and associated control and optimization, which can maximize the value of BESSs, are devoted to provide cost-effective, efficient, and even revolutionary technologies.
25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
Waste heat recovery power electronics cooling
A cooling system for an electrified vehicle includes a first cooling loop for circulating coolant for cooling at least one of power electronics and a motor/generator of the vehicle. The first coolant loop includes a heat exchanger for exchanging heat with the coolant in the first cooling loop. A second cooling loop is provided for circulating coolant for cooling a battery of the vehicle. The second cooling loop includes a coolant chiller connected to a refrigeration system of the vehicle for exchanging heat in the coolant received from the battery with the refrigeration system of the vehicle.
Ernst, Timothy C.↗
Combined PV / Battery Grid Integration with High Frequency Magnetics Enabled Power Electronics. Final Report
The project developed and demonstrated a new paradigm in the grid integration of hybrid distributed energy resources (DERs) through leveraging multi-port power electronics building blocks for DC side interconnection of solar PV and energy storage prior to inversion and AC grid integration.
14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
High Current Silicon Carbide Schottky Diodes for Electric Drive Vehicle Power Electronics
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
Electrochemical Solution Growth of Bulk GaN for Power Electronics Substrates, Final Report
This project focused on developing a novel, scalable, and economic growth technique for bulk gallium nitride (GaN), a critical material for next-generation high-temperature power electronics. Large area, high-quality bulk GaN is required as a substrate material in order to grow highly efficient bipolar transistors for inverters and power conditioning. Attempting to grow GaN in bulk by traditional precipitation methods forces extreme thermodynamic and kinetic conditions, putting these techniques at the extremes of experimental science, which is unsuitable for large-area, cost-effective substrate growth. The Electrochemical Solution Growth (ESG) technique is a novel concept that addresses these issues in a unique way, and was developed at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), in part under this program. The crucial step in demonstrating the technique’s feasibility was to deposit high-quality GaN on a seed crystal. The bulk of SNL’s activities were focused on developing conditions for deposition of GaN on a seed crystal (a thin film of GaN grown by metal organic chemical vapor phase deposition (MOCVD) on c-axis oriented sapphire) in a molten salt electrolyte solution using a rotating disk reactor (RDR) ESG apparatus. This project was actively funded from FY08 to FY12 by the Energy Storage Program and GaN Initiative for Grid Applications (GIGA) program of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Some activities focused on silicon doping of GaN occurred in FY13 but only through the use of carryover funds.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Residential (Secondary-Use) Energy Storage System with Modular Software and Hardware Power Electronic Interfaces
Secondary-use energy storage systems (ESS) are a potential low-cost energy storage system for the electric grid. These systems propose a low-cost solution to the challenge, what to do with electric vehicle batteries once EV end-of-life has been reached. However, the development of an ESS is complex by nature. Typically, the bidirectional power electronics conversion (PEC) system has hardware which includes power stages, auxiliary circuits, protection circuits, and the control interfaces all embedded and integrated as a system. This leads to interoperability challenges and vendor dependencies that increase balance of system costs. This paper proposes a modular approach of software and hardware interfaces to reduce the costs of an ESS.
Starke, Michael↗
Chemical vapor deposition of monolayer MoS 2 directly on ultrathin Al 2 O 3 for low-power electronics
Monolayer MoS 2 has recently been identified as a promising material for high-performance electronics. However, monolayer MoS 2 must be integrated with ultrathin high-κ gate dielectrics in order to realize practical low-power devices. In this paper, we report the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of monolayer MoS 2 directly on 20 nm thick Al 2 O 3 grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The quality of the resulting MoS 2 is characterized by a comprehensive set of microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore, a low-temperature (200 °C) Al 2 O 3 ALD process is developed that maintains dielectric integrity following the high-temperature CVD of MoS 2 (800 °C). Field-effect transistors (FETs) derived from these MoS 2 /Al 2 O 3 stacks show minimal hysteresis with a sub-threshold swing as low as ~220 mV/decade, threshold voltages of ~2 V, and current I ON /I OFF ratio as high as ~10 4 , where I OFF is defined as the current at zero gate voltage as is customary for determining power consumption in complementary logic circuits. Finally, the system presented here concurrently optimizes multiple low-power electronics figures of merit while providing a transfer-free method of integrating monolayer MoS 2 with ultrathin high-κ dielectrics, thus enabling a scalable pathway for enhancement-mode FETs for low-power applications.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Power Electronics Materials and Bonded Interfaces - Reliability and Lifetime
The need for reliable bonded interface materials is critical to realize the performance benefits of wide-bandgap devices in power electronic modules, especially in operating temperatures greater than 150 degrees Celsius. In this paper, we investigate the thermomechanical performance of sintered copper (Cu) as a large-area attachment, bonded between Cu baseplates and active-metal-bonded substrates, under accelerated thermal shock (-40 degrees Celsius to 200 degrees Celsius) conditions. In the fabrication phase of the samples, we used different stencil patterns and found out that the grid and stripe patterns resulted in a better outgassing of the residual organics during the sintering process, thereby ensuring a substantially improved bond quality than a full-area print. The paste consisted of Cu microflakes and we performed sintering using a Budatec SP300 sintering press at 275 degrees Celsius with 15 MPa of bonding pressure for 5 minutes in a nitrogen atmosphere. Under accelerated experiments, we monitored the degradation of the sintered Cu bond in the samples through C-mode scanning acoustic microscope (C-SAM) images. To quantify the defect percentage in C-SAM images, we investigated image denoising techniques to exclude the pattern prints. Finally, we cross-sectioned a sample and obtained digital microscope images, which revealed adhesive fracture as the dominant failure mechanism.
ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
Early Fault Detection in Particle Accelerator Power Electronics Using Ensemble Learning
Early fault detection and fault prognosis are crucial to ensure efficient and safe operations of complex engineering systems such as the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and its power electronics (high voltage converter modulators). Following an advanced experimental facility setup that mimics SNS operating conditions, the authors successfully conducted 21 early fault detection experiments, where fault precursors are introduced in the system to a degree enough to cause degradation in the waveform signals, but not enough to reach a real fault. Nine different machine learning techniques based on ensemble trees, convolutional neural networks, support vector machines, and hierarchical voting ensembles are proposed to detect the fault precursors. Although all 9 models have shown a perfect and identical performance during the training and testing phase, the performance of most models has decreased in the next test phase once they got exposed to realworld data from the 21 experiments. The hierarchical voting ensemble, which features multiple layers of diverse models, maintains a distinguished performance in early detection of the fault precursors with 95% success rate (20/21 tests), followed by adaboost and extremely randomized trees with 52% and 48% success rates, respectively. The support vector machine models were the worst with only 24% success rate (5/21 tests). The study concluded that a successful implementation of machine learning in the SNS or particle accelerator power systems would require a major upgrade in the controller and the data acquisition system to facilitate streaming and handling big data for the machine learning models. In addition, this study shows that the best performing models were diverse and based on the ensemble concept to reduce the bias and hyperparameter sensitivity of individual models.
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗