Power Conversion Systems for Embedded Applications

The role of electrical energy is preponderant in the development of transportation such as, for example, aeronautics and automobiles. The strong environmental and economic constraints of these fields make it imperative to design and develop high power-to-weight converters with a high reliability rate.

This unit of instruction will:

• To provide students with the key elements for the design, sizing, study and simulation of power converters used in embedded systems as well as other applications, such as electrical energy management in renewable and non-renewable energy production, transmission and control systems.
• Present the interest of converters for embedded systems that are continuously evolving towards all-electricity and make the link with the problems posed by the current reliability rates of power electronics.
• Introduce concepts that allow for the calculation of a carbon footprint and for eco-design. These elements of design are now essential for designing efficient products and helping to make the energy transition a success.
• Provide students with skills on current power electronics devices and will enable them to better understand emerging converter structures.
• To present the constraints related to the use of passive components and more particularly magnetic components operating at high frequencies and which are absolutely necessary for the operation of these converters.

The students will have to be able to carry out a complete project from a specific specification which will lead them to study in its totality a regulated conversion structure.

The practical work associated with the course will allow a better understanding of the technological barriers in the design of efficient structures in power electronics.

This teaching unit will be used as a support for the Master 2 projects.

The final objective of this teaching unit is for the student, at the end of the course and the practical work, to be able to answer a specification by the study, the development and the implementation of a power converter for an embedded application. At the end of this course, the student will be able to join the research and development department of a company or a research laboratory to design innovative structures of high power density converters.

The student will be aware of the impact of a converter and its components on the environment and will be aware of the problems related to their reliability.

He will be able to easily use circuit simulation software. He/she will be able to model a converter and implement its closed-loop control and to this end he/she will be able to study and dimension classical structures such as sinusoidal current absorption converters (PFC, PWM rectifier...), isolated or not structures.

The student will be able to dimension the magnetic components present in power electronics converters by taking into account the intrinsic limits of the materials of which they are made and by dealing with their imperfections (losses, limits) determined from charts or finite element software.

Finally, he will have notions on the implementation of digital control systems used to develop and extend the performance of power converters.

Master 1 EEA or science and technology, or training at bac+5 in the field of applied physics, electrical engineering, with lessons on the basic principles of power electronics and power converters.

To have knowledge on the intrinsic limits of high frequency magnetic components.

Recommended prerequisites*:

To have followed the UE HAE706E Energy Conversion Systems of Master 1 EEA

Continuous assessment teaching unit

1. Introduction to converters for embedded systems. Examples. Reliability issues related to power electronics (life span of power components, impact of defects on the environment). Carbon footprint and eco-design of a converter
2. Simulation in power electronics. Simulation software and applications (analog, digital).
3. Modeling and control of a static converter.
4. The "Power Factor Corrector" (PFC) single and three-phase function. PWM rectifiers.
5. Non-isolated switching converters used in the supply of complex digital circuits (VRM, interleaving). Isolated switching converters, reversible or not, used on embedded power networks
6. Magnetic couplers in power converters. Definitions, characteristics. Applications
7. HF phenomena in magnetic components. Joule losses, iron losses, dimensioning of a component. Intrinsic limits of operation. Characterization of a magnetic component HF
8. Realization of a digital control circuit. Choice and integration of the converter. Presentation of programmable components.

CM : 31h30

Practical work : 27h