There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Power electronics technology has gone through dynamic evolution in the last four decades. Recently, its applications are fast expanding in industrial, commercial, residential, transportation, utility, aerospace, and military environments primarily due to reduction of cost, size, and improvement of performance. In the global industrial automation, energy conservation, and environmental pollution control trends of the 21st century, the widespread impact of power electronics is inevitable. It appears that the role of power electronics on our society in the future will tend to be as important and versatile as that of information technology today. In this paper, the importance of power electronics will be discussed after a brief historial introduction in the beginning. Then, the recent advances of power semiconductor devices, converters, variable-frequency AC drives, and advanced control and estimation techniques will be reviewed briefly. Unlike a traditional technology survey paper, the number of figures is kept intentionally small in favor of the text within the length constraint of this paper. The prognosis of different areas will be highlighted wherever possible based on the author's own knowledge and experience. In conclusion and future scenario, the trend of power electronics and motor drives along with some possible research and development areas will be highlighted.

Power Electronics and Motor Drives Recent Progress and Perspective

This paper presents a diagnostic and prognostic condition monitoring method for insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) power modules for use primarily in electric vehicle applications. The wire-bond-related failure, one of the most commonly observed packaging failures, is investigated by analytical and experimental methods using the on-state voltage drop as a failure indicator. A sophisticated test bench is developed to generate and apply the required current/power pulses to the device under test. The proposed method is capable of detecting small changes in the failure indicators of the IGBTs and freewheeling diodes and its effectiveness is validated experimentally. The novelty of the work lies in the accurate online testing capacity for diagnostics and prognostics of the power module with a focus on the wire bonding faults, by injecting external currents into the power unit during the idle time. Test results show that the IGBT may sustain a loss of half the bond wires before the impending fault becomes catastrophic. The measurement circuitry can be embedded in the IGBT drive circuits and the measurements can be performed in situ when the electric vehicle stops in stop-and-go, red light traffic conditions, or during routine servicing.

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In Situ Diagnostics and Prognostics of Wire Bonding Faults in IGBT Modules for Electric Vehicle Drives

The implementations of fuel cells (FCs) in the vehicle industry have gained great attention for the last few decades owing to simple utilization, silent operation, high efficiency and modular structure. Technological advancements show that the use of FCs in electric vehicles (EVs) will increase rapidly and cause a revolution, and will be an alternative to traditional vehicles in the future. Commercial vehicles, projects and research show that work is underway to ensure that FCEVs have sufficient performance advances for their daily transportation needs. However, the lack of a detailed study that will shed light on researchers working in this field is obvious. It aims to provide a comprehensive scientific publication on the current status and future expectations to engineers and researchers interested in this field. In the current study, numerous studies have been examined in detail and added as supplementary to the bibliography. In this context, FCEVs are classified under headings of configurations, systems components, control/management, technical challenges, marketing and future aspects. First of all, FC types and electric motors are discussed in terms of their application areas, characteristic properties and operating conditions. Power converters, which are voltage regulation and motor drive topologies used in FCEVs, are detailed according to the structural frequency of use, structure, and complexity. In the next sections, control issues for converters and technical challenges are branched for FCEVs. In final section, the current status and future aspects are reported using a large number of marketing and target data.

A review and research on fuel cell electric vehicles: Topologies, power electronic converters, energy management methods, technical challenges, marketing and future aspects

GaN, a wide bandgap semiconductor successfully implemented in optical and high-speed electronic devices, has gained momentum in recent years for power electronics applications. Along with rapid progress in material and device processing technologies, high-voltage transistors over 600?V have been reported by a number of teams worldwide. These advances make GaN highly attractive for the growing market of electrified vehicles, which currently employ bipolar silicon devices in the 600?1200?V class for the traction inverter. However, to capture this billion-dollar power market, GaN has to compete with existing IGBT products and deliver higher performance at comparable or lower cost. This paper reviews key achievements made by the GaN semiconductor industry, requirements of the automotive electric drive system and remaining challenges for GaN power devices to fit in the inverter application of hybrid vehicles.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0268-1242/28/7/074012/pdf

Prospects for the application of GaN power devices in hybrid electric vehicle drive systems

Power semiconductor devices are key components in all power electronic systems, particularly in hybrid, electric, and fuel cell vehicles. This paper reviews the system requirement and latest development of power semiconductor devices including IGBTs, freewheeling diodes, and advanced power module technology in relating to electric vehicle applications. State-of-the-art silicon device technologies, their future trends, and theoretical limits are discussed. Emerging wide bandgap semiconductor devices such as SiC devices and their potential applications in electric vehicles are also reviewed

I. Omura

Papers

Power Semiconductor Devices for Hybrid, Electric, and Fuel Cell Vehicles