Doctoral Dissertation
Compact high frequency power conversion for high voltage applications
Performance of high-voltage power converters has lagged their low-voltage counterparts on many metrics including power density, efficiency, transient response, and cost. This research presents newly developed circuit techniques and design strategies that allow high-voltage power supplies to be many times smaller and more efficient than the traditional high-voltage supplies on the market today. By implementing unique resonant circuit topologies capable of operating efficiently at 10s of MHz, passive component size is reduced to a fraction of the volume and mass when compared with conventional lower frequency designs. Novel strategies for improving the voltage gain of resonant dc-dc converters without loss in efficiency and stability are presented. This work provides several examples of high-gain resonant converters and demonstrates their benefits when used in various scientific applications. Specifically, several multi-kV prototypes are tested that achieve power densities exceeding 100 watts per cubic inch for conversion ratios of up to 130 and dc-dc efficiencies reaching 90 %. Various power levels are proven from 10s of watts to 2~kW with output voltages reaching 15 kV.
Publications
- An Integrated RF Power Delivery and Plasma Micro-Thruster System for Nano-Satellites ∙ Frontiers in Physics ∙ 2018
- Vacuum Testing of a Miniaturized Switch Mode Amplifier Powering an Electrothermal Plasma Micro-Thruster ∙ Frontiers in Physics ∙ 2017
- A compact RF power inverter with reduced EMI for a CubeSat electrothermal micro-thruster ∙ IEEE COMPEL ∙ 2017
- Structurally supportive RF power inverter for a CubeSat electrothermal plasma micro-thruster with PCB inductors ∙ IEEE APEC ∙ 2017
- Low-Mass RF Power Inverter for CubeSat Applications Using 3-D Printed Inductors ∙ IEEE JESTPE ∙ 2017
- Inductance cancellation in RF resonant power converters ∙ IEEE ECCE ∙ 2017
- Resonant bi-polar DC pulse power supply for electroporation applications ∙ IEEE COMPEL ∙ 2016
- Low mass RF power inverter for cubesat plasma thruster using 3D printed inductors ∙ IEEE COMPEL ∙ 2016
- 27.12 MHz isolated high voltage gain multi-level resonant DC-DC converter ∙ IEEE ECCE ∙ 2015
- 27.12MHz GaN resonant power converter with PCB embedded resonant air core inductors and capacitors ∙ IEEE ECCE ∙ 2015
- 13.56 MHz high voltage multi-level resonant DC-DC converter ∙ IEEE COMPEL ∙ 2015
- 27.12MHz GaN Bi-directional resonant power converter ∙ IEEE COMPEL ∙ 2015
- 3-D-Printed Air-Core Inductors for High-Frequency Power Converters ∙ IEEE TPEL ∙ 2015
- A High-Frequency Resonant Converter Based on the Class Phi2 Inverter for Wireless Power Transfer ∙ IEEE VTC ∙ 2015
- 3D printed air core inductors for high frequency power converters ∙ IEEE ECCE ∙ 2014
- Performance evaluation of diodes in 27.12 MHz Class-D resonant rectifiers under high voltage and high slew rate conditions ∙ IEEE COMPEL ∙ 2014
- 27.12 MHz large voltage gain resonant converter with low voltage stress ∙ IEEE ECCE ∙ 2013
Patents
- Apparatuses and methods involving power conversion using multiple rectifier circuits ∙ US Patent 11,228,252 ∙ 2022
- Bipolar DC-DC converter topology using passive voltage reversal ∙ US Patent 10,998,823 ∙ 2021
- Isolated multi-level resonant topologies for wide-range power conversion and impedance matching ∙ US Patent 10,218,276 ∙ 2019