A review and classification of LED ballasts

This paper presents a review on existing ballasts for light-emitting diodes (LED) with considerations to their compliance to regulations, technological challenges, and on meeting various application requirements. All existing LED ballasts, including those proposed in recent literature, have been appropriately classified and systematically organized for the discussion. The dissemination of this information and its understanding is helpful for future R&D pursuits in this area. © 2013 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Study of Novel Power Electronic Converters for Small Scale Wind Energy Conversion Systems

This chapter proposes a study of novel power electronic converters for small scale wind energy conversion systems. In this chapter major topologies of power electronic converters that used in wind energy converter systems have been analysed. Various topologies of DC/AC single stage converters such as high boost Z-source inverters (ZSI) have been investigated. New proposed schemes for inverters such as multilevel and Z-source inverters have been studied in this proposed chapter. Multilevel converters are categorized into three major groups according to their topologies which are diode clamped multilevel converters (DCM), cascade multilevel converters (CMC) with multiple isolated dc voltage sources and flying capacitor based multilevel converters (FCMC). Z-source inverters are divided to ZSI, qZSI and trans-ZSI types. Trans-ZSI is mostly used for high step-up single stage conversions

ULTRA LOW POWER FSK RECEIVER AND RF ENERGY HARVESTER

This thesis focuses on low power receiver design and energy harvesting techniques as methods for intelligently managing energy usage and energy sources. The goal is to build an inexhaustibly powered communication system that can be widely applied, such as through wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Low power circuit design and smart power management are techniques that are often used to extend the lifetime of such mobile devices. Both methods are utilized here to optimize power usage and sources. RF energy is a promising ambient energy source that is widely available in urban areas and which we investigate in detail. A harvester circuit is modeled and analyzed in detail at low power input. Based on the circuit analysis, a design procedure is given for a narrowband energy harvester. The antenna and harvester co-design methodology improves RF to DC energy conversion efficiency. The strategy of co-design of the antenna and the harvester creates opportunities to optimize the system power conversion efficiency. Previous surveys have found that ambient RF energy is spread broadly over the frequency domain; however, here it is demonstrated that it is theoretically impossible to harvest RF energy over a wide frequency band if the ambient RF energy source(s) are weak, owing to the voltage requirements. It is found that most of the ambient RF energy lies in a series of narrow bands. Two different versions of harvesters have been designed, fabricated, and tested. The simulated and measured results demonstrate a dual-band energy harvester that obtains over 9% efficiency for two different bands (900MHz and 1800MHz) at an input power as low as -19dBm. The DC output voltage of this harvester is over 1V, which can be used to recharge the battery to form an inexhaustibly powered communication system. A new phase locked loop based receiver architecture is developed to avoid the significant conversion losses associated with OOK architectures. This also helps to minimize power consumption. A new low power mixer circuit has also been designed, and a detailed analysis is provided. Based on the mixer, a low power phase locked loop (PLL) based receiver has been designed, fabricated and measured. A power management circuit and a low power transceiver system have also been co-designed to provide a system on chip solution. The low power voltage regulator is designed to handle a variety of battery voltage, environmental temperature, and load conditions. The whole system can work with a battery and an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) as a sensor node of a WSN network

Efficient power management circuits for energy harvesting applications

Low power IoT devices are growing in numbers and by 2020 there will be more than 25 Billion of those in areas such as wearables, smart homes, remote surveillance, transportation and industrial systems, including many others. Many IoT electronics either will operate from stand-alone energy supply (e.g., battery) or be self-powered by harvesting from ambient energy sources or have both options. Harvesting sustainable energy from ambient environment plays significant role in extending the operation lifetime of these devices and hence, lower the maintenance cost of the system, which in turn help make them integral to simpler systems. Both for battery-powered and harvesting capable systems, efficient power delivery unit remains an essential component for maximizing energy efficiency. The goal of this research is to investigate the challenges of energy delivery for low power electronics considering both energy harvesting as well as battery-powered conditions and to address those challenges. Different challenges of energy harvesting from low voltage energy sources based on the limitations of the sources, the type of the regulator used and the pattern of the load demands have been investigated. Different aspects of the each challenges are further investigated to seek optimized solutions for both load specific and generalized applications. A voltage boost mechanism is chosen as the primary mechanism to investigate and to addressing those challenges, befitting the need for low power applications which often rely on battery voltage or on low voltage energy harvesting sources. Additionally, a multiple output buck regulator is also discussed. The challenges analyzed include very low voltage start up issues for an inductive boost regulator, cascading of boost regulator stages, and reduction of the number of external component through reusing those. Design techniques for very high conversion ratio, bias current reduction with autonomous bias gating, battery-less cold start, component and power stage multiplexing for reconfigurable and multi-domain regulators are presented. Measurement results from several silicon prototypes are also presented.Ph.D

Switching converters with wide DC conversion range

In dc-to-dc conversion applications that require a large range of input and/or output voltages, conventional PWM converter topologies must operate at extremely low duty ratios, which limits the operation to lower switching frequencies because of the minimum ON-time of the transistor switch. This is eliminated in a new class of single-transistor PWM converters featuring voltage conversion ratios with quadratic dependence on duty ratio. Practical circuit examples operating at 0.5 MHz are described

MPPT Solar Charge Contoller For Portable

The purpose of our senior project was to design and prototype an MPPT charge controller for small capacity PV panels under varying temperature and irradiance conditions to charge portable devices. In this paper we discuss our research, simulation, design, and testing to develop an MPPT solar charge controller. Furthermore, we presented our results and findings from testing our design. An MPPT solar charge controller is feasible and affordable if implemented on a PCB board. Due to MPPT’s affordability and increased efficiency under dynamic conditions, an MPPT solar charge controller for portable devices would be more effective than solar chargers currently sold without MPPT

A new optimum topology switching DC-to-DC converter

A novel switching dc-to-dc converter is presented, which has the same general conversion property (increase or decrease of the input dc voltage) as does the conventional buck-boost converter, and which offers through its new optimum topology higher efficiency, lower output voltage ripple, reduced EMI, smaller size and weight, and excellent dynamics response. One of its most significant advantages is that both input and output current are not pulsating but are continuous (essentially dc with small superimposed switching current ripple), this resulting in a close approximation to the ideal physically nonrealizable dc-to-dc transformer. The converter retains the simplest possible structure with the minimum number of components which, when interconnected in its optimum topology, yield the maximum performance. The new converter is extensively experimentally verified, and both the steady state (dc) and the dynamic (ac) theoretical model are correlated well with the experimental data. both theoretical and experimental comparisons with the conventional buck-boost converter, to which an input filter has been added, demonstrate the significant advantages of the new optimum topology switching dc-to-dc converter

Modelling, analyses and design of switching converters

A state-space averaging method for modelling switching dc-to-dc converters for both continuous and discontinuous conduction mode is developed. In each case the starting point is the unified state-space representation, and the end result is a complete linear circuit model, for each conduction mode, which correctly represents all essential features, namely, the input, output, and transfer properties (static dc as well as dynamic ac small-signal). While the method is generally applicable to any switching converter, it is extensively illustrated for the three common power stages (buck, boost, and buck-boost). The results for these converters are then easily tabulated owing to the fixed equivalent circuit topology of their canonical circuit model. The insights that emerge from the general state-space modelling approach lead to the design of new converter topologies through the study of generic properties of the cascade connection of basic buck and boost converters

A Survey, Classification and Critical Review of Light-Emitting Diode Drivers

Based on a survey on over 1400 commercial LED drivers and a literature review, a range of LED driver topologies are classified according to their applications, power ratings, performance and their energy storage and regulatory requirements. Both passive and active LED drivers are included in the review and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. This paper also presents an overall view on the technical and cost aspects of the LED technology, which is useful to both researchers and engineers in the lighting industry. Some general guidelines for selecting driver topologies are included to aid design engineers to make appropriate choices.published_or_final_versio

Robust Control of a Multi-phase Interleaved Boost Converter for Photovoltaic Application using µ-Synthesis Approach

The high demand of energy efficiency has led to the development power converter topologies and control system designs within the field of power electronics. Recent advances of interleaved boost converters have showed improved features between the power conversion topologies in several aspects, including power quality, efficiency, sustainability and reliability. Interleaved boost converter with multi-phase technique for PV system is an attractive area for distributed power generation. During load variation or power supply changes due to the weather changes the output voltage requires a robust control to maintain stable and perform robustness. Connecting converters in series and parallel have the advantages of modularity, scalability, reliability, distributed location of capacitors which make it favorable in industrial applications. In this dissertation, a design of µ-synthesis controller is proposed to address the design specification of multi-phase interleaved boost converter at several power applications. This thesis contributes to the ongoing research on the IBC topology by proposing the modeling, applications uses and control techniques to the stability challenges. The research proposes a new strategy of robust control applied to a non-isolated DC/DC interleaved boost converter with a high step voltage ratio as multi-phase, multi-stage which is favorable for PV applications. The proposed controller is designed based on µ-synthesis technique to approach a high regulated output voltage, better efficiency, gain a fast regulation response against disturbance and load variation with a better dynamic performance and achieve robustness. The controller has been simulated using MATLAB/Simulink software and validated through experimental results which show the effectiveness and the robustness