Challenges and Opportunities in High-frequency Power Electronics for Emerging Applications

Abstract

Modern electronic systems have been transforming rapidly to realize automation, such as automation in factories or warehouses and autonomous vehicles. As demand for automation grows, enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, control, and smart charging systems become beneficial. However, while other technologies have been considerably revolutionized, the effort to develop an innovative and efficient charging system for automation has not. Power electronics is a critical technology in the charging system to convert electric energy into a different level or type to deliver it to an electric load, such as batteries. Therefore, it must tackle the key challenges that prevent us from obtaining an intelligent, compact, and efficient charging system.

In this talk, I will first discuss high-frequency dc-dc converters in wireless power transfer (WPT) systems to improve the efficiency and power density of the system for battery-powered vehicles. Then, challenges and opportunities to design coupling coils for WPT systems at high frequencies will be introduced. In addition, I will present a control method in the bidirectional resonant dc-dc converter for energy storage. Finally, I will preview the direction of future works, such as developing efficient high-frequency converters for emerging applications.

Bio

Jungwon Choi is an assistant professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She received her Ph.D. in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University in 2019, MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2013 and BS in Electrical Engineering from Korea University, in Seoul, Korea in 2009.

Her research focuses on enabling compact and reliable power conversion systems using wireless power transfer for various applications such as battery-powered vehicles, renewable energy systems, industrial and biomedical applications, and evaluating WBG devices to operate at a high switching frequency. In 2017, she was selected to the Rising Stars in EECS. In 2019 and 2020, she has received Unlock Idea awards from Lam Research, and in 2021, received National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award. She serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Industrial Electronics, and as an organizing committee/session chair for several international conferences (IEEE APEC, ECCE, COMPEL, etc).