Since it was founded in 1983, the power electronics group at the University of Colorado has maintained a tradition of innovative design-oriented and application-driven research. Group activities now span the range of applications from high-efficiency milliwatt converters for portable battery-operated systems, to tens, hundreds or thousands of watts for wireless, computer, aerospace, lighting, and medical applications, to hundreds or thousands of kilowatts for wind power generation systems. These activities are based on our experience in the technical areas of converter technologies, converter modeling and control, and magnetics.

Our capabilities and emphases that combine power electronics with analog and mixed-signal IC design give us a unique capability among university research groups in the nation.

Below are selected highlights of our current research.

• Evolution of magnetics and capacitor technology is slow
• Evolution of microprocessor/microcontroller technology is rapid
• Evolution of power semiconductor technology is rapid, and low-voltage power semiconductors are inexpensive
• Major gains in packaging technology

Conclusion: where to focus research thrusts: Use of silicon to make significant gains in SMPS performance, size, and/or cost

• Use silicon to reduce passive components
• More intelligence, sophistication, complexity, and system integration
• Added value in switched-mode converter products through application-specific control ICs having order-of-magnitude increases in sophistication and capabilities
• Implications for converter topologies, control, and applications

Time for digital control?

• Digital implementation of all major control functions
• Increased sophistication of control and protection algorithms
• Elimination of external passive components
• Ability to change compensation or control algorithm in software or EPROM
• Integration with power management and diagnostic systems
• Digital transmission of error signal across isolation boundary
• Estimation of currents and system parameters

Requires new circuit approaches for practical realization in SMPS

Use of silicon to make significant gains in switching converter performance, size, and/or cost

• Use silicon to reduce passive components
• More intelligence, sophistication, complexity, and system integration
• Implications for converter topologies, control, and applications

For details of CoPEC results, please visit our publications page.