Dr. Brandon Grainger of University of Pittsburgh

It has been stated that by 2030, 80% of our electricity generation on land, sea, and in space will be processed by power electronic systems. The electric power industry is seeing continued improvements in wide bandgap device technology, new circuit topologies for direct medium voltage interconnection, and trends in the utilization of DC based architectures for integrating DC generation resources, like solar, and forthcoming loads such as electric vehicles. Power electronic systems enable this transition to occur and build intelligence into grid systems, future all-electric ship designs, aircraft, and satellite systems.

Electric ships, aircrafts, and satellites can be all be considered one of the earliest examples of a functioning microgrid. In these environments, high power density design and minimized size, weight are often constraints of the power conversion system while ensuring peak efficiency performance with minimal filtering requirements. For aerospace design, reliability and lifespan is of special consideration as the latest device technology, like GaN, is explored where components must be radiation tolerant, handle wide thermal range, and extreme system input and output conditions.

Although the voltage and power levels are drastically different between all domains mentioned, there is indeed overlap that can be considered in these system designs. New circuit topologies, magnetic design and materials, wide bandgap device utilization, and control strategies for the power electronic systems all play a role in optimizing the power quality, efficiency, and size, weight of the converters in all arenas. In this talk, we will first explore a modern, modular multilevel converter (MMC) and how academia has cleverly increased the power density of the converter topology for use in medium voltage drives and satellite systems by using SiC and GaN, respectively. Having discussed SiC and GaN in multilevel applications, we will explore the latest radiation tolerant GaN technology suitable for space environments and compare these to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products. Comparisons will be done for point of load converters through SPICE simulation and in hardware. Finally, with an understanding of rad-hard vs COTS definitions, we will evaluate the limitations of readily available rad-hard components compared to COTS and explore GaN device optimization in forward converters, a popular, isolated, dc-dc converter of choice for space environments. All efforts discussed in this talk were supported by Mitsubishi Electric Company and by members of the NSF SHREC center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Biography:

Dr. Brandon Grainger is currently an Eaton faculty fellow, associate professor and Director of the Electric Power Technologies Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), Swanson School of Engineering. He is also the associate director of the Energy GRID Institute and Co-Director of Pitt AMPED. Dr. Grainger is one of the co-architects of the electric power program at Pitt that started in the fall of 2008.

Grainger holds a PhD in electrical engineering (with a specialization in power conversion), master’s degree in electrical engineering and bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering (with minor in electrical engineering) all from Pitt. He was one of the first original R.K. Mellon graduate student fellows through the Center for Energy. He also obtained an executive education certificate from Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business.

Dr. Grainger’s research interests are in electric power conversion, medium to high voltage power electronics (HVDC and STATCOM), general power electronic converter design (topology, controller design, magnetics), resonant converters and high power density design, power semiconductor evaluation (SiC and GaN), aerospace power conversion systems, EV motor drives, solid state transformer design, and optimized magnetic components.

Dr. Grainger has either worked or interned for ABB Corporate Research in Raleigh, NC; ANSYS Inc. in Southpointe, PA; Mitsubishi Electric in Warrendale, PA; Siemens Industry in New Kensington, PA; and has regularly volunteered at Eaton’s Power Systems Experience Center in Warrendale, PA designing electrical demonstrations. In his career thus far, he has contributed to 100+ articles in the general area of electric power conversion and all of which have been published through the IEEE, ASEE or ASNE. He also has one patent and edited one research textbook.

Dr. Grainger is a senior member of the IEEE and IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS). He has served as the IEEE Pittsburgh PELS Chapter Chair when the section has won numerous awards under his leadership. He has also served on various IEEE technical committees and was a technical program committee chair for IEEE ECCE in 2022.

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