News

APEC Outstanding Presentation Award

Feb. 2024: Congratulations to SPEC student Mafu Zhang for winning the Outstanding Presentation Award at APEC 2024 for the paper entitled "New Single-Stage Single-Phase Isolated Bidirectional AC-DC PFC Converter".

APEC Outstanding Presentation Award

Feb. 2024: Congratulations to SPEC student Huanghaohe Zou for winning the Outstanding Presentation Award at APEC 2024 for the paper entitled "Simplified Fixed Frequency Phase Shift Modulation for a Novel Single-Stage Single Phase Series-Resonant AC-DC Converter".

IEEE APEC 2024

February 2024: Several researchers from the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) attended the 2024 IEEE APEC Conference in Long Beach, California from 02/25/2024 to 02/29/2024. Three papers from Dr. Huang’s group were presented at this conference.

SPEC part of the team selected by DOE working with John Deere to electrify agriculture vehicles

Feb 2024: SPEC experts are working with John Deere to develop technologies to electrify agriculture vehicles like tractors. A new project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy aims to develop a mobile and rapid charging mechanism for remotely located electric vehicles used in farming and construction operations. A trio of UT battery experts are part of the $2.25 million project led by John Deere: Prof. Alex Huang, SPEC director and expert in power electronics; Prof. Venkat Subramanian, expert in battery management systems; and Prof. Hao Zhu, expert in electric power systems.

SPEC Student XiXi Luo's Defense

Dec. 2023: SPEC congratulates XiXi Luo for successfully defending her Ph.D. Her thesis title is "Research and Development of High Voltage SiC Bipolar Junction Transistor". Her committee members include Alex Huang, Xiuling Li, Sanjay Banerjee, Ananth Dodabalapur, and Anant Agarwal.

IEEE ECCE 2023

Nov 2023: Professor Alex Huang and several researchers from the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) attended the 2023 IEEE ECCE Conference in Nashville, TN from 10/29/2023 to 11/02/2023. Sixteen papers from Dr. Huang’s group were presented at this conference.

SPEC Revving Up EV Battery Technology

Oct 2023: SPEC research team was recently accepted into the National Science Foundation’s National I-Corps program – which aims to accelerate the transformation of cutting-edge research into real-world applications. Through the program, SPEC will work toward the commercialization of their M3 Battery Inverter technology.
The M3 Battery Inverter is a technology that does two things at once: it works with batteries and something called an inverter, which inverts the DC power from the battery to the AC power for motors. Electric vehicle batteries typically feature a system that controls everything from a central point.

SPEC awarded US Patent for innovative Lateral Semiconductor Device and Method of Manufacture

June 2023: SPEC is pleased to announced that Prof. Alex Huang, SPEC director and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, has been awarded US Patent 11,581,402 entitled “ Lateral Semiconductor Device and Method of Manufacture.”

SPEC awarded US Patent for innovative Modular High Step-Down DC/DC Converter

June 2023: SPEC is pleased to announced that Prof. Alex Huang (SPEC director and a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors) and Dr. Qingyun Huang (Faculty member of University of Missouri) have been awarded US Patent 11,671,011 entitled “Modular High Step-Down DC/DC Converter.”

SPEC part of the team selected by DOE to demonstrate the largest grid-forming inverters in the world

May 2023: As part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awards $4.5m to a team led by Portland General Electric Company to demonstrate grid-forming inverters at the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility in Oregon. SPEC, PNNL, BPA, and GE are part of the project team. This project will be the first bulk power system-connected grid-forming hybrid power plant in the world and will encourage utilities to consider including grid-forming capabilities in their own interconnection requirements. SPEC has been a pioneer in grid-forming technology and has recently demonstrated a 150kW grid-forming PV Synchronous Generator (PVSG). In this new project, SPEC will conduct an advanced grid-forming control simulation for the 300MW hybrid (PV, wind, battery storage) power plant.

SPEC developed an advanced SiC Power Chip

April 2023: SPEC designed, fabricated, and characterized an implantation-free 3 kV 4H-SiC Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT). With a 40μm-wide Four-step Junction Termination Extension (JTE), an open base breakdown voltage (BVCEO) and an open emitter breakdown voltage (BVCBO) of more than 3000V are measured. The BJT exhibits an excellent on-resistance of 6.7mΩ·cm2 for small-size devices.

SPEC Student Wei Xu's Defense

March 2023: SPEC congratulates Wei Xu for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "Medium Voltage Utility Scale PV Plus Storage Solid State Transformers (PVS-SST)". His committee members include Alex Huang, Surya Santoso, Alex Hanson, Robert Hebner, and Xianyong Feng.

SPEC Student Zhicheng Guo's Defense

March 2023: SPEC congratulates Zhicheng Guo for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "Development of High Power Medium-Frequency Transformers". His committee members include Alex Huang, Alex Hanson, Hao Zhu, Xianyong Feng, and Robert Hebner.

IEEE APEC 2023

March 2023: Several researchers from the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) attended the 2023 IEEE APEC Conference in Orlando, Florida from 03/19/2023 to 03/23/2023. Nine papers from Dr. Huang’s group were presented at this conference.

Outstanding Presentation Award

March 2023: Congratulations to SPEC student Huanghaohe Zou for winning the Outstanding Presentation Award at APEC 2023 for the paper entitled "A GaN Variable-Frequency Series Resonant Dual-Active-Bridge Bidirectional AC-DC Converter for Battery Energy Storage System".

SPEC delivers advanced SiC power converters to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Dec 2022: SPEC has successfully completed a two-year project sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity’s (OE), Transformer Resilience and Advanced Components (TRAC) program and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The project is led by Dr. Alex Huang, SPEC center director and ECE professor, with major contributions from Zibo Chen, Chen Chen, Houshang Salimian, and Rahul Choudhary. The project resulted in the delivery of two ready-to-operate SiC converters for ORNL. The high-power density 75kVA air-cooled SiC intelligent power stage (IPS) serves as a standardized plug-and-play universal building block for various grid-connected renewable energy applications. Hence the developed IPS can provide an opportunity to simplify renewable energy integration and increase the grid’s resilience, efficiency, and flexibility.

IEEE ECCE 2022

Oct 2022: Professor Alex Huang and several researchers from the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) attended the 2022 IEEE ECCE Conference in Detroit, Michigan from 10/09/2022 to 10/13/2022. Dr. Huang also served as a panelist in a special session on the Challenges and Potential of " Standard Development for Solid State Transformer: An Update On Existing IEEE Standards On Magnetics And New Standard for Solid State Transformer ". Furthermore, he was the chair of the session on " Multi-Level and Multi-Phase Converters". Eight papers from Dr. Huang’s group were presented at this conference.

Peng Han received the 3rd place award in the Project Demonstration on Emerging Technology at ECCE 22

Oct 2022: Congratulations to SPEC student Peng Han for winning the 3rd place award in the ECCE 2022 student demonstration competition for the presentation entitled "A 650 V, 2.1 mohm GaN Half-bridge Power Module for 400V EV Traction Inverter Application".

Zhicheng Guo Awarded The Transformer Association (TTA) Fellowship

Sep 2022: SPEC Ph.D. candidate Zhicheng Guo has been awarded the Transformer Association (TTA) Fellowship from the Transformer Association for 2022. The program is "a competitive fellowship based on academic merit and the applicant’s demonstrated experience and interest in the field of power conversion with the review of applications and the judgment of the TTA Scholarship Committee and Board of Directors.

SPEC single-stage DPS-VF SR-DAB paper published in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics

June 2022: SPEC just published a paper on "A Bidirectional Isolated Dual-Phase-Shift Variable-Frequency Series Resonant Dual-Active-Bridge GaN AC-DC Converter" in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. Authors include Tianxiang Chen, Ruiyang Yu, and Alex Q. Huang.

SPEC Shared Redundancy Strategy of MMCs paper published in IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics

June 2022: SPEC just published a paper on "Shared Redundancy Strategy to Improve the Reliability and Fault-Tolerant Capability of Modular Multilevel Converter" in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. Authors include Saleh Farzamkia, Houshang Salimian Rizi, Alex Q. Huang, and Hossein Iman-Eini.

SPEC PD in High Frequency Transformer paper published in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

May 2022: SPEC just published a paper on "Characterization of Partial Discharges in High-Frequency Transformer Under PWM Pulses" in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. Authors include Zhicheng Guo, Alex Q. Huang, Robert E. Hebner, Gian Carlo Montanari, and Xianyong Feng.

Prof. Alex Huang will serve as keynote speaker at US-PSES 2022

May 2022: Prof. Alex Huang will serve as the keynote speaker at the International Semiconductor Executive Summits US-PSES 2022. He speaks about Power Semiconductor Devices at this event. International Semiconductor Executive Summits (ISES) brings together professionals from across the semiconductor sector including 5G, IoT, Advanced Packaging, AI, Automotive Electronics, and Power Semiconductors.

Prof. Alex Huang gives a talk at PCIM Europe 2022

May 2022: Prof. Alex Huang gives a talk at PCIM Europe 2022. Professor Huang’s talk covers GaN Power Electronics, from Device to System. PCIM Europe 2022 is the leading international trade fair and conference for power electronics, intelligent drive technology, renewable energy, and energy management. The upcoming event will be held from the 10th to the 12th of May at the Messe Nuremberg.

UT Austin is selected for EcoCAR Electric Vehicle Challenge sponsored by DOE, GM, and MathWorks

April 2022: UT Austin is selected as one of the teams competing in the EcoCAR Electric Vehicle Challenge, a collegiate research and experimental learning competition that challenges hundreds of students to engineer novel technologies for battery electric vehicles through a combined $6 million investment. SPEC will participate in this competition. Professor Alex Huang is also one of the three faculty advisors in this event. EcoCAR Electric Vehicle Challenge is sponsored by The U.S. Department of Energy, in coordination with General Motors (GM) and MathWorks. Selected teams from 13 academic institutions will demonstrate the potential of connected and automated vehicle technologies, which allow for semi-autonomous vehicles and advanced propulsion systems to improve energy efficiency.

SPEC Student Qingxuan Ma's Defense

Apr 2022: SPEC congratulates Qingxuan Ma for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "Modeling, Control and Development of GaN Power Supplies for Data Center Applications". His committee members include Alex Huang, Surya Santoso, Alex Hanson, Jaydeep Kulkarni, and Robert Hebner.

SPEC Student Tianxiang Chen's Defense

Apr 2022: SPEC congratulates Tianiang Chen for successfully defending his Ph.D. His dissertation title is "GaN Enabled High Step-Down Bidirectional AC-DC Converter for Grid-Tied Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)". His committee members include Alex Huang, Surya Santoso, Hao Zhu, Alex Hanson and Venkat Subramanian

IEEE APEC 2022

March 2022: Professor Alex Huang and several researchers from the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) attended the 2022 IEEE APEC Conference in Houston, Texas from 03/20/2022 to 03/24/2022. Dr. Huang also served as a panelist in RAP SESSION #2 on the Challenges and Potential of “AI-Based Design” vs. “Conventional Design”.The following papers of Dr. Huang’s group were presented at this conference:
- “Triple Phase-Shift Optimization of SiC-Based Dual-ActiveBridge Converter”
- “Hardware Design of a 150kW/1500V All-SiC Grid-forming Photovoltaic Synchronous Generator (PVSG)”
- “Design and Characterization of 4.5kV/15mΩ SiCSuperMOS Half-Bridge Module”
- “Packaging and Characterization of a Novel 7.2kV/85A SiC Austin SuperMOS Half-Bridge Intelligent Power Module (IPM)”

Outstanding Presentation Award

March 2022: Congratulations to SPEC student Adithyan Vetrivelan for winning the Outstanding Presentation Award at APEC 2022 for the paper entitled "Triple Phase-Shift Optimization of SiC-Based Dual-ActiveBridge Converter".

SPEC developed a novel and cost-effective 3.6kV/400A Sic HB IPM based on the Austin SuperMOS

Nov 2021: SPEC developed a novel and cost-effective 3.6kV/400A Sic half-bridge IPM based on the Austin SuperMOS. This work is featured by the power electronics news website.
Twenty-four 1200V SiC MOSFETs are integrated into the IPM together with a high isolation voltage gate power supply, gate driver with overcurrent protection. Ultra-low-power loop stray inductance is achieved by utilizing magnetic flux cancellation in the IPM.

Prof. Alex Huang received 2021 IEEE Power and Energy Society Energy Internet Pioneer Award

October 2021: Dr. Alex Huang, SPEC director, and Dula D. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at UT Austin was the recipient of the 2021 Energy Internet Pioneer Award. The award was given in a virtual ceremony held on October 23, 2021, at the 5th IEEE Energy Internet and Energy System Integration (EI2 ) Conference held in Taiyuan, China from 22nd Oct – 24th Oct 2021.

The Energy Internet Pioneer Award, abbreviated as EIPA, is presented to a respected professor/scientist/engineer for his/her pioneering technology or leading contributions to the development of Energy Internet. EIPA will be awarded to no more than one winner per year, which consists of a plaque with a suitable citation, describing the contributions of the awardee. Dr. Huang was given this award for his pioneering contribution in the development of the Energy Internet concept and the smart solid-state transformer-based “Energy Router” technology.

Professor Alex Huang served as a panelist in the OPAL-RT'S 13th Conference on Real-Time Simulation

Sep 2021: Professor Alex Huang served as a panelist in the OPAL-RT'S 13th Conference on Real-Time Simulation. The panel focused on "Validation of Power Electronic Industrial Applications through HIL". Other panelists are Dr. Mathieu Giroux, Dr. Hamish Laird , Dr. Ilknur Colak and Dr. Geraldo Nojima.

SPEC Student Pengkun Liu's Defense

Jul 2021: SPEC congratulates Pengkun Liu for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "Modeling and analysis of paralleled SiC MOSFETs for multi-chip power module". His committee members include Alex Huang, Surya Santoso, Alex Hanson, Robert Hebner, Johan Strydom

SPEC Student Soumik Sen's Defense

Jun 2021: SPEC congratulates Soumik Sen for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "Medium Voltage Extreme Fast Charger based on Novel Medium Voltage SiC Power Devices". His committee members include Alex Huang, Alex Hanson, Robert Hebner, Xianyong Feng, Surya Santoso.

Keynote speech at the "Roadmap to Next-Gen EV & AV" Virtual Conference organized by EETimes

Mar 2021: Professor Alex Huang gave a keynote speech today at the "Roadmap to Next-Gen EV & AV" Virtual Conference organized by EETimes

SPEC Developed all GaN PSU unit Highlighted in Power Electronics News

Mar 2021: SPEC developed 3.2kW 240V AC - 54/51V DC all GaN PFC + LLC unit highlighted in Power Electronics News. The design measures just 1U x 2U x 210 mm (800 cc) and achieves power density of 4 W/cc (65 W/in3).

SPEC Student Atsushi Shimbori's Defense

Nov 2020: SPEC congratulates Atsushi Shimbori for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "Device and process development of SiC lateral power devices". His committee members include Dr. Sanjay Banerjee, Dr. Edward Yu, Dr. Woongie Sung, Dr. Hiu Yung Wong and Dr. Alex Huang.

SPEC Congratulates Liqi Zhang's on his Ph.D. Defense

Jun 2020: SPEC congratulates Liqi Zhang for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "Development of Novel Medium Voltage SiC Power Switch".

SPEC work featured in T&D World Magazine

Apr 2020: SPEC has a recent online publication with T&D World Magazine. The article, "Grid Forming Photovoltaic Synchronous Generator Power Plants" can be accessed online. The article discusses how "the proposed GFM PVSG concept can transform today's GFL PV plants into GFM PV plants, thereby offering a cost-effective approach forward."

SPEC Congratulates Xin Zhao's on his Ph.D. Defense

Apr 2020: SPEC congratulates Xin Zhao for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "A Scalable and Plug-and-Play Solid-State Transformer based on Input-Series-Output-Parallel Architecture".

SPEC Congratulates Hanning Tang's on his successful Ph.D. Defense

November 2019: SPEC congratulates Hanning Tang for successfully defending his Ph.D. His thesis title is "Design, modeling and control of a 12.47 kV isolated three phase power factor correction rectifier".

Japanese Researchers Visit SPEC and Discuss Grid Forming Inverter

November 2019: On November 18th, 2019, the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) hosted a delegation from Japanese researchers from NEDO, TEPCO, Chubu Electric Power Company, Chugoku Electric Power Company, Kyushu Electric Power Company, Kansai Electric Power Company, Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association and Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. SPEC presented updated research results on the Photovoltaic Synchronous Generator(PVSG) which is the next generation PV inverter technology that can provide system inertia support. This is considered critical for a renewable dominant future power grid. After the discussion, SPEC conducted a live demonstration showing off the 40 kW PVSG that can provide 1-2 second inertia support when there is a grid frequency change or PV power intermittence.

PVSG Live Demonstration Event

October 2019: On October 7, 2019, the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) hosted a live demonstration event to demonstrate the “Photovoltaic Synchronous Generator (PVSG) Technology”. The event was attended by a number of utility companies. PVSG is the next generation PV inverter technology that can provide system inertia support. This is considered critical for a renewable dominant future power grid. The project is supported by Duke Energy through CAPER (Center for Advanced Power Engineering Research). The attached pictures shows dynamic waveforms captured during the demonstration on the oscilloscope and as well as on the PVSG control monitoring system. The demonstrated 40 kW PVSG could provided 1-2 second inertia support when there is a grid frequency change or PV power intermittence.

IEEE ECCE 2019

October 2019: A number of researchers from the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) attended 2019 IEEE ECCE Conference in Baltimore from 9/30/2019 to 10/3/2019. SPEC researchers held a booth to show the most updated research results covering from device packaging, high power density converter, medium voltage solid state transformer and microgrid. Following papers are presented at this conference:
“3kW Four-Level Flying Capacitor Totem-Pole Bridgeless PFC Rectifier with 200V GaN Devices”
“Digital Interleaving Control for Two-Phase TCM GaN Totem-Pole PFC to Reduce Current Distortion”
“Design of A Medium Voltage Solid-State Transformer based on Modular AC-AC Resonant Converter and an Input-Series-Output-Parallel Architecture”

1700V SiC power MOSFET based high power bidirectional DC/DC converter

September 2019: Researchers at the Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) has developed a 200 kW SiC based high power bidirectional DC/DC converter based on 1700V SiC power MOSFET technology. A world record peak efficiency of 99.59% was achieved at 80kW and 99.30% at full power of 200 kW. The development effort was supported by DOE as part of the Solar-battery integration technology project.

Welcome New Students!

September 2019: Perhaps the most important event at SPEC is the infusion of new talents. With the launch of new semester, new students bring to this Lab a rich and vibrant set of experiences and ideas that renews our spirit of possibility. This year, we welcome four new students Sanjay, Zibo, Michael and Adithyan who will be embarking on a journey of unleashing their creativity and smarts during the next few years. We couldn't be more thrilled for them. We're all so lucky to be here. SPEC's capacity to inspire and lead is perennial. Now you are a part of this family and every magical property of it, and we couldn't be more excited about you and the work that you will be crafting during your stay here.

Prof. Alex Huang received 2019 IEEE Industry Applications Society Gerald Kliman Innovator Award

August 2019: Prof. Alex Q. Huang received the 2019 IEEE Industry Applications Society Gerald Kliman Innovator Award. He was recognized for development of “Si and SiC high-power devices and the promotion of their industry applications.”
“The IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) Gerald Kliman Innovator Award was established in 2005 to honor innovators who contributed to the technical areas of IAS’s Industrial Power Conversion Systems department. The award may be presented annually to an individual for meritorious contributions to the advancement of power conversion technologies through innovations and their application to industry. The technical field for this award includes, but is not limited to Electrical Machines, Electrical Drives, Power Electronic Systems and Power Electronic Devices. This Award is named in honor of Dr. Gerald Kliman, in memory of his many contributions and innovations to these technical areas. This award is sponsored by General Electric through the IEEE Foundation.”

INFEWS: National Science Foundation Research Traineeship(NRT) Program

May 2019: Semiconductor Power Electronics Center(SPEC) is proud to be part of the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship(NRT) Program. The NRT program at UT Austin, called INFEWS, prepares students from diverse backgrounds to become future leaders in addressing the most complex energy and water challenges in agriculture. For detail of the program please visit https://sites.utexas.edu/infews/. INFEWS supports graduate students in the form of a fellowship so highly motivated and engaged students are welcome to contact SPEC.

SPEC to develop next generation grid forming PV inverters to enhance the resilience of power grid

March 2019: US DOE’s has recently announced to invest $36m in a number of projects to improve situational awareness of solar energy systems. Dr. Alex Huang. SPEC director and ECE professor is part of the Solar Critical Infrastructure Energization (SOLACE) System project led by EPRI. The SOLACE project will develop a comprehensive resilience approach to high penetration solar based power grid.

IEEE APEC 2019

March 2019: Dr. Alex Huang and several of SPEC students attended the APEC 2019 in Anaheim, CA, from March 17 to March 21. Several papers of Dr. Huang's group were published.

SPEC hosted a lab tour for ISPG ESWG visitors

March 2019: SPEC hosted a lab tour during the Interagency Advanced Power Group (IAPG) Electrical Systems Working Group (ESWG) Meeting. Research scientist Dr. Ruiyang Yu, Ph.D. students Xinzhao, Soumik Sen and Wei Xu presents demo of the project outcomes to the meeting attendees.

Prof. Alex Huang published a new book on energy internet

March 2019: Prof. Alex Huang published a new book,The Energy Internet: An Open Energy Platform to Transform Legacy Power Systems into Open Innovation and Global Economic Engines. With the potential to transform the infrastructure of the electric grid, the book provides analysis of various enabling technologies and technical solutions, such as control theory, communication, and the social and economic aspects that are central to obtaining a clear appreciation of the potential of this complex infrastructure. Provides a clear analysis of the architecture of the Energy Internet to ensure an understanding of the technologies behind generating, distributing and consuming electricity in this way. Includes a variety of global case studies of real-world implementation and pilot projects to thoroughly demonstrate the theoretical, technological and economic considerations.

Prof. Alex Huang Elected to National Academy of Inventors

December 2018: Prof. Alex Q. Huang has been selected as a fellow in the prestigious National Academy of Inventors (NAI) for 2018. He was chosen for demonstrating “a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and welfare of society.”

SPEC undergradute students show GaN buck converter powering the data center on ECE Capstone Design

Nov 2018: Several SPEC undergraduate students showed their designed synchronous, half-bridge, GaN buck converter. They improve on existing power converters by achieving an efficiency greater than 97%, which is the current standard for 48V to 12V conversion.

SPEC receives DOE award to develop Modular Hybrid SST

Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) at UT Austin has received a grant from Department of Energy (DOE) to develop technologies for the next generation flexible and adaptable large power transformer(LPT). The developed Hybrid Solid State Transformer is suitable for constructing 138kV LPTs with an output voltage of 4kV, 35kV, 69kV, 115kV. The efficiency of the transformer will be more than 98%.

SPEC Totem-Pole PFC paper published in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

November 2018: SPEC just published a paper on "Predictive ZVS Control with Improved ZVS Time Margin and Limited Variable Frequency Range for A 99% Efficient, 130W/in3 MHz GaN Totem-Pole PFC Rectifier" in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. Authors include Qingyun Huang, Ruiyang Yu, Qingxuan Ma, Alex Q. Huang

SPEC PV inverter paper published in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

November 2018: SPEC just published a paper on "High-Efficiency and High-Density Single-Phase Dual-Mode Cascaded Buck-Boost Multilevel Transformerless PV Inverter with GaN AC Switches" in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. Authors include Qingyun Huang, Alex Q. Huang, Ruiyang Yu, Pengkun Liu and Wensong Yu

IEEE ECCE 2018

Sep 2018: Dr. Alex Huang and several of SPEC student and researches attended the ECCE 2018 in Portland, Oregon, USA on September 23 – 27. 6 SPEC papers were published. Qingxuan Ma presented student demo program.

SPEC Student Qingyun Huang's Defense

Jul 2018: Congratulations to SPEC student Qingyun Huang on his successful defence today. His dissartation title is "Advanced Single-Phase PV Inverter", his committee members include Alex Q. Huang (supervisor), Surya Santoso, Hao Zhu, Nan Sun, Mark Flynn.

2018 Austin Power Electronics Symposium

May 2018: The inaugural 2018 Austin Power Electronics Symposium took place on May 30th at the Texas Advanced Computing Center with nearly 100 participants from academia and industry.

Solar Energy Storage Problem May be Solved in New Single-System Technology

May 2018: SPEC director Dr. Alex Huang talks about SPEC project on M4 Inverter with DOE. Generating power from the sun isn’t the problem. The technology has been there for decades. Storing that power efficiently, however, has been a challenge. Until now.

Prof. Alex Huang Receives IEEE PELS R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award

AUGUST 23, 2020
Prof. Alex Huang Receives IEEE PELS R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award
Prof. Alex Q. Huang of Texas ECE has been named the recipient of the 2020 IEEE PELS R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award.

The IEEE PELS R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award was established in 2011 to "honor an individual who is judged to have accomplished outstanding contribution in the technical field of power electronics, within one or more subfields such as modeling & control, design-oriented analysis, development, simulation and application of electronic devices, passive components, analog sensing, and power circuits for inverters, converters and motor drives in all power levels."

SPEC contributed GaN Power Device Roadmap published

May 2018: SPEC contributed GaN Power Device Roadmap published

SPEC receives DOE funding to develop advanced utility scale solar inverter

April 2018: SPEC has been awarded $3M to develop and demonstrate an advanced utility scale solar inverter. The project goal, proposed under DOE FOA-0001740, ADVANCED POWER ELECTRONICS DESIGN FOR SOLAR APPLICATIONS, is to develop and demonstrate a Modular, Multi-function, Multiport, and Medium Voltage utility scale SiC solar inverter (M4 Inverter). The M4 Inverter is the next generation utility scale PV inverter needed to drastically reduce the LCOE cost by another 50% by 2030 and to provide the grid friendly functionalities needed for a PV dominant electric grid. Project partners are ERCOT, Toshiba International, Wolfspeed and Opal RT.

SPEC receives ONR funding to develop PEBB13800

Semiconductor Power Electronics Center (SPEC) at UT Austin has received a grant from Office of Naval research (ONR) to develop technologies for the next generation Power Electronics Building Block. Called PEBB13800, the developed modular converter will be based on advanced SiC power devices and topology to power next generation DC shipboard power system directly from the 13.8 kV AC power source. This project is part of the ESRDC (Electric Ship Research and Development Center).

Medium Voltage SST paper just published in the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

April 2018: SPEC researcher has just published a paper on medium voltage SST. The paper entitled "7.2 kV Single Stage Solid State Transformer Based on Current-Fed Series Resonant Converter and 15 kV SiC MOSFETs" is published in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. Authors include Qianlai Zhu, Li Wang, Alex Q. Huang, Kristen Booth and Liqi Zhang.

SPEC power electronics control paper published in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics

February 2018: SPEC just published a paper on "A Novel Dominant Dynamic Elimination (DDE) Control for Voltage-Controlled Inverter" in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. Authors include Xiangjun Quan, Xiaobo Dou, Zaijun Wu, Minqiang Hu, Hui Song and Alex Q. Huang

Best Presentation Paper

Congratulations to SPEC student Hanning Tang. His poster at APEC2018 was selected as the best presentation paper.

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