G. Capponi

Fuel cell modelling for power supply systems design

Today academic and industrial research is addressed on fuel cell based power supply to replace current lithium-ion and similar rechargeable battery systems. For system simulation, fuel cell models are developed. Even if power electronics designers demand for a black-box model to limit the knowledge of physical and chemical parameters, high performance in terms of model accuracy and portability is absolutely necessary. A steady state and dynamic fuel cell model oriented to power supply systems design is proposed and, as an example, the implementation on PSIM software is presented. Simulation and experimental results are compared and the model portability is discussed.

Improving the efficiency of a standard compliant wireless battery charger

In this paper, a wireless charger for portable electronics devices is presented. A power transmitter, also known as the magnetic pad, and a power receiver are magnetically coupled. A receiver architecture which improves the power conversion efficiency is proposed. All advantages brought by the proposed architecture are discussed and standard constraints are presented as well. The receiver is fully standard-compliant. A wireless station for mobile application is designed and tested. Simulation and experimental results are compared. As shown by experimental results, thanks to the proposed architecture the power conversion efficiency of the receiver section is really close to a unit value. Power losses on the receiver side could be reasonably neglected. The wireless station efficiency now depends on the inductive coupling losses only.

A wireless battery charger architecture for consumer electronics

In this paper, an innovative design of a wireless battery charger for portable electronic devices is proposed. The wireless power transfer is implemented through the magnetic coupling between a power transmitter, which is connected to the grid, and a power receiver, which is integrated inside the load device. An innovative receiver architecture which heavily improves the power conversion efficiency is presented. The proposed solution is standard compliant and suitable for IC implementation. A comparison between a conventional and the proposed receiver architectures is carried out by SPICE simulations. As shown by simulation results, a power efficiency increase by 40% is provided by the proposed solution. A laboratory prototype of the proposed wireless battery charger has been realized and tested to evaluate system performances. As shown by experimental results, thanks to the proposed architecture, over the entire range of operating conditions the receiver efficiency lies within the 96.5%÷99.9% range.

A fuel cell-battery hybrid power supply for portable applications

Today, academic and industrial research is addressed to fuel cell based hybrid power supply in many fields of applications including stationary, automotive and portable electronics. Increasing source runtime, speeding up the transient response while minimizing weight, volume and cost of the power supply system are key requirements of all applications. According to the particular application, the power management system is optimized for a specific feature. In this paper, a fuel cell-battery hybrid power supply for a Digital Camera is proposed, although the control algorithm can be efficiently applied to any portable device. Thanks to an innovative control on the input power, any fuel cell pre-warming phase is not required. The proposed hybrid power supply prevents flooding by controlling the instantaneous fuel cell current. As shown by simulations results, hybrid source performances are neither affected by the fuel cell transient response nor by the battery runtime.

FPGA implementation of a fuel cell emulator

Fuel cell based systems are usually tested with the aid of high-cost and complex auxiliary devices. A fuel cell emulator is an attractive solution for preliminary downward system test. The emulator replaces the effective power source saving cost, volume and hydrogen reserve still ensuring high-accuracy of test results. The use of a high-performance fuel cell model is essential for a successful conclusion of the overall design process. Although the proposed emulator is suitable for each fuel cell type and power level, a 10W Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell emulator is designed and tested. An FPGA based controller models the fuel cell steady-state and dynamic behaviour, including temperature effects. The controller and the load device are connected by a power interface. The emulator is tested in MATLAB/Simulink environment by the Aldec ACTIVE-HDL co-simulation toolbox. The high accuracy of the proposed emulator is shown by the comparison between experimental and simulation results.

Inductive Power Transfer for 100W battery charging

Today, Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) is widely investigated to provide wireless battery charge. Potential applications range from a few Watts of handheld devices to kWatts of automotive applications. Despite of comfort and safety options, wireless charging features relatively poor power conversion efficiency. In the literature, several solutions are proposed addressing efficiency related issues. In this paper, a 100W wireless charging station for electric bikes which improves the power conversion efficiency is proposed. The magnetic structure design is analyzed thoroughly as well as the proposed power electronics system architectures of both the power transmitter and power receiver. The efficiency of the proposed solution is shown by simulation results.

Measurement-based load modelling for power supply system design

Load modelling is essential to simulate system features as closely as possible to the effective behaviour. In spite of model complexity, the need for accuracy often leads to a component-based approach, i.e. the analysis of load internal subsystems. It is a common belief that measurement-based load models lead to low accuracy. This paper presents a new, high-accuracy measurement-based load modelling approach to define a power consumption profile load model for power systems design. The load modeling technique is described by an application. Simulation and experimental results are compared. The efficiency and portability of the proposed modelling approach is discussed.

Wireless battery charging: E-bike application

Nowadays, Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) represents a widely investigated issue with respect to modern battery charging methods, by providing a wireless solution. IPT is applied across a large variety of applications, from Watt to kWatt power levels. Although IPT features great benefits in terms of safety and comfort, the most significant drawback consists of a relatively poor power conversion efficiency. In this paper, a 100W wireless charging equipment for E-bikes which improves efficiency is proposed. Complete magnetic structure design, as well as transmitter and receiver efficient architectures, are deeply exposed. The efficiency of the designed solution is shown by simulation results.

Modeling and simulation of a digital control design approach for power supply systems

Electronic designers need to model and simulate system features as close as possible to its effective behaviour. Moreover, today, electronics systems are often composed of mixed analog and digital components. The increasing complexity has led to the use of different simulation softwares, each one specific for a particular level of abstraction: mathematical, circuital, behavioural, etc. In order to simulate the entire system these softwares should work together: co-simulation is necessary for digitally controlled power electronics systems. In this paper, the modeling of a digitally controlled switching power supply system using MATLAB/Simulink, ALDEC Active-HDL and Powersys PSIM is presented. The power converter is modelled in PSIM, the digital control is described in VHDL by using Active-HDL, and the complete system is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink environment. This design approach presents all the advantages of each used software and all its features will be discussed. The comparison between simulation and experimental results of the digitally controlled step-down converter prototype are reported

A semi-empirical multipurpose steady-state model of a fuel cell for household appliances

In this paper, a multipurpose model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell for household appliances is proposed. According to a conventional mathematical approach, the proposed model is derived from the physical and electro-chemical equations that rule the fuel cell behaviour. Differently from existing models, a parametric analysis is carried out and a few tunable parameters are accurately selected and identified. Furthermore, this paper proposes an innovative technique of unique model architecture which enables the designer to solve by himself the trade-off between complexity and accuracy on the basis of the specific applications. Three different choices could be performed by the designer. The model is derived and performances are discussed. Experimental validation on a 5kW Nuvera PowerFlow fuel cell is proposed to test the absolute accuracy of each submodel.