Associate Professor Khurram Afridi recently received a Second Place Prize Paper Award for 2017 from the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics along with co-authors Minjie Chen (MIT), Sombuddha Chakraborty (Texas Instruments) and David J. Perreault (MIT). The paper entitled "Multitrack Power Conversion Architecture" was published in January 2017
The paper introduces a Multitrack power conversion architecture that represents a new way of combining switched capacitor circuits and magnetics. The Multitrack architecture takes advantages of the distributed power processing concept and a hybrid switched-capacitor/magnetics circuit structure. It reduces the voltage ratings on devices, reduces the voltage regulation stress of the system, improves the component utilization, and reduces the sizes of passive components.
This architecture is suitable for dc-dc and grid-interface applications that require both isolation and wide voltage conversion range. By employing the Multitrack architecture, and utilizing GaN switches operating at higher frequencies, the prototype converter achieves a power density three times higher than the state-of-the-art commercial converters with comparable efficiency.
“In 2017, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics published 789 papers and letters totaling in 9472 pages of Regular Papers, Letters, and Correspondences,” said Brad Lehman, Editor-in-Chief in a congratulatory letter to the authors. “The selection of the…paper is a high honor and a tribute to the fine research quality, presentation, and potential impact that the research has to the field. The selection process was rigorous and went through multiple review levels and votes before the paper was selected for an award.”
Each year, the IEEE Power Electronics Society recognizes the papers deemed best among those published in the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics during the preceding calendar year. The established Transactions review criteria are used as the basis for the Prize Paper selection. Specific emphasis is placed on originality; contribution to the field; extent to which the paper is supported by analysis and experimental evidence; and quality of presentation, including the effective use of illustrations. A certificate is presented to each author and a monetary award is shared equally among the paper’s authors. The award was presented at the 2018 IEEE ECCE conference in Portland, Oregon.
Afridi is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He received the BS degree in EE from Caltech (1989), and SM (1992) and PhD (1998) degrees in EECS from MIT. His research interests are in high frequency power electronics and energy systems incorporating power electronic controls as a means to efficiently harness, store, process, transmit, distribute and use energy. Prior to joining Cornell University, he was an Assistant Professor at CU Boulder.
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Photo caption:
The paper award winners are presented their certificates (left to right): Brad Lehman (Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics), Minjie Chen, Khurram Afridi, and Henry Chung (Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Power Electronics Letters).
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