• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2018.11a
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• pp.36-38
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• 2018

As the battery capacity requirement increases, battery cells are connected in a parallel configuration. However, the sharing current of each battery cell becomes unequal due to the imbalance between cell's impedance which results the mismatched states of charge (SOC). The conventional fixed-resistance balancing methods have a limitation in battery equalization performance and system efficiency. This paper proposes a battery equalization method based on dynamic resistance technique, which can improve equalization performance and reduce the loss dissipation. Based on the SOC rate of parallel connected battery cells, the switches in the equalization circuit are controlled to change the equivalent series impedance of the parallel branch, which regulates the current flow to maximize SOC utilization. To verify the method, operations of 4 parallel-connected 18650 Li-ion battery cells with 3.7V-2.6Ah individually are simulated on Matlab/Simulink. The results show that the SOCs are balanced within 1% difference with less power dissipation over the conventional method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2019

This study presents a new portable eight-output light emitting diode (LED) driver. The eight output-channels are divided into two equal groups, and their output powers can be controlled individually by three active switches. In addition, a simple capacitor-based passive current balancing circuit (CBC) is employed in each port to guarantee that the currents of the four LEDs are the same. When compared with the conventionally used separate two-output isolated converters, the proposed one uses one less active switch. Moreover, zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) is achieved, which improves the power efficiency of the driver. Finally, a highly compact prototype is built, which can reach an efficiency of 94.6%.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2023

This paper relates to the development of a device for measuring the efficiency of a solar panel based on a variable constant current, and proposed a standard for reuse of the solar panel. By applying a variable constant current circuit to a solar panel efficiency measuring device, it was easy to apply a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. In addition, a load dispersion method was applied to measure the efficiency of a high-capacity solar panel. and it is possible to solve a problematic thermal runaway during a MOSFET parallel operation by applying the load dispersion method. As a result of the experiment, the solar panel efficiency measuring device was able to accommodate a large solar panel of 350W, which is the maximum measurement goal. In this paper, the validity was confirmed through the 310W solar panel efficiency measurement experiment collected after removal.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.63-69
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• 2017

This paper presents a highly efficient power management system for UAV-drones. For free from the battery cell-balancing issue, the proposed system allows the drone to utilize a single-cell Li-Po battery. To realize low-voltage input of 3.7V, the switch-mode step-up DC-DC converter is optimally designed with high power efficiency. The prototype DC-DC converter was implemented with an output voltage of 5V, which will be provided to digital parts of the drone. The power efficiency was measured to be max. 91.3% with low surface temperature. The measured line and load regulations were 0.02V/V and 0.15V/A, respectively. Thanks to the proposed power management system, the available time-to-fly of the drone is expected to be significantly extended in virtue of the enhanced power efficiency.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.343-352
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• 2007

This paper proposes a modularized charge equalization converter for hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) lithium-ion battery cells, in which the intra-module and the inter-module equalizer are Implemented. Considering the high voltage HEV battery pack, over approximately 300V, the proposed equalization circuit modularizes the entire $M^*N$ cells; in other words, M modules in the string and N cells in each module. With this modularization, low voltage stress on all the electronic devices, below roughly 64V, can be obtained. In the intra-module equalization, a current-fed DC/DC converter with cell selection switches is employed. By conducting these selection switches, concentrated charging of the specific under charged cells can be performed. On the other hand, the inter-module equalizer makes use of a voltage-fed DC/DC converter for bi-directional equalization. In the proposed circuit, these two converters can share the MOSFET switch so that low cost and small size can be achieved. In addition, the absence of any additional reset circuitry in the inter-module equalizer allows for further size reduction, concurrently conducting the multiple cell selection switches allows for shorter equalization time, and employing the optimal power rating design rule allows fur high power density to be obtained. Experimental results of an implemented prototype show that the proposed equalization scheme has the promised cell balancing performance for the 7Ah HEV lithium-ion battery string while maintaining low voltage stress, low cost, small size, and short equalization time.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.477-496
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• 2013

Due to their cost-effectiveness and ease of installation, wireless smart sensors (WSS) have received considerable recent attention for structural health monitoring of civil infrastructure. Though various wireless smart sensor networks (WSSN) have been successfully implemented for full-scale structural health monitoring (SHM) applications, monitoring of low-level ambient strain still remains a challenging problem for WSS due to A/D converter (ADC) resolution, inherent circuit noise, and the need for automatic operation. In this paper, the design and validation of high-precision strain sensor board for the Imote2 WSS platform and its application to SHM of a cable-stayed bridge are presented. By accurate and automated balancing of the Wheatstone bridge, signal amplification of up to 2507-times can be obtained, while keeping signal mean close to the center of the ADC span, which allows utilization of the full span of the ADC. For better applicability to SHM for real-world structures, temperature compensation and shunt calibration are also implemented. Moreover, the sensor board has been designed to accommodate a friction-type magnet strain sensor, in addition to traditional foil-type strain gages, facilitating fast and easy deployment. The wireless strain sensor board performance is verified through both laboratory-scale tests and deployment on a full-scale cable-stayed bridge.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.48-60
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• 2014

Multilevel inverters have been widely used for high-voltage and high-power applications. Their performance is greatly superior to that of conventional two-level inverters due to their reduced total harmonic distortion (THD), lower switch ratings, lower electromagnetic interference, and higher dc link voltages. However, they have some disadvantages such as an increased number of components, a complex pulse width modulation control method, and a voltage-balancing problem. In this paper, a novel nine-level reduced switch cascaded multilevel inverter based on a multilevel DC link (MLDCL) inverter topology with reduced switching components is proposed to improve the multilevel inverter performance by compensating the above mentioned disadvantages. This topology requires fewer components when compared to diode clamped, flying capacitor and cascaded inverters and it requires fewer carrier signals and gate drives. Therefore, the overall cost and circuit complexity are greatly reduced. This paper presents modulation methods by a novel reference and multicarrier based PWM schemes for reduced switch cascaded multilevel inverters (RSCMLI). It also compares the performance of the proposed scheme with that of conventional cascaded multilevel inverters (CCMLI). Simulation results from MATLAB/SIMULINK are presented to verify the performance of the nine-level RSCMLI. Finally, a prototype of the nine-level RSCMLI topology is built and tested to show the performance of the inverter through experimental results.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.7
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• pp.854-859
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• 2018

This paper describes the characteristics of a hybrid supercapacitor module for power quality stabilization. Hybrid supercapacitor is an promising energy storage device that positioned between conventional EDLC and Li-ion battery. A cylindrical 7500F hybrid supercapacitor ($60{\times}138mm$) was assembled by using the $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ electrode as an anode and activated carbon as a cathode. Considering the ESR and efficiency has been designed to module with 41.6F 480V design results in 180 series combination. In order to determine the characteristics of the hybrid supercapacitor module for power system, hybrid supercapacitor cells were connected in series with active balancing circuit. As a result of measuring the 50kw UPS, it was discharged at the current of 104A~143A during the discharge in the voltage range of 350V~480V, and the compensation time at discharge was measured to be about 30s. These results can be used to stabilization of power quality by applying hybrid supercapacitor module.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.617-621
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• 2016

In addition to the energy storage facilities based on high power technologies, Electric double layer capacitors(EDLC) are today's candidate for power quality stabilization. However, its low energy density is often inhibiting factor for application of electric power industry. Hybrid supercapacitor is an promising energy storage device that positioned between conventional EDLC and Li-ion battery. This paper describes the preparation and characteristics of a hybrid supercapacitor and module for power quality stabilization. A cylindrical 3200F hybrid supercapacitor ($60{\times}74.5mm$) was assembled by using the $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ electrode as an anode and activated carbon as a cathode. It shows 2.5 times higher energy density than conventional EDLC with the same volume. In order to determine the characteristics of the hybrid supercapacitor Module for uninterruptible power supply (UPS), hybrid supercapacitor cells were connected in series with active balancing circuit. At even the high current density of 14A(10C), Module prepared by 18 cells showed the capacitance of 170F at 30~50V, suggesting the applicability for UPS.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.336-344
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• 2017

This paper presents the three-port DC-DC converter modeling and controller design procedure, which is part of the solid-state transformer (SST) to interface medium voltage AC grid to bipolar DC distribution network. Due to the high primary side DC link voltage, the proposed converter employs the three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) topology at the primary side and 2-two level half bridge circuits for each DC distribution network. For the proposed converter particular structure, this paper conducts modeling the three winding transformer and the power transfer between each port. A decoupling method is adopted to simplify the power transfer model. The voltage controller design procedure is presented. In addition, the output current sharing controller is employed for current balancing between the parallel-connected secondary output ports. The proposed circuit and controller performance are verified by experimental results using a 30 kW prototype SST system.