This project develops new sensing technology for use in power electronic systems, helping the UK to better compete with global leaders in power electronics. Power electronics is a key electrification technology: it is needed in electric vehicles, renewable energy generation, our electricity grid, and anywhere where the flow of power needs to be accurately dosed. This dosing is carried out by rapidly switching currents on and off to create the desired average. This technology reduces our carbon footprint and contributes nearly £50bn per year to the UK economy and supports 82,000 skilled jobs in over 400 UK-based companies (2016 data). The power electronics industry is undergoing significant change, as ultra-fast transistors made from silicon carbide (SiC) or gallium nitride (GaN) have recently emerged, to replace silicon transistors. These new transistors switch 10x faster, which results in 75% less energy being lost in power converters, and enables converters to be shrunk to less than half their previous size. This makes it much easier to build them into other systems, e.g. electric vehicles, resulting in lighter cars with more space for batteries. This project is about helping to maximise the potential of the new transistors. Many companies are struggling to adopt them, because whilst the very fast switching provides the benefits of improved efficiency and radically smaller system size, it also creates problems with electromagnetic interference, and device and system reliability. The transistors switch current on or off so fast (in less than ten nanoseconds, the time it takes light to travel 3 meters), that engineers cannot accurately measure how the voltages and currents change during this time, even with their best equipment, which means it is difficult to fix problems such as interference. Because of this, even the leading companies are slowing down these new transistors, and losing some of their efficiency potential. Our project develops small, low-cost sensors, that make these nanosecond-scale changes visible. They will allow engineers to see exactly how the transistors are switching, helping them develop better, smaller, lighter, and more reliable power electronics. They will allow computer-controlled SiC and GaN power converters to sense when they are creating too much electromagnetic noise, and reduce this by switching more intelligently. It will allow power circuits to detect external short circuits and isolate these before they damage the power converter. We are also developing sensors that provide engineers, or control systems, directly with information that they need (e.g. device temperature), rather than having to infer this indirectly from volts and amps, making the measurements faster and more efficient. The sensors work by detecting electric or magnetic fields via coils, conductive plates, or antennas. The received signal is fed into a chip inside the sensor that computes the required parameter. These new SiC and GaN transistors have made small field sensors on circuit boards viable for the first time, because as signal speeds increase, the wavelengths of these signals become shorter (cm-scale), meaning that their fields can be picked up with millimetre-size coils or antennas. In order to ensure that we develop what industry needs, we are working with 12 partners across automotive, renewable energy, semiconductors, commercial R&D organisations with deep sector experience, and we are accepting new collaborators on request. Our project provides partners and other UK companies and universities with sample sensors. Their feedback, and discussions with partners helps us prioritise our research, and ensures that we are using our research funds to solve the most important problems. We are providing workshops to help keep engineers up-to-date with advanced measurement techniques, and keeping our results online (publications and a dedicated website) for companies to use as desired.

There are two very particular places in energy networks where existing network technology and infrastructure needs radical change to move us to a low carbon economy. At the Top of network, i.e. the very highest transmission voltages, the expected emergence of transcontinental energy exchange in Europe (and elsewhere) that is driven by exploitation of diversity in renewable sources and diversity in load requires radical innovation in technologies. Many of these proposed interconnectors will be submarine or underground cable and High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) must be used. Power ratings for the voltage source AC/DC converters for HVDC use are presently around 500 MW while the need is for links of up to 20 GW. A change of this magnitude requires radical innovation in technology. To focus our research in HVDC cable technology and power converters we have defined target ratings of 1 MV and 5 kA. The Tail of the network is the so-called last mile and behind the meter wiring into customer premises. More than half the capital cost of an electricity system is sunk in the last mile and cost and disruption barriers have made it resistant to change. Not only have recent changes in consumer electronics yet to impact network design, there are radical changes in future heat and transport services that need to be met. The challenge is to reengineer the way in which the last mile assets are used without changing the most expensive part: the cables and pipes in the ground. To get this right means starting with a fresh look at the energy services required and seeing what flexibility there is to meet the service expectation differently. A consortium of universities has been brought together to address this transformation of our energy networks. Several of the bid partners have had leading roles in Supergen consortia in the networks area but this consortium includes new partners whose expertise, especially in the power electronics field, is strongly indicated as game-changing. For the first time, the power electronics researchers in Warwick, Nottingham, Imperial and Strathclyde and the insulation materials groups in Manchester and Southampton are proposing to work together bringing developments of underpinning technologies to bear on network issues. These technology developments are folded into the energy network planning and operations work of Strathclyde, Manchester, Cardiff and Imperial. Birmingham brings energy economics expertise and Imperial expertise in energy policy and the social science of consumer acceptance. Several important industrial companies are engaged with this programme to form our scientific advisory board and to pick up and use results that emerge. These in clued network operators such as National Grid and Central Networks, equipment manufacturers such as Alstom Grid and Converteam and component manufacturers such as Dynnex and Dow Chemicals.Although the proposed project will address major challenges of technology, we recognise that transforming our energy networks is not merely a technical question. Members of the consortium already have links with civil servants and advisors in a number of administrations in the UK including DECC, the Scottish Government, WAG and NIE. These links allow us to understand the context in which energy policy is made. Consortium members have given advice to Ofgem on the Low Carbon Networks Fund, Parliamentary Select Committees and have been active in projects commissioned through the Energy Technologies Institute. Thus although the focus of your project is on a timescale of 20-40 years the results of our research will impact network development much earlier. Discussions to date with our partners in these organisations suggest a great deal of excitement about what work on the Energy Networks Grand Challenge can contribute.

This project investigates computer simulation methods for power electronic systems. Power electronic systems are essential sub-systems in key energy conversion application areas such as electric vehicle powertrains, marine propulsion, aerospace, renewable energy and power distribution. They are complex assemblies of electrical, mechanical and thermal management sub-systems and components. Optimal system designs require understanding of electrical, electromagnetic and thermal interactions between components - the way in which a component is integrated during system manufacture can have a significant effect on system performance and lifetime. Computer models that can be passed from component to system manufacturers are needed to allow effective digital system design optimisation. Existing models provided by power electronic component manufacturers are limited to circuit models which cannot account for the 3D system geometry, component placement, or manufacturing processes used. 3D CAD component models could be provided but to be useful, detailed and high-resolution models are needed which would expose IP. Complex Finite Element simulations would then be needed to evaluate these models and these simulations are extremely computationally expensive - potentially taking days to complete. Historically, models have been used to evaluate worst case electrical and thermal performance given expected operating conditions but increasingly, lifetime and reliability is of concern. Predicting worst-case electrical and thermal performance is straightforward because maximum power and ambient temperature operating points can easily be defined and simulated. Predicting lifetime and service intervals for components is more difficult as component wear-out is determined by accumulated stress and damage sustained under normal operating conditions - different conditions within the acceptable performance envelope can give drastically different service lifetimes. Wear-out also occurs over long time periods which necessitates long simulations, if the models used are not incredibly efficient then this further increases the amount of time required to run the simulations. The research undertaken will propose a new Real-Time Virtual Prototype (RTVP) model architecture for power electronic components. The RTVP models utilise reduced order modelling algorithms that allow the models to simulate over 1000 times faster than conventional Finite Element models. These models can then be coupled together and simulated very quickly (faster than real-time in certain scenarios) to allow system manufacturers to evaluate system performance, including wear-out and reliability, over extended time periods. Furthermore, the models can be configured to hide sensitive design and performance data which will enable component manufacturers to release accurate, 3D models simulation models of their components whilst protecting sensitive IP. These models can be combined to produce full digital "virtual prototypes" of system designs, eliminating the need for construction and testing of physical prototypes, leading to reduced design costs and increased system performance.

There is a growing demand for low carbon vehicles to reduce the transport sector's environmental impact and respond to the pressure of decarbonisation. Over the last 5 years, battery costs and performance have improved significantly which has subsequently improved the viability of electric and hybrid vehicles. By taking a whole-systems approach to electrification for efficiency, this collaborative research programme will focus on gaining underpinning knowledge on battery performance and degradation, new devices and packaging for power electronic, design of electric motors that include manufacturing effects and addressing the challenges that electric drives for torque transmission impose on surfaces, substrates and lubricants to optimise materials for drives. This research will address the fundamental research challenges to accelerate electrification of vehicles in the UK. It will deliver new scientific insights to drive forward discovery and innovation in electric and hybrid vehicles. The knowledge generated by this research programme will provide a route to maintain and grow jobs as low emission vehicles replace existing vehicles and will have impacts across the supply chain.

Power Electronic Converters are key elements in many safety-critical, high-reliability, electrical systems working in uncertain and harsh environments. Examples include aerospace power supplies and servo converters, marine propulsion and traction drives, and offshore renewable energy generator systems. The traditional approaches to achieve high converter reliability are to de-rate the semiconductor devices and to include redundancy in the system configuration. These approaches can increase the Mean Time Between Failures of converters but will not prevent a catastrophic failure from happening. The aim of this research is to develop a new approach of monitoring the converter device degradation over a period of time and provide the ability to predict failures before they happen. The research will address the challenges of carrying out and understanding the results of key measurements in order to derive information about the internal state of the semiconductor devices in real-time operating conditions. The mechanisms leading to the aging and failure of the devices will be investigated, and a relationship between the device condition and its terminal characteristics established. Condition monitoring techniques will be based on converter terminal electrical signals, which are interpreted together with information about the thermal and load conditions of the converter system. Experiment, and computer modelling and simulation in the thermal, low frequency and high frequency electrical domains will be carried out to develop the condition monitoring techniques. The results will be valuable to device manufacturers, manufacturers of power electronic converters, and to the end users of such systems, particularly in critical applications.