Mission
PEMD is a laboratory dedicated to the design, analysis, prototyping and testing of power electronic converters, electric machines and drives.
Ph.D and undergraduate students can design, prototype and test:
– digitally controlled power electronic converters (dc-ac, ac-dc, dc-dc and ac-ac converters), based on recent digital control architectures (dedicated microcontrollers, FPGAs and SoCs) and power devices;
– digitally controlled electric drives, based on commercial and/or custom designed control electronics and converters;
– high performance electric machines (surface permanent magnet, interior permanent magnet and reluctance synchronous machines).
Application areas are:
– distributed energy generation systems (co-generation and energy production coming from renewable energy sources);
– sustainable and e-mobility (electric and plug-in hybrid cars, light electric vehicles, electric bicycles and scooters, power conversion components for e-mobility);
– mechatronic systems and high-power industrial converters (industrial production processes automation, energy conversion systems, Industry 4.0 development support);
– power electronic converters and drives (battery chargers, energy storage, conversion and transmission).
The design activity is supported by specific design, simulation and firmware development software:
– Plecs for behavioral simulation of electronics, mechanical, thermal and magnetic circuits;
– FEMM and ANSYS for magnetic design of electric machines and magnetic components (inductors, transformers) and optimization tools;
– Altium Designer for electronic CAD (design and simulation of printed circuit boards);
– microcontroller and FPGA/SoC IDE (design and testing of control firmware).
The laboratory is an affiliate of EL.MO., an inter-university consortium for the electrification of the mobility (https://consorzioelmo.it/).
Equipment
- 1 GHz digital oscilloscope 8 input channels, equipped with high-voltage and high-bandwidth differential probes and high-bandwidth current probes.
- 200MHz portable digital oscilloscopes 4 input channels and function generator (4x);
- 100MHz digital oscilloscope 2 input channels;
- 6 channel high-accuracy 1000V 50A power analyzer;
- 6.5 digits multi-meter for high accuracy measurements (2x);
- high power DC power supply
o 15kW 1000V/40A bidirectional power supply;
o 5kW, 600V/8.5A dc power supply (2x);
o 5kW 200V/70A dc power supply (2x);
o 840W 60V/20A two-channels digital dc power supply (4x)
- electronic load 150V/60A 350W;
- up to 55kW custom-designed 4-quadrant drive test bench equipped with high-accuracy and high-speed torque meter; mechanical hardware tools and couplings for high-accuracy, rapid and flexible shaft-to-shaft mounting of machines;
- up to 5kW custom-designed 4-quadrant drive test benches equipped with high-accuracy and high-speed torque meter (4x); mechanical hardware tools and couplings for high-accuracy, rapid and flexible shaft-to-shaft mounting of machines;
- up to 6.2Nm/3.4kW high-speed (25krpm) and high-accuracy passive hysteresis test bench; mechanical hardware tools and couplings for high-accuracy, rapid and flexible mounting of machines;
- 5.5kW, 20kW and 55kW commercial drives adopted for testing electric machines;
- digitally controlled prototype drives developed within PEMD with proprietary firmware;
- high-accuracy and frequency thermal camera for loss analysis;
- optical stereoscopic microscope soldering and inspection;
- one workstation for simulation software hosting and fast processing;
- hot air and SMD soldering and rework station.