In the presence of partial shading and other mismatch factors, bypass diodes may not offer complete elimination of excessive power dissipation due to cell reverse biasing, commonly referred to as hot-spotting in photovoltaic (PV) systems. As a result, PV systems may experience higher failure rates and accelerated ageing. In this paper, a cell-level simulation model is used to assess occurrence of hot-spotting events in a representative residential rooftop system scenario featuring a moderate shading environment. The approach is further used to examine how well distributed power electronics converters mitigate the effects of partial shading and other sources of mismatch by preventing activation of bypass diodes and thereby reducing the chances of heavy power dissipation and hot-spotting in mismatched cells. The simulation results confirm that the occurrence of heavy power dissipation is reduced in all distributed power electronics architectures, and that submodule-level converters offer nearly 100% mitigation of hot-spotting. In addition, the paper further elaborates on the possibility of hot-spot-induced permanent damage, predicting a lifetime energy loss above 15%. This energy loss is fully recoverable with submodule-level power converters that mitigate hot-spotting and prevent the damage.

Stability is one of the main challenges in the power System. The oscillations of the power system network related to interactions of generating plants, transmission networks are very much significant, as these disturbances may deliberately affect the line flow of power by the effects from all generating units. A lot of researches have been done on designing stability measures to damp power system oscillation. Thyristor controlled series capacitor (TCSC) is one the FACTS devices that has been wellknown as major candidate to damp power system oscillation. TCSC damping parameter tuning is a huge task to damp oscillations well. Several methods have been proposed to tune TCSC damping controller parameters. This paper presents genetic algorithm (GA) based tuning of the parameters of TCSC controller. Dynamic action of the GA based TCSC controller has been tested with single machine infinite bus system in PST environment.

The potential benefit of installing Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices on the system for enhancing power transmission capacity is well known. Two main members of FACTS family, thyristor controlled series capacitor (TCSC) and static var compensator (SVC) have been widely studied and reported in technical literature and have been shown as effective as well as time saving alternative to building new transmission lines for enhancing power transmission capacity. This paper examines the application of series-shunt compensation by means of TCSC and SVC to enhance power transmission capacity of two East-West Interconnectors (EWIs) of Bangladesh Power System (BPS). A combined transmission capacity enhancement of 71.8% has been achieved.

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of the printed copper (Cu) paste interconnects for applications in power semiconductor modules and switching converters. Copper sinter paste interconnects denoted as “Sinterconnects” have been recently introduced as an alternative to wire-bonding technology for power electronic device packaging. However, the electrical domain properties of these novel interconnects have not yet been investigated in detail. To address this research opportunity, this paper evaluates the performance of two different types of Sinterconnects applied to multi-chip, insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) power modules. First, parasitic or stray inductances of these Sinterconnected systems are calculated analytically and by using three-dimensional finite element (FE) analysis. In addition to that, resistivity ($\rho$) of those has been analysed and compared with conventional wire bond technology. Finally, the performances of the Sinterconnects in power device assemblies are experimentally investigated. Two Sinterconnect structures (i.e., printed Cu paste and Cu clip attach) as well as a state-of-the-art wire-bonded IGBT module, have been integrated into a switching DC-DC converter and benchmarked. Experimental measurements show how converters with Sinterconnects enable efficient power conversion.

Power electronic modules have undergone a remarkable transition in terms of power density, temperature, and performance due to the shift from Si to WBG (Wide bandgap) semiconductors. WBG semiconductors with their high switching speed, high breakdown voltage and higher operation temperature outperform their Si counterparts. However, the current power packaging technologies are not sufficient to benefit from the superior properties of these WBG devices. For Si power electronic packaging, the traditional 500 µm Al wire bonding as top-side interconnection can carry a maximum current of 10 A which can be increased by parallel connections. However, the need for a higher current carrying capacity with a lower feature size is desirable for WBG devices. As a result, the conventional wire-bonding technology hinders these devices from reaching their full potential due to parasitics, heat dissipation, and reliability issues. To address these challenges, several wire bondless interconnection technologies have been proposed and developed. Among these technologies, a new alternative technology has been recently introduced by our group in which wire bonds are being replaced by printed Cu paste interconnects known as ‘Cu sinterconnects®’, So far, sinterconnects® have been only integrated into large IGBT power module packages where their efficiency has been proven. In this study, sinterconnects have been further optimized to be integrated into GaN-based discrete device discrete packages with fine feature sizes. The packaged GaN devices with fine-sinterconnects® were further characterized and compared with the standard wire-bonded GaN packages.