In power electronics, magnetic components are fundamental, and, unfortunately, represent one of the greatest challenges for designers because they are some of the components that lead the opposition to miniaturization and the main source of losses (both electrical and thermal). The use of ferromagnetic materials as substitutes for ferrite, in the core of magnetic components, has been proposed as a solution to this problem, and with them, a new perspective and methodology in the calculation of power losses open the way to new design proposals and challenges to overcome. Achieving a core losses model that combines all the parameters (electric, magnetic, thermal) needed in power electronic applications is a challenge. The main objective of this work is to position the reader in state-of-the-art for core losses models. This last provides, in one source, tools and techniques to develop magnetic solutions towards miniaturization applications. Details about new proposals, materials used, design steps, software tools, and miniaturization examples are provided.

A two-phase buck–boost converter utilizing dual interleaving is presented in this paper. The dual interleaving consists of an interphase transformer that doubles the ripple frequency together with two conventional buck-boost switching arms, mitigating the inductor ripple current and aiding to increase the power density of the converter. A description of the design and selection of the power devices is presented for a 32 kW, 75 kHz dual-interleaved SiC prototype with an interphase transformer, such that a power density of 7.4 kW/kg is achieved. The principle of operation of the circuit is validated by measurements operating the prototype with a 315-385 V supply, a 350 V load and a 97.5% efficiency. The experiments reveal that the interleaved coupled currents are equalized without an active balancer.

Two techniques are presented to balance the filter capacitor voltages of a multipulse rectifier with the active injection operating on a variable-frequency supply. The active injector consists of a low-rated bidirectional switch that modifies the behavior of a 12-pulse rectifier at either low or high frequency, resulting in 24-pulse or multilevel pulse width modulation operation, respectively. The operation of the rectifier and the injector, the practical issues that unbalance the capacitor voltages, and the methods to correct this imbalance are explained together with experimental results obtained with a 4-kW prototype.

This paper presents a three-phase voltage-source 36-pulse converter that draws almost sinusoidal currents. The converter results from the combination of a series-connected 12-pulse voltage-source rectifier with a passive voltage-injection circuit and a bidirectional switch, referred to as hybrid injection. The voltage-injection circuit uses a single-phase rectifier bridge and a single-phase transformer. Both the voltage-injection circuit and the bidirectional switch operate at six times the supply frequency and have a low rating. In this paper, the converter operation is explained and analyzed. Subsequently, the converter is evaluated experimentally using a 4-kW 400-Hz prototype, where the THD_I of the line currents was measured to be below 1.2%.

A three-phase, multilevel rectifier using active voltage injection with one MOSFET device is presented. The injector consists of a bidirectional switch that modifies the behavior of a 12-pulse rectifier resulting in either 24-pulse or multilevel pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) operation. The resultant input currents are almost sinusoidal, the line current THD being 2.36% for 24-pulse operation and 1.06% for PWM operation. The MOSFET current is 2.9% of the load current. The circuit operation, idealized waveforms and modulation strategy are explained and experimental results are presented.