Princeton Power Electronics Research Lab (PowerLab)
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Minjie Chen Department of Electrical Engineering I am an assistant professor of Electrical Engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. I lead the Princeton Power Electronics Research Lab (Princeton PowerLab). You can find my Google Scholar Page & CV here. Here is a brief overview of the research in my group. |
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Sponsors
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News
December 2019
Project: Powerlab will lead a project sponsored by DOE ARPA-E DIFFERENTIATE program to develop a machine learning based magnetic modeling tool in collaboration with Dartmouth College and Plexim. We will use machine learning to enhance our understanding about magnetics. A great opportunity to DIFFERENTIATE ourselves!
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August 2019
Award: The data center power delivery work from our group was selected among nine inventions this year in Princeton University for the prestigious event Celebrate Princeton Innovation 2019. Our Energy Processing Unit (EPU) was featured on the coverpage of the whole event!
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October 2019
Award: Ping's work on ultra-efficiency date center power delivery won the First Place of the Student Demo Competition in ECCE 2019. This is the first demonstration of a fully-functioning HDD server with series stacked power delivery architecture. We look for new ways to power the “brain” of human society. Stay tuned!
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Publication: Ping Wang presented his work on Series Stacked power delivery architecture for HDDs at ECCE 2019. The HDD server Ping built achieved over 99.4% efficiency with over 640W/in3 power density. #Paper, #Slides
Publication: Ming Liu presented his work on 13.56 MHz wireless coupled battery balancer with online impedance spectroscopy capability at ECCE 2019. The 13.56 MHz battery balancer Ming built can perform precise online EIS up to 500 kHz. #Paper, #Slides
Publication: Jaeil Baek presented his work on Grid-Interface PFC at ECCE 2019. Jaeil proposed a reverse feeding strategy to extend the hold-up time of grid interface PFC. #Paper, #Slides
Publication: Yenan Chen presented his work on LEGO-MIMO architecture at ECCE 2019. The LEGO-MIMO archietcture can be freely extended to cover wide operation range, just like playing LEGO bricks. #Paper, #Slides
Publication: Yueshi Guan presented his work on ultra-high-step-down converter at ECCE 2019. The MSP-LEGO archietcture can be freely extended to cover wide input/output range and high voltage conversion ratio. #Paper, #Slides
July 2019
Award: The undergraduate course taught by Prof. Chen - “ELE481:Principles of Power Electronics” - was recognized as “Princeton Engineering Commendation List for Outstanding Teaching” in Spring 2019! LovePE!
Project: PowerLab launched a collaboration with Intel and Google. We are building high performance power electronics to support future computer infrastructures! PowerElectronics4AI
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Project: PowerLab won the Campus-as-Lab project from Princeton University Office of the Dean for Research to build a nano-grid testbed in Andlinger Center. The nano-grid will connect roof-top PV, second-life EV batteries, and EV chargers as an integrated platform to support grid-interface power electronics research. PrincetonADEPT
June 2019
Conference: As the faculty lead, Prof. Chen organized and hosted the Rapid Switch Workshop as the Effiliate Program Annual Meeting of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.
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Publication: Jaeil Baek presented his work on LEGO-PoL architecture in COMPEL 2019. Jaeil built a 54V-1.8V 300A PoL converter with 93.1% peak efficiency. #Paper, #Poster LEGOPowerElectronics
Publication: Yenan Chen presented his work on Turbo MMC architecture in COMPEL 2019. Yenan proposed a novel MMC architecture with minimum submodule capacitor size. #Paper, #Poster TurboMMC
Publication: Ping Wang presented his work on small signal modeling of DPP architecture in COMPEL 2019. Ping developed an analytical approach to modeling small signal dynamics of DPP architectures. #Paper, #Poster VeryLargeScaleDPP
Publication: Youssef Elasser presented his work on sparse operation of multi-winding magnetics in COMPEL 2019. Youssef investigated the performance limit of planar multiwinding magnetics in sparse operation. #Paper, #Poster MagneticModel
April 2019
Publication: Ming Liu's paper on reactance steering network and dual-band wireless power transfer accepted to IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics! Congrats, Ming! #Paper WirelessPower
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March 2019
Award: Yenan Chen won the Outstanding Presentation Award in APEC 2019!
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Publication: Yenan Chen presented his work on multi-active-bridge converters in APEC 2019. #Paper, #Slides
Publication: Ming Liu presented his work on dual-band wireless power transfer in APEC 2019. #Paper, #Slides
Publication: Ping Wang presented his work on ultra-efficiency data center power delivery architecture in Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit. #Paper, #Poster
February 2019
Award: PowerLab won the First Place out of nine teams in the 2019 Princeton Innovation Forum with our research on Ultra Efficient Energy Processing Unit (EPU) for future data centers. Big congrats to Yenan Chen, Youssef Elasser, and Ping Wang! A new venture starts!
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Award: Prof. Chen received the NSF CAREER Award for his proposal ‘‘Granular Power Electronics at the Grid Edge". More interesting research coming!
January 2019
Dr. Jaeil Baek joins Princeton PowerLab from KAIST. Welcome, Jaeil!
Award: Prof. Chen's proposal on 48V-1V point-of-load power converter wins Princeton SEAS Innovation Grant.
August 2018
Award: Prof. Chen's journal paper - “Multitrack Power Conversion Architecture” - wins the 2nd Place Prize Paper Award from IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics in 2017. This is the second journal prize paper award from Princeton PowerLab!
Publication: Ping's work on multiport power converter published on IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL). Ping is working towards flexible, programmable, granular, and adaptive power converters (Power FPGA). #Poster, #Paper
June 2018
Publication: Ming's work on Reactance Steering Network and Wireless Power Transfer published on IEEE Workshop on Emerging Technologies: Wireless Power (WoW). This work shows how to design a dual-band wireless power transfer systems that can cover both 100kHz and 13.56MHz. #Slides, #Paper
Publication: Prof. Chen's work on Multitrack PFC published on IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics (TPEL). #Slides, #Paper
April 2018
Dr. Yenan Chen joins PowerLab from Zhejiang University. Welcome, Yenan!
December 2017
Proposal: Prof. Chen's proposal as a PI “Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) Bi-directional DC Power Delivery Architecture for Smart Homes” was selected for funding by Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership.
Proposal: Prof. Chen's proposal as a co-PI “Engineering the Invisible: Probing the Limits of Solar Powered Com-Towers” was funded by American Tower through Princeton Andlinger Center.
November 2017
Patent: Our new patent “Switched-Capacitor Split Drive Transformer Power Conversion Circuit”, US patent No. 9,825,545 (with Prof. Khurram Afridi at and Prof. David Perreault) was issued on Nov. 21, 2017. More innovations coming!
Seminar: Prof. Chen gave a speech about Transporation Electrification at the Andlinger Center E-ffiliates Annual Meeting. Lots of opportunities for power electronics in EVs and Transportation Electrification!
October 2017
Publication: Prof. Chen's paper - “A switched-winding transformer with low quiescent loss to meet the level VI efficiency standard at high power density” - was published at IEEE ECCE.
Dr. Ming Liu joins PowerLab from University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute. Welcome, Ming!
September 2017
Proposal: Prof. Chen's proposal as a co-PI - “Extreme Efficiency 240 VAC to Load Data Center Power Delivery Topologies and Control” - was selected for funding by DOE ARPA-E as part of the CIRCUITS program as a three-year project. This project is in collaboration with Prof. Robert Pilawa-Podgurski's at University of California Berkeley.
Fida Niway joins PowerLab as an undergraduate working on his senior thesis about wireless power transfer. Welcome, Fida!
August 2017
Proposal: Prof. Chen's proposal as a co-PI - “Electrification of Transportation for Energy Storage and Smart Mobility” - was seleted for funding in a recent Call for Proposals for Innovative Research in Energy and the Environment from Princeton Andlinger Center.
Award: Prof. Chen's journal paper - “A Systematic Approach to Modeling Impedances and Current Distribution in Planar Magnetics” - wins the 1st Place Prize Paper Award from IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics in 2016. This is the first journal prize paper award from Princeton PowerLab!
Media: Abdul, Alex, and Fida's research on solar powered wireless charging platform for drones was featured on Princeton SEAS Webpage.
Ping Wang joins PowerLab from Shanghai Jiaotong University. Welcome, Ping!
July 2017
Publication: Prof. Chen's paper - “Magnetics Design and Optimization for Tapped-Series-Capacitor (TSC) Power Converters” - was published at IEEE COMPEL.
June 2017
Abdulghafar Al Tair, Alex Ju and Fida Newaj join PowerLab.
May 2017
Seminar: Prof. Chen gave a speech about at the ExxonMobil Global Longer Range Research Meeting at Princeton
March 2017
Proposal: Prof. Chen's proposal - “Developing a Smart Energy Router for Flexible and Efficient DC Power Distribution in Smart Homes and Buildings” - wins Siebel Energy Institute 2017 Research Grant.
February 2017
Minjie Chen joins Princeton Department of Electrical Engineering and Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment as an Assistant Professor