Position PhD-student
Irène Curie Fellowship No
Department(s) Electrical Engineering
FTE 1,0
Date off 16/06/2024
Reference number V36.7458
Within this project, we are looking for a talented power electronics PhD-candidate. Your main goal will be to research and develop gallium-nitride (GaN) based power electronics that cause low transient electric fields, in order to mitigate partial-discharge induced failures in linear actuators. Such linear actuators are used in high-tech motion systems, for example to allow nanometer-accurate positioning in lithography machines. However, increasing requirements on actuator acceleration and precision lead to higher mechanical, electromagnetic and thermal stresses as well as non-recoverable failures. Actuator reliability therefore has become a major concern, but failure mechanisms are currently poorly understood. This multidisciplinary project therefore has the overall goal to study and mitigate the main failure mechanisms of actuators and their power electronic drives, to improve future linear actuator systems. You will collaborate with other researchers who are, among others, active in electromechanics, material science, and mechanical engineering.
Modern power converters are moving towards wide-bandgap semiconductor components such as GaN HEMTs due to their advantages. Their significantly higher switching speeds result in higher efficiency, reduced physical footprint, and improved output signal quality. However, in actuator drive systems, such high switching speeds result in large dv/dt and di/dt values, leading to large transient electric fields in the actuators. These gradually deteriorate the actuator winding insulation, eventually leading to a permanent failure of the actuator and expensive downtime of the application. The deterioration of the insulation material can be observed as partial discharges within the winding insulation material. By mitigating such high transient fields, partial discharges and subsequent failures are avoided, and actuator lifetime is extended. Additionally, the performance envelope of the actuator drive system can be enlarged without impacting the reliability and lifetime in the application, eventually leading to lower maintenance cost, lower downtime, and higher productivity.
Within this position, you can unleash and develop your innovative and creative qualities to research, develop, implement, and validate beyond-state-of-the-art GaN-based power electronics. This will involve working on modulation strategies, topologies and magnetic components, through simulation as well as practical implementation. Additionally, presenting your findings and ideas to the scientific community is an essential part of your work, for which there are extensive travel possibilities to visit conferences and publish in open-access journals.
We are looking for a talented and enthusiastic colleague with a MSc-degree in electrical engineering, with a strong affinity with power electronics, the realization thereof, state-of-the-art digital control, and mathematics. The candidate should have:
A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:
About us
Eindhoven University of Technology is an internationally top-ranking university in the Netherlands that combines scientific curiosity with a hands-on attitude. Our spirit of collaboration translates into an open culture and a top-five position in collaborating with advanced industries. Fundamental knowledge enables us to design solutions for the highly complex problems of today and tomorrow.
This project will be carried out in the Power Electronics lab in the faculty of Electrical Engineering. The lab is world-leading in high-precision and high-performance power converters, as well as modeling, control and design techniques for such converters. Both fundamental and applied research is carried out and research collaborations with industrial partners are numerous. We are a young, dynamic and enthusiastic team, underlined by our regularly organized events and informal atmosphere.
Information
Do you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to know more? Please contact dr. ir. Bas Vermulst (b.j.d.vermulst@tue.nl), or dr. ir. Maurice Roes (m.g.l.roes@tue.nl).
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Application
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We are an internationally top-ranking university in the Netherlands that combines scientific curiosity with a hands-on attitude.
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