The PEATER group was founded in 2005 by Professor Philip Mawby, to establish a world-class centre for research into power electronics, power semiconductor devices and applications in power systems and power conversion. The area of efficient electrical energy conversion has become critical in the development of renewable energy systems, sustainable transport and many other applications. The area of power electronics has grown out of all recognition in the last 10 years and the need for research and development of talented graduates in this area has never been greater.
This project is part of the
University
Technology
Strategic
Partnership(UTSP) called
SMARTPACT. SMARTPACT will deliver revolutionary research in electrical power and actuation technology and lay the foundation for more far-reaching innovation over the longer-term. This research will be led by Nottingham in conjunction with Warwick whose work focuses on advanced semiconductor switching technologies.
Silicon carbide (SiC) offers huge advantages in electronics due to its exceptional material properties. SiC devices will be smaller and lighter than their silicon equivalents, enabling a reduction in the size and weight of power electronic modules wherever they are used. SiC electronics will dramatically increase energy efficiency and so decrease environmental pollution.
Research with the Department of Trade and Industry will focus specifically on novel Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS), IGBT and diode devices, for applications in hybrid vehicles and portable power supplies.
An EPSRC project titled COMPERE will focus on condition monitoring power electronics for reliability (COMPERE).
The inverter in a hybrid or fully electric vehicle, such as the Toyota Prius, supplies power from the batteries to the motor. Inverters used in this application are currently limited by their power semiconductor devices. Projects undertaken with
Zytec and Toyota aim to evaluate the performance of potential new material devices under real operating conditions.
A project with TRW and others is investigating a power boost system for application to power steering.
Integrating renewable energy sources into the national power grid is an important area in power conversion.
PEATER is working with Areva and
Converteam in this area.
PEATER is part of WISER, an institute which will provide a home for energy research across all Warwick divisions. PEATER is engaged in a variety of other research, details of which can be found on the website detailed right.
As the current demand of the processors becomes higher and higher and supply voltage falls below 1 V, there is a need for a high efficiency and increasingly low voltage regulator module especially for portable device applications. The reduction in
MOSFETs power losses, will help to reduce the total power loss in the regulator module. This project is part of a bigger project aiming to 3dimentionally combine all components of a dc-dc circuit into an integrated circuit. This work will look into the best switches for use in the dc-dc converter.