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Multiphase Bidirectional Flyback Converter Topology for Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Tanmoy Bhattacharya, V. Shriganesh Giri, K. Mathew, and L. Umanand
AbstractFor hybrid electric vehicles, the batteries and the drive dc link may be at different voltages. The batteries are at low voltage to obtain higher volumetric efciencies, and the dc link is at higher voltage to have higher efciency on the motor side. Therefore, a power interface between the batteries and the drives dc link is essential. This power interface should handle power ow from battery to motor, motor to battery, external genset to battery, and grid to battery. This paper proposes a multi-power-port topology which is capable of handling multiple power sources and still maintains simplicity and features like obtaining high gain, wide load variations, lower output-current ripple, and capability of parallel-battery energy due to the modular structure. The scheme incorporates a transformer winding technique which drastically reduces the leakage inductance of the coupled inductor. The development and testing of a bidirectional yback dcdc converter for hybrid electric vehicle is described in this paper. Simple hysteresis voltage control is used for dc-link voltage regulation. The experimental results are presented to show the working of the proposed converter. Index TermsBidirectional yback converter, hybrid electric vehicle, leakage inductance.

I. I NTRODUCTION EFERENCE [1] shows power electronics as an enabling technology for the development of electric or hybrid electric vehicles. For both ac and dc motor drives used in electric and hybrid electric vehicles, the basic requirement for efcient control is that the power electronic circuit should be capable of handling bidirectional power ow, i.e., energy transfer should be possible from battery to motor during motoring mode and motor to battery during regeneration. Now, the need for a bidirectional power converter should be properly examined. A battery can be used as a dc bus if the motor is rated for that voltage level. Thus, bidirectional power ow is not a problem because of the bidirectional power-handling capacity of a standard two-level three-phase inverter and also sinking and sourcing capacity of the battery. However, the traction motor should be rated for higher voltage to achieve higher efciency for a given power rating. Therefore, the dc bus voltage should be maintained high enough to match the motor voltage rating. This problem can be solved by connecting a number of batteries
Manuscript received January 17, 2008; revised August 6, 2008. First published October 31, 2008; current version published December 30, 2008. T. Bhattacharya and L. Umanand are with the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India (e-mail: btanmoy@cedt.iisc.ernet.in; lums@cedt.iisc.ernet.in). V. S. Giri is with NVIDIA, Bangalore 560001, India (e-mail: vsgiri83@ yahoo.com). K. Mathew is with Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala 686560, India (e-mail: kmathewmace@gmail.com). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIE.2008.2004661

in series. However, if too many batteries are connected in series, then the volumetric efciency of the battery comes down. Therefore, there is a need for a bidirectional converter which interfaces the low-voltage battery with a high-voltage dc bus and maintains a bidirectional power ow. Reference [2] shows the use of a bidirectional converter for a permanent-magnet acmotor-driven electric vehicle. Reference [3] shows the use of a cascaded bidirectional buckboost converter for the use in dc-motor-driven electric vehicle. Both schemes emphasize the importance of bidirectional dcdc converter for electric vehicle application. The dcdc converters can be divided into hardswitching converters and soft-switching converters. Because of the low efciency of hard-switching converters, recently, soft-switching techniques are getting popular. Reference [4] proposes ZVS techniques for different nonisolated dcdc converters. There is a limit on the voltage gain that can be achieved using a buckboost or a boost converter. It is not desirable to operate the boost or the buckboost converter at very high duty ratio because of very high capacitor current ripple. Thus, the solution is to go for isolated topologies for getting the high voltage gain in between the battery and the dc bus. In such topologies, any voltage gain can be achieved by setting the turns ratio of the transformers or the coupled inductors. Moreover, such topologies also provide the advantage of galvanic isolation between the battery bank and the dc bus. The recently proposed topologies mostly use soft-switching techniques. Reference [5] proposes a novel soft-switching topology for zetayback converter. Reference [6] proposes a bidirectional dcdc converter topology with dual half-bridge topology which has the advantage over dual full-bridge topology in terms of reduced device count. Reference [7] proposes a bidirectional yback dcdc converter with ZCS. The soft-switching topologies give higher efciency at the cost of increased device count. Higher device count also reduces the reliability of the circuit. Now, if multiple batteries are to be connected in parallel to increase the total energy storage capacity, it is not possible by connecting the terminals of two batteries in parallel. This leads to the option of multiphase converter topology. Apart from giving the exibility of paralleling multiple batteries, it also increases the fault-tolerant capacity, i.e., if one of the phases fails, then other phases can still operate, and the whole system will not come to a halt. Reference [8] proposes a bidirectional dcdc converter with many interleaved buck stages for automotive application. Apart from multiphase operation, the power converter should also be able to interface multiple energy sources to the battery. Reference [9] proposes a scheme where multiple energy sources and the battery are connected to the dc bus, and the dc bus works as a junction point for all energy transfer.

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This scheme uses nonisolated boost converter topology. Reference [10] proposes a three-port magnetically coupled bidirectional converter topology which uses a common magnetic coupling as a junction point of energy transfer. This scheme also provides galvanic isolation between different power ports. Reference [11] presents a general multi-input bidirectional dcdc converter topology using a combination of dc-link and magnetic coupling. It is to be noted that the yback topology leads to least device count. The problem with hard-switched yback converter is that the energy stored in the leakage inductance of the coupled inductor should be dissipated at every switching cycle. If snubber is not used, then the energy is dissipated through the device parasitic which results in very high voltage stress on the device. If passive snubber is used, then it increases the power loss, and active snubber increases the device count. Recently, some converter topologies have been proposed in the literature, which reduce the voltage stress on the switch without the loss of efciency. Reference [12] uses voltage-clamped technology to reduce the switch voltage stress. Reference [13] proposes the use of a three-winding coupled inductor providing high voltage gain, and that the energy in the leakage inductor be released directly to the output which achieves higher efciency and reduced switch surge voltage. However, if the leakage inductance is reduced, then these problems can be minimized. Reference [14] proposes a coupled-inductor winding technique which reduces the leakage inductance to a very less value and without the use of any snubber, and that very less voltage spike be achieved during switching transients. Next, the paralleling of four batteries is done using a four-phase yback topology, and outputs of all the four phases are connected to the same dc link. To reduce the current ripple through the dc-link capacitor, all the four phases are switched at a xed 75% duty cycle with 90 (considering one switching period as 360 ) phase difference between subsequent phases. This conguration is also suitable for connecting multiple power sources. For battery charging from mains, a front-end converter is used which uses the same dc bus. Thus, the same yback converter is used for battery charging. For seriesparallel hybrid electric vehicles, the output of the synchronous generator can be connected to the same dc bus through a rectier. For fuel-cell-powered vehicles, the output of the fuel cell can be connected to the same dc bus by adding one more leg to the multiphase yback converter and adjusting the turns ratio of the coupled inductor accordingly. II. P RINCIPLE OF MPP The basic block diagram of the prototype of the multi power port (MPP) which is built for hybrid electric vehicle application is shown in Fig. 1. The heart of the circuit is the bidirectional yback dcdc converter. A four-phase converter is constructed. The power schematic of the bidirectional dcdc converter is shown in Fig. 2. It has four identical bidirectional yback dcdc converters. Each converter has an individual battery, and all the converters are connected to the common dc bus. If we consider the rst converter, then, during forward power ow, S1 and D2 are active, and during reverse power ow,

Fig. 1. Block diagram of the proposed power schematic.

Fig. 2. Four-phase bidirectional yback converter.

S2 and D1 are active as well. During forward power ow, active switches S1, S3, S5, and S7 get switching pulses of 75% duty cycle with 90 phase difference between subsequent phases, as shown in Fig. 3(a). During reverse power ow, active switches S2, S4, S6, and S8 get switching pulses of 25% duty cycle which are 90 phase shifted to each other, as shown in Fig. 3(b). Fig. 3(c) and (d) shows the ideal switch voltage and current waveforms assuming continuous conduction mode (CCM) for forward and reverse power ows, respectively. CCM is not the only conduction mode for this bidirectional converter. This can also operate in critical conduction mode (CRM) or discontinuous conduction mode (DCM), depending on the load. During forward power ow, if the load is very less, then the converter can go into CRM or DCM, similar to any standard yback converter. However, for circuit design, only CCM is considered. As no snubber is used, circuit design involves the design of the inductor and the capacitor. The load connected at the output of the converter is a threephase inverter connected to the motor. Thus, the capacitor voltage ripple is dominated by the dc-link current ripple of the inverter, and capacitor value is decided depending on that ripple. The yback inductor value is selected such that the inductor current ripple is 10% of the full-load current during

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Fig. 3. (a) Switching pulses during forward power ow. (b) Switching pulses during reverse power ow. (c) Ideal switch voltage and current waveforms during forward power ow for phase A assuming continuous conduction. (d) Ideal switch voltage and current waveforms during reverse power ow for phase A assuming continuous conduction.

CCM. DCM and CRM are not considered for circuit design because there is no stringent voltage regulation requirement for the MPP output. The regulation is handled by the downstream inverter. III. C ONTROL S CHEME Simple hysteresis voltage control is used for dc-link voltage regulation for power management in the proposed MPP scheme. During power ow in the forward direction, i.e., from the battery to the dc bus, the duty cycles of switching voltages of S1, S3, S5, and S7 are xed at 75%, while switches S2, S4, S6, and S8 are permanently off. During reverse power ow, S1, S3, S5, and S7 are permanently off, and S2, S4, S6, and S8 are switched at 25% duty cycle. Therefore, during forward power ow, the voltage is boosted by a factor of three, and during reverse power ow, the voltage is stepped down by a factor of three. It is to be noted that this voltage boost is only due to duty-cycle operation. The coupled-inductor turns ratio is xed in such a way that during full-load operation in forward mode, the converter output voltage is the rated dc bus voltage Vdc . For an operating condition with lesser load, the series voltage drop in the converter will be less. Thus, the dc-link voltage will get increased from the rated value because of xed duty cycle of operation. At a voltage Vdc + v1 , the pulses to switches S1, S3, S5, and S7 are stopped. If the load is still drawing current, then it will discharge the capacitor. When the voltage reaches Vdc , again, the switching pulses are given to S1, S3, S5, and S7. Therefore, during light-load conditions, the voltage is maintained between Vdc and Vdc + v1 . If there is no load, then the voltage will also be maintained in between Vdc and Vdc + v1 .

Fig. 4. (a) Block diagram of the control scheme used. (b) Dynamic response of the dc-link voltage after the sudden application of powering and regenerative loads.

However, during regeneration, even if switches S1, S3, S5, and S7 are off, because of reverse power ow, the voltage will increase beyond Vdc + v1 . This is the time when energy should ow back to the battery. Thus, at a voltage Vdc + v1 + v2 , switches S2, S4, S6, and S8 are pulsed, and because of the yback action, current ows into the battery, and the battery gets charged. Here also, if the capacitor voltage falls below Vdc + v1 , the pulses to switches S2, S4, S6, and S8 are stopped. In this way, during regeneration, the voltage is maintained above Vdc + v1 . Here, the upper limit of the dc bus voltage is not xed. It can be more than Vdc + v1 + v2 also if very high regenerative current ows. However, the rate at which the converter feeds current to the battery can be less because of xed duty cycle of operation. Therefore, the capacitor voltage can shoot up to a very high value. The dynamic resistance of the inverter provides the necessary protection at this operating condition. The dynamic resistance of the inverter is activated when the capacitor voltage reaches Vdc + v1 + v2 + v3 . The dynamic resistor can be switched off when the capacitor voltage decreases below Vdc + v1 + v2 . This same control scheme is exploited during the battery-charging operation. For battery charging, the front-end converter is designed to maintain a voltage more than Vdc + v1 + v2 but less than Vdc + v1 + v2 + v3 . Thus, automatically, the reverse-power-ow operation gets activated, and the battery gets charged. Fig. 4(a) shows the control scheme in a pictorial form. Fig. 4(b) shows the simulation result depicting the dynamic response of the dc-link voltage after

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Fig. 5.

Proposed winding patterns of the primary and secondary windings.

the sudden application of powering and regenerative modes. It is to be noted that before 1 s, the converter is operating at no load which results in discontinuous mode of operation. Therefore, the dc-link voltage oscillates between the hysteresis band conned by Vdc and Vdc + v1 . IV. I MPLEMENTATION I SSUES The converter was designed and manufactured according to the aforementioned concept, and a few implementation issues are explained hereinafter. A. Coupled-Inductor Design In hard-switched yback converter, the energy stored in the leakage inductance of the coupled inductor gets dissipated through the parasitic of the switch. Because of this, a highfrequency ringing is observed at the switching edge. The peak amplitude of the ringing voltage can be very high, depending on the energy stored in the leakage inductance. For an application like electric vehicle, the current is considerably high. This means that the energy stored in the leakage inductance is also considerably high. Thus, it may result in a very high voltage spike which may damage the switch. One option to reduce this spike is by using a passive snubber circuit. A passive snubber protects the device but results in high power loss. To eliminate this power loss, active snubber circuits can be used at the cost of extra components. However, the strategy followed in the proposed scheme is to reduce the leakage inductance itself. First, the transformer is designed, and cross-sectional areas of the primary and secondary windings are found out. Let the designed value of the cross section of the primary be A1 and that of the secondary be A2. Now, let a wire of a single crosssectional area A3 be chosen for winding the transformer. If A3 is much less than A1 and A2 and if A1/A3 = n1 and A2/A3 = n2, then the primary will comprise n1 parallel wires, and the secondary will comprise n2 parallel wires of crosssectional area A3. If n1/n2 = 2, then, after winding two wires of the primary, one wire of the secondary is wound, and it is continued until all the parallel wires are wound. Using this technique, extensive reduction in the leakage inductance was achievable. Leakage inductance dropped to less than 0.1% of the inductance of the coupled inductor. The winding patterns of the primary and secondary windings are shown in Fig. 5

Fig. 6. (a) Building up the capacitor voltage without soft start. (b) Building up the capacitor voltage with soft start.

when the turns ratio between the primary and the secondary is 1 : 2. All the layers are parallel to each other.

B. Soft Start One more important aspect to be taken care of in the implementation is building the capacitor voltage. It is to be noted that there is no current controller. Therefore, because of the second-order-type response, there can be high initial current during the building up of capacitor voltage. This high current is dangerous for the semiconductor switches, and it can saturate the core of the coupled inductor also. This problem is taken care of by the soft-start strategy. The converter is operated at xed duty cycle of 75%. However, at the start, the duty cycle is linearly increased from 0% to 75%. Because of this, there is no signicant overshoot of current. This phenomenon is veried using simulation, and the simulation result is shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 6(a) shows the dc bus voltage and the primary current when the primary switch is pulsed with 75% duty cycle at the start. Thus, heavy current overshoot is observed. Fig. 6(b) shows the dc voltage and current waveform when the dc-link voltage is built up using soft start, i.e., duty cycle is slowly increased from 0% to 75% in a linear fashion. The simulation result shows that overshoot in the primary current is very less.

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Fig. 7. Operation of the converter in forward power ow. Channel 1 (fourth waveform from top) (12.8 A/div)secondary-diode current. Channel 2 (second waveform from top) (25.6 A/div)primary-switch current. Channel 3 (rst waveform from top) (200 V/div)voltage across the primary switch. Channel 4 (third waveform from top) (500 V/div)voltage across the secondary diode.

Fig. 9. Operation of the converter during battery charging from mains. Channel 1 (fourth waveform from top) (2.56 A/div)secondary-switch current. Channel 2 (second waveform from top) (5.12 A/div)primary-diode current. Channel 3 (rst waveform from top) (200 V/div)voltage across the primary diode. Channel 4 (third waveform from top) (500 V/div)voltage across the secondary switch.

Fig. 8. Secondary-diode voltage of the two adjacent phases of the four-phase yback converter during forward-power-ow operation.

Fig. 10. Converter output voltage during soft starting and resistive loading of the converter (scale: x-axis: 5 s/div; y-axis: 100 V/div).

V. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS A prototype of the proposed bidirectional converter is made and experimentally veried. This converter is tested for both forward and reverse power ows. For forward power ow, the converter is tested with a resistive load and for reverse power ow, the dc-link capacitor of this converter is charged from mains using a diode rectier. The output capacitor voltage during reverse-power-ow mode is maintained higher compared with that during forward-power-ow mode, which is evident from Fig. 4(b). The reason for maintaining the voltage high during reverse power ow is that, during charging, there is an increase in the terminal voltage of the battery, and because the duty cycle of operation is xed, and if the voltage is less, then the charging rate will be less. Fig. 7 describes the operation of the system during forward power ow. It shows the switch voltages and the switch currents of a single leg. It can be seen that even without using a snubber, the voltage overshoot at the switching edges is very less. This explains the advantage of the transformer winding technique followed here. Fig. 8

shows the secondary diode voltage of two different phases during the same mode of operation. Fig. 9 shows the primary diode and secondary switch voltages and currents during charging the battery from the mains. It can be noted that the current directions are negative. This means that the current is owing from the capacitor to the battery. Figs. 7 and 8 are similar to the waveforms shown in Fig. 3(a) and (c) because both of them are in CCM. Whereas for reverse power ow, Fig. 9 is not similar to Fig. 3(b) and (d) because the experimental result of Fig. 9 is in DCM and the simulation results of Fig. 3(b) and (d) are in CCM. Fig. 10 shows the dynamic response of the converter during forward-power-transfer mode. Initial portion of the response shows the soft starting of the dc-link voltage. After that, because of no-load operation, the output voltage oscillates between the hysteresis band. Then, after the converter is loaded, the dc-link voltage comes out of the hysteresis band and falls to a lesser value which is the effect of constant duty cycle of operation. However, the controller for the traction inverter compensates for this dc-link voltage variation.

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VI. C ONCLUSION This paper proposes a four-phase bidirectional yback dcdc converter which serves the role of an MPP interface for electric and hybrid electric vehicle applications. The bidirectional nature of the converter allows battery charging during regeneration and also from mains. The multiple phases give the exibility of paralleling multiple batteries. Simple hysteresis control is used for converter control. Because of the four converters operating with 90 phase shift with xed 75% duty cycle of operation, the capacitor ripple current is also reduced. The novel transformer design technique drastically reduces the leakage inductance and eliminates the requirement of snubber. Furthermore, it should be noted that the MPP interface could be made between any given battery voltage and dc-link voltage by only tuning the turns ratio of the yback transformers. The scheme is experimentally veried, and the experimental results are presented. When it comes to the analysis of dcdc converter, efciency is a major factor of concern. Because the proposed converter is a hard-switched one, the efciency is denitely less than that of soft-switched converters. However, the drastic reduction in leakage inductance limited the losses mostly to switching and conduction losses. From the practically measured parameters of the converter and using an IGBT datasheet, the theoretical operating efciency of the converter was found to be near 96% from part-load to full-load conditions, assuming that the converter operates in CCM. It is a fact that a typical hybrid car like Toyota Prius uses a 50-kW motor according to its THS II technology, whereas the proposed system is tested only for 6 kW. There are two ways of increasing the power rating of the system. If the device current ratings are doubled, then the yback transformers have to be wound with double number of parallel windings, and also, the core size will be increased. However, the transformer winding technique will be the same as explained in Section IV-A. In that way, the system will be rated for 12 kW. However, this will lead to the use of higher AH batteries. An easier way to double the power rating is to use one more system similar to Fig. 2 and shorting both the system in the capacitor side. This will increase the associated control and drive circuitry. However, with the recent development in power semiconductor technology where devices come with integrated driver and protection circuitry, the space and component count constraints are drastically reduced.

R EFERENCES
[1] A. Emadi, Y. J. Lee, and K. Rajashekara, Power electronics and motor drives in electric, hybrid electric, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 22372245, Jun. 2008. [2] F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, G. Noia, and D. Pirolo, Experimental study of a bidirectional DCDC converter for the DC link voltage control and the regenerative braking in PM motor drives devoted to electrical vehicles, in Proc. IEEE APEC, Orlando, FL, Feb. 1994, vol. 1, pp. 381386. [3] F. Caricchi, F. Crescimbini, F. G. Capponi, and L. Solero, Study of bi-directional buckboost converter topologies for application in electrical vehicle motor drives, in Proc. IEEE APEC, Feb. 1998, vol. 1, pp. 287293. [4] C.-M. Wang, Novel zero-voltage-transition PWM DCDC converters, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 254262, Feb. 2006. [5] B.-R. Lin and F.-Y. Hsieh, Soft-switching zetayback converter with a buckboost type of active clamp, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 54, no. 5, pp. 28132822, Oct. 2007. [6] F. Z. Peng, H. Li, G.-J. Su, and J. S. Lawler, A new ZVS bidirectional DCDC converter for fuel cell and battery application, IEEE Trans. Power Electron, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 5465, Jan. 2004. [7] H. S.-H. Chung, W.-L. Cheung, and K. S. Tang, A ZCS bidirectional yback DC/DC converter, IEEE Trans. Power Electron, vol. 19, no. 6, pp. 14262434, Nov. 2004. [8] O. Garcia, P. Zumel, A. de Castro, and J. A. Cobos, Automotive DCDC bidirectional converter made with many interleaved buck stages, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 578586, May 2006. [9] L. Solero, A. Lidozzi, and J. A. Pomilio, Design of multiple-input power converter for hybrid vehicles, in Proc. IEEE APEC, vol. 2, pp. 11451151. [10] M. Michon, J. L. Duarte, and M. Hendrix, A three port bi-directional converter for hybrid fuel cell systems, in Proc. IEEE PESC, Aachen, Germany, Jun. 2004, pp. 47364742. [11] H. Tao, A. Kotsopoulos, J. L. Duarte, and M. A. M. Hendrix, Family of multiport bidirectional DCDC converters, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng.Electr. Power Appl., vol. 153, no. 3, pp. 451458, May 2006. [12] R.-J. Wai, L.-W. Liu, and R.-Y. Duan, High-efciency voltage-clamped DCDC converter with reduced reverse-recovery current and switchvoltage stress, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 272280, Feb. 2006. [13] R.-J. Wai, C.-Y. Lin, R.-Y. Duan, and Y.-R. Chang, High-efciency DCDC converter with high voltage gain and reduced switch stress, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 354364, Feb. 2007. [14] T. Bhattacharya, V. S. Giri, K. Mathew, and L. Umanand, Multi power port converter for hybrid electric vehicles using multi phase bidirectional y-back topology, in Proc. IEEE ICIT, Dec. 2006, pp. 12011205.

Tanmoy Bhattacharya received the B.E. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli, India, in 2002, and the M.Sc.(Eng.) degree in power electronics from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, in 2005. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology, IISc. His current areas of research include hybrid electric vehicles, traction drives, windsolar hybrid systems, etc.

A PPENDIX This section provides the following specications of the prototype converter which was built: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) nominal battery voltage: 60 V; nominal output voltage: 330 V; switching frequency: 20 kHz; turns ratio: 63/31; nominal power: 6 kW; IGBT part number: SKM50GB123D.

V. Shriganesh Giri received the B.Tech. degree from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, India, in 2004, and the M.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, in 2006. He is currently with NVIDIA, Bangalore. His research interests include analog and digital circuit design, hybrid electric vehicles, etc.

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K. Mathew received the B.E. degree in electronics and communication engineering from the KVG College of Engineering, Sullia, India, in 1994, and the M.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, in 2006. He is currently a Lecturer in electronics and communication engineering with Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India. His research interests include embedded systems, power electronics, and electromechanical systems.

L. Umanand received the B.S. degree in electronics and communications from Bangalore University, Bangalore, India, in 1987, and the M.Tech degree in electronics design and the Ph.D. degree from the Centre for Electronics Design and Technology (CEDT), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, in 1989 and 1996, respectively. His Ph.D. thesis was in the area of control for highperformance induction motors drives. He is currently a Principal Research Scientist with CEDT, IISc. His major research interests include photovoltaic system design, bond graph modeling of power electronic systems, high-performance control of induction motors, designing for reliability, and hybrid electric vehicles.