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Renewable energy is an advisable choice to reduce fuel consumption and $\rm CO_{2}$ emission. Therein, wind energy and solar energy are the most promising contributors to reach this goal. Although the hybrid wind/solar system has been widely studied, the real-time current sharing based on their maximum capacities is rarely achieved in terms of seconds. Based on this, this paper proposes an accurate current sharing and voltage regulation approach in hybrid wind/solar systems, which is based on distributed adaptive dynamic programming approach. Firstly, the equivalent wind/solar model is built, which is an indispensable preprocessing to achieve the complementary between wind energy and solar energy. Therein, the wind energy and solar energy can output relative current according to their respective capacity ratio, which ensure the maximum utilization ratio of renewable energy source. Furthermore, current sharing and voltage regulation problem is switched into optimal control problem. Under this effect, each source agent aims to obtain the optimal control variable and achieve accurate current sharing/voltage regulation. Moreover, an adaptive dynamic programming approach based on Bellman principle is proposed. It can achieve accurate current sharing and voltage regulation. Finally, the simulation results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed adaptive dynamic programming approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact interlinking converter modular (ICM) for hybrid ac/dc microgrids with a distributed storage (DS) bus for storage integration is proposed in this article. The advanced ICM for hybrid ac/dc/ds microgrids involves the nine-switch topology with compact configuration and decreased number of active operating switches, which structurally equivalents to afford a dc interconnection port for dc subgrid, an ac interconnection port for ac subgrid, a ds interconnection port for ds subgrid, and two dc–dc converters for the interconnection ports for parallel DSs. In addition to the popular advantage of component elements saving, the suggested ICM, aggregating various interlinking converter cells (ICCs) into an ICM, is also proficient of participating computations from all ICC sensors to enhance the overall modular performance without building extra communication connection links between ICCs. With this in mind, a decentralized power management control strategy is realized by employing a coordination power control methodology to systematically handle various distributed generations (DGs), DSs, and ICM in a decentralized manner with improved communication fault ride-through capability. The controller hardware-in-the-loop experiments on a real-time digital simulator platform validates the achievement of the advanced ICM application in hybrid ac/dc/ds microgrids and the effectiveness of the associated decentralized power management scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a novel reduced order average model for dual-active-bridge converter which can be applied to all modulation methods, such as single-phase-shift modulation, dual-phase-shift modulation, extended-phase-shift modulation and triple-phase-shift modulation. This model considers conduction, inductance, and transformer power losses. Furthermore, the input–output filters are suitable for system performance analysis. Based on the large-signal average model, the small-signal model and the output transfer function are derived. The detailed model for predicting the large-signal transient is established and the small signal analysis in frequency domain is carried out. This model can accurately predict the steady-state and transient-state response of the system. The experimental results agreed well with the simulation results which proved the accuracy and correctness of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The droop control is an advantageous approach for stand-alone supply systems consisting of multiple batteries, allowing among various inverters without intercommunication. The droop coefficients of batteries always vary with their state-of-charge (SoC) and charge/discharge mode, resulting in small-signal instability. Nevertheless, the existing impedance-based approaches can only assess the droop coefficients stability point, but not the stability region. Therefore, this article proposes a droop coefficients stability region analysis approach. First, the charge/discharge SoC-based droop controlled battery, the P&Q controlled distributed generator and the constant power load are separately discussed. Meanwhile, the state matrix and return-ratio matrix are established, respectively. Furthermore, the novel forbidden region criterion based on the return-ratio matrix is constructed, which reduces conservatism compared with norm-based impedance criteria and partial forbidden region criteria. Such a forbidden region criterion is first switched to the Hurwitz identification problem regarding the equivalent return-ratio matrix. Combined the state matrix and the equivalent return-ratio matrix, the generalized incidence matrix is constructed to simultaneously identify subsystem stability and interactive stability. Based on the generalized incidence matrix, an adaptive step search strategy is proposed to obtain the droop coefficients coordinated stability region. Finally, the simulation and experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a novel bidirectional dc–dc converter (BDC) consisting of an active switched-inductor (A-SL) cell, a zero current ripple cell and an auxiliary capacitor cell is proposed for the battery energy storage system. The proposed BDC integrates with the advantages of high voltage conversion ratio, low power switch voltage stresses, zero ripple current on the low voltage side (LVS), and constant potential difference between the grounds of LVS and high voltage side. Thanks to the use of synchronous rectification technology, the efficiency of the proposed BDC is increased. The operating principles, the characteristics analysis and the parameter design of the proposed BDC are given. In addition, to show the merits of the proposed BDC, a comparison study involves the proposed converter and other BDCs is demonstrated. Finally, some experimental results obtained using a 1000 W prototype are presented to valid the effectiveness of the proposed BDC. 96.43% and 96.67% maximum conversion efficiencies can be achieved in the step-up and step-down modes, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In dc microgrid, energy storage system (ESS) plays a crucial role to provide short-or-long term and high-quality electric energy. The different control strategies for bidirectional dc-dc converter (BDC) of ESS in grid-tied and islanded modes pose challenges to the coordination control of the dc microgrid. This paper proposes an autonomous control scheme for the BDC in dc microgrid. The proposed control scheme is based on $V^2-P$ droop control and unifies bus voltage regulation and power regulation in a single control structure. Thus, global smooth transition between various operation modes can be achieved without any control strategy changes, which avoids various mode switch detection mechanisms and improves system stability. Furthermore, the proposed control scheme is fully decentralized which reduces the reliance on communication, and enhances the reliability of the microgrid. On the other hand, $V^2-P$ droop approach eliminates the negative effect of widespread constant power loads (CPLs) in dc microgrid. The stability of the proposed control method is illustrated, and the design guideline of some critical control gains is addressed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is validated by the real-time hardware-in-loop (HIL) platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correlation-based digital background calibration technique to correct the capacitor mismatch error in successive approximation register (SAR) analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs) is proposed. To facilitate the calibration technique, an energy-efficient detect-and-skip (DAS) algorithm is exploited to perform the pseudorandom noise (PN) injection without adding extra hardware overhead. By randomly injecting the error weights and correlating the ADC output with the PN sequence in the digital backend, the real bit weights are identified. In addition, only the error weights are injected into the residue. Therefore, the residue increment caused by the injection is negligible, and the redundancy overhead is minimized. The proposed calibration technique is verified in a 12-bit SAR ADC. Behavioral simulations show that, with calibration, the signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) and the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) are increased from 55.6 to 71.2 dB and 64.2 to 90.3 dB, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the current sharing and voltage regulation problem of a DC microgrid by a distributed supervisory control method. In the existing secondary control methods, current sharing feedback control loop and voltage regulation feedback control loop are linearly integrated to shift the droop equation. However, the linear combination of two loops may easily offset the control effect of each other, as the control dimension is less than the objective dimension. This fact motivates us to design a distributed supervisory secondary control (DSSC) scheme to achieve a more flexible configuring of each converter. The DSSC consists of two candidate controllers and a supervisor. The two controllers refer to current sharing configuring and DC bus voltage regulation respectively, and the supervisor is to orchestrate the switching between candidate controllers based on the system environment of DC microgrid. Under the proposed DSSC, each converter selects to configure the current sharing or regulates the DC bus voltage according to its need. Theoretical stability analysis is rigorously conducted. Finally, both simulation and experiment results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of DSSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems of feedback dissipativity and stabilization of switched positive systems are investigated via the co-design of both the combined switching strategy and the state feedback control. In particular, the proposed technique guarantees a minimal dwell time between the adjacent switching even when all subsystems are not dissipative. The time-varying multiple linear co-positive storage functions are first adopted and sufficient conditions of rendering the considered system to be dissipative are also established. Moreover, stability is obtained when the multiple linear supply rates are non-positive, and asymptotic stability is further achieved under certain redesigned controller and the detectivity property of all subsystems. Finally, simulation studies verify that the proposed control scheme is valid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a fixed and smooth-switch-sequence modulation strategy is proposed to equalize the dc-link voltages among the cascaded rectifier. The structure of a single-phase three-level neutral-point-clamped cascaded rectifier is studied. Three core steps of this strategy are analyzed respectively, including carrier wave disposition calculation, fixed pulse generator, and voltage rank function. In addition, a criterion of the degree of the load unbalance is established in order to measure the voltage balancing boundary of the presented approach. The superiorities of the proposed control strategy embody the smooth switch sequence, the strong voltage balance capability, as well as the fixed switch sequence. Owe to these advantages, the cascaded rectifier could effectively reduce the switching frequency, achieve the goals of voltage balancing, and reduce the calculation burden of the controller when the number of cascaded modules is large. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified by simulation and experiment results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Memristors with small size, fast speed, low power, CMOS compatibility and nonvolatile modulation of device resistance are promising candidates for the next-generation data storage and in-memory logic computing paradigm. In comparison to the binary logics enabled by memristor devices, multi-valued logics can provide higher computation efficiency with simple operation scheme, reduced circuit complexity, and smaller chip area. In this contribution, we demonstrate that all the 27 univariate ternary logic operations can be realized with a single ZnO three-state resistive switching memristor in at most three steps. The nonvolatile modulation characteristics of the memristor allow the read step to be independent of the logic operation and capacitate logic-in-memory applications. The present methodology could be beneficial for constructing future high-performance computation architectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data center networks demand high-performance, robust, and practical data plane load balancing protocols. Despite progress, existing work falls short of meeting these requirements. We design, analyze, and evaluate Luopan, a novel sampling based load balancing protocol that overcomes these challenges. Luopan operates at flowcell granularity similar to Presto. It periodically samples a few paths for each destination switch and directs flowcells to the least congested one. By being congestion-aware, Luopan improves flow completion time (FCT), and is more robust to topological asymmetries compared to Presto. The sampling approach simplifies the protocol and makes it much more scalable for implementation in large-scale networks compared to existing congestion-aware schemes. We provide analysis to show that Luopan's periodic sampling has the same asymptotic behavior as instantaneous sampling: taking 2 random samples provides exponential improvements over 1 sample. We conduct comprehensive packet-level simulations with production workloads. The results show that Luopan consistently outperforms state-of-the-art schemes in large-scale topologies. Compared to Presto, Luopan with 2 samples improves the 99.9%ile FCT of mice flows by up to 35 percent, and average FCT of medium and elephant flows by up to 30 percent. Luopan also performs significantly better than Local Sampling with large asymmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a uniform control strategy for the bidirectional ac/dc interlinking converter (BIC) in hierarchical controlled hybrid microgrid. The uniform control strategy unifies different control structures for multifunctional BIC in terms of power management, ac and dc voltage support. With the unified control structure, various triggering mechanisms for BIC mode-switch are not compulsory in response to the relevant scenario changes in the power network. Therefore, the negative consequences, such as unsmooth transition and system collapse due to the inaccurate or slower mode switch, can be avoided. Moreover, the uniform control strategy is also applicable for the hierarchical controlled hybrid microgrid, whose control architecture is typically comprised of the centralized and decentralized levels. This enables the communication fault ride-through capability and the impact from the communication failures can thus be mitigated. To sum up the above two features, the proposed control strategy is able to provide a smooth operation for the BIC without control mode switch in the event of unintentional scenario changes in power or communication network. To verify the validity of the proposed uniform control strategy, the controller hardware-in-the-loop experimental results have been provided in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Modularity and high reliability from redundancy are the two attractive advantages of modular multilevel converters (MMCs). This paper elaborates a switch open-circuit fault diagnosis and a fault-tolerant operation scheme for MMCs with distributed control. The proposed fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant control method can significantly improve the reliability of the MMC while maintaining the modularity of its software implementation. By distributing fault diagnosis into submodules, its local controller is capable of identifying the switching devices in open-circuit fault without extra hardware circuitry. Based on the real-time measurements of submodule terminal voltage and arm current, single, or multiple faulty switches can be identified within 3.5 ms without triggering faulty alarms. Furthermore, a new fault-tolerant operation is proposed to maintain the output current, internal dynamics, and switching harmonics unchanged after the faulty submodule is bypassed. This is achieved by resetting the period and phase registers in the local controller according to the information of bypassed submodules. The control loops of the MMC are not influenced by the proposed fault diagnosis and fault-tolerant operation, making the operation transition seamless and reliable. Experimental results show that fault identification and system reconfiguration can be completed within 5 ms, and the MMC can seamlessly and smooth ride through the switch open-circuit faults without severe malfunction and catastrophic damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel high-efficiency resonant light emitting diode (LED) backlight driver with passive current balancing and dimming is proposed and analyzed in this paper. The proposed LED driver achieves uniform brightness of each LED string by the charge balance of the resonant capacitor, which benefits from high efficiency. By controlling the output current of one LED string, the output currents of other LED strings can be controlled via current balancing of resonant capacitors, which makes its control simple. The proposed LED driver uses only one active switch, which decreases circuit volume and simplifies the control. Furthermore, a wide load range can be achieved by controlling the turn-on duty ratio of the single power switch of the LED driver with a fixed frequency. Finally, a prototype of a high-dimming-ratio small-size three-string LED driver is provided to verify the studied results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a beam switching antenna (BSA) based on a reconfigurable cascaded feeding network (RCFN) is presented. The RCFN is engineered by cascading several varactor-loaded quasi-lumped couplers (QLCs). As the output port of the RCFN, the coupled port of every QLC is connected to an endfire radiator. BSAs based on two types of RCFN, the open-loop RCFN and closed-loop RCFN, are designed, simulated, and measured. The open-loop design features flexible beam switching strategies with the dynamic control of operation modes allocating the input power to the intended radiator(s), and single-/multibeam switching is achieved. In the case of the closed-loop RCFN, a power-recycling circuit is introduced to improve the efficiency of the single-beam switching mode of the BSA. Measured results show that the BSA operating in single-beam mode is able to radiate six switched beams each with a 3 dB beamwidth of 60°, covering 360° in the azimuth plane. The return losses and gain fluctuation of both prototypes are better than 15 dB and less than 1 dB, respectively. The corresponding experiments agree well with both the theoretical analysis and the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The traditional finite-control-set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) method for a cascaded H-bridge (CHB) rectifier has two main issues: heavy computational burden and low steady-state current performance. In this paper, a novel FCS-MPC method has been proposed for a single-phase CHB rectifier. The proposed method solves the optimization problem of FCS-MPC for one cell by one cell, like a “pipeline.” In the proposed method, the sampling period is divided into equal intervals by the number of cells. At the beginning of the first interval, the first cell selects its switching state to be applied. Then, the following cell selects its switching state to be applied at the beginning of next interval. Finally, the selected switching state of last cell will be applied at the beginning of the last interval. A cost function presenting the control objectives of common source current error and itself dc-link voltage error is evaluated for each cell. A single-phase three-cell CHB rectifier controlled by a DSpace DS1104 is tested and the experimental results show that a significant reduction in computational time, an improved steady-state current performance, and a comparable dynamic response are achieved in the proposed method in comparison with the traditional FCS-MPC method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data center networks often use multi-rooted Clos topologies to provide a large number of equal cost paths between two hosts. Thus, load balancing traffic among the paths is important for high performance and low latency. However, it is well known that ECMP—the de facto load balancing scheme—performs poorly in data center networks. The main culprit of ECMP’s problems is its congestion agnostic nature, which fundamentally limits its ability to deal with network dynamics. We propose Expeditus, a novel distributed congestion-aware load balancing protocol for general 3-tier Clos networks. The complex 3-tier Clos topologies present significant scalability challenges that make a simple per-path feedback approach infeasible. Expeditus addresses the challenges by using simple local information collection, where a switch only monitors its egress and ingress link loads. It further employs a novel two-stage path selection mechanism to aggregate relevant information across switches and make path selection decisions. Testbed evaluation on Emulab and large-scale ns-3 simulations demonstrate that, Expeditus outperforms ECMP by up to 45% in tail flow completion times (FCT) for mice flows, and by up to 38% in mean FCT for elephant flows in 3-tier Clos networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This letter investigates the switching behavior of TaN/Al2O3:Ag:ZnO/ITO memristors fabricated on flexible substrates, for flexible nonvolatile memory and neuromorphic computing applications. The embedded Ag nanoparticles provide for improved device yield and reduced variability in resistance, from more than 160% to 30%. They also provide for reduced variability in set and reset voltages, from 35% to 18% and 40% to 11%, respectively. A synaptic behavior of this flexible device is demonstrated, making it a potential candidate for neuromorphic circuit applications. Furthermore, its low-power requirements make it more competitive for emulating biological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a multiple-input versatile matrix converter (VMC) for integrating hybrid ac/dc energy resources and storages to the power grid. The VMC is developed from the traditional indirect matrix converter but operates in the reverse-boost mode rather than in the forward-buck mode. The reverse-boost mode is more relevant here since most renewable sources and energy storages have lower voltages than the grid. The eventual VMC developed uses an alternative nine-switch converter, rather than usual six-switch voltage-source converter, for providing six input terminals in total. One three-phase ac source and three dc sources, or other source combinations, can therefore be connected to the VMC. Powers from these sources are channeled to the three-phase utility grid through the VMC's current-source inverter. Their proper dispatches are guaranteed by the proposed control and modulation schemes, which also help maintain near-sinusoidal input and output current waveforms. Mathematical proofs, simulation, and experimental results have shown that the VMC can indeed operate as intended. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on the decentralized sliding mode control, a load frequency controller is designed in this paper for multi-area interconnected power systems with matching and unmatched uncertainties. The proportional and integral switching surface is constructed for each area to improve system dynamic performance in reaching intervals. The robust controller is proposed by the reaching law method to assure that frequency fluctuation converges to zero after a load and operation point variation. A three-area interconnected power system is studied to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed decentralized sliding mode control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel dual-input matrix converter (DIMC) to integrate two three-phase ac type energy resources to a power grid. The proposed matrix converter is developed based on the traditional indirect matrix converter under reverse power flow operation mode, but with its six-switch voltage source converter replaced by a nine-switch configuration. With the additional three switches, the proposed DIMC can provide six input terminals, which make it possible to integrate two independent ac sources into a single grid-tied power electronics interface. The proposed converter has input-to-output voltage boost capability since power flows from the converter's voltage source side to its current source side. Commanded currents can be extracted from the two input sources to the grid. The proposed control and modulation schemes guarantee sinusoidal input and output waveforms as well as unity input power factors. The simulation and experimental results using a laboratory prototype are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control and modulation schemes for the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a novel matrix converter with one ac input and two ac outputs. The presented topology is based on the traditional indirect matrix converter, but with its rear-end six-switch inverter replaced by a compact nine-switch inverter. With only three extra switches added, the proposed converter can produce two sets of three-phase ac outputs, whose amplitudes, frequencies, and phases can appropriately be regulated. Features such as sinusoidal input and outputs, unity input power factor and minimum commutation count are all retained by the proposed topology, despite having an additional output. Its modulation is realized by the computationally less intensive carrier-based method, whose unique carrier requirements can easily be managed within a programmable logic device. Mathematical proof for validating sinusoidal input and outputs achieved by this modulation technique is also discussed, before being verified in simulation and experimentally, together with other findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complementary resistive switching (CRS) behavior in a flexible plastic substrate was studied for the first time in this letter. CRS behaviors in Al/Ni/NiAlOx/Al2O3-x/ITO device were demonstrated with excellent performance. A high-resistance ON/OFF ratio ( \(\sim 10^{\mathrm {\mathbf {3}}}\) ), 50-ms switch speed was successfully obtained. In addition, the mechanism of CRS behavior was interpreted by the redistribution of oxygen vacancies in NiAlOx/Al2O3-x stack layers. Such a CRS style flexible RRAM device is a possible solution for future integrated circuits application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in SET and RESET voltages during resistive switching cause problems for transition-metal-oxide-based resistive memory applications. The random circuit breaker network model has illustrated that the random formation and rupture of conducting filaments result in this instability. A solution consisting of a carefully designed electric field redistribution is proposed to minimize these variations. This switching behavior occurs in an ultrathin \Al2\O3 film very near to the anode rather than occurring in a random distribution over a large region. The SET voltage distribution is narrowed by a factor of seven, and consequently, the RESET voltage distribution is confined near a fixed value. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Resistive switching behaviors of \Al2\O3 -based memory devices with and without ruthenium nanocrystals (RuNCs) fabricated by atomic layer deposition are investigated for nonvolatile-memory applications. Large resistance ratios (> \10^5) of high- to low-resistance states were observed with nanocrystals contribution. Moreover, improvements of stability device yield and retention performance were also achieved by embedding RuNCs. Therefore, the \Al2\O3-based resistive memory device composed of embedded nanocrystals is a possible solution for future integrated standalone storage class memory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The excellent resistive switching characteristics of atomic-layer-deposited HfLaO-based devices are investigated for nonvolatile memory applications. With the help of nonlattice oxygen ions which is designed to incorporate into the film by decomposition of \H2\O2 during process, highly uniform and reproducible resistance switching cycles could be observed with the resistive ratio as high as \10^6 for more than 10 000 cycles. In addition, the fast operation speed (10 ns) has been demonstrated. Conduction of the off state is dominated by the space-charge-limited hopping, while the ohmic behavior dictates the on state, which suggests a filamentary conduction mechanism. Moreover, the estimated readout characteristics under different read voltages from 0.3 to 1 V were sufficiently stable to fulfill the requirement for memory application. Considering the excellent memory switching behavior, a resistance switch device composed of a promising high-k HfLaO dielectric film is a possible candidate to be integrated into future memory processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]