Why the inverter

Direct current is drawing renewed interest in certain domains. Even so, most electric power is still generated, transmitted, and used as alternating current. Our mission is to modernize the inverter, the device through which a large share of the world’s power conversion now passes. We also want what we build to work under real operating conditions, not only on paper.

At a glance

Field: Power electronics, extending into power system analysis
Active topics: Grid-forming inverter, virtual synchronous generator, inverter-based resources, microgrid building block, networked microgrids, paralleled inverters, sensorless motor drives, dual active bridge

Members of the lab at the converter bench

Generator · analysis · demonstration · inverter · solar · wind · storagePhotographed where we work, since 2016

Most of our work fits under three verbs:

Electrify

to make a machine operate using electricity when it did not before

Replacing something mechanical with something electrical buys efficiency, response, reliability, and quiet. An inverter accelerates a vehicle where an engine and a brake pad used to.

Modernize

to make something using the most recent ideas and methods

Any subject related to inverters is our concern: grid forming, parallel operation, islanding, common-mode voltage, multi-level topologies, SiC gate drivers, high-frequency transformers.

Commercialize

to turn something into a product that can be made and sold

A proposed method has to be simple enough to implement. We help industry partners turn a technology into something they can actually manufacture and sell.

OPTIMUS Lab

Why the inverter

Electrify

Modernize

Commercialize

Research

People

Facilities

Publications