Power Electronics Building Blocks, "Plug and Play", Hardware and Software Control Architectures

Abstract : The main objective of this project has been to investigate means to standardize communications and control systems in order to develop seamless "Plug and Play" (PnP) power electronics. The intent within has been to pave the way for the development of reconfigurable low-cost, high reliability, and easy to use power processing devices. Such devices, known as Power Electronics Building Blocks (PEBBs), would certainly encourage the proliferation of power electronics into markets not yet penetrated due to a significant, critical lack of industrial modularization and standardization in this area. In fact, the flexibility level that could be attained is such that it would ensure significant increments of production, as well as manufacturing cost reductions due to economies of scale.