EPE Association & Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

8th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications

KEYNOTES

Keynote 1 :	7 september - 8.45 to 9.15	Power electronics and the automobile from state of the art to future trends
Keynote 2 :	8 september - 8.30 to 9.00	Power semiconductors, recent progresses, future evolutions and consequences
Keynote 3 :	9 september - 8.45 to 9.15	"Microtechnique" at EPFL : Big future for small products
Keynote 4 :	9 september - 9.15 to 9.45	Power and Control Electronics for High Performance Direct Drives

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At the beginning of the third millennium, some industries change and the car industry is no exception. If electronics is available today in the car (to control comfort and safety functions), power electronics is just appearing. The trend towards vehicle electrification represents the starting point and this must be addressed by fundamental changes in power generation and vehicle power management. In fact, we are at the start of a new market for Power Electronics and we may say that one of the futures of Power Electronics will be the automotive market.

Joseph Beretta graduated as Electrical Engineer in 1980. He held several responsibilities in an industrial company in the field of Electric Drives Systems. He joined PSA Peugeot Citroën in 1994 as Head of the Electric Vehicle Research Department. Since 1998 he holds the position of Manager Research and Advanced Projects on Electric and Electronic Systems.

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Quick history of the power components. The bipolar age, the MOS age, a new age with the MOS-bipolar combination and other solutions. Simultaneously we have seen the integration entering in the field of power electronics after the deep evolution in microelectronics.

The author will show:

• the state of the art from discrete to integrated components, from Mosfet to the very high power components including the fast rectifiers,
• the last important advancements this last two years, the major events in power integration, the new MOSFETs, the fast rectifiers improvements, and the new MOS-Bipolar combinations in the fields of high power.

After, the main development trends for the next years will be analyzed.

The second part will concern the consequences of this evolution.

• What will be the consequences of the power integration?
• What will be the job of the equipment designers in the 2000’?
• What kind of components?
• Which consequences about the thermal behaviour?
• What will be essential in Power Electronics?

J. M. Peter started as R&D engineer with THOMSON in the field of servomechanisms and magnetic amplifiers. He developed the first SCR motor drives in France operating in the market at the beginning of 1960. Later he worked twenty years in the semiconductor industry. In 1991, he obtained the "habilitation à diriger les recherches" in Toulouse. Since 1992 he is invited professor and consultant in the field of power components.

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This contribution gives some perspectives for the future of an activity which is at the same time caught in a spectacular evolution and builds on a long tradiction.

Keywords : microfactory, design for production, electronics in microengineering products

Hannes Bleuler receives a degree in automation in 1978 at the Electrical Dept. of ETHZ and becomes an assistant at the Mechanics Institute of this school. He helps establishing the mechatronics group and receives his PhD degree for his work in the field of active magnetic bearings. This leads to his first 2-year stay with Hitachi in Japan. From 1991 to 1995 he is Toshiba Professor of Intelligent Mechatronics at the Industrial Sciences Institute of the University of Tokyo and later assoc. Professor at the university's Microtechnics Dept. He is active in the fields of micro-machines, and the application microscopy in metrology. He is active in the same fields at the EPFL.

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Direct drives are a general tendency in a large field of applications. The required advantages are better integration, stiffness, resolution, maintenance and reliability. However, some disadvantages are intrinsic, such as a more important sensitivity to torque ripples (commutation and detent torque), the necessity of a more robust control and sometimes a higher mass. The main problems and their solutions, by combination of electromechanics and electronics, will be analyzed and described.

Examples will be presented in different domains, such as machine tools, robotics, bonding, conditioning machines, wafer inspection, large telescope and space.

In 1970 Nicolas Wavre graduated as electrical engineer at EPFL, in 1974 he received his PhD degree for his work on " induction linear motors". That year he also founded ETEL SA, one of the first industrial spin-offs of EPFL, which has an international reputation. ETEL is a leader in high-tech solutions using linear servo-motors or direct drives with torque motors.

At EPFL, he has taught courses on e.g. linear motors and electrical drives. He is author of many publications, member of the "European Space Mechanisms and Tribology Symposium" committee, vice president of the "Swiss Space Industry Group" and member of the "Federal Commission of Spatial Affairs".

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