IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO.

6, JUNE 2008 2473

Hexagram Inverter for Medium-Voltage Six-Phase

Variable-Speed Drives
Jun Wen, Student Member, IEEE, and Keyue Ma Smedley, Fellow, IEEE

AbstractA new multilevel inverterHexagram inverter is pro-

posed for medium-voltage (MV) variable-speed-drive (VSD) ap-
plications, which is composed of six standard two-level voltage
source inverter (VSI) modules interconnected through the induc-
tors. With six ac terminals, it can be used for both three- and
six-phase drives. This paper studies its six-phase applications.
Compared to a same output power and voltage VSI, the proposed
inverter has the current stress reduced to half and voltage stress
reduced to one-third; whereas compared to a same output power
and current VSI, the voltage stress is reduced to one-sixth. The
other advantages of the new inverter include a modular structure
resulting in easy construction and maintenance, no voltage unbal-
ance problem, easy control with well-developed VSI control tech-
niques, automatic and equal current and power sharing among
the modules, and fewer components and lower dc energy storage
requirements compared to the cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter.
These eminent features make it a strong candidate for MV VSD
applications. Fig. 1. CHB inverter for MV VSD.

Index TermsAC motor drives, inverters, multilevel systems,

power conversion.
I. I NTRODUCTION
T HE MEDIUM-voltage (MV) converters have become a
new breed in high-power applications. Numerous MV
topologies have been proposed and investigated since the mid-
1980s [1][25]. The development and application of MV vari-
able speed drives (VSDs) have brought significant advantages
in improved process control, higher efficiency, and energy
savings to the industry [2][4].
From the survey articles [1][10] and tutorials [11], [12],
it becomes clear that three topologies are favored by MV
drive manufacturers: 1) neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter
[13][18]; 2) flying capacitor (FC) inverter [19]; and 3) cas-
caded H-bridge (CHB) inverter [20][25].
The NPC prevailed in the 1980s, which uses a high-voltage
fast-recovery diode to clamp the voltage. When the number of
levels increases, a large number of clamping diodes is required.
In addition, the dc capacitor voltages have an unbalance prob-
lem when dealing with real power [25]; the neutral point is hard
to stabilize at heavy or dynamic load; and the output has large
harmonics so that the LC filter has to be equipped to reduce the
vibration and noise of the machine [9].
Manuscript received August 17, 2007; revised February 13, 2008.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Com-
puter Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 USA (e-mail:
jwen@uci.edu; smedley@uci.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2008.921475
0278-0046/$25.00 2008 IEEE
FC is similar to NPC in the clamping mechanism, which
uses capacitors instead to clamp the voltage. Compared to NPC,
it provides more flexibility for capacitor voltage balance. The
disadvantages of this topology are that excessive capacitors
are required when the number of levels is high and complex
precharge circuits are required [12].
CHB prevails after the mid 1990s. Unlike NPC and FC, it
does not need any clamping diodes or capacitors. It achieves
high output with multiple H-bridge converters in a cascade
connection. The advantages of this topology are that the circuit
could be modularized, leading to easy construction and mainte-
nance, isolated dc buses with no voltage unbalance problem,
and the least number of components are required among all
existing multilevel converters to achieve the same number of
voltage levels. At present, CHB is the best-selling product in the
MV VSD market worldwide [26]. Fig. 1 shows one of its appli-
cation examples [10], where the 4.16-kV VSD is constructed by
using twelve 1700-V insulated-gate bipolar transistor H-bridge
modules at 850-V dc buses (four per phase).
Despite its many advantages, CHB still suffers from several
drawbacks [27]. First, it employs a large number of compo-
nents, resulting in a high manufacturing cost. Second, the dc
energy storage requirement is high due to the single-phase
pulsating power.
In light of this, an effort has been made to replace the single-
phase converter modules in CHB with the three-phase converter
modules [28], and a new multilevel inverterHexagram inverter
[29] is proposed, as shown in Fig. 2. The new inverter is
composed of six three-phase standard two-level voltage source
inverters (VSIs) interconnected through the inductors in a
Hexagram. It keeps the advantages of CHB with the modular
structure, leading to easy construction and maintenance and
2474 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO. 6, JUNE 2008

Fig. 3. Complete MV VSD system of the Hexagram inverter.

Fig. 2. Proposed new multilevel inverterHexagram inverter.

isolated dc buses with no voltage unbalance problem, and more

importantly, it has the three-phase converter modules and thus
has the reduced number of components and lowered dc energy
storage requirement.
With six ac terminals, the new inverter can be used for
both the neutral floating three-phase drive [30] and the star-
connected six-phase drive [31]. This paper will highlight the
six-phase application.
In the next section of this paper, the basic operation of the
inverter will be analyzed, including the voltage, current, and
power relationship. In Section IV, a brief understanding of the Fig. 4. Voltage phasor diagram of the Hexagram inverter. (a) Voltages of VSI
circulating current will be provided. In Section V, the control of modules. (b) Voltages of the Hexagram inverter.
the Hexagram inverter will be investigated, and in Section VI,
a comparison with the commercialized CHB inverter will be III. A NALYSIS OF H EXAGRAM I NVERTER
conducted. Section VII shows the simulation and experimental A. Voltage Relationship
results, and Section VIII gives the conclusion.
The output voltages of the Hexagram inverter are the sum-
mation of the output voltages of the six VSI modules.
II. C OMPLETE MV VSD S YSTEM OF THE Control the fundamental output voltages of Module IVI
H EXAGRAM I NVERTER with the corresponding phasor diagram shown in Fig. 4(a) as

Fig. 3 shows a complete six-phase MV VSD system of the va1o1 va3o3 va5o5 va2o2 va4o4
Hexagram inverter, which is composed of an input isolation vb1o1 = vb3o3 = vb5o5 = vb2o2 = vb4o4
transformer with six secondary windings, six diode rectifiers, vc1o1 vc3o3 vc5o5 vc2o2 vc4o4
six dc capacitors, and one Hexagram inverter.
va6o6 2V sin(t)
The transformer shown is an 18-pulse transformer with six
= vb6o6 = 2V sin(t 120 ) (1)
secondary windings arranged in 0 , 20 phase shift (two are
vc6o6 2V sin(t + 120 )
identical), to achieve harmonic current cancellation in the utility
line currents, leading to a clean input power. According to where V is the rms phase voltages of each VSI module, and
[32], the input current total harmonic distortion for an 18-pulse is the frequency of the voltage in radius. (It should be noted
rectifier is about 5%6%, which has met the IEEE-519 and that (1) is true with restrictions on the modulation strategy. For
EN61000-2-4 harmonic standards. example, for sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM), the
Diode rectifiers and dc capacitors are used to convert the switching frequency should be an integer multiple of six times
three-phase ac to dc to provide the isolated dc buses for the the fundamental frequency.)
Hexagram inverter. Replacing the diode rectifiers with the pulse- Then, the fundamental output voltages of the Hexagram
width modulation (PWM) voltage source converters will enable inverter are determined and given as
the VSD system with the capability of regenerative braking.
Reference [33] also proposed the Hexagram rectifier as the vAO vA
O 3 2V sin(t)
active front-end of the Hexagram inverter based on which vBO = vB
O = 3 2V sin(t 120 ) (2)

Hexagram converter back-to-back system can be constructed. vCO vC
O 3 2V sin(t + 120 )
WEN AND SMEDLEY: HEXAGRAM INVERTER FOR MV SIX-PHASE VSDs 2475

with the corresponding phasor diagram shown in Fig. 4(b).

The voltages across the inductors are neglected, which are
very small during normal operation.
It is clear that the output voltages of the Hexagram inverter
are three times of the VSI modules. In other words, the voltage
stress of the new inverter is reduced three times compared to a
two-level inverter with the same output voltage.

B. Current Relationship
The phase currents of the six VSI modules satisfy the follow-
ing equation:

ia1 + ib1 + ic1 Fig. 5. Current phasor diagram of the Hexagram inverter.
ia2 + ib2 + ic2

ia3 + ib3 + ic3 Similarly, all the phase currents can be derived as
= 0. (3)

ia4 + ib4 + ic4
ia1 ia3 ia5 ia2 ia4 ia6
ia5 + ib5 + ic5
ib1 = ib3 = ib5 = ib2 = ib4 = ib6
ia6 + ib6 + ic6
ic1 ic3 ic5 ic2 ic4 ic6

Any two of the six modules are interconnected so that the
2I sin(t )
currents inside the inverter have the following relationship: = 2I sin(t 120 ) . (9)
2I sin(t + 120 )
ib1 ib2
ia2 ia3 This result indicates that when the Hexagram inverter is

ic3 ic4 connected to a symmetrical load, the phase currents of all six
= . (4)
ib4 ib5 modules are identical. The current phasor diagram is depicted
in Fig. 5, where the currents are, respectively, lagging the
ia5 ia6
ic6 ic1 corresponding voltages by degree. The phase angle is
dependent on the load characteristics.
With the inductors, the circulating current in the loop formed
by the connection of the six modules is limited to a low value C. Power Analysis
and can be neglected as
The instantaneous power of the six modules can be derived
from (2) and (9) as
ib1 + ia2 + ic3 + ib4 + ia5 + ic6 = 0. (5)
pI (t) = pII (t) = pIII (t) = pIV (t) = pV (t) = pVI (t)
Combining (3)(5), the phase current ib1 can be derived and
= 3V I cos . (10)
expressed with the six-phase output currents of the Hexagram
inverter as This result indicates that the six modules have equal output
power, and the instantaneous power through each module is
5ic2 + 4ib3 + 3ia4 + 2ic5 + ib6
ib1 = . (6) constant, so that the dc energy storage requirement is low and
6 the dc capacitor can be sized small.
The other phase currents can be derived in the same way.
Assume that the Hexagram inverter is connected to a sym- IV. U NDERSTANDING THE H EXAGRAM S TRUCTURE
metrical six-phase load. According to (2), the six-phase output
Any two of the six VSI modules inside the Hexagram inverter
currents will satisfy the following equation:
are interconnected through an inductor, and the connection of
the six modules has formed a closed loop, as highlighted in
ia1 ia4 2I sin(t )
ib3 = ib6 = 2I sin(t 120 ) Fig. 6. This special structure, on one side, has brought the built-
(7)
in redundancy feature [that the inverter is capable of operating
ic5 ic2 2I sin(t + 120 )
at a reduced power level if the switch that is not directly
connected to the load fails (open)], and, on the other side,
where I is the rms value of the output currents, and is the results in the possibility of the circulating current in this loop.
phase angle of the current lagging the corresponding voltage. The equivalent circuit of the circulating current loop is
Substituting (7) into (6) yields depicted in Fig. 7, where L12 , L23 , L34 , L45 , L56 , and L61
are the inductances of the inductors between any two of the
ib1 = ib3 . (8) six modules; vb1c1 , va2b2 , vc3a3 , vb4c4 , va5b5 , and vc6a6 are
2476 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO. 6, JUNE 2008

summation of the currents derived at the zero circulating current

condition as given in (11) and the circulating current

iL12 iL12
iL23 iL23

iL34 iL34
 = + iloop . (13)
iL45 iL45

iL56 iL56
iL61 iL61

In (12), (vb1c1 + va2b2 + vc3a3 + vb4c4 + va5b5 + vc6a6 ) is

the major part, since the rest of the part equals 0 at the equal
inductance condition according to (9) and (11); even if not, it is
small due to the small inductances.
Fig. 6. Closed loop formed by the module connection. In the ideal situations described in (1), (vb1c1 + va2b2 +
vc3a3 + vb4c4 + va5b5 + vc6a6 ) equals 0 as well. However, both
unmatched switching and unequal dc buses will cause it to be
nonzero and result in the occurrence of the circulating current.
The unmatched switching has a very short time duration; small
inductances such as several microhenrys are sufficient to limit
the circulating current. Consequently, the unequal dc bus is
the major cause of the circulating current. By having the first
and fourth secondary windings of the transformer of the same
phase angle, so are the third and sixth, and fifth and second;
the unequal dc bus condition caused by the ripple voltages of
the rectification will be entirely eliminated. In addition, it is
simulated that in a 1-MVA/4.16-kV drive system, when the dc
bus has a 10% difference, the inductances at 50 H each are
sufficient to limit the circulating current to an acceptable value.

V. C ONTROL OF H EXAGRAM I NVERTER

Fig. 7. Equivalent circuit of the circulating current loop. Since the Hexagram inverter is based on the VSI modules,
well-developed control techniques of VSI, including the motor
the instantaneous voltages depending upon the switching of control algorithms, such as scalar control, vector control, direct
the inverter, and iL12 , iL23 , iL34 , iL45 , iL56 , and iL61 are the torque control [34], etc., and the PWM control scheme, such as
inductor currents derived under the zero circulating current SPWM, space vector modulation [35], one cycle control [36],
condition and satisfy the following equation: etc., can be directly applied.
According to (1), the six modules of the Hexagram inverter
can be controlled with one VSI controller. Since Modules I, III,
iL12 ib1 ib3
and V, and Modules II, IV, and VI, have the reversed output,
iL23 ia2 ia4
the top driving signals for Modules I, III, and V will be used to
iL34 ic3 ic5
= = . (11) drive the bottom switches of Modules II, IV, and VI, and vice
iL45 ib4 ib6
versa. The control scheme is depicted in Fig. 8.
iL56 ia5 ia1
Or the six modules can be individually controlled, as given in
iL61 ic6 ic2
Fig. 9. The individual control of the six modules can alleviate
the circulating current caused by the unequal dc bus condition.
The loop voltage defined as the summation of the equivalent In addition to the above control schemes, the Hexagram in-
voltage sources in the circulating current loop is calculated as verter can also be controlled using two VSI controllers with the
carrier signals 180 phase shifted (with one controller control-
vloop = vb1c1 + va2b2 + vc3a3 + vb4c4 + va5b5 + vc6a6 ling Modules I, III, and V, and the other controlling Modules II,
IV, and VI) and results in a higher number of steps in the output
diL12 diL23 diL34
+ L12 + L23 + L34 voltages.
dt dt dt
diL45 diL56 diL61
+ L45 + L56 + L61 . (12) VI. C OMPARISON W ITH CHB I NVERTER
dt dt dt
A comparison is conducted between the Hexagram inverter
The circulating current will occur when the loop voltage is and the best-selling CHB inverter due to their similarity in
not zero. Moreover, the inductor currents can be viewed as the modular structure and isolated dc buses.
WEN AND SMEDLEY: HEXAGRAM INVERTER FOR MV SIX-PHASE VSDs 2477

Fig. 8. Integral control scheme of the Hexagram inverter.

Fig. 9. Individual control scheme of the Hexagram inverter.

TABLE I
COMPARISON OF HEXAGRAM INVERTER AND CASCADED INVERTER AS 1-MVA/4.16-kV DRIVE

Fig. 10. Control scheme of the Hexagram inverter for the PMSM drive.

A recent survey [37] over the North American MV VSD used inverter in Fig. 3 and the CHB inverter in Fig. 1 for the 4.16-kV
in the petrochemical industry revealed that over 76% is cov- drive application is highlighted, and the comparison results are
ered by 4.16-kV drives. Thus, a comparison of the Hexagram listed in Table I. The output power of both drives is 1 MVA.
2478 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO. 6, JUNE 2008

A comparison is conducted under the same output power, and

same output voltage condition, and the same output power, and
same output current condition.
From Table I, the following conclusions are obtained.
1) Under the same output power and same output voltage
condition, the voltage stress of the Hexagram inverter is
about twice that of the CHB inverter, whereas the current
stress is half due to the six-phase operation.
2) Under the same output power and same output current
condition, due to the six-phase operation, the Hexagram
inverter is able to operate at a lower output voltage to
maintain the same output power, so that the voltage stress
is further reduced in half and is almost equal to that of the
CHB inverter.
3) Compared to the CHB inverter, the Hexagram inverter has
a reduced component count of all the components except
for the inductors.
4) The dc energy requirement is high in the CHB inverter
due to the single-phase pulsating power, whereas it is
much lower in the Hexagram inverter with constant in-
stantaneous power.
Overall, the Hexagram inverter has fewer components and
lower dc energy storage requirements, and thus lower manufac-
turing cost and higher reliability, which makes it a competitive
topology for MV VSD applications.

VII. S IMULATION AND E XPERIMENTAL V ERIFICATIONS

A 500-VA Hexagram inverter model has been built in PSIM
7.0 for a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drive.
The control scheme is depicted in Fig. 10. Although the
Hexagram inverter is used to drive a six-phase motor, the
symmetrical six-phase output can be viewed as the output
summation of two three-phase drives, so that the control scheme
of the three-phase motor drive can be directly used to control
the six-phase inverter.
The control scheme includes a well-developed vector control
of PMSM [34], a simple SPWM control of the inverter, and
a duty ratio allocation for the Hexagram inverter. The vector
control of PMSM controls id zero, so the torque is purely
proportional to iq . By sensing the motor speed and two phase
currents, the desired output voltages of the Hexagram inverter
are calculated. Dividing the voltage references by three and
feeding them to the SPWM unit will generate the proper driving
signals. Finally, the driving signals will be assigned to drive the
six modules.
In the simulation, the isolated dc buses for the Hexagram
inverter are set at 60 V each. The switching frequency is 8 kHz,
and the inner inductors are 50 H each. The motor is a sym-
metrical six-phase four-pole pair PMSM and is controlled at
500 r/min. Fig. 11 shows the simulation results. For clarity,
only the fundamental sinusoidal waveforms of the voltages are
shown, although the real output voltages of the inverter are
pulsewidth modulated. Fig. 11(a) shows the six-phase output
voltages, which are symmetrical as indicated by the voltage
phasor diagram. The phase voltage is 45 V rms. In compari- Fig. 11. Simulation results of a 500-VA Hexagram inverter. (a) Output volt-
ages of the Hexagram inverter. (b) Output currents of the Hexagram inverter.
son, the maximum achievable output phase voltage of a two- (c) Voltage Va1b3 and line voltage of Module I Va1b1 . (d) Output currents of
level VSI with dc bus of 60 V and SPWM is only 20 V rms. Modules I, III, V, and Modules II, IV, VI.
WEN AND SMEDLEY: HEXAGRAM INVERTER FOR MV SIX-PHASE VSDs 2479

Fig. 12. Experiment results (time scale: 25 ms/div; voltage scale: 100 V/div; current scale: 7 A/div). (a) Output voltages of the Hexagram inverter. (b) Voltage
Va1b3 and line voltage of Module I Va1b1 . (c) Three-phase voltages and currents of the Hexagram inverter. (d) The other three-phase voltages and currents.
(e) Currents of the Hexagram inverter and Module I. (f) Currents of the Hexagram inverter and Module IV.

Fig. 11(b) shows the six-phase output currents. Fig. 11(c) shows
the voltage Va1b3 and line voltage of Module I Va1b1 , which is
a three times relationship, the same as indicated by the voltage
phasor diagram. Fig. 11(d) shows the currents of Modules I,
III, and V, and the currents of Modules II, IV, and VI. The
six modules have equal currents, and the current direction of
Modules II, IV, and VI is reversed from that of Modules I, III,
and V, as confined with the current analysis.
A 500-VA Hexagram inverter prototype has been imple-
mented with the same parameters as the simulation model.
Fig. 12 shows the experiment results. Fig. 12(a) shows the
six-phase output voltages at 45 V rms per phase, as in the
simulation. Fig. 12(b) shows the voltage Va1b3 and the line
voltage of Module I Va1b1 , which is a three times rela-
tionship. Fig. 12(c) and (d), respectively, shows the output
phase voltages VAO , VBO , and VCO with the corresponding
2480
Fig. 13. Simulation results of the 1-MVA Hexagram inverter. (a) Output
voltages of the Hexagram inverter. (b) Output currents of the Hexagram inverter.
phase currents ia1 , ib3 , and ic5 , and the output phase voltages
VA
O , VB
O , and VC
O with the corresponding phase currents
ia4 , ib6 , and ic2 . Fig. 12(e) and (f), respectively, shows the
phase currents of the Hexagram inverter iA , iB , and iC with
the currents of Module I (ia1 , ib1 , and ic1 ) and the currents of
Module IV (ia4 , ib4 , and ic4 ). Modules I and IV have equal
currents but with reversed direction, confined with the current
analysis. The currents of the other modules have similar results.
The experimental results have well verified the analysis and
simulation model.
Since the Hexagram inverter is proposed for MV applica-
tions, a 1-MVA/139-A Hexagram inverter has also been simu-
lated, which has the same power and current rating of a 1-MVA/
4.16-kV three-phase drive, as indicated in Table I. Due to the
six-phase operation, the voltage rating of the Hexagram inverter
at 1 MVA 139 A is only 4.16 kV/2 = 2.08 kV.
In the simulation, the isolated dc buses are set at 1200 V each.
The switching frequency is 1 kHz, and the inner inductors are
50 H each. Fig. 13 shows the simulation results. Fig. 13(a)
shows the output voltages of the Hexagram inverter, which are
1.7 kV line-to-neutral peak, equivalent to 4.16 kV/2 = 2.08 kV
line-to-line rms. In comparison, the output of a two-level VSI
with dc bus at 1200 V can only reach up to 850 V line-to-
line rms. Fig. 10(b) shows the output currents of the Hexagram
inverter. The other waveforms are similar to the previous results
and, therefore, are not elaborated.
At this time, no 1-MVA prototype has been built due to
the facility constraint in the university environment. However,
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 55, NO. 6, JUNE 2008
a small-scale experimental prototype of 500 VA should be
adequate for the purpose of proof-of-concept and validation
of the theoretical prediction and numerical simulation. From
the comparative study, a close match between the 500-VA
experiment and the simulation was observed, which provided
great confidence in the scaled-up 1-MVA simulation model. Of
course, it is also understandable that the design and implemen-
tation of an industrial prototype of a 1-MVA system will be
much more challenging than that of a 500-VA one. Therefore,
further development and publications are expected to address
those challenges before a new topology becomes an industrial
product.
VIII. C ONCLUSION
This paper has proposed a new multilevel inverterHexagram
inverter for six-phase MV VSD applications. Similar to the
CHB inverter that is based on single-phase H-bridge converter
modules, the new inverter is composed of six VSI modules
interconnected through the inductors. In this paper, the basic
operation of the inverter has been analyzed, along with a brief
extension to the understanding of the circulating current in the
Hexagram structure. The control scheme of the inverter is pro-
posed, and a comparison with the CHB inverter is conducted.
The advantages of the new inverter include the following:
modular structure leading to easy construction and mainte-
nance; isolated dc buses so that there is no voltage unbalance
problem; reduced voltage and current stress for six-phase oper-
ation; easy control with well-developed two-level VSI control
techniques; symmetrical structure with automatic and equal
current and power sharing of the six modules; built-in fault
redundancy due to the module interconnection; reduced com-
ponent count and lowered dc energy storage requirement com-
pared to the CHB inverter; and possibilities for both three- and
six-phase drives. These eminent features make it a competitive
candidate for high-power applications. The disadvantage is the
requirement of the inductors to suppress the circulating current.
A 500-W Hexagram inverter for a six-phase PMSM drive
has been built in simulation and verified with the experiment.
Moreover, a 1-MVA/139-A simulation model equivalent to a
1-MVA/4.16-kV three-phase drive has been built.
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Jun Wen (S07) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University,
Beijing, China, in 2001 and 2003, respectively, and
the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineer-
ing from the University of California, Irvine (UCI),
in 2007.
She is currently with the Department of Electri-
cal Engineering and Computer Science, UCI. Her
research interests include dcdc converters, three-
phase power factor correction, active power filters,
static Var compensation, inverters, motor drives, and
multilevel converters.
Keyue Ma Smedley (S87M90SM97F07) re-
ceived the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engi-
neering from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China,
in 1982 and 1985, respectively, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1987
and 1991, respectively.
From 1990 to 1992, she was with Superconducting
Super Collide, where she was responsible for the
design and specification of acdc converters for all
accelerator rings. She is currently a Professor and an
Associate Chair with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, University of California, Irvine (UCI). She is also the Director of
the UCI Power Electronics Laboratory. She has published numerous technical
articles and is the holder of nine U.S. patents. Her research interests include
topologies, control, and integration of high-efficiency dcdc converters, high-
fidelity class-D power amplifiers, active and passive soft switching techniques,
single-phase and three-phase PFC rectifiers, active power filters, grid-connected
inverters for alternative energy sources, etc.
Dr. Smedley is an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER
ELECTRONICS, a Cochair of the Industry/Education Committee of the Power
Sources Manufacturers Association, the General Chair of Power and Energy
Systems 2003, and a General Cochair of the Industrial Conference on Power
Electronics for Distributed and Cogenerations, 2004. She was the recipient of
UCI Innovation Award 2005.