The Power Electronics Research Kit - PERK

Development is partly financed by the Innovation Fund from the EU Pre-Accession Assistance and from the budget of the Republic of Serbia, the line of the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation.

PERK – Power Electronics Research Kit

is a state-of-the-art, modular and multifunctional platform for research, development, and testing in power electronics. It facilitates the construction of various power electronics converter configurations, accelerates firmware development, ensures efficient testing, minimizes test setup preparation time, increases safety in the lab, supports continuous integration for power electronics projects and improves the learning process.

GOALS

To change the power electronics landscape by significantly shortening the time from concept to realization.

To make power electronics more accessible, efficient, and safe for a wider range of users.

To help engineers find new solutions in the fields of renewable energy, electric vehicles, and sustainable technologies.

To enable faster learning by making it more accessible and affordable to a wide range of users.

PERK Advantages

Time-saving efficiency

PERK saves time and resources during the design and product development process. Preconfigured hardware modules and ready-to-use software tools significantly reduce the time required for prototyping and testing, enabling customers to bring their ideas to market faster.

cutting-edge technology

PERK offers use of newest technologies on the market, such as wide-bandgap power devices, new gate driver ICs and latest sensors, as well as last generation of several types of digital controllers. This is vital for increasing power density and efficiency.

Flexibility and customization

PERK includes a versatile hardware platform equipped with a range of reliable and high quality power electronic components. It offers flexibility to produce different power electronics topologies using simpler modules, change measurement locations and use different embedded control platforms.

Modular design

PERK adheres to established power electronics design principles and enables smooth integration of modular components into existing systems, saving resources and minimizing disruptions.

Wider audience and high reusability

PERK is designed to be used in educational and industrial laboratories. It offers high modularity without downsides in work safety, system cost or technical limitation. Users will have a chance to speed up their work and to be more productive. At the same time, it would be possible to reuse the PERK system: once a project is finished, the same hardware can be reconfigured in another quest, in which another power electronics converter/application is under development.

With the highest modularity on the market, PERK offers a solution that enables customers to easily adapt power electronics systems under development to the current project status and to reconfigure them if project requirements change or new testing results show the need for adaptation. Once a project is completed, the same hardware can be reused for another development task.

MOTHERBOARD

Central part of the PERK system.

Switch modules

Power semiconductors with drive circuits that are isolated from digital control and can be combined in different power converter topologies.

Control modules

The brain of the system, boards with microcontroller unit (MCU), digital signal processor (DSP) and Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) ICs (integrated circuits) for the execution of control algorithms.

Sense Modules

Sensors for voltage, current, temperature, motor speed, etc., can be freely combined within the power stage due to galvanic isolation and robust signal integrity.

MOTHERBOARD

Central part of the PERK system

Switch modules

Power semiconductors with drive circuits that are isolated from digital control and can be combined in different power converter topologies.

Control modules

The brain of the system, boards with microcontroller unit (MCU), digital signal processor (DSP) and FPGA ICs (Field Programmable Gate Array) for the execution of control algorithms.

Sense Modules

Sensors for voltage, current, temperature, motor speed, etc., which can be freely combined within the power stage thanks to galvanic isolation and robust signal integrity.

PERK Structure of motherboard and various modules

MOTHERBOARDS

Key component of the system that ensures right connection of modules with high level protection, HIL interface, communication interface,DAC monitor and additional features.

Motherboard 1, 6 SWITCH, 6 SENSE INTERFACES

Motherboard 2, 12 SWITCH, 12 SENSE INTERFACES

SWITCH MODULES

Power semiconductors with drive circuits that are isolated from digital control and can be combined in different power converter topologies.

Half-bridge, GaN based module, 100V, 90A

Half-bridge, GaN based module, 60V, 20A

Full-bridge, SiC based module, 600V, 100A

SENSE MODULES

Sensors for voltage, current, temperature, motor speed, etc., which can be freely combined within the power stage thanks to galvanic isolation and robust signal integrity.

Half-effect, current measurement, 100A

Isolated voltage measurment

Temperature measurment

CONTROL MODULE

The brain of the system, boards with microcontroller unit (MCU), digital signal processor (DSP) and FPGA ICs (Field Programmable Gate Array) for the execution of control algorithms.

STM32G4

STM32H7

C2000

ADDITIONAL MODULES

PERK debugger, suitable for various microcontrollers (Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics), FPGAs, etc.

EXAMPLE 1

AC motor drive with PERK

The developer uses PERK Switch modules to build an AC-DC converter, while the closed-loop control is based on the measurements of the PERK Sense modules to produce a constant voltage at different current loads. Since this circuit is simpler, the user would probably use only two PERK Switch modules, two or three PERK Sense modules, the same PERK Motherboard as in the previous example, but a different PERK Control module, allowing the use of simpler and cheaper microcontroller.

PERK MODULE USED

Maximum voltage: 100V

Maximum current: 80A

Maximum temperature: 120 degC

Dimensions: 55mm x 100mm x 15mm

Cooling options: active, air-forsed cooling (built-in control)

SUPPORT FILES

Datasheet (link, pdf)

3D model (link, step)

Examples (link)

Contact Us

info@sensendrive.com

Vladetina 1, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia

+381 (63)-758-15-24

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