Design of smiling‐face‐shaped band‐notched UWB antenna

A novel smiling‐face‐shaped band‐notched ultra‐wideband (UWB) antenna is designed in this paper. First, antenna bandwidth is broadened by adding a pair of small semi‐circular stubs (ears) and etching a pair of symmetrical C‐shaped slots (eyes), a triangular slot (nose), and a U‐shaped slot (mouth) on the patch. Second, by adjusting the length of the ground plane and creating a stepped slot on the ground plane, antenna bandwidth covers 3–12 GHz. Third, a pair of L‐shaped slots (hands) is etched on the ground plane to create a notch, which can effectively suppress the interference signal in worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) (3.4–3.6 GHz) and satellite C band (3.7–4.2 GHz). Lastly, the proposed antenna is fabricated and measured. The measured results indicate the proposed antenna has good performance and can be widely used in UWB systems. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

On‐line partial discharge detection of turbine generator using gigahertz‐band spatial phase difference method

Partial discharge (PD) within voids in solid insulating systems is a symptom and/or a direct cause of a deterioration of stator windings of a turbine generator. The bandwidth of the electromagnetic waves emitted from PD is very broad and ranges to the gigahertz. We developed a new system based on the spatial phase difference method for detecting microwaves (GHz) emitted from PD. In this paper we applied this system to two off‐line turbine generators in the overhaul and an on‐line turbine generator which has two built‐in antennas. On‐line PD detection of the turbine generator is very useful for recognizing abnormal and/or deteriorated stator winding insulation without a machine outage. It was found that the detection system was able to detect microwaves emitted from PD in an operating turbine generator. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 131(4): 38‐43, 2000     

Design and simulation of novel amplifier‐based mixer for ISM band wireless applications

This letter describes a low‐voltage low‐power (LV‐LP) 2.4‐GHz mixer for Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band wireless applications. The approach is based on a two‐stage amplifier, and the Gilbert switch stage is inserted between the two amplifier stages. The proposed amplifier‐based mixer delivers a remarkable conversion gain of 13 dB with a local oscillator (LO) power of 7 dBm, while consuming only 1.05‐mW DC power from a 0.8‐V supply voltage. The input‐referred third‐order intercept point (IIP3) of the mixer is 3.82 dBm, and the chip area is only 0.429 mm². The results indicate that this mixer is suitable for the low‐voltage low‐power applications. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Signal analysis‐based fault classification and estimation of fault location of an unbalanced network using S‐transform and neural network

This paper demonstrates a technique for the diagnosis of the type of fault and the faulty phase on an overhead transmission line, followed by locating the particular fault on the affected phase. The power system network considered in this study is a three‐phase transmission line with unbalanced loading simulated in the PowerSim Toolbox of MATLAB. S‐transform is used to compute the energy components of the voltage signals of the three phases of the transmission line. These features are used as input vectors of a probabilistic neural network (PNN) for fault detection and classification. Detection of the faulty phase(s) is followed by estimation of fault location. The voltage signal of the affected phase is processed to generate the S‐matrix. The frequency components of the S‐matrices for different fault locations are used as input vectors for training a backpropagation neural network (BPNN). The results are obtained with satisfactory accuracy and speed. All the simulations have been done in MATLAB environment for different values of fault locations, fault resistances, and fault inception angles. The effect of noise on the simulated voltage signals has been investigated. The analysis has been further extended by implementing the proposed method in a modified version of IEEJ West 10 machine system model. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Design and implementation of a high‐efficiency bidirectional DC‐DC Converter for DC micro‐grid system applications

This paper studies the design and implementation of a non‐isolated dual‐half‐bridge bidirectional DC‐DC converter for DC micro‐grid system applications. High efficiency can be achieved under wide‐range load variations by the zero‐voltage‐switching features and an adaptive phase‐shift control method. A three‐stage charging scheme is designed to meet the fast‐charging demand and prolong the lifetime of LiFePO₄ batteries. A digital‐signal‐processing control IC is used to realize the power flow control, DC‐bus voltage regulation, and battery charging/ discharging of the studied bidirectional DC‐DC converter. Finally, a 10 kW prototype converter with Enhanced Controller Area Network communication function is built and tested for micro‐grid system applications. A light‐load efficiency over 96% and a rated‐load efficiency over 98% can be achieved. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design and implementation of a contact‐less power charger for robot applications

In this paper, a contact‐less power charger for robot applications is studied and developed. Contact‐less charging can be achieved by a separable transformer design. The transformer primary core is in the charger unit, and the secondary core is in the robots. The transformer air‐gap is equal to the distance between these two parts. By theoretical analysis, software simulations, and circuit implementation, the relationship among the transformer's coupling coefficient, the core geometry, and gap are formulated. In addition, a high‐efficiency circuit topology for the studied contact‐less charger is fulfilled. It is anticipated that the research results of this paper can contribute to the development of the contact‐less charging techniques for robot systems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design and implementation of a high‐efficiency LiFePO4 battery charger for electric vehicle applications

This letter studies and implements a high‐efficiency LiFePO₄ battery charger. The modular design can satisfy the requirements of series/parallel charging for electric vehicle applications. A CC‐CC‐CV charging scheme is also realized to meet the characteristics of LiFePO₄ battery stacks. A 2 kW laboratory prototype is built and tested. The experimental results are shown to verify the feasibility of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental studies of optical Raman amplifiers for 1.3‐µm wavelength band and its application to 20 Gbit/s × 2 WDM transmission

Configurations of a Raman amplifier suitable for a 1.3‐µm wavelength band are discussed and their properties are experimentally investigated. Pump light with a wavelength of 1.23 µm that is necessary for the Raman amplification in the 1.3‐µm wavelength band is obtained using a 1.06‐µm fiber laser and Raman laser technique. Concerning the Raman laser, wavelength conversion from 1.06 µm to 1.23 µm is effectively achieved using a cavity configuration including fiber Bragg gratings and a dispersion‐shifted fiber. On the other hand, a conventional dispersion compensation fiber which has an essential property of high nonlinearity is applied in order to obtain large gain at 1.3 µm. Net gain of 35 dB and output power of 15 dBm are achieved. To confirm the applicability of the Raman amplifiers to high‐speed optical transmissions, experiments of 20 Gbit/s × 2 WDM repeaterless transmission through a 80‐km conventional single‐mode fiber are carried out. The 1.3‐µm signal should be degraded due to the dispersion caused by the dispersion compensation fiber in the Raman amplifier; However, bit error rate of less than 10 to 12 is obtained at both wavelengths, which is sufficient performance for practical uses. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 143(1): 58–65, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10137     

Application of unified voltage analysis for high‐ and low‐voltage distribution systems by power flow calculation using indication method between nodes

It has been noted that the voltage of connection points rises according to the reverse power flow when grid‐connected photovoltaic systems are concentrated in distribution systems in residential areas. When this happens, the photovoltaic system may control the power generation output to maintain a suitable voltage for the connection point. Designing a demand area power system aiming at free access to a distributed power supply for energy‐effective practical use requires a precise understanding of this problem. When analyzing photovoltaic systems mainly connected to low‐voltage systems, we looked for a method of analysis in which the high‐voltage systems and the low‐voltage single‐phase three‐wire systems are unified. This report concerns use of the indication method between nodes using power flow calculation, for the purpose of developing a technique of analyzing unified high‐voltage systems and low‐voltage single‐phase three‐wire systems. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 147(3): 49–62, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10255