Evaluation of the introduction of a micro‐cogeneration system into residential houses based on monitored daily‐basis energy demand data

In order to reduce CO₂ emission from residential sectors in Japan, PEFC with high efficiency and low environmental impact is expected as one of the promising micro‐cogeneration (µCGS) systems. However, the energy demands in houses largely differ from each other and the profiles are also changed every day. Thus, when µCGS is actually introduced, it is necessary to examine the equipment capacity and operation of µCGS in each house. In this paper, the optimization model is developed in order to evaluate the µCGS based on daily‐basis demand data. Using actually monitored energy demand data in four households, the differences between using daily‐basis data and using the monthly‐average data are evaluated from viewpoints of economic and environmental performance of µCGS systems. Moreover, by adding the penalty factor to disposal heat of µCGS, it is seen that system configuration and system operation of µCGS can attain CO₂ reduction and energy conservation as well as cost reduction. ©2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 166(4): 20–30, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20653     

Evaluation of Electrical Load Following Capability of Fuel Cell System Fueled by High‐Purity Hydrogen

This paper describes the electrical response in the load change in a fuel cell system fueled by high‐purity hydrogen. The purpose of this study is to use the fuel cell system to make up for the unstable electrical output of a photovoltaic system utilized as a renewable energy source. As an alternative method instead of a secondary battery, the fuel cell system, which is able to continuously generate power as long as fuel is supplied, is expected to provide better power with higher reliability and stability. To evaluate the load‐following capability of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) system, an experimental setup was constructed with a 200‐W PEFC stack (number of cells: 20; cell area: 20 cm²), which was supplied with hydrogen from a compressed hydrogen cylinder and a metal hydride canister. We measured the transient phenomena in the current and cell voltage when the PEFC stack was given step‐up current loads that changed in the range of 0 to 300 mA/cm². It was found that PEFC systems with both hydrogen supply sources are able to respond with a time constant of 6.6 to 11.6 µs in the presence of an adequate oxygen supply and at a load below the PEFC rated power. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 186(4): 37–47, 2014; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.22353     

A three‐phase voltage‐source PWM inverter system characterized by sinusoidal output voltage with neither common‐mode voltage nor normal‐mode voltage

This paper deals with an inverter system integrating a small‐rated passive EMI filter with a three‐phase voltage‐source PWM inverter. The purpose of the EMI filter is to eliminate both common‐mode and normal‐mode voltages from the output voltage of the inverter. The motivation of this research is based on the well‐known fact that the higher the carrier or switching frequency, the smaller and the more effective the EMI filter. An experimental system consisting of a 5‐kVA inverter, a 3.7‐kW induction motor, and a specially designed passive EMI filter was constructed to verify the viability and effectiveness of the EMI filter. As a result, it is shown experimentally that both three‐phase line‐to‐line and line‐to‐neutral output voltages look purely sinusoidal as if the inverter system were an ideal variable‐voltage, variable‐frequency power supply when viewed from the motor terminals. This results in complete solution of serious issues related to common‐mode and normal‐mode voltages produced by the inverter. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 145(4): 88–96, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10206     

An operational algorithm for residential cogeneration systems based on the monitored daily‐basis energy demand

Residential cogeneration systems with PEFC are promising as distributed power system resources with the ability to improve energy system efficiency. However, it is important to develop an efficient algorithm for operation because the energy demand at each house differs greatly from day to day. In this paper, we propose an operational algorithm and evaluate it from the viewpoint of energy conservation and economic effectiveness based on the energy demand characteristics. In the algorithm, the hot water and electricity demand on the next day are estimated based on the average of past data. The results of simulations using actually monitored energy demand data indicate that (1) the greater the electrical demand of a household, the more effective this algorithm becomes with respect to energy conservation; (2) the greater the hot water demand of a household, the more effective this algorithm becomes with respect to economic effectiveness. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 170(2): 37–45, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley. com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20892     

Technologies and applications of Al‐free high‐power laser diodes

We report high‐power technologies in 0.8‐µm Al‐free InGaAsP/InGaP laser diodes. To realize the high‐power operation, the improvement of catastrophic optical mirror damage (COMD) power density level is required. In addition to the use of low surface recombination velocity of Al‐free materials, optimization of waveguide thickness in broad waveguide structure with tensile‐strained barriers and current blocking structure near facets has led to high COMD power density level. Highly stable operation of Al‐free laser diodes with these structures has been obtained over 2500 hours at 2 W from a stripe width of µm. Applications of high‐power laser diodes are also described. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 158(1): 53–59, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20286     

Performance Comparison of Scramjet‐Driven Experimental DCW‐MHD Generators with Different Cross‐Sections

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of the shape of the cross‐section of a scramjet engine‐driven experimental diagonal conducting wall (DCW)‐MHD generator on generator performance by three‐dimensional numerical analyses. We have designed MHD generators with symmetric square and circular cross‐sections, based on an experimental MHD generator with an asymmetric square cross‐section. Under the optimum load conditions, the electric power output reaches 26.6 kW for the asymmetric square cross‐section, 24.6 kW for the symmetric square cross‐section, and 22.4 kW for the circular cross‐section. The highest output is obtained for the experimental generator with the asymmetric square cross‐section. The difference in the electric power output is induced by the difference of flow velocity and boundary layer thickness. For the generator with the asymmetric square cross‐section, the average flow velocity is highest and the boundary layer is thinnest. The compression wave is generated with dependence on the channel shape. The difference in the flow velocity and boundary layer thickness is induced by the superposition of the compression wave. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 187(2): 9–16, 2014; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.22403     

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.     

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     

Low‐voltage low‐power CMOS receiver front‐end for gigabit short‐reach optical communications

This article presents a new CMOS receiver analog front‐end for short‐reach high‐speed optical communications, which compensates the limited product bandwidth length of 1‐mm step‐index plastic optical fiber (SI‐POF) channels (45 MHz · 100 m) and the required large‐diameter high‐capacitance Si PIN photodetector (0.8 mm–3 pF). The proposed architecture, formed by a transimpedance amplifier and a continuous‐time equalizer, has been designed in a standard 0.18‐µm CMOS process with a single supply voltage of only 1 V, targeting gigabit transmission for simple no‐return‐to‐zero modulation consuming less than 23 mW. Experimental results validate the approach for cost‐effective gigabit SI‐POF transmission. Comparative analysis with previously reported POF receivers has been carried out by introducing a useful figure of merit. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

90dB‐DR 3.3V CMOS single‐ended‐to‐fully differential and fully differential‐to‐single‐ended amplifiers for audio applications

This paper presents the design and the realization of single‐ended‐to‐fully differential and fully differential‐to‐single‐ended amplifiers to be used in an audio signal processing system. The proposed blocks allow to reduce significantly the pin number of the developed system, while guaranteeing the high quality (16bit) performance required in an audio channel. The proposed circuits have been realized in a standard 3.3V 0.35 µm CMOS technology and achieve a Dynamic Range in excess of 90dB with a Total Harmonic Distortion lower than ‐80dB for a full scale signal amplitude. Their power consumption (≈6mW and each) and the area (0.1mm² each) are finally negligible with respect to the other blocks in the overall systems. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Low‐temperature direct bonding of poly(methyl methacrylate) for polymer microchips

A low‐temperature, direct bonding method for poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) plates has been developed by employing surface treatment by atmospheric pressure oxygen plasma, vacuum oxygen plasma, ultraviolet (UV)/ozone or vacuum ultraviolet (VUV)/ozone. Reasonable bonding strength, as evaluated by a tensile test, was achieved below the glass transition temperature (T_g). The highest bonding strength among the achieved results is 1.43 MPa (about three times the value for conventional direct bonding) at an annealing temperature of 50 °C and an applied pressure of 2.5 MPa for 10 min. Low‐temperature bonding prevents deformation of the PMMA microstructure. A prototype PMMA microchip that has fine channels of 5 µm depth was fabricated by hot‐embossing using a Si mold. After atmospheric pressure oxygen plasma activation, direct bonding was carried out at an annealing temperature of 75 °C and an applied pressure of 3 MPa for 3 min. The method gives good bonding characteristics without deformation and leakage. This low‐temperature bonding technology can be applied to polymer micro/nano structures. Copyright © 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan© 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

High input impedance voltage‐mode first‐order all‐pass sections

This paper proposes six new first‐order voltage‐mode all‐pass sections (VM‐APSs) based on three general topologies. Each circuit uses two differential voltage current conveyors and three grounded passive components. All the circuits possess high input impedance and easy control of pole frequency either by a simple matching of resistors (two equal‐valued resistors) for the three canonical circuits or by a single resistor for three non‐canonical circuits. PSPICE simulation results using real device 0.5µ CMOS parameters are given to validate the proposed circuits. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A self‐commutated back‐to‐back system and its performance under a single line‐to‐ground fault condition

This paper deals with a self‐commutated BTB (Back‐To‐Back) system for the purpose of power flow control and/or frequency change in transmission systems. Each BTB unit consists of two sets of 16 three‐phase voltage‐source converters, and their AC terminals are connected in series to each other via 16 three‐phase transformers. Hence, the BTB unit uses totally 192 switching devices capable of achieving gate commutation. This results in a great reduction of voltage and current harmonics without performing PWM control. Simulation results verify the validity of the proposed system configuration and control scheme not only under a normal operating condition but also under a single line‐to‐ground fault condition. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 143(3): 68–78, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10124     

Potential evaluation of energy supply system in grid power system,commercial, and residential sectors by minimizing energy cost

If the economic activity in the commercial and residential sector continues to grow, improvements in energy conversion efficiencies of energy supply systems is necessary for CO₂ mitigation. In recent years, the electricity driven hot water heat pump (EDHP) and the solar photovoltaic (PV) have been commercialized. The fuel cell (FC) of co‐generation system (CGS) for the commercial and residential sector will be commercialized in the future. Copyright © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The aim is to indicate the ideal energy supply system of the users sector, which manages both the economical cost and CO₂ mitigation, considering the grid power system. In this paper, cooperative Japanese energy supply systems are modeled by linear programming. It includes the grid power system and energy system of five commercial sectors and a residential sector. The demands of sectors are given by the objective term for 2005 to 2025. Twenty‐four‐hour load for each three annual seasons are considered. The energy systems are simulated to minimize the total cost of energy supply, and to mitigate the CO₂ discharge. As a result, the ideal energy system at 2025 is shown. The CGS capacity grows to 30% (62 GW) of the total power system, and the EDHP capacity is 26 GW, in commercial and residential sectors. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 160(2): 9–19, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/ eej.20361     

A low‐power small‐area 10‐bit analog‐to‐digital converter for neural recording applications

In vivo neural recording systems require low power and small area, which are the most important parameters in such systems. This paper reports a new architecture for reducing the power dissipation and area, in analog‐to‐digital converters (ADCs). A time‐based approach is used for the subtraction and amplification in conjunction with a current‐mode algorithm and cyclical stage, which the conversion reuses a single stage for three times, to perform analog‐to‐digital conversion. Based on introduced structure, a 10‐bit 100‐kSample/s time‐based cyclical ADC has been designed and simulated in a standard 90‐nm Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) process. Design of the system‐level architecture and the circuits was driven by stringent power constraints for small implantable devices. Simulation results show that the ADC achieves a peak signal‐to‐noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) of 59.6 dB, an effective number of bits (ENOB) of 9.6, a total harmonic distortion (THD) of ?64dB, and a peak integral nonlinearity (INL) of 0.55, related to the least significant bit (LSB). The ADC active area occupies 280µm × 250µm. The total power dissipation is 5µW per conversion stage and 20µW from an 1.2‐V supply for full‐scale conversion. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A proposal of a 3.3‐kV/6.6‐kV transformerless hybrid filter,and experimental verification based on a 200‐V laboratory system

This paper proposes a transformerless shunt hybrid filter for harmonic compensation of a three‐phase six‐pulse diode rectifier, where the AC line‐to‐line voltage is 3.3 or 6.6 kV. The hybrid filter consists of a single tuned LC filter per phase and an active filter with a DC capacitor voltage as low as 300 or 600 V. The two filters are directly connected in series with each other without a transformer. The passive filter absorbs harmonic currents produced by the rectifier, whereas the active filter improves the filtering characteristics of the passive filter. The required rating of the active filter is much smaller than that of a conventional shunt active filter used alone. Another advantage is that no additional switching‐ripple filter is required for the active filter because the LC filter acts not only as a tuned LC filter around the seventh‐harmonic frequency but also as a switching‐ripple filter around 10 kHz. A feedforward control scheme is also proposed to improve the active filter performance. Experimental results obtained from a 200‐V, 5‐kW laboratory system and simulation results of a 3.3‐kV, 300‐kW system confirm the validity and effectiveness of the system. The hybrid filter gives satisfactory compensation performance, thus allowing us to put it into practical use. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 146(2): 54–65, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10236     

Magnetic properties of PLD‐fabricated ND‐Fe‐B film magnets and their applications to millimeter‐size motors

We succeeded in depositing 200‐ to 300‐µm‐thick Nd‐Fe‐B film magnets with (BH)_max of approximately 55 kJ/m³ on Fe substrates by the PLD method. In addition, we confirmed that a millimeter‐size motor, which was prepared from the obtained film, rotates at 15,160 rpm under a no‐load test. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 159(2): 1–6, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20215     

A transient‐improved low‐dropout regulator with nested flipped voltage follower structure

In this article, the existing low‐dropout regulator (LDO) based on cascoded flipped voltage follower (CAFVF) is reviewed. A new method to simulate the open‐loop gain of an LDO with a CAFVF structure is conveyed. The drawback of CAFVF‐based LDO is that the nondominant pole locates at low‐frequency and pole‐zero cancellation using a large equivalent series resistance of loading capacitor is required for stability. To tackle this problem, a novel LDO structure based on a nested CAFVF is proposed and analyzed in this article. It is shown that the nondominant pole is pushed to a high frequency and the LDO stability is improved. The proposed circuit is fabricated using a commercial 0.35‐µm CMOS technology, and the load‐transient response between 0.5 and 60 mA settles at approximately 5 µs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MTL‐based implementation of current‐mode CMOS RMS‐to‐DC converters

In this paper, systematic implementation of current‐mode RMS‐to‐DC converters based upon MOS translinear (MTL) principle, utilizing symmetric cascoded MTL cell (SCMC) is proposed. Theory of operation and mathematical analysis of both explicit (direct) and implicit (indirect) techniques for realization of SCMC‐based RMS‐to‐DC converters are discussed. The SCMC includes a folded MTL loop and realizes an MTL equation. MTL principle utilizes the square law characteristics of saturated MOS transistors to realize square‐root domain (SRD) functions. The SCMC is constructed by two connected cascoded current mirrors and has a compact, symmetric, and multi‐purpose structure, with capability of implementing the circuits into the programmable and configurable structures. The proposed RMS‐to‐DC converters utilize the SCMC along with a configurable current mirror array. The required squaring and square‐rooting functions are realized using the SCMC, after proper configuration of the current mirror array. The proposed circuits have been implemented using a reconfigurable architecture fabricated in a 0.5 µm CMOS technology. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Passive load following method for PEFC system with reformer and its efficiency improvement evaluated by using the concept of exergy

The M etal‐Hydride I ntermediate‐B uffer (MIB) method, which enables the load following operation of the PEFC system with reformer, has been proposed. Feasibility of this system has already been confirmed experimentally and the result shows that the metal hydride is not poisoned with impurities in reformed gas. It is expected that the MIB method improves the efficiency of PEFC systems especially in low load. Efficiency improvement in low load of the PEFC system for residential use is important because the average electric power consumption in general residences is about 10 to 20% of the peak power. In this paper, the PEFC system efficiency using the MIB method is evaluated by the concept of exergy. The exergy efficiency of this system has been calculated and compared with the conventional system as a function of load factor. The result shows that the efficiency of our system is higher especially at lower load factor, but slightly lower at the rated condition than that of the conventional system. The obtained relation between the load factor and the exergy efficiency has been adapted to load demand patterns for one year measured at a residence. The results show that maximum exergy efficiency of the system with the MIB method is 4.5% higher than that of the conventional system, and the system efficiency with the MIB method is higher than the conventional system above 900 W of rated power. The PEFC system for residential use is being investigated mainly for a 1‐kW‐class generator. It has been clarified that the PEFC system with the MIB method has an ability to improve the efficiency at 1 kW rated power and passive load following function that the conventional systems never have. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 152(4): 17–26, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20148