PROJECT TITLE :

Metacapacitors: Printed Thin Film, Flexible Capacitors for Power Conversion Applications

ABSTRACT:

The Metacapacitors project aims to enhance efficiency, functionality and type factor of offline power converters suitable for LED solid-state lighting, with a view to developing an enticing technology platform for load management and power conversion across a broad range of applications. Based mostly on integrated switched-capacitor (SC) topologies, the project adopts an integrated approach from materials to devices to circuits. We tend to designed capacitors based mostly on high- $kappa$ dielectric nanocrystals, that may be ready using high-throughput microfabrication/nanotechnology techniques, ink deposition and multilayering. The capacitor dielectric, a nanocomposite composed of (Ba, Sr)TiO$_3$ nanocrystals in polyfurfuryl alcohol (BST/PFA, $kappa$ $ > 20$, $100 textHz$ –$1 textMHz$, loss $ < 0.01$, $20 textkHz$ ), targets a high volumetric capacitance density and ripple current capability. The Dielectric is demonstrated to perform during a finished capacitor $ > ! 1000 texth$ at $125 ^circ textC$. The capacitors were board integrated with a custom hybrid-switched-capacitor-resonant dc–dc converter IC. The converter integrates a balanced SC front-finish with a series resonant tank, enabling nearly lossless current regulation and tranformerless galvanic isolation. The converter IC can be stacked within the voltage domain to interface a range of inputs. The tested driver delivers about $ 15;textW$ at $ 470;textmA$ to a string of $ twelve$ LEDs with $ 90%$ peak efficiency.