Dr. Emadi’s Power Electronics and Motor Drives Lab participated in Phase I of the plug-in conversion project led by Dr. Said Al-Hallaj at IIT sponsored by All Cell Technologies, LLC. In this project, a hybrid electric Ford Escape SUV has been converted to plug-in hybrid for the City of Chicago Department of Fleet Management.

Building on the Phase I conversion, Emadi’s team has developed a novel plug-in hybrid electric conversion kit (P-HECK), which includes an advanced integrated bi-directional DC/DC converter with a built-in AC/DC charger. This integrated bi-directional converter is an essential part of the P-HECK, which is initially aimed at doubling the average gas mileage of the Ford Escape Hybrid as well as Toyota Prius. The proposed integrated configuration is cost-effective, smaller in size and weight, and highly efficient compared to the conventional cascaded converter topologies. It is capable of plug-in charging, boost function, and regenerative charging; it is also scalable to higher power levels. In order to improve efficiency and thermal handling as well as reduce weight, volume, and cost, a novel parallel alternative switching strategy is used. In addition, the system digital controller with a digital signal processor provides flexible control structure and better system interface with the external higher control systems through the communication channels.

Young Joo Lee received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Korea University of Technology and Education, Cheonan, South Korea in 1996. In 1995, he joined SunStar R&C, Incheon, South Korea which is highly specialized in industrial sewing machines and controllers as well as motors and controllers for industrial sewing machines. In 2003, he also received his M.S. degree from Gwang-Woon University, Seoul, South Korea. Then, he joined Genoray Co., Ltd., Seongnam, South Korea which manufactures X-ray fluro-scopy equipment for medical surgery. He has more than 10 years of experience in industrial field and developed lots of commercial system controllers for sewing machines and medical X-ray fluro-scopy equipment which require the control over BLDC motors, PMSM motors, induction motors, stepper motors, high frequency full-bridge converters, X-ray electron tubes, and other electric-pneumatic actuators. Since 2006, he has been a Ph.D. candidate at Illinois Institute of Technology. His Ph.D. research is focused on integrated bi-directional converter for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.