Biography
Prof. Acacio Amaral
Prof. Acacio Amaral
Coimbra's University, Portugal
Abstract: 

The performance of DC-DC converters, especially in terms of efficiency, power density and reliability has been continuously improved in recent years. The reliability constraints of these electronic systems have become stricter due to the demanding safety requirements that many applications impose. 

In the last two decades, many efforts have been made to develop fault diagnosis techniques for power converters. The capacitors used in the output filter of DC/DC converters are one of the fundamental elements of the power section, but also the most vulnerable element of all. 

In this context, the development of monitoring techniques that are able to evaluate, in real time, the capacitor health status is vital, so that it would be possible to schedule maintenance before serious deterioration or breakdowns. In this way, it would be possible to avoid malfunction of the converter or even its stoppage, whose consequences could entail very high costs, or even worse, jeopardizing human lives. 

In this presentation, the main capacitor failure diagnosis techniques developed to date will be presented, as well as challenges and directions for future research.

Biography: 

Acácio M. R. Amaral received the E. E. diploma, the M. S. degree and the Ph. D degree from Coimbra’s University, Portugal in 1998, 2005 and 2010, respectively. 

Since 1998 has been with Coimbra’s Polytechnic, where is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics and Systems. 

He is the author of five books entitled Circuit and Electronic Devices Analysis (Porto, Portugal, Publindustria, 2013), Digital Systems (Lisboa, Portugal, Edições Sílabo, 2014), Analog Electronics (Lisboa, Portugal, Edições Sílabo, 2017), Digital Electronics (Lisboa, Portugal, Edições Sílabo, 2019) and Applied Electronics (Lisboa, Portugal, Edições Sílabo, 2021). All these books are part of the main or complementary bibliography in several curriculum units of different University courses in Portugal and Brazil universities. 

He is the author of more than 50 papers published in technical journals (namely in the IEEE TIA, IEEE TIE, IEEE TIM and IET PEL) and conference proceedings and co-author of a book entitled Diagnosis and Fault Tolerance of Electrical Machines, Power Electronics and Drives, (Stevenage, United Kingdom, Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2018 - in English). 

His research activities include fault diagnosis and design of linear and switch mode power supplies, with emphasis on the consequences of aging of electrolytic and film capacitors, as well as the development of solutions to this problem.