Christopher Zeidler from the Faculty of Engineering receives VDI sponsorship award for his Master's thesis in the field of electrical energy technology
The Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) Bezirksverein Leipzig e.V. awards annual sponsorship prizes for outstanding achievements in the field of engineering. Students can apply with their final theses as well as pupils with their school work in the field of engineering. The VDI Bezirksverein Leipzig e.V. primarily honours work that is characterised by a distinctly innovative character, interdisciplinarity and the idea of economic efficiency.
M.Sc. Christopher Zeidler impressed the jury with his master's thesis on "Investigation of digital control methods for DC-DC converters for variable loads" and was awarded first prize at the annual members' meeting at the VDI-GaraGe on 11 November 2023. Zeidler's master's thesis was supervised by Prof. Dr Thomas Komma and doctoral student M.Sc. Lukas Burgmaier.
The subject of Zeidler's master's thesis is the development of a variably applicable power electronic basic module for the efficient and flexible conversion of electrical energy. The basic module is a buck converter, which is found in a large number of modern power supplies. To ensure that it provides a constant output voltage with a variable input voltage, the system is expanded to include a control system. In his work, Zeidler used system-theoretical calculations and modelling to show how such a controller can be implemented and executed on a modern signal processor. The functionality and performance of the system was demonstrated through the development and construction of a laboratory model.
This technology makes it possible to set and change target and limit values for the output voltage or output power without changing the hardware. In addition, the signal processor can be accessed via the digital interfaces and the system can be controlled remotely. This technology can be used in a wide variety of applications in electrical energy technology, for example for charging infrastructures in electromobility, for energy generation using photovoltaics or for special electronics in medical technology. This shows the broad field of application of power electronic systems and their importance for the energy transition.
M.Sc. graduate Christopher Zeidler is currently working as a research assistant in Prof. Dr Thomas Komma's team on topics including analogue and digital control methods for DC-DC converters and the measurement of high-frequency currents in power electronic circuits. We wish M.Sc. Christopher Zeidler continued success.
