Hillcrest Energy Technologies Ltd (CSE:HEAT, OTCQB:HLRTF) released a new technical white paper outlining the advantages of its inverter technology and how its soft-switching capabilities relate to capacitors within the power conversion system.
A previous white paper from Hillcrest shared test results and demonstrated the value of operating electrical systems at higher switching frequencies with the ability to eliminate losses.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based clean technology company, which develops power conversion technologies and control system solutions for electric vehicles and electrical systems, said its new white paper explains how operating at higher switching frequencies can result in a significant reduction in the size of capacitors within the system, as well as improvements in power quality, system reliability and component life.
In an inverter, a capacitor allows for pulses of electrical current to happen at different times and at different frequencies — this is an energy buffer function — while it also smooths the pulses, reducing the amount of peak-to-peak ripple voltage in the process. Typically, there is a bank of capacitors within an inverter, often contributing to a large part of the component’s overall size.
Enabling switching at higher frequencies with Hillcrest’s soft-switching inverter technology can result in a big rise in power density, due to the reduction in the size of capacitors needed and this in turn reduces the overall size, weight, and cost of an inverter, noted the company.
The ability to operate at higher switching frequencies with Hillcrest soft-switching technology offers other big benefits – improved power quality, material elimination of switching losses and a reduction in electromagnetic compatibility issues, it added.
“Capacitance for a typical EV traction inverter today is between 600 micro farads and 1 millifarad, while the commercial prototype design of the Hillcrest traction inverter contemplates one-fifth to one-tenth of the capacitance,” Hillcrest chief technology officer Ari Berger said in a statement.
“Such a significant reduction in capacitor and inverter size and increase in power density, coupled with improved power quality and system reliability, has the potential to disrupt power inverter designs across the automotive space.”
Hillcrest revealed that its new white paper is the first in a series of expected reports demonstrating the value of its high-efficiency inverter technology.
Investors can download the latest Hillcrest technical white paper here.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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