Event
Microelectronics Seminar: Dr. Rachel Yang
Thursday, March 13, 2025
11:00 a.m.
2460 A.V. Williams
Darcy Long
301 405 3114
dlong123@umd.edu
Speaker: Dr. Rachel Yang
Talk Title: Highly-efficient and energy-dense magnetic components for power electronics
Abstract: Power electronics are key to advancing many power-critical technologies, such as data centers, electric vehicles, and renewable energy systems. One major performance bottleneck in power electronics is inefficient and large magnetic components, such as inductors and transformers. In this talk, I will present two new inductor designs I developed that can cut energy losses in half or boost energy density by 70% in certain applications compared to conventional inductor designs. The first inductor design is suitable for power electronics applications with large ac currents and uses a special modular structure to achieve high performance. This design has been demonstrated in a 98% efficient, 80W/in3 ac-to-dc converter and a 94% efficient wireless power system. The second inductor design is suitable for power electronics applications with mostly dc currents and combines multiple magnetic materials, including a permanent magnet, to achieve high performance. This design has potential to improve filters found in many power electronics, especially those in technologies with size or weight
constraints such as smartphones or drones. At the end, I will discuss my future research directions in high performance magnetics design and modeling for advancing power electronics.
Bio: Rachel Yang is a PhD candidate in electrical engineering at MIT. She earned her SB and MEng degrees in electrical engineering from MIT in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Her research interests include designing and modeling magnetic components for power electronics to improve the efficiency and performance of energy systems, such as data centers, electric vehicles, and renewable energy systems. Rachel has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the MIT School of Engineering Distinguished Energy Efficiency Fellowship, and the MIT E.E. Landsman Fellowship. She has also received best presentation and paper awards from IEEE conferences. In addition to research, Rachel is a Communication Fellow at the MIT EECS Communication Lab, where she coaches students on technical communication skills and teaches workshops. She is also a science writer who has published articles in MIT News and has written video scripts for TED-Ed.
