Prof. David Perreault
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Member of U.S. National Academy of Engineering
IEEE Fellow

Title: Opportunities, Progress and Challenges in Piezoelectric-Based Power Electronics

Abstract: Magnetic components often dominate the size and loss of power converters and fundamentally scale poorly to small sizes.  This talk describes emerging approaches to address these challenges through the use of piezoelectric-based energy storage elements.  Piezoelectric components store energy in mechanical inertia and compliance, with energy storage densities that are orders of magnitude higher than achievable with magnetics.  Piezoelectrics can potentially provide radical improvements in the achievable size and efficiency of power converters for some applications, but advances in circuits, controls, passive component design and packaging are needed to realize these benefits.  This talk will describe the opportunities, recent progress and present challenges in piezoelectric based power electronics.

Biography: David Perreault received the B.S. degree from Boston University and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, all in Electrical Engineering.  He is presently the Ford Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT.  His research interests include design, manufacturing, and control techniques for power electronic systems and components, and in their use in a wide range of applications.  Dr. Perreault is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE and is the recipient of numerous awards including the IEEE R. David Middlebrook Achievement Award for his work in power electronics.  He has co-authored fourteen IEEE prize papers in the area, and co-founded startup companies Eta Devices (acquired by Nokia in 2016) and Eta Wireless (acquired by Murata in 2021).