Background and activities

Dimosthenis Peftitsis was born in May 1985 in Kavala, Greece.  He obtained the Diploma Degree with honours in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Democritus University of Thrace (Xanthi, Greece) in 2008.  In his last year, he spent six months in ABB Corporate Research (Västerås, Sweden) writing his diploma thesis.  In 2013, he received the PhD degree from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden).

Dimosthenis has been a Postdoctoral Researcher involved in the research on SiC converters at the Department of Electrical Energy Conversion, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (2013-2014).  He has also worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Lab for High Power Electronics Systems, ETH Zurich, where he was involved in research on dc-breakers for multiterminal HVDC systems (2014-2016).

In May 2016, he joined the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, as an Associate Professor of power electronics at the Department of Electrical Power Engineering.

His current research interests are:

  • WBG (e.g. SiC, GaN) power converters design for high-power and MV applications
  • Adaptive gate driver designs for WBG devices
  • DC-breaker designs for MV and HVDC systems
  • High-performance power supplies for particle accelerators
  • Reliability assessment and lifetime modelling of high-power semiconductor devices
  • Reliability of SiC power switches.

Prof. Peftitsis is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of the EPE International Scientific Committee.  Since 2018, he has been the chairman of the IEEE Power Electronics, Industry Applications, and Industrial Electronics Joint Societies Chapter.

He also serves as an Associate Editor for IET Power Electronics and for the Journal of the European Power Electronics and Drives Association (EPE Journal).

Dimosthenis is a member of the Outstanding Academic Fellows Programme at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (2019-2023).

Research projects

  • NTNU project manager and WP leader for the Modularized, Reconfigurable and Bidirectional Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles with Silicon Carbide Power Electronics (MoReSiC) project. MoReSiC is funded by the EEA POLNOR Research programme during 2020-2024.
  • Project manager and PI for the NTNU-Chinese Collaboration on Next Generation Power Electronics for Renewable Energy (CoNeCt) project. CoNeCt is funded by the Research Council of Norway programme INTPART during 2021-2023.
  • Project manager and PI for the Adaptive Silicon Carbide Electrical Energy Conversion Technologies for Medium Voltage Direct Current Grids (ASiCC) project.  ASiCC is a young research talents project funded by the Research Council of Norway programme FRINATEK during 2019-2023.
  • NTNU project manager and WP leader for the Optimized Battery Energy Storage Systems (ORBES) project. ORBES is funded by the EEA Grants/Baltic Research programme during 2020-2023.
  • NTNU project manager and PI for two joint research project with CERN, The European Organization for Nuclear Research during 2018-2024.
    • Scalable power electronic topologies for High Energy Physics experiments
    • Diagnostics and prognostics for power electronics converters in large-scale accelerator facilities
  • NTNU project manager and WP leader for the Reliability and Ruggedness of High Power, High Voltage Power Electronics (ReliPE) project. ReliPE is a KPN project led by Sintef Energy AS and funded by the Research Council of Norway programme ENERGIX during 2015-2020.

PhD students

Ole-Christian Spro (Gratudated November 2020)

Andreas Giannakis

Gard Lyng Rødal

Krister Leonart Haugen

Daniel Philipps

Yoganandam Vivekanandham Pushpalatha

Tobias Nieckula Ubostad

Kaushik Naresh Kumar

Timm Felix Baumann

Teaching activity

MSc course: TET4190 Power Electronics

Specialization course: ELK20 Design of Power Electronic Converters

PhD course: ET8303 Power Electronics, Power Semiconductor Physics and Reliability

Publications

Book Chapters
B.1 J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis and H.-P. Nee, "Chapter 4: Recent advances in power semiconductors technology", Power Electronics for Renewable Energy Systems, Transportation and Industrial Applications, John Wiley and Sons, Ltd., ISBN: 978-1-118-63403-5.


In peer-reviewed journals

[J.13] J. Colmenares, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, D. Sadik, G. Tolstoy and H.-P. Nee, "High-Effciency Three-Phase Inverter with SiC MOSFET Power Modules for Motor-Drive Applications", IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 51, no. 6, pp. 4664-4676, Nov.-Dec. 2015.

[J.12] D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, and H.-P. Nee, "Self-Powered Gate Driver for Normally-ON SiC JFETs:Design Considerations and System Limitations", IEEE Power Electron. Letters, vol. 29, no. 10, pp. 5129-5135, Oct. 2014.

[J.11] J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis and H.-P. Nee, "Parallel-operation of Discrete SiC BJTs in a 6 kW/250 kHz dc/dc Boost Converter", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 2482-2491, May 2014.

[J.10] J-K. Lim, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, M. Bakowski and H.-P. Nee, "Analysis and Experimental Verification of the Influence of Fabrication Process Tolerances and Circuit Parasitics on Transient Current Sharing of Parallel-Connected SiC JFETs", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 2180-2191, May 2014.

[J.9] J. Colmenares, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, D. Sadik and H.-P. Nee, "Dual-Function Gate Driver for a Power Module with SiC Junction Field-Effect Transistors", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 2367-2379, May 2014.

[J.8] G. Tolstoy, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, H.-P. Nee and P. Palmer, "A Discritized Proportional Base Driver for Silicon Carbide Bipolar Junction Transistors", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 2408-2417, May 2014.

[J.7] P. Ranstad, H.-P. Nee, J. Linner, and D. Peftitsis, "An experimental evaluation of SiC switches in soft-switching converters ", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 2527-2538, May 2014.

[J.6] J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis and H.-P. Nee, "Design Steps Towards a 40-kVA SiC JFET Inverter With Natural-Convection Cooling and an Effciency Exceeding 99.5%", IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 1589-1598, Jul.-Aug. 2013.

[J.5] D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, and H.-P. Nee, "Self-Powered Gate Driver for Normally ON Silicon Carbide Junction Field-Effect Transistors Without External Power Supply", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 1488-1501, Mar. 2013.

[J.4] D. Peftitsis, R. Baburske, J. Rabkowski, J. Lutz, G. Tolstoy, and H.-P. Nee, "Challenges Regarding Parallel Connection of SiC JFETs", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 1449-1463, Mar. 2013.

[J.3] J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis, and H.-P. Nee, "Silicon carbide power transistors-A new era in power electronics is initiated", IEEE Ind. Electron. Mag., vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 17-26, Jun. 2012.

[J.2] J. Rabkowski, G. Tolstoy, D. Peftitsis and H.-P. Nee, "Low-loss high-performance base-drive unit for SiC BJTs", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 2633-2643, May 2012.

[J.1] D. Peftitsis, G. Tolstoy, A. Antonopoulos, J. Rabkowski, J.-K. Lim, M. Bakowski, L.Angquist, and H.-P. Nee, "High-power modular multilevel converters with SiC JFETs", IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 28-36, Jan. 2012.

In peer-reviewed international conferences

C.29 D. Peftitsis and J.Biela, “Auxiliary Power Supply for Medium-Voltage Modular Multilevel Converters", in Proc. of 17th Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, EPE 2015-ECCE Europe, 8th-10th September 2015, Geneva Switzerland.

C.28 G. Tolstoy, P. Ranstad, J. Colmenares, D. Peftitsis, F. Giezendanner, J. Rabkowski and H.-P. Nee, “An experimental analysis of how the dead-time of SiC BJT and SiC MOSFET impacts the losses in a high-frequency resonant converter", in Proc. of 16th Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, EPE 2014-ECCE Europe, 25th-28th August 2014, Lappeenranta Finland.

C.27 J. Colmenares, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, D. Sadik, G. Tolstoy and H.-P. Nee, “High-Efficiency Three-Phase Inverter with SiC MOSFET Power Modules for Motor-Drive Applications", in Proc. of the 2014 Annual International Energy Conversion Congress and Exhibition, ECCE 2014, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

C.26 D. Sadik, J. Colmenares, G. Tolstoy, D. Peftitsis, and H.-P. Nee, “Analysis of short-circuit conditions for Silicon Carbide power transistors and suggestions for protection", in Proc. of 16th Conference on Power Electronics and Applications, EPE 2014-ECCE Europe, 25th-28th August 2014, Lappeenranta Finland.

C.25 J. Colmenares, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, D. Sadik and H.-P. Nee, “Switching Performance Of Parallel-Connected Power Modules With Sic MOSFETs", in Proc. of 6th Annual International Energy Conversion Congress and Exhibition, ECCE Asia 2014, Hiroshima, Japan, pp. 3712-3717.

C.24 H.-P. Nee, J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis, “Multi-chip circuit designs for silicon carbide power electronics", in Proc. of International Conference on Integrated Power Electronics Systems 2014, CIPS 2014, 25-27 Feb. 2014. (Invited paper)

C.23 H.-P. Nee, J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis, G. Tolstoy, J. Colmenares, D. Sadik, M. Bakowski, J.-K. Lim, A. Antonopoulos, L. Angquist and M. Zdanowski, “High-Efficiency Power Conversion Using Silicon Carbide Power Electronics", in Proc. of International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials 2013, ICSCRM 2013, 29 Sept.-4 Oct. 2013. (Invited paper)

C.22 J.-K. Lim, D. Peftitsis, D. Sadik, M. Bakowski and H.-P. Nee, “Evaluation of Buried Grid JBS Diodes", in Proc. of International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials 2013, ICSCRM 2013, 29 Sept.-4 Oct. 2013.

C.21 D. Sadik, J. Colmenares, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski and H.-P. Nee, “Experimental investigations of static and transient current sharing of parallel connected Silicon Carbide MOSFETs", in Proc. of European Power Electronics Conference 2013, EPE-ECCE Europe 2013, 3-5 Sept. 2013.

C.20 G. Tolstoy, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, H.-P. Nee and P. Palmer, “A Discretized Proportional Base Driver for Silicon Carbide Bipolar Junction Transistors", in Proc. of Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition Asia 2013-ECCE Asia 2013, 3-6 Jun. 2013.

C.19 D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski and H.-P. Nee, “Design Considerations for a Self-Powered Gate Driver for Normally-ON SiC Junction Field-Effect Transistors", in Proc. of Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition Asia 2013-ECCE Asia 2013, 3-6 Jun. 2013.

C.18 J. Colmenares, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski and H.-P. Nee, “Dual-Function Gate Driver for a Power Module With SiC Junction Field-Effect Transistors", in Proc. of Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition Asia 2013-ECCE Asia 2013, 3-6 Jun. 2013.

C.17 J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis, M. Zdadowski and H.-P. Nee, “A 6 kW /200 kHz boost converter with parallel-connected SiC bipolar transistors", in Proc. of 28th Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, pp. 1991-1998 17-21 Mar. 2013.

C.16 A. Schoner, M. Bakowski, R.K. Malhan, Y. Takeuchi, N. Sugiyama, J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis, P. Ranstad and H.-P. Nee, “Fabrication of a SiC Double Gate Vertical Channel JFET and its Application in Power Electronics", in Proc. of Pacific RIM Meeting on Electrochemical and Solid-State Science 2012, PRiME 2012, 7-12 Oct. 2012.

C.15 J.-K. Lim, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, M. Bakowski and H.-P. Nee, “Modeling of the impact of parameter spread on the switching performance of parallel-connected SiC VJFETs", in Proc. of 9th European Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials 2012, ECSCRM 2012, pp.1098-1102 2-5 Sept. 2012.

C.14 J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis, M. Bakowski and H.-P. Nee, “Evaluation of the driver circuit for a dual gate trench SiC JFET", in Proc. of 9th European Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials 2012, ECSCRM 2012, pp. 946-949, 2-5 Sept. 2012.

C.13 J. Rabkowski, M. Zdanowski, D. Peftitsis and H.-P. Nee, “A Simple High-Performance Low-Loss Current-Source Driver for SiC Bipolar Transistors", in Proc. of International Conference on Power Electronics and Motion Control 2012-ECCE Asia 2012, pp. 222-228, 2-5 Jun. 2012.

C.12 D. Peftitsis, J.-K. Lim, J. Rabkowski, G. Tolstoy, and H.-P. Nee, “Experimental comparison of different gate-driver configurations for parallel-connection of normally-on SiC JFETs", in Proc. of 7th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (IPEMC), 2012, vol. 1, pp. 16-22, Jun. 2012.

C.11 J. Rabkowski, D. Peftitsis, and H.-P. Nee, “Design steps towards a 40-kVA SiC inverter with an efficiency exceeding 99.5%", in Proc. of 27th Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, pp. 1536-1543, 5-9 Feb, 2012.

C.10 D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, G. Tolstoy, and H.-P Nee, “Experimental comparison of dc-dc boost converters with SiC JFETs and SiC bipolar transistors", in Proc. of 14th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE 2011) 30 Aug.-1 Sept. 2011.

C.9 D. Peftitsis, R. Baburske, J. Rabkowski, J. Lutz, G. Tolstoy, and H.-P. Nee, “Challenges regarding parallel-connection of SiC JFETs", in Proc. of 8th IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics-ECCE Asia (ICPE ECCE), 2011 , pp. 1095-1101,30 May-3 Jun. 2011.

C.8 D. Peftitsis, G. Tolstoy, A. Antonopoulos, J. Rabkowski, J.-K. Lim, M. Bakowski, L. Angquist, and H.-P. Nee, “High-power modular multilevel converters with SiC JFETs", in Proc. of IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, pp. 2148-2155, 12-16 Sep, 2010.

C.7 J.-K. Lim, G. Tolstoy, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski, M. Bakowski and H.-P. Nee, “Comparison of total losses of 1.2 kV SiC JFET and BJT in DC-DC converter including gate driver", in Proc. of 8th European Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials 2010, ECSCRM 2010, pp. 649-652, 29 Aug.-2 Sept. 2010.

C.6 G. Tolstoy, D. Peftitsis, J. Rabkowski and H.-P. Nee, “Performance tests of 4.1x4.1mm2 SiC JFETs for a DC/DC boost converter application", in Proc. of 8th European Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials 2010, ECSCRM 2010, pp. 722-725, 29 Aug.-2 Sept. 2010.

C.5 G. Tolstoy, D. Peftitsis, J.-K. Lim, M. Bakowski and H.-P. Nee, “Circuit Modeling of Vertical Buried-Grid SiC JFETs", in Proc. of 13th International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials 2009, ICSCRM 2009, pp. 965-968, 11-16 Oct. 2009.

C.4 D. Peftitsis, G. Adamidis and A. Fyntanakis, “Modulation of Three Phase Rectifier in Connection With PMSG for Maximum Energy Extraction", in Proc. of 13th European Power Electronics Conference 2009, EPE, 8-10 Sept. 2009.

C.3 D. Peftitsis, G. Adamidis and A. Balouktsis, “A New MPPT Method for Photovoltaic Generation Systems Based on Hill Climbing Algorithm", in Proc. of 18th International Conference on Electrical Machines 2008, ICEM, 6-9 Sept. 2008.

C.2 D. Peftitsis, G. Adamidis, P. Bakas and A. Balouktsis, “Photovoltaic system MPPTracker investigation and implementation using DSP engine and buck-boost DC-DC converter", in Proc. of 13th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference 2008, EPE-PEMC, 1-3 Sept. 2008.

C.1 D. Peftitsis, G. Adamidis and A. Balouktsis, “An investigation of new control method for MPPT in PV array using DC/DC buck-boost converter", in Proc. of 2nd International Conference on Renewable Energy Sources 2008, WSEAS/IASME, 26-28 Oct. 2008.

Scientific, academic and artistic work

Displaying a selection of activities. See all publications in the database

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2016