Research

Overview

Power electronic systems supply, convert, and control electrical energy, driving innovation in nearly every major industry. Next-generation technologies in renewable energy, electrified transportation, wireless communication, computing, manufacturing, robotics, and healthcare demand power electronics with ever-increasing capabilities, positioning the advancement of power electronics as critical to both technological progress and energy sustainability. 

Our team's research spans power electronic circuit topologies, components, and control, along with systems and applications enabled by these. We are currently exploring a new class of power electronics based on piezoelectric passive components, which are positioned to enable rapid miniaturization, efficiency improvement, and cost reduction for power electronics in a wide variety of applications. Our work is inherently interdisciplinary, drawing on expertise in power, circuits, control, MEMS, solid mechanics, and more.

Select Publications

 For a full list, see Prof. Boles's Google Scholar profile.

• J. D. Boles, J. J. Piel, E. Ng, J. E. Bonavia, B. M. Wanyeki, J. H. Lang, and D. J. Perreault, “Opportunities, progress, and challenges in piezoelectric-based power electronics,” to appear in IEEJ Journal of Industry Applications, 2023. [Invited]

• J. D. Boles, J. J. Piel, E. Ng, J. E. Bonavia, J. H. Lang, and D. J. Perreault, “Piezoelectric-based power conversion: recent progress, opportunities, and challenges,” in Proc. IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC), Newport Beach, CA, USA, Apr. 2022. [Invited]

• J. D. Boles, J. E. Bonavia, J. H. Lang, and D. J. Perreault, “A piezoelectric-resonator-based dc-dc converter demonstrating 1 kW/cm^3 resonator power density,” to appear in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 2023.

• J. D. Boles, E. Ng, J. H. Lang, and D. J. Perreault, “Dc-dc converter implementations based on piezoelectric transformers,” in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 6754-6769, 2022.

• J. D. Boles, J. E. Bonavia, P. L. Acosta, Y. K. Ramadass, J. H. Lang, and D. J. Perreault, “Evaluating piezoelectric materials and vibration modes for power conversion,” in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 3374-3390, 2022. 

• J. D. Boles, J. J. Piel, and D. J. Perreault, “Enumeration and analysis of dc-dc converter implementations based on piezoelectric resonators,” in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 129-145, 2021.

Project Gallery