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Biography
Dr. Neophytos (Neo) Lophitis received the Bachelor of Arts with Honours (BA Hons) in Electrical and Information Science (2008), the Master of Engineering (MEng) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (2009) and the PhD in Power (2014) from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
He is an Assistant Professor in Electrical Power Electronics at the Power Electronics, Machines and Control Group of University of Nottingham, an Academic Visitor at the Research Institute for Future Transport and Cities in Coventry and an Academic (Research) Collaborator with the High Voltage Microelectronics and Sensors (HVMS) group in Cambridge. He is currently working collaboratively on research projects with ABB Switzerland, the University of Cambridge, Warwick, Newcastle, Swansea and Coventry.
Between June 2015 and January 2020 he has been an academic (Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Assistant Professor) at the School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics and the Research Institute for Future Transport and Cities, Coventry University. Prior to that, between 2013-2015, he was a post-doctoral researcher at HVMS at the University of Cambridge and also consulted an R&D project at Cambridge Microelectronics (Camutronics) LTD and Anvil Semiconductors LTD.
He is the author/co-author of more than 50 academic manuscripts, including 1 book chapter, 2 patent families, journals and leading conference publications. Neo is a regular reviewer for journals and conferences. He reviewed tens of articles submitted at the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, IEEE Electron Device Letters, IET Power Electronics, IET Electronics Letters, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Applied Physics Letters and IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.
His research focus is on advancing the technology and addressing issues associated with the functionality, efficient performance and reliability of power electronic devices by means of modelling, simulation, design, fabrication and evaluation of conventional and new device concepts. During the past years he has contributed significantly to the explanation of failure mechanisms of large area high power silicon devices and to the design, development and characterisation of novel Silicon, Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride devices. His research interests also include the condition monitoring of power electronic converters and machines, the degradation and state of health of batteries for automotive applications and electrical power conversion in general.
Expertise Summary
Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD)
Power Electronics testing and evaluation
Research Summary
Underpinning Power Electronics (UPE) 2: Switch Optimisation Theme (EP/R00448X/1)
Dr. Neo Lophitis is the Nottingham PI in one of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's (EPSRC) five flagship Underpinning Power Electronics (UPE) projects. Each of the three-year £1.2-£1.4 million projects focuses on a different aspect of the power electronics supply chain with the aim of creating new devices and applications to fully realise the energy saving potential of this emerging technology.
Partnering Cambridge, Newcastle and Warwick on the 'switch optimisation' theme, we will be developing ultrahigh voltage silicon carbide (SiC) n-IGBTs. With voltage ratings over 10 kV, nearly 10 times the voltage rating of any SiC device on the open market, SiC insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) have the potential to make considerable gains in efficiency for the National grid, e.g. when connecting off-shore wind power to the network. One PhD student is supervised on this topic.
3C-SiC-on-Si devices for compact high performance power electronics
Wide bandgap semiconductors are ideal for handling high voltage at a wide range of temperatures. 3C-SiC is a particularly interesting SiC polytype that can be grown on Silicon substrates, thus making it ideal for large area, low cost, power integrated circuits. Being a SiC polytype, it has excellent thermal conductivity and excellent electrical properties at high temperature. This makes it a fantastic candidate material for lateral, and vertical power devices integrated with CMOS. This includes the integration of Silicon CMOS too. Because it is a strong material too, thin devices, even free standing or membrance can be designed with little issue of cracking. Dr. Neo Lophitis is supervising a PhD student on this subject.
Ultra large scale 3D and advanced 2D modelling and simulation of silicon Gate Commutated Thyristors
This project aims to achieve an in depth understanding of the operating limits of Gate Commutated Thyristor devices. It also aims to suggest novel design structures and features to overcome and break those limits.
Effects of Batteries Ageing on Automotive Traction Battery Performance
Due to the large upfront expenditure of a battery pack, usage lifetime optimisation is an important objective both for battery pack design and control system. In this work we aim to review the physical and chemical ageing mechanisms, the impact on cell performance and the factors that accelerate them. This knowledge is essential both for the battery pack design and the battery management system, and the way in which they can minimise the effects of cell ageing through controlling factors such as temperature, current and Voltage limits in an intelligent approach. This work is also the first step towards the design of an advanced cell ageing model that can be used to inform both the design of battery packs but also the battery management system. This can then be used to assess the ageing impact of usage from both vehicle and energy storage applications, in particular vehicle-to-grid interactions, 'powerwall' type applications and large scale energy storage. This project is a collaboration between Coventry and Horriba-MIRA. Dr. Neo Lophitis is supervising one PhD student on this subject.
Reliable power conversion through condition monitoring of power semiconductors and electronics
Power Electronics Converters are exceptionally important in systems that operate in changeable, isolated, challenging environments or where the degradation of operation can potentially be life threatening. Practical examples of scenarios which would benefit from the integration of Condition Monitoring include; offshore wind turbines, aerospace power supplies, traction drives and electric vehicles.
Selected Publications
TIWARI, AMIT K., UDREA, FLORIN, LOPHITIS, NEOPHYTOS and ANTONIOU, MARINA, 2019. Operation of ultra-high voltage (>10kV) SiC IGBTs at elevated temperatures: benefits & constraints 2019 31ST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON POWER SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES AND ICS (ISPSD). 175-178
ARVANITOPOULOS, ANASTASIOS E., ANTONIOU, MARINA, PERKINS, SAMUEL, JENNINGS, MIKE, BELANCHE GUADAS, MANUEL, GYFTAKIS, KONSTANTINOS N. and LOPHITIS, NEOPHYTOS, 2019. On the Suitability of 3C-Silicon Carbide as an Alternative to 4H-Silicon Carbide for Power Diodes IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS. 55(4), 4080-4090 ANTONIOU, M., LOPHITIS, N., UDREA, F., RAHIMO, M., VEMULAPATI, U., CORVASCE, C. and BADSTUEBNER, U., 2019. Deep p-Ring Trench Termination: An Innovative and Cost-Effective Way to Reduce Silicon Area IEEE ELECTRON DEVICE LETTERS. 40(2), 177-180 PANAGIOTOU, PANAGIOTIS A., ARVANITAKIS, IOANNIS, LOPHITIS, NEOPHYTOS, ANTONINO-DAVIU, JOSE A. and GYFTAKIS, KONSTANTINOS N., 2019. A New Approach for Broken Rotor Bar Detection in Induction Motors Using Frequency Extraction in Stray Flux Signals IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS. 55(4), 3501-3511
Dr. Neophytos (Neo) Lophitis received the Bachelor of Arts with Honours (BA Hons) in Electrical and Information Science (2008), the Master of Engineering (MEng) in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (2009) and the PhD in Power (2014) from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Neo is currently an Assistant Professor in Electrical Power Electronics at the University of Nottingham. He is also affiliated with the University of Cambridge as Academic (Research) Collaborator and with Coventry University as Visiting Academic. He is currently working collaboratively on research projects with ABB Switzerland, the University of Cambridge, Warwick, Newcastle, Swansea and Coventry. He authored/co-authored more than 50 manuscripts.
His main research interests and contribution are on the advancement of high voltage power semiconductor devices, Silicon and Wide bandgap. During the past years he has contributed significantly to the explanation of failure mechanisms of large area high power silicon devices and to the design, development and characterisation of novel Silicon, Silicon Carbide and Gallium Nitride devices. His research interests also include the condition monitoring of power electronic converters and machines, the degradation and state of health of batteries for automotive applications and electrical power conversion in general.