RICCARDO MANDRIOLI

RICCARDO MANDRIOLI (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree (Hons.) in Biomedical, Electrical, and System Engineering in Mar. 2023, from the University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. Currently, he is a Tenure Track Assistant Professor (RTT) in Electrical Engineering, with the Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Information Engineering, University of Bologna. From Nov. 2022 to Jan. 2024, he has been a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor, and he has also been involved as a Teaching Assistant for multiple engineering courses since 2017. In 2022, he was a Visiting Scientist with the Chair of Power Electronics, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany. In Nov. 2023, he received the National Scientific Habilitation (ASN) for the permanent position of Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include electric vehicle chargers, photovoltaic, power electronic converters, harmonic pollution, efficiency improvement, and circuit modeling. Dr. Mandrioli was the winner of several awards with IEEE. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Access, an Editorial Board Member of several journals, entrepreneurship committee member of the IEEE Italy Section, and Treasurer of the IEEE IES Italian Chapter. Reliability Implications of Modulation Techniques in Modular Dual Active Bridge EV Chargers Modular Dual Active Bridge (DAB) converters are increasingly adopted in high-power electric vehicle (EV) charging systems due to their scalability, galvanic isolation, and bidirectional power flow capability. Beyond efficiency and power density, long-term reliability has become a key design driver, especially in modular architectures where thermal and electrical stresses are strongly influenced by control and modulation choices. This talk first recalls the operating principles of the DAB converter, with particular emphasis on power transfer mechanisms and current waveforms under phase-shift modulation. Subsequently, the fundamentals of lifetime estimation for power electronic components are introduced, focusing on semiconductor devices and passive components, and highlighting the link between modulation-dependent stress profiles, thermal cycling, and wear-out mechanisms. The core of the presentation assesses the reliability implications of different modulation strategies—Single Phase Shift (SPS), Dual Phase Shift (DPS), and Extended Phase Shift (EPS)—in a modular DAB-based EV charger. In addition, higher-level operational strategies such as phase shedding and module rotation are analyzed as effective tools to redistribute losses, reduce temperature swings, and mitigate uneven aging among modules. A detailed case study of a modular EV charger is used to quantify lifetime variations under realistic operating conditions, enabling a comparative discussion of the trade-offs between efficiency and reliability.