IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO.
3, MARCH 2010
A Study of a Hybrid Filter
Simon Ostronik, Primo Bajec, Member, IEEE, and Peter Zajec, Member, IEEE
AbstractThis paper presents results of a comparative study of
two possible hybrid filter topologies, comprised of a passive and
active stage, which can be implemented in any general dc supply
distribution system. The main filter task is to mitigate current
dynamics in the dc distribution system in order to prolong the
operational life of delicate dc supplies, i.e., fuel cells, and to reduce
the electromagnetic interferences between sensitive electronic cir-
cuits connected to the distribution net. The active stage is incorpo-
rated into the passive part in order to: 1) improve its insufficient
attenuation in the low-frequency range and 2) source or sink any
surplus energy flow between the dc source and load in case of low-
frequency current dynamics. Two active stage topologies are pro-
posed, analyzed, and evaluated in detail: 1) an active filter based
on a single-leg inverter and 2) an active filter based on an electronic
smoothing inductor. A special focus is on achieving attenuation
at different voltage levels of the auxiliary supply and at different
coupling inductances. The impact of the current ripple generated
by the switching mode of the active filter operation is discussed
as well. The active filter based on the single-leg inverter offers su-
perior attenuation, particularly in the low-frequency range where
attenuation is improved nearly for 15 dB compared to the passive
filter.
Index TermsActive filter, electronic smoothing inductor (ESI),
passive filter, power electronics, zero ripple.
I. I NTRODUCTION
H ARMONIC filters, dynamic voltage restorers, and volt-
ampere reactive compensators [1][3] are well-known
countermeasures taken against current distortions caused by
nonlinear loads and load disturbances in ac grid power ap-
plications. The most common approach to maintain ac grid
reliability is a separate use of passive filters or in a combination
with active ones. Passive filters can be very effective in reducing
a specific harmonic component (fifth, seventh harmonic . . .)
[4]. However, the size and weight are their main disadvantages.
Better performance can be achieved with active filters which
enable also a considerable size and/or weight reduction of large
passive components [5][8] and cover a wide frequency range
limited only by the dynamics of their power stage.
A similar issue arises in hybrid electric vehicles (HEV),
plug-in HEVs, and all-electric vehicles with built-in electric
motors [9] due to high acceleration and deacceleration rates
which lead to very dynamical current behavior and potential
Manuscript received February 27, 2009; revised August 24, 2009. First
published September 18, 2009; current version published February 10, 2010.
This work was supported by the European Union, European Social Fund.
S. Ostronik is with Hidria d.d., 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, and also with
the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana,
Slovenia (e-mail: simon.ostroznik@hidria.com).
P. Bajec is with Hidria d.d., 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia (e-mail: primoz.
bajec@hidria.com).
P. Zajec is with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of
Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia (e-mail: peter.zajec@fe.uni-lj.si).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2009.2031666
0278-0046/$26.00 2010 IEEE
935
generation of unwanted disturbances. The type of energy stor-
age used in these vehicles are either conventional automotive
batteries or sophisticated power supply systems, such as fuel
cells, ultracapacitors, traction batteries, photovoltaic cells, and
their combinations. These advanced energy systems present
new challenges in recent work [10][21], where providing a
dynamic and, on the other hand, robust electric environment is
of key importance. Fuel cells with their rigid electric character-
istics require efficient filtering and power management system.
Aside from their slow response to load step changes, good
filtering is crucial due to their reduced efficiency caused by the
output current ripple [22]. Furthermore, standards that regulate
the minimum allowed electromagnetic interference (EMI) in
automotive applications are becoming more demanding with
every new edition. An additional concern is operation of high-
power electronic devices located in a tight proximity to ana-
log and digital control circuits. This is why disturbances in
power supply should be paid much attention in order to suffi-
ciently reduce EMI, thus enabling reliable operation of modern
vehicles.
To maintain reliable operation of the dc voltage supply
systems, similar steps as in the ac grid applications can be
undertaken. Such an example is the active filter [23] proposed
as a subunit of a dc/dc converter. It is designed to filter a single
specific harmonic component which can be selected with a
proper control of power switches. Another promising solution,
termed electronic smoothing inductor (ESI) [24], was proposed
by a research group conducted by Prof. Kolar. Its operation is
basically similar to the series active filters used in the ac grid.
As said above, the main requirement imposed on filter de-
sign for automotive applications is to achieve a dc electric
environment with a minimum or no voltage/current ripple,
thus making it suitable for delicate automotive power supply
systems, regardless of the ripple amplitude or frequency caused
by various factors in the system. This is why, in this paper, we
propose a modification of the active filter [23] by expanding its
frequency range and, at the same time, providing some energy
accumulation for sudden load fluctuations. The ESI concept
is also applied in order to further reduce the filter component
weight and particularly the rated voltage of implemented power
switches [25].
Similarly, as in [23], the proposed filter shown in Fig. 1
consists of the active and passive filter. As it consists of two
different topologies, it is referred to as a hybrid filter. The main
difference between the hybrid filter presented in this paper and
the ESI concept is in the topology and control circuitry of the
active filter.
The hybrid filter is inserted between source u1 and the
load to reduce the current ripple flowing toward the source.
This paper first theoretically describes the passive stage and
936 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
Fig. 1. Topology of the hybrid filter.
Fig. 2. Passive filter topology.
the basic design rules. It then discusses two different topolo-
gies for the active filter, and in the last section, it presents,
analyses, and compares experimental results of the observed
topologies.
II. PASSIVE F ILTER BASED ON A C OUPLED I NDUCTOR
A. Theoretical Basis
The passive filter consists of two components: a coupled in-
ductor and a capacitor. Together, they form a ripple cancellation
circuit. The structure of the passive filter is shown in Fig. 2.
To understand the filter topology, a coupled inductor and
a method commonly referred to as the zero ripple, ripple
cancellation, or ripple steering are addressed. This method,
known and used in different applications for many years [26]
[29], employs a coupled inductor as the main filtering compo-
nent. In Fig. 3, the general structure of the coupled inductor is
shown.
Neglecting the power losses, the coupled inductor (with cou-
pling coefficient k) can be presented as an ideal coupled induc-
tor (where n presents the turns ratio between ideal windings) in
combination with primary leakage inductance L,ac , secondary
leakage inductance L,dc , and magnetizing inductance LM .
The circuit shown in Fig. 3 can be described with
      is manufacturability. Satisfying the zero-ripple phenomenon in
uac Lac M d iac
= (1)
udc M Ldc dt idc
where M is the mutual inductance

M = k Lac Ldc . (2)
To obtain the zero current ripple condition in the secondary
winding, the voltage applied across this winding should be
Fig. 3. Coupled inductor and its equivalent circuit.
equal to transformed voltage uac = udc from the primary
side. Keeping this in mind, the final zero-ripple condition can
be expressed as

didc 1
= udc uac + 1 k Ldc uac .
dt Ldc (1 k 2 )    L
   2   ac
1 3
(3)
A detailed description with mathematical derivations can be
found in [26] and [27]. Parameter presents the ratio between
the voltages applied to the secondary and primary windings. In
most cases, its value is one.
The zero-ripple condition occurs when (3) is equal to zero.
This can be achieved when the voltages across both windings
are of an equal value (3, part 2) and when the turns ratio
between the ac and dc winding exactly compensates for the
leakage flux (3, part 3). This is why a 100% ripple cancellation
can only be achieved in theory, although optimal dimensioning
of the coupled inductor yields very good attenuation results.
B. Construction and Experimental Results
When constructing the proposed filter, it is not necessary
to optimally meet all the conditions (3) needed for the zero
ripple. One such example is the turns ratio. As there only a
discrete number of turns is feasible, exact values for Nac and
Ndc cannot be achieved. Another problem already stated in [28]
mass production requires technically advanced procedures.
A coupled inductor of the presented experimental setup was
constructed by using the ETD49 core having the following
characteristics:
Following the design rules in [26] and considering core
specifications listed in Table I, the zero-ripple phenomenon was
pursued and the result was a coupled inductor with characteris-
tics given in Table II.
OSTRONIK et al.: STUDY OF A HYBRID FILTER
TABLE I
ETD49 C ORE C HARACTERISTICS
TABLE II
C OUPLED I NDUCTOR PARAMETERS
Fig. 4. Setup for the coupled inductor attenuation measurement.
Parameters LA and L0 are measured as stated in design rules
[26], where LA is the combined inductance of both windings
with a seriesaiding connection and L0 is the combined induc-
tance with a seriesopposing connection. Together with other
parameters given in Table II, equivalent circuit parameters are
calculated
M = (LA L0 )/4 = 52.7 H
 ripple is by minimizing the capacitor size and cost. The optimal
k = M/ Lac Ldc = 0.79
n = Ndc /Nac = 17/13 = 1.307
LM = M/n = 40.37 H
L,ac = Lac LM = 12.68 H
L,dc = Ldc nM = 14.54 H. (4)
As seen from the list of calculated parameters (4), the
difference between the secondary and primary winding turns
is evident. It is due to the mismatch between preferred and
actual coupling coefficient kthe most difficult construction
parameter to meet in the whole design procedure. The obtained
ripple attenuation of the proposed design can be evaluated with
the computation
= (LM /Lac ) n = 0.9939. (5)
The goal is to make it as close to one as possible. Attenuation
of the implemented coupled inductor was measured using the
circuit shown in Fig. 4.
Although the nominal power of applications implemented
with such filter can be several kilowatts, the concept was
evaluated for the passive and active part of the filter operating at
lowered power ratings with nominal load current 8 A. The am-
937
Fig. 5. Attenuation of the coupled inductor.
plitudes of the input iin and output iout currents were scanned
throughout the frequency range. Calculated attenuation SdB
 
iout
SdB = 20 log (6)
iin
is shown in Fig. 5.
Above the 10-kHz level attenuation is almost constant,
whereas in the frequency range from 10-kHz down to 0-Hz
attenuation is rapidly reduced. Aside from the coupled inductor
design, another important factor when constructing the pro-
posed filter is selection of a filtering capacitor with the highest
possible capacitance CF and low equivalent series resistance.
Namely, the measured attenuation shown in Fig. 5 can be ob-
tained if the voltage difference between the ac and dc wind-
ings is close to zero ( = 1). Due to a frequency-dependent
impedance of the filtering capacitor and since in an ideal case
all the ripple current flows through the ac winding, it is difficult
to neglect the voltage ripple caused on the filter capacitor, par-
ticularly at low frequencies. The only way of reducing voltage
solution is to keep the capacitor voltage constant by using a
controlled source, i.e., an active filter.
III. ACTIVE F ILTER
The task of the active filter is to improve attenuation in the
low-frequency range, where the attenuation provided by the
passive filter is insufficient. To allow suitable voltage control,
the active filter should be capable to receive or release a
sufficient amount of energy to preserve the capacitor voltage
constant irrespective of low-frequency load current fluctuations.
The filter energy storage components can thus be considered
as one of the most affecting parts of the active filter. Different
topologies can be used to achieve the desired energy storage
capability. A filter with its own energy storage enables its
independence, although additional components are needed in
such case, commonly resulting in weight and/or cost increase
of the application. Usually, an inductor [23], capacitor, or
additional source (battery) are selected as an energy storage
element. If only passive components are used, connection to
the main power grid is required. Such connection is symbolized
with a dotted line in Fig. 6.
As to the dc steady state, the active filter should provide a
value opposite to the one of the current flowing through coupled
938
Fig. 6. Introduction of the active filter.
Fig. 7. Topology of the active filter based on a single-leg inverter.
inductor iac
iF = iac + iL = 0.
With such a measure, the excessive change in the capacitor
voltage is compensated. In the following sections, two different
topologies of the active filter will be presented and discussed
and their advantages and disadvantages analyzed.
A. Active Filter Based on a Single-Leg Inverter
The proposed topology of the active filter enables control of
filter capacitor voltage uF by receiving the excessive energy
from the filter capacitor or releasing additional energy. The
energy flow between the filter capacitor and an auxiliary link
capacitorserving as the energy bankis controlled by using
two MOSFET switches (TH and TL ). The active filter operates
in the switched mode way, thus limiting its current with an
inductance L.
As shown in Fig. 7, there are no active sources in the
auxiliary link. It is for this reason that transistors have to be
controlled in order to: 1) maintain the voltage on the filter ca-
pacitor constant and 2) control the energy flow to the auxiliary
capacitor (of capacitance CAUX ) to buildup a sufficient voltage
level across it.
For the sake of simplicity, let us assume that the voltage
across the auxiliary capacitor is constant irrespective of the
switch (TH , TL ) active state duration (a parallel connection
of the dc voltage source is assumed) and that the voltage on
the auxiliary capacitor is twice the dc voltage source level u1 .
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
Filter voltage uF is controlled indirectly by an appropriate
onoff (time discrete) control of the MOSFET switches forcing
the mean value of the filter capacitor current to zero (7), thus
maintaining a constant voltage across the filter capacitor. The
superimposed voltage control loop is however necessary in
order to prevent the voltage drift. The proposed cascade control
loop results in a significantly faster response compared to the
one without the current control loop.
As shown in Fig. 8, the active filter controller consists of
three separate control blocks: a time discrete (onoff) filter
current controller, a PI filter voltage controller, and an auxiliary
PI capacitor voltage controller. The most dominant is the filter
current control loop, where the actual and the reference filter
current are compared. To maintain the filter voltage on a desired
level, an additional filter voltage controller is added to correct
current reference (iF,ref = 0) to maintain the actual voltage in
equilibrium with its reference value uF,cor .
The aforementioned described operation should remain in-
tact even in absence of the assumed dc voltage source. This
means that the constant voltage on the auxiliary capacitor has
to be maintained by an appropriate control of energy flowing
through it. In practice, this involves a small amount of mean
current value iL that has to flow toward the auxiliary link in
order to compensate the voltage uAUX decrease due to power
losses. This is achieved with an additional voltage controller
(while the filter control parameters and structure remain the
same) which maintains uAUX on the preferred level of uAUX,ref
to assure a sufficient energy supply for the active filter. As
previously mentioned, the preferred auxiliary capacitor voltage
is chosen as twice the value of the dc voltage source level u1 .
(7) The main reason for this choice is to keep the same current
slope through inductance L irrespective of the applied switch
state. The voltage ripple caused by the inherent switching
nature of the active filter itself is in this manner kept as low
as possible, too. For the same reason, the response time of the
outer voltage control loop has to be substantially faster than
the one of the filter voltage controller, otherwise higher current
demands would result in an additional filter voltage ripple.
If capacitor voltage uAUX exceeds its reference value, a
reversed flow of energy occurs, pointing toward the filter
capacitor. Namely, the power switches in combination with
the inductance L serve as a common Buck/Boost converter
depending on the direction of the power flow.
B. Active Filter With ESI
The filter topology described in this section and shown in
Fig. 9 is also known as ESI.
It has been presented in literature [24], [25] and in [30] and
[31] where it is referred to as active DCL or asymmetrical
half-bridge dc filter. The main task of this topology is to simu-
late large inductances by using small inductances and additional
electronics. Unlike in the case with the original topology [24],
the proposed topology enables energy to flow in both directions
by using two additional power switches. Since the ESI is not
inserted in the main load current path, it can be designed for
lower currents because there is no need for it to conduct the full
load current.
OSTRONIK et al.: STUDY OF A HYBRID FILTER
Fig. 8. Active filter control circuitry.
Fig. 9. Active filter with an ESI topology.
An active filter equipped with ESI operates similarly as the
aforementioned active filter based on the single-leg inverter,
e.g., it controls the voltage amplitude of the filter capacitor
(in the figures presented as capacitance CF ) by maintaining
its energy flow. Control of the transistor bridge is ensured with
the same control logic as described in Section III-A, e.g., with
synchronous driving of switch pairs TH1 and TL2 or TH2 and
TL1 . When switches TH1 and TL2 are opened, voltage uESI is
subtracted from supply voltage u1 , and when switches TH2 and
TL1 conduct, capacitor voltage uESI is added to supply voltage
u1 . As a consequence, uESI can be selected irrespectively of the
supply voltage since in both cases the inductor current slope is
determined by the same voltage difference
uL = (u1 uF ) uESI . (8)
Voltage uESI can now be chosen arbitrary in order to achieve,
in the first place, the best possible current slope that deter-
mines the frequency range of the active filter and, secondly, to
maintain voltage ripple uF applied by the active filter switch-
ing as low as possible. This can be accomplished either by
lowering imposed voltage uESI or by increasing inductance L.
939
The first choice is of course the preferred one, since by low-
ering uESI voltage, the ripple generated by the active filter
is also reduced. Another advantage of lower uESI voltage is
the ability to use power switches and ESI capacitor (CESI
in the figures) of lower nominal voltages. This is particularly
favorable when considering ultracapacitors. On the other hand,
when the ESI concept is compared to the single-leg inverter,
the mentioned voltage reduction can be compensated by de-
creasing inductance L to preserve the current slope through
inductance L unchanged. The inductor (in the figures presented
as inductance L) weight and size is considerable compared
to other active filter components thus a lower value of induc-
tance significantly improves the active filter design, particularly
when used in weight delicate applications, such as automo-
tive are.
Another advantage of the ESI filter compared to the active
filter with a single-leg inverter is its ability to implement the so-
called three-level control [24] instead of the above presented
time discrete control. Such improvement is achieved by an
additional control state with a pair of switches TH1 and TH2
or a pair of switches TL1 and TL2 conducting simultaneously,
thus enabling the energy flow through the active filter without
adding or subtracting voltage uESI . By enabling such control,
the switching frequency of the active filter isbecause of the
implemented time discrete current controller [32]artificially
doubled. A more detailed description of the three-level ap-
proach together with the obtained improvements can be found
in [24].
IV. E XPERIMENTAL M EASUREMENTS
In this section, a comparison is made of the two hybrid filter
topologies based on experimental measurements. The circuit
topology used in the experimental measurements is shown in
Fig. 10.
940
Fig. 10. Setup for the attenuation measurements.
Fig. 11. Attenuation of a hybrid filter based on a single-leg inverter (Passive
filter: Passive filter alone; Hybrid filter 1A: uAUX = 12 V, L = 385 H;
Hybrid filter 1B: uAUX = 12 V, L = 100 H).
The setup shown in Fig. 10 includes battery source, load,
and ripple current generator iR . The active filter symbolically
presents both the active filter based on a single-leg inverter
and the active filter based on ESI. A ripple current generator
is connected in parallel with the load (of resistance RL ) and
attenuation of the hybrid filter is measured as described in (6).
The attenuation capability of the passive filter alone is eval-
uated. As said above, Fig. 5 includes only attenuation of the
coupled inductor, whereas the whole passive filter consists
of a coupled inductor and filter capacitor. This is why the
attenuation performance with the implemented filter capacitor
(CF = 44 F) substantially differs from the one shown in
Fig. 5. This is shown in Fig. 11. The most remarkable is the
resonance peak near 5 kHz shown in Fig. 11. Attenuation of
the passive filter starts from zero decibels at the frequency
of 51 Hz and gradually rises up to 30 dB at approximately
51 kHz. Although high-frequency limit is set by the measuring
equipment, particularly the ripple current generator, sufficient
information about attenuation is provided to allow a comparison
between the two topologies.
A. Experimental Results for the Proposed Filter Topologies
This section deals with a contribution of the two active
filters to the attenuation performance of the passive filter alone.
Experimental measurements presented in the following sections
were conducted under conditions given in Table III, where I2
presents the nominal load current and fSWITCH stands for the
switching frequency.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
TABLE III
M AIN C ONDITIONS FOR THE E XPERIMENTAL M EASUREMENTS
Fig. 12. Attenuation of a hybrid filter based on ESI (Passive filter: Passive
filter alone; Hybrid filter 2A: uESI = 12 V, L = 385 H; Hybrid filter 2B:
uESI = 3 V, L = 25 H).
During measurements, the controller parameters remain un-
changed. In the experimental measurements, IRF640 (200 V,
18 A) MOSFETs are used.
First, a comparative study is made for the active filter based
on a single-leg inverter (Fig. 11). Lack of attenuation of the
passive filter in the lower frequency range is well seen.
With additional attenuation of the active filter shown in
Fig. 11, attenuation of the whole hybrid filter is achieved.
Inductance L with its current slope affects the overall filter
behavior. As already explained in the preceding sections, the
highest contribution of the active part to current ripple atten-
uation is attained in the lower frequency range. In contrast to
improved attenuation in a lower frequency range, an additional
ripple generated by the active part of the hybrid filter results
in diminished attenuation of the hybrid filter as a whole in the
higher frequency range. This negative contribution has to be
kept at a minimum level in the hybrid filter design. Achieving
this objective presents a challenge for future work.
A similar comparison is performed for the ESI filter. Fig. 12
shows the contribution of the active filter based on the ESI
concept (Hybrid filter 2A) compared to the passive filter alone
(Passive filter). To enable a side-by-side comparison of the
two analyzed topologies, measurements were made for two
different voltage levels uESI and two different inductances L.
Unlike in the case with attenuation obtained with the single-
leg inverter (Fig. 11), lower attenuation can be observed in the
lowest frequency range. This is quite clearly shown in Fig. 13,
where attenuation of the active filter based on the single-leg
inverter (Hybrid filter 1A) is compared to attenuation of the
active filter based on the ESI concept (Hybrid filter 2A).
The result is impressive since it was believed that the per-
formance of both topologies would be comparable. However,
there is a major difference in the way the active filter is
connected in the system. The situation is quite similar to the
ac grid connected active filters where the point of common
connection (PCC) plays an important role. Namely, in case of
the ESI filter, the voltage is applied directly to both ends of
the coupled inductor resulting in a great possibility to cause
OSTRONIK et al.: STUDY OF A HYBRID FILTER
Fig. 13. Comparison between the proposed hybrid filters (Hybrid filter 1A:
uAUX = 12 V, L = 385 H; Hybrid filter 2A: uESI = 12 V, L = 385 H).
Fig. 14. Comparison between the proposed hybrid filters (Hybrid filter 1B:
uAUX = 12 V, L = 100 H; Hybrid filter 2B: uESI = 3 V, L = 25 H).
magnetic saturation of the core. This might happen if for some
reason one of the transistor pairs is kept open for a longer period
of time. In case of a single-leg inverter, where the voltage is
impressed to the left side of Nac , magnetic saturation is not
considerably excessive since the voltage potential on the left
side of Ndc also depends on the voltage drop on an internal
impedance of the power source u1 . Thus, the major impact on
variations in attenuation is the internal impedance of the power
source and additional coupling impedance between sources u1
and PCC.
B. Improvements Resulting From Adoption of
ESI Filter Configuration
To present the main advantage of the ESI configuration, an
additional comparison between the proposed topologies was
made with lower voltage uESI of 3 V, having in mind that a suf-
ficient energy storage, size, and weight are of vital importance
for the automotive applications. For results to be comparable,
similar conditions were established for both topologies. One of
the main characteristics is the relationship between the voltage
level used by active filter (uAUX or uESI ) and implemented
inductance L. The experimental results are shown in Fig. 14,
where attenuation of the active filter based on a single-leg
inverter (Hybrid filter 1B) is compared with attenuation of the
active filter based on the ESI concept (Hybrid filter 2B).
Paying regard to the explanation given for Fig. 13, com-
parable results for the lowest frequencies is also shown in
941
Fig. 14. On the other hand, the main improvement in the ESI
concept is gained in the range from 5 to 20 kHz, whereas
much as 10-dB difference of attenuation is achieved in favor
of the ESI filter. This is due to the reduced time constantthe
relationship between inductance L (100 to 25 H) and the
inductor resistance, which in combination with the applied time
discrete current controller further reduces the current ripple
caused by the active filter.
Attenuation of the hybrid filter based on ESI is thus above
20 dB down to 5 kHz, whereas a comparable level of attenua-
tion of the passive filter alone is achieved only down to 12 kHz.
V. C ONCLUSION
This paper has proposed improvement of filtering and energy
management in automotive applications by using a hybrid filter
consisting of a passive and active filter. Two active filter topolo-
gies were evaluated, e.g., on the active filter based on a single-
leg inverter and on active filter based on ESI. The advantage of
the former is mostly in the lowest frequency range, whereas the
latter allows for improved attenuation in the range from 5 to
20 kHz. Other advantages of the ESI concept are the pos-
sibility of reducing the filter weight and size, operation at
lower nominal voltages in the active filter stage, and the use of
ultracapacitors as the main energy storage element. The focus
of future work will be on the design of the proposed filters
for commonly applied power ratings used in the automotive
applications.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Operation implemented in the framework of the Operational
Program for Human Resources Development for the Period
20072013, Priority axis 1: Promoting entrepreneurship and
adaptability, Main type of activity 1.1.: Experts and researchers
for competitive enterprises.
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Simon Ostronik was born in Slovenia in 1980.
He received the B.Sc. degree in electronics from
the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of
Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2007, where he
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering.
From 2006 to 2007, he was with Iskra Medical,
working in the field of product electromagnetic com-
patibility (EMC) conformity testing. In 2007, he
joined Hidria AET as a Development Engineer in the
field of automotive electronics. His research interests
include power supply filtering, EMC, and automotive electronics.
Primo Bajec (M06) was born in Ljubljana,
Slovenia, in 1974. He received the B.Sc., M.Sc.,
and Ph.D. degrees from the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, in
1999, 2002, and 2005, respectively.
In 1999, he joined the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, University of Ljubljana, as a Junior
Researcher. He has participated in several R&D
projects, particularly in the area of electrical machine
supervision and electrified power train systems for
automotive applications. He is currently with Hidria
Institute Automotive, Tolmin, Slovenia, managing the R&D activities on state-
of-the-art automotive power train systems and e-machine drives. His main
research interests include computer simulation in power electronics, solid-state
power converters, and control of electrical drives.
Peter Zajec (M96) was born in Slovenia in 1970.
He received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees
from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Univer-
sity of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 1994, 1997,
and 1999, respectively.
Since 1995, he has been with the Faculty of Elec-
trical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, where he
joined the Laboratory of Control Engineering and
Power Electronics as a Researcher of a National
Young Researcher scheme. In 2000, he was a Visit-
ing Researcher at the Institute for Power Electronics,
University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. In 2003, he became an Assistant
Professor with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana.
His main research interests include dc/dc and dc/ac converters with special
interest in sensors applied in these devices.