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On these pages we try to answer the question of what Electromagnetic Power Technology stands for, what it is, where and why you can apply it and what you can achieve with it. EMVT stands for electromagnetic power technology, a name that in itself does not suggest the full meaning of this technology. Electromagnetism is central, but when it comes to power, one should not only think of large power, but especially of large power density. First, some definitions as used by the experts….

Definitions
EMVT comprises the multidisciplinary knowledge and means to transport and convert electrical energy in the desired form and in the desired time. EMVT concerns a material realization of electromagnetic fields specified in space and time (EMVT Initiative Group, Van Kampen, 1995).

EMVT is engaged in activities -from fundamental research to product development- in the multidisciplinary field of electromagnetic systems that are characterized by high power, high frequency and high efficiency. In this, the electrical, magnetic, thermal and mechanical aspects are approached integrally (definition Association EMVT).

Electromagnetic power technology is the technology that concerns the design, generation, control and use of electromagnetic fields in space and time (definition Stroomversnelling, STT, 1999).

A piece of history
Although electricity as a phenomenon has been known since the ancient Greeks, structural research into electrical and initially separate magnetic phenomena only started in the second half of the 18th century. Experimenters such as Coulomb, Galvani and Volta investigated and described electromagnetism as a physical phenomenon. In the first half of the 19th century, this research was continued by researchers with names that are now well-known in electrical engineering, such as Ohm, Ampere, Weber, Gauss and Faraday. It was the great merit of James Clark Maxwell to describe the connection between the physical phenomena electricity and magnetism, which had until then been separate, in a particularly elegant system of mathematical equations. Maxwell published his findings in 1873 in his publication Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. This work is still regarded, more than 130 years later, as the most important theoretical basis of the theory of electricity.

In the second half of the 19th century, the development of electrical components, products and systems got underway that have now deeply penetrated our daily lives. Examples include the telephone, the light bulb, the electric motor, electric generator and components such as a transformer and electron tube (diode and triode). Important names behind these products are Bell, Edison, Lee de Forest and Tesla. These products have given an enormous boost to the development of public telephony and telegraphy, public electricity supply, radio, radar and later television. Although the basis of many applications was already laid in the 19th century, developments only really got underway in the 20th century. The development of the transistor around 1950 and the first integrated circuit (IC) 10 years later led to an acceleration of developments and a miniaturisation and price reduction of the products. The IC in particular has largely facilitated the creation of a completely new discipline, information technology.

The physicist becomes an engineer
It is striking that from about the middle of the 19th century, so from about the moment that Maxwell formulated his famous equations, a change occurred in the approach to the research of electricity and electromagnetism. Before that time, attention was mainly focused on the physical and theoretical aspects, the researchers of, say roughly the Edison generation and later, focused much more on the practical applications. The practical elaboration of this took shape in the form of networks, on a small scale, for example the electrical circuit in a device, or on a large scale, for example the electricity network.

It is important to realize that the development of network theory that was initiated by this, made it possible to break away, as it were, from the physical foundations on which the operation of components and devices is based. The development of practical applications was therefore more the domain of the engineer and no longer of the physicist. Components that have complex properties in a strictly physical sense could, for most practical applications, be reduced to elements with a single electrotechnical property that is easy to describe mathematically. A coil is an element with self-induction and, to a first approximation, no resistance or internal or external capacitance and the electromagnetic field is assumed to be concentrated only in the component, without external influences. A wire is a 'component' with zero resistance, without self-induction or capacitance.

Development of network theory
In this approach, which has led to the countless applications we now know, the geometry of the components and of the electrical circuits that are realized with them plays no role and there are many degrees of freedom for the designers. We now realize that this is only true under not too extreme circumstances, i.e. when frequencies are sufficiently low, voltages and currents are not too large and the physical dimensions relative to the smallest wavelength are large enough. Situations that apparently occur frequently.

Designers of high-frequency circuits know that they do have to take into account geometries, that a coil cannot be characterized solely by self-inductance and that a wire can indeed have significant self-inductance and can cause a field. EMC experts know that in a system with an apparently low operating frequency, parasitic phenomena occur that do indeed require attention to the geometry of a circuit and to the presence and influence of fields. The knowledge underlying this is often empirical in nature and the development of models on the basis of which predictions of such 'parasitic' behavior can be made is still in its infancy.

Although we are running up against the limits of network theory here, its application, combined with empirically acquired skills, remains the most important basis for the development of electrotechnical products and systems to this day. The development of new, particularly semiconductor, components has also been of great importance. It can be safely stated that both the analysis element (calculation of the properties and behaviour of a given circuit) and the synthesis element (design a circuit that has certain desired properties) have been highly developed in network theory.

More compact, lighter, more complex, faster, more efficient
The general trend in technological development is towards products and systems that are becoming more compact, lighter and more efficient with greater functionality, higher complexity and higher processing speed. For economic and environmental reasons, higher efficiency requirements are also being imposed. In addition, technological developments are making entirely new applications possible. Examples of this are also widely available for electrical products.

For electrical products and systems this means that the dimensions become smaller, which increases the energy and power density. Increasingly, advanced control electronics and signal processing techniques with high internal switching and processing speeds will have to be used. At higher energy levels, designers are confronted with traditionally conflicting design requirements. In classical electrical power technology, a high power can be switched with a high efficiency, but only at a low speed (traditionally 50-60 Hz). In information technology, a large bandwidth is important, but the signal power remains limited and therefore the efficiency is less significant. Switching large powers with high speed (bandwidth) and high efficiency is accompanied by mechanical forces and thermal phenomena that must be taken into account in the design process. In addition, more stringent requirements are placed on the physical properties of materials, both conductors and insulators and semiconductors.

Here the starting points and boundary conditions for the application of network theory no longer apply, so that the underlying more fundamental physical theory must be reverted to. This places heavier demands on designers and design processes. When developing new innovative electrical products that are characterised by compactness, higher power density, higher processing speeds and higher efficiency, traditional design methods and available components and materials can no longer be used, but more fundamental design processes must be applied and new or newly developed materials and components must be used.

Electromagnetic Power Technology (EMVT) offers a solution

It has been stated above that the development of electrical applications is largely due to the simplifications that have become possible through the application of network theory. This made it unnecessary to apply Maxwell's equations when calculating a simple electrical circuit. The installer of electrical installations will be grateful for this. Apart from the fact that a very fundamental approach was often not necessary, in many cases it would not have been possible because the knowledge, techniques and resources were not available. In the meantime, the situation has changed dramatically and both the mathematical methods and supporting resources, such as computers, to 'calculate' Maxwell have improved considerably and new materials and components, such as power semiconductors, have become available. The coincidence in time between the need for a more fundamental approach to the development of electrical systems on the one hand and the availability thereof on the other hand has laid the foundation for the development of an entirely new discipline, namely Electromagnetic Power Technology (EMT).

Innovation of product, process and application

EMVT has multiple faces. On the one hand, it is the scientific discipline, or rather the combination of disciplines, that makes it possible to improve existing electrotechnical products by applying integrated design processes and an uncompromising application of fundamental physical principles. In doing so, thinking in networks - which has yielded undeniable advantages in many situations - must be changed to thinking in space and time. In addition, EMVT enables better process control because a fundamental insight into physical processes and the use of better models and simulation methods enable a 'first time right' design. Design processes become shorter, intermediate steps are unnecessary and better use can be made of the physical properties of the materials used. Finally, the application of EMVT opens the way to completely new applications as a result of the improved methods for dimensioning electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields in the desired way (field synthesis).

SUMMARY

The above shows that applying the knowledge and skills that result from managing EMVT as a multidisciplinary field does not offer the easiest way to develop an electrotechnical product or process. However, it does offer the challenging opportunity to be groundbreaking, innovative and therefore competitive on the market.