Siva Prabhakar

Siva Prabhakar

PhD Candidate, IIT Bombay

Siva Prabhakar

About me

I am currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. My generic research area is power electronics. As part of my Ph.D., I am working in the field of onboard power electronics in electric vehicles (EV), especially onboard chargers (OBCs) and auxiliary power module (APM). I have completed my M Tech in Power Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 2020. As part of my M Tech project, I have worked on Active Power Decoupling in a single-phase grid-connected solar inverter. I have completed my B Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Calicut in 2017.

Artistic Endeavours

Education & Skills

Academic Timeline

Jan 2021 – Present

PhD in Electrical Engineering

IIT Bombay · CPI: 9.57
Jul 2018 – Sep 2020

MTech in Power Engineering

IIT Kanpur · CPI: 8.31
Jul 2013 – May 2017

BTech in Electrical & Electronics

NIT Calicut · CPI: 8.08
Jun 2013

Class XII

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan · 95.60%
Jun 2011

Class X

Holy India Foundation School · CGPA: 10.0

Scholastic Achievements

  • Awarded the prestigious Prime Minister's Research Fellowship (PMRF), IIT Bombay (2022–2024).
  • Received Student Travel Grant to present research at ECCE Asia 2025, Bangalore.

Technical Arsenal

PLECS MATLAB/Simulink KiCad Code Composer Studio (CCS) PSpice Altium LTspice C/C++ Python SAM Typhoon HIL LaTeX

Seminars & Projects

Academic Projects

Jan 2021 – May 2021

An Overview of Integrated Topologies for On-board EV Chargers

Ph.D. Seminar · IIT Bombay

Explored integration approaches for OBC with APM and motor drives. Identified benefits, challenges, and performed comprehensive literature reviews.

May 2019 – Sep 2020

Stability Improvement of Series Stacked Buffer Circuit in Single-Phase Solar Inverter

MTech. Thesis · IIT Kanpur

Investigated instability in SSB Circuit for active power decoupling. Proposed and validated a control scheme using MATLAB and Altium.

Jun 2016 – May 2017

Unity Power Factor Rectifier with Boost Front End

BTech. Major Project · NIT Calicut

Simulated unity power factor rectifier and implemented an analog closed-loop controller for sinusoidal grid current.

Student Competitions

2022

IFEC 2022

Smart, Efficient and Light Solar Microgrid Inverter

Developed a high-efficiency solar inverter. Proposal selected among top 15 teams worldwide. Mentored undergraduate students.

Course Projects

Solar-powered house with hybrid energy storage system

IIT Bombay · Jan 2021 – May 2021

Assessment of Solar PV Performance Across India Using SAM

IIT Bombay · Jan 2021 – May 2021

Reactive Power Optimisation in Distribution Network

IIT Kanpur · Jul 2018 – Nov 2018

Dynamic ATC Calculation Using Hybrid Approach

IIT Kanpur · Jul 2018 – Nov 2018

Lectures & Talks

Lectures, Webinars & Invited Talks

  • Online Lectures: "Advanced Power Electronics" course at GEC, Aurangabad (Sep'24 – Nov'24).
  • Talk: "Onboard chargers for electric vehicles", conducted by IEEE CS SBC GECBH (Apr'23).
  • Webinar: "Onboard chargers for electric vehicles" organised by Dept. of Electrical & Electronics at SNMIMT Engineering college (Mar'23).

External Teaching Assistance

  • Electrical Measurements Lab · SPCE (2023)
  • Onboard Charger for EVs · SNMIMT (2023)
  • Electrical Machines - I · NPTEL (2022)

Student Mentoring

Anmol Mesharam · MTech Thesis

2024 – present

Single-Stage Onboard Charger (OBC). Guiding thesis on three-phase interleaved PFC-based OBC.

Rhitam Das · MTech Thesis

2024 – present

Load Invariant Operation of Series Resonant Converter for Wide Voltage Variation

Sagar De · MTech Thesis

2023 – 2024

Active Power Decoupling in Single-Phase Inverters. Co-authored two conference papers on three-terminal APD circuit.

Adarsh A · MTech Seminar

2023

Integrated Circuit Topologies for Onboard Power Electronics in EVs.

Madhav & Gauri S. Dev · BTech Projects

2022 – 2023

Digital Control of LLC Converter and Review of Isolated DC-DC Converters for 1-2 kW EV charging.

Vaishnav Lande · MTech Thesis

2021 – 2022

Onboard Charger for Electric Vehicles

Internship & Training

Industrial Training & Visits

Jun 2015

Implant Training (10 Days)

Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Co. Ltd., Kochi

Explored practical implementations of electrical manufacturing and applied engineering processes within a large-scale industrial setting.

Jul 2015

Industrial Training (4 Days)

Kerala State Electricity Board Ltd., Nallalam

Conducted field studies at the 220KV Substation, analysing power distribution and grid management techniques.

Relevant Courses

PhD Coursework

  • Power Electronic Converters for Renewable Energy
  • Power Electronics - II
  • Design and Evaluation of Photovoltaic Power Plants
  • Electric Drives

MTech Coursework

  • Basics of Power Electronics Converters
  • Control Techniques in Power Electronics
  • Fundamentals of Electric Drives
  • Advanced Electric Drives
  • Power Management Circuits
  • Simulation of Modern Power Systems

BTech Coursework

  • High Voltage Engineering
  • Applied Electromagnetics
  • Circuits & Networks
  • Control Systems (I & II)
  • Electrical Machines
  • Power Engineering
  • Electrical Measurements

Research & Innovation

PhD Research

Semi-Active Bridge-Based Converters for Light Electric Vehicle Applications

My PhD research focuses on the analysis, design, and control of semi-active bridge-based isolated DC–DC converters for light electric vehicle applications. The work addresses two main objectives: improving converter efficiency over a wide operating range and reducing onboard converter hardware through OBC–APM integration.

Semi-active bridge converters are attractive for unidirectional applications because they reduce the number of active switches and associated gate-drive circuitry while retaining high-frequency isolation and fixed-frequency operation.

Semi-active bridge converter investigated for light electric vehicle applications
Semi-active bridge-based isolated DC–DC converter investigated for light electric vehicle applications.
Published Work

Design-Based Efficiency Enhancement of Semi-Active Bridge Converters

Conventional converter design is generally optimized around a nominal operating point. During battery charging, however, the battery voltage and charging power vary considerably, which can result in increased transformer RMS current and reduced efficiency away from the nominal design condition.

My work investigates the selection of transformer turns ratio and leakage inductance to improve converter performance over the charging profile while retaining conventional single-phase-shift control.

Three design approaches were investigated to extend favourable operating regions, improve light-load performance, and maximize charging-cycle energy efficiency.

For the considered 1.5 kW converter, the charging-cycle-oriented design improved the energy efficiency from 92.33% to 94.69%.

Experimental setup used for validation of the semi-active bridge converter
Experimental setup used for validation of the proposed design methodologies.
Ongoing Research

Control and Modelling of the Semi-Active Half-Bridge Converter

My ongoing research investigates system-level and converter-level approaches for improving the performance of the semi-active half-bridge converter over a wide operating range.

The work includes adaptive DC-link voltage variation, frequency-domain modelling, and multi-variable control strategies for reducing transformer RMS current and improving converter efficiency under partial-load conditions.

Published Work & Granted Patent

Integrated Onboard Charger and Auxiliary Power Module

The onboard charger (OBC) and auxiliary power module (APM) are conventionally implemented using separate isolated power converters. Since both systems require isolated DC–DC power conversion, sharing converter hardware provides an opportunity to reduce device count, size, and implementation cost.

I developed a three-port integrated power converter for light electric vehicles that integrates the OBC and APM using three bridge structures and two two-winding transformers.

The proposed converter enables simultaneous power transfer to the high-voltage traction battery and low-voltage auxiliary battery while using a reduced number of active semiconductor devices.

The work also investigates current cancellation in the common bridge leg and suitable converter design approaches for improving overall converter performance.

Three-port integrated onboard charger and auxiliary power module converter
Proposed three-port integrated power converter for OBC–APM integration.
Published Work

Design Methodologies for the Integrated Power Converter

The performance of the proposed IPC depends on the transformer turns ratios and leakage inductances associated with the two power-flow paths. Three design approaches were investigated for selecting these parameters.

  • Maximizing current cancellation in the common bridge leg
  • Minimizing overall converter conduction loss
  • Minimizing individual transformer RMS currents

The study shows that maximizing current cancellation alone does not necessarily minimize the overall converter loss. A conduction-loss-based design provides better overall performance for the considered application.

Experimental Validation

Integrated Converter Hardware Prototype

A laboratory prototype integrating a 1 kW onboard charger and 350 W auxiliary power module was developed for experimental validation of the proposed converter.

The experimental studies validate simultaneous OBC–APM operation, current-cancellation behaviour, independent power-flow regulation, and the proposed converter design approaches.

Hardware prototype of the integrated OBC and APM converter
Laboratory prototype of the proposed integrated OBC–APM converter.
Experimental setup for the integrated power converter
Experimental setup used for validation of the integrated converter.
Collaborative Research

Three-Terminal Active Power Decoupling for EV and PV Systems

Proposed a modified control strategy for three-terminal active power decoupling circuits.

  • Effective ripple suppression with low sensing requirement
  • Reduced component count
  • Improved scalability via dual-converter configuration
  • Simulation and hardware validation

Single-Stage High-Frequency Isolated Onboard Charger

Explored a bidirectional interleaved totem-pole AC–DC converter with high-frequency isolation and no electrolytic capacitors.

  • Fixed 50% duty interleaved grid stage
  • Phase-shift based DC-side regulation
  • Inherent power factor correction
  • Wide-range soft switching
M.Tech Research

Stability Improvement of Series Stacked Buffer Circuit in Single-Phase Solar Inverter

Analyzed instability caused by low source equivalent series resistance (SS-ESR) in series stacked buffer circuits and proposed a tailored control strategy to enhance stability, expand the safe operating region, and improve robustness under varying PV source conditions. Validated using MATLAB and Simulink-based small-signal modelling.

B.Tech Research

Unity Power Factor Rectifier with Boost Front-End

Designed and implemented a 350 W AC–DC boost PFC prototype featuring closed-loop current control, sinusoidal input-current shaping, regulated DC output voltage, and hardware validation.

Design and Implementation of Marx Generator

Designed and built a Marx generator capable of producing high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage DC source for pulsed-power applications.

Research Methodology

Across all research stages, my work integrates

  • Analytical derivation
  • Frequency-domain modelling
  • RMS-current-based design
  • Magnetic component optimization
  • Hardware prototyping
  • Experimental waveform validation
  • Industrial benchmarking

The emphasis remains on architecture-level improvements and experimentally validated performance enhancement.

Publications

Granted Patent

S. Prabhakar, N. Deshmukh, S. Anand, S. Chakraborty, and M. Deo, "On-board charging system for electric vehicles," Patent No. 565035, Application No. 202221067778, Granted on April 8, 2025.

First Author Publications

S. Prabhakar, S. Chakraborty, N. Deshmukh and S. Anand, "Low Device Count Three-Port DC-DC Converter Integrating Onboard Charger and Auxiliary Power Module for Light Electric Vehicles", IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

S. Prabhakar, S. Chakraborty and S. Anand, "Design of Fully Soft-Switched Semi-Dual Active DC-DC Converter for Battery Charging Application," 2025 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), Atlanta, GA, USA, 2025, pp. 69-76, doi: 10.1109/APEC48143.2025.10977566.

S. Prabhakar, S. Chakraborty, S. Anand, and S. De, "Design Methodology to Improve the Energy Efficiency of Semi-Active Bridge Converter", 17th IEEE Energy Conversion Congress & Expo (ECCE Asia) 2025, Bangalore, India, 2025.

S. Prabhakar, N. Deshmukh, S. Anand, S. Chakraborty, M. Deo, P. Chaudhary, "Design Methodology to Improve Efficiency of Semi-dual Active Bridge Converter," 2024 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC), Chicago, IL, USA, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ITEC60657.2024.10598930.

S. Prabhakar, N. Deshmukh, and S. Anand, "Stability improvement of series stacked buffer circuit in single phase solar inverter," 2020 IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Drives, and Energy Systems (PEDES), Jaipur, India, 2020, doi: 10.1109/APEC51134.2026.11516722.

Co-Authored Publications

N. Deshmukh, S. Prabhakar, and S. Anand, "Power loss reduction in buck converter based active power decoupling circuit," IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, pp. 1–1, 2020.

S. De, S. Prabhakar and S. Anand, "A Low Device Count Three-Terminal Active Capacitor with Low-Side Design for Effective Second-Harmonic Ripple Suppression," 2026 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), , San Antonio, TX, USA, 2026, pp. 602-608, doi: 10.1109/APEC51134.2026.11516722.

S. De, S. Prabhakar and S. Anand, "A Plug and Play Three Terminal Active Power Decoupling Circuit," PCIM Conference 2025; International Exhibition and Conference for Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management, Nürnberg, Germany, 2025, pp. 1431-1438, doi: 10.30420/566541186.

N. Deshmukh, K. Asad, M. Deo, P. Chaudhary, S. Prabhakar, S. Chakraborty, S. Anand, "Extended High Efficiency Operation of Semi-Active Half-Bridge DC-DC Converter," 2024 IEEE International Communications Energy Conference (INTELEC), Bengaluru, India, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/INTELEC60315.2024.10679037.

N. Deshmukh, K. Asad, M. Deo, P. Chaudhary, S. Prabhakar, S. Chakraborty, S. Anand, "Diode Emulation Control for Efficiency Improvement of Dual Active Bridge Converters," 2024 IEEE International Communications Energy Conference (INTELEC), Bengaluru, India, 2024, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/INTELEC60315.2024.10679038.

N. Deshmukh, S. R. Sahoo, S. Prabhakar and S. Anand, "A Three Terminal Active Power Decoupling Circuit for Single-Phase Single-Stage On-Board Charger," 2021 National Power Electronics Conference (NPEC), Bhubaneswar, India, 2021, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/NPEC52100.2021.9672515.

N. Deshmukh, S. Prabhakar, and S. Anand, "Conductance emulation based control for series stacked energy buffer," 2020 IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Drives, and Energy Systems (PEDES), Jaipur, India, 2020, doi: 10.1109/PEDES49360.2020.9379869.

N. Deshmukh, S. Prabhakar, and S. Anand, "DC-link voltage feed forward controller for buck active power decoupling circuit," 2020 IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Drives, and Energy Systems (PEDES), Jaipur, India, 2020, doi: 10.1109/PEDES49360.2020.9379485.

Work Experience

Industry Projects

2022 – 2023

Varroc Engineering Ltd.

IIT Bombay

Led development of a three-port integrated power converter for 2/3-wheeler EVs; design resulted in a granted joint patent. Delivered complete two-stage system (PFC + three-port converter).

2023 – 2024

Infineon Technologies

IIT Bombay

Supported development of a 3.3 kW two-stage OBC using Totem-Pole PFC and PSFB-based DC-DC converter. Assisted in digital control implementation and system-level testing.

Project Associate

Aug 2020 – Dec 2020

IIT Kanpur

Explored light load operation of series stacked buffer circuits and estimated power loss of buck-based active power decoupling circuits.

Positions of Responsibility & Extra-curricular

Lab Equipment In-Charge

Power Electronics Laboratory, IIT Bombay · Jan 2024 – Present

Head Teaching Assistant

Introduction to Electrical Engineering · Jul 2024 – Nov 2024

Head Teaching Assistant

Power Electronics-I, IIT Bombay · Jul 2022 – Nov 2022

Member, Post Graduate Committee

Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT Kanpur · Sep 2018 – Sep 2019

President

MV (Malayalam Vaedi), IIT Kanpur · Sep 2018 – Sep 2019

Senior & Junior Executive

Tathva and Ragam, NIT Calicut · 2015 – 2017

Served in Technical Workshop and Poster & Design (PAD) Committees.

Photography

Capturing the world through my lens.

Pencil Sketches

Inspired by art, refined in pencil.

Contact Information

Get in Touch

Languages

  • English
  • Malayalam
  • Hindi
  • Tamil