Professor Martin Foster
PhD, MSc, BEng
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Professor of Energy Storage & Conversion
Full contact details
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Profile
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I received BEng, MSc and PhD degrees from Sheffield in 1998, 2000 & 2003 respectively. I was appointed lecturer in 2003 and since this time undertaken research in power electronic energy conversion and battery management systems. In 2016 I was made Professor of Energy Storage and Conversion. My research interests span across the field of power electronic energy conversion, machine drives systems, thermal modelling & management, battery characterisation & health motoring and grid-connected energy storage.
Energy storage and applications form a large part of my research activities and I have involved in a number of EPSRC sponsored research projects including “FEVER: Future Electric Vehicle Energy networks supporting Renewables” which aims to develop off-grid EV charging stations. Past projects include establishing the Willenhall Energy Storage Systems, a 2 MW, 1 MWh grid connected lithium titanate battery energy storage research facility and “TransEnergy:Road to Rail Exchange” which investigated the use of lineside electrical energy storage applications on railway networks. I am a founder member of Centre for Research in Electrical Energy Storage and Applications covering many aspects of battery energy storage from pack design to EV battery charging.
Power electronics research includes multilevel converters, gate drivers, magnetics design and thermal management. Significant EPSRC sponsored projects include “FPET: Framework for designing piezoelectric resonant power supplies” in which developed mathematical models and design algorithms for piezoelectric devices, resonant power supplies and controllers for achieving soft-switching and voltage regulation; “Targeted waveform enhanced plasma microreactor: Engineering Chemistry at the Interface of Microbubbles” developing high-voltage power supplies and controllers for plasma chemistry and “A New Partnership in Offshore Wind: Siemens Wind Power Prosperity Partnership” looking at improving wind power generation technologies.
I work closely with industry and have been involved in many Innovate UK sponsored project including EV power electronics with Nissan, power tool machines and drives, induction sealing for food products, architectural lighting.
- Research interests
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- Resonant power supplies
- Piezoelectric transformers (PTs)
- Power electronics packaging and thermal management
- Multilevel power converters
- Battery management technologies
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Piezoelectric-resonator-based power supply for an ozone-generating dielectric barrier discharge reactor. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 53(10), 3105-3112. View this article in WRRO
- FEA‐based optimisation of an inserted‐shunt integrated planar transformer for a bidirectional CLLLC resonant converter. IET Power Electronics, 18(1). View this article in WRRO
- Targeted-waveform optimisation for ozonising dielectric barrier discharge reactors. Ozone: Science & Engineering, 47(4), 423-431. View this article in WRRO
- A Gate Driver-Level Isolated Monitoring Technique for Gate Oxide Degradation in Silicon Carbide Power Mosfets. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 40(12), 18178-18188.
- Model-based Luenberger state observer for detecting interturn short-circuits in PM machines. IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 11(2), 5302-5311. View this article in WRRO
- A Novel PWM Strategy Capable to Operate in Overmodulation Range With Low Switching-to-Fundamental Frequency Ratio. IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 11(1), 1106-1116.
- Planning a hybrid battery energy storage system for supplying electric vehicle charging station microgrids. Energies, 17(15). View this article in WRRO
- Novel generic fault model considering fundamental and PWM current components of PM machines with inter-turn short-circuit. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 39(7), 8709-8720. View this article in WRRO
- Techno-economic planning of a fully renewable energy-based autonomous microgrid with both single and hybrid energy storage systems. Energies, 17(4). View this article in WRRO
- Soft switching voltage regulation for inductorless piezoelectric transformers: a cyclic mode analysis. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 38(12), 15645-15658. View this article in WRRO
- Inductorless step-up piezoelectric resonator (SUPR) converter: a describing function analysis. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 38(10), 12874-12885. View this article in WRRO
- Inductorless step-up piezoelectric resonator (SUPR) converter: a cyclic-mode analysis. IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics. View this article in WRRO
Book chapters
- A limited-data-based power and energy demand profile modelling of an electric vehicle fleet charging station In Wang X (Ed.), Sustainable and Emerging Energy Technology: Challenges, Opportunities, and Perspectives (pp. 133-154). Springer Nature Switzerland View this article in WRRO
Conference proceedings
- Selective harmonic generation for dielectric barrier discharge reactors. IET Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2024(3) (pp 576-581). Nottingham, United Kingdom, 10 June 2025 - 10 June 2025. View this article in WRRO
- Modelling and Sizing Sensitivity Analysis of a Fully Renewable Energy-Based Electric Vehicle Charging Station Microgrid. Pcim Europe Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2024-June (pp 949-957)
- Bidirectional inverting piezo resonator-based (BIPR) converter for cell balancing applications. 2023 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE) Proceedings (pp 195-201). Nashville, Tennessee. USA, 29 October 2023 - 29 October 2023. View this article in WRRO
- Predicting Energy Use of an Electric Vehicle using Vehicle Dashcam Telemetry Data. World Conference on Transport Research - WCTR 2023 Montreal, Canada, 17 July 2023 - 21 July 2023.
- Investigation of using BSPT for ring-dot piezoelectric transformers for use in high-temperature resonant power supplies. IMAPSource Proceedings 2022 (HiTEN), Vol. 2022(HiTEN) (pp 125-130). Oxford, 18 July 2022 - 18 July 2022. View this article in WRRO
- Piezoelectric-resonator-based power supply for an ozone-generating dielectric barrier discharge reactor. IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 53(10), 3105-3112. View this article in WRRO
- Teaching activities
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- EEE225 - Analogue and Digital Electronics
- EEE307 - Power Electronics
- Professional activities and memberships
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- IET