The Joseph von Fraunhofer Prize is granted annually by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft to acknowledge the exceptional scientific contributions of its members who invent methods to resolve application-oriented difficulties. The institution will reward three prices each with a value of 20,000 €.
Dr.-Ing. Heribert Schmidt invented a new circuit for the inverter: he achieved a world record for inverters with his HERIC® topology
Dr. Heribert Schmidt, who works in ISE in Freiburg, Germany for Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, will get the award for his contribution in cutting down the power losses suffered by the solar inverters. Solar inverters, an essential component in grid-type solar photovoltaic systems converts the direct current (DC) into alternating current (AC) before the generated current is fed into the grid. Considerable current losses occurred due to the return of the current from the output inductor to the input capacitor.
Dr. Heribert Schmidt had an innovative idea and tried to decouple the capacitor and the inductor totally from each other at definite intervals, thus stopping the return current and preventing the electromagnetic interruptions at the input due to transient variations in voltage. The new switching feature has reduced the power loss due to series production at the inverter by 50% while increasing the efficiency of the inverter from 96% to 98%.
Schmidt had patented his new find as HERIC topology and started manufacturing a range of new instruments with Konstanz, Germany -based, SUNWAYS. The patent while bringing profitable licensing accords for the institute has helped Heribert Schmidt to receive the Fraunhofer Prize.