Bio

Professor Rivas came to Stanford as an assistant professor in January 2014. He was an assistant professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Before becoming a faculty member in 2011, he worked for the General Electric Global Research Center developing power electronics for medical imaging and aviation systems. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology (Mexico) in 1998. He obtained his masters (2003) and doctoral degree (2006) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are in power electronics, RF power amplifiers, resonant converters, soft switching topologies and design of power converters for operation in harsh environments.

Academic Appointments

Honors & Awards

  • Best Paper: HF Bidirectional Resonant Converter for High Conversion Ratio & Variable Load Operation, Control and Modeling for Power Electronics Workshop (2018)
  • Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program”, National Science Foundation (2013)
  • Best Paper Award: "13.56 MHz high voltage multi-level resonant DC-DC converter", Control and Modeling for Power Electronics Workshop (2015)
  • Transactions Paper Award: "Resistance Compression Networks for Radio-Frequency Power conversion", IEEE Power Electronics Society (2007)
  • 2nd Prize Award: High Frequency Resonant SEPIC Converter With Wide Input and Output Voltage Ranges'', IEEE Power Electronics Society (2012)

Professional Education

  • B.A., ITESM, Mexico City Campus, Electrical and Communications Engineering (1998)
  • S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Output Power Increase at Idle Speed in Alternators (2003)
  • Sc.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Radio Frequency dc-dc Power Conversion (2006)

Patents

  • Satish Prabhakaran, John Stanley Glaser, Ljubisa Dragoljub Stevanovic, Juan Manuel Rivas Davila. "United States Patent US 8567046 B2 Methods for making magnetic components", General Electric Company, Oct 29, 2013
  • Rixin Lai, Luis Jose Garces, Juan Antonio Sabate, Juan Manuel Rivas Davila, Song Chi, Wesley Michael Skeffington,. "United States Patent US 8502539 B2 Gradient amplifier system", General Electric Company, Jul 31, 2013
  • Mehmet Arik, Tunc Icoz, Juan Manuel Rivas Davila, Charles Erklin Seeley, Yogen Vishwas Utturkar, Stanton Earl Weaver, Jr.. "United States Patent US 8496049 B2 Heat sinks with distributed and integrated jet cooling", General Electric Company, Jul 30, 2013
  • John Stanley Glaser, Juan Manuel Rivas Davila. "United States Patent US 7924580 B2 Switching inverters and converters for power conversion", General Electric Company, Apr 12, 2011
  • David J. Perreault, Juan M. Rivas, Anthony D. Sagneri, Olivia Leitermann, Yehui Han, Robert C. N. Pilawa-Podgurski,. "United States Patent 7,889,519 B2 Methods and apparatus for a resonant converter", Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Feb 15, 2011
  • David J. Perreault, Juan M. Rivas, Yehui Han, Olivia Leitermann. "United States Patent 7535133 B2 Methods and apparatus for resistance compression networks", Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, May 19, 2009

Contact

  • jmrivas@stanford.edu
    University - Faculty Department: Electrical Engineering Position: Assistant Professor
    • 420 Via Palou
    • Allen Building, Room 210
    • Stanford,  California  94305 

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 4070

Links

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Modern applications are driving demand for power systems with capabilities beyond what is presently achievable. High performance systems, like medical imaging systems and other applications impose challenging specifications on power density and bandwidth that are difficult to achieve with current circuit topologies. Power density can be improved with better semiconductor components and passive elements, and by reducing the energy storage requirements of the system. By dramatically increasing the switching frequency, it is possible to reduce the energy storage requirements and improve bandwidth. I'm interested in the development of system architectures and circuit topologies for dc-ac and dc-dc power conversion that can reach switching frequencies of 10’s to 100’s of MHz. Switching at these frequencies will lead to efficient converters with inductors and transformers having no magnetic material to limit their high frequency performance, and with small-valued capacitors.
At these switching frequencies, all inductors can be air-cored, eliminating core losses, saturation, and extending their operating temperature range. I have been involved in the development of dc-dc converter that archives a significant reduction in peak switch voltage stress, requires small passive components with low energy storage, and provides the capability for extremely rapid startup and shutdown.

Another goal of my work is to implement a value-added strategy in inexpensive printed circuit boards (PCB) by fabricating all passive devices of a power converter (inductors and capacitors) with traces, transforming the PCB into a 3-D resonant structure. This approach will eliminate tuning and component variation while simultaneously maintaining extraordinary levels of performance at reduced cost. Moreover, there a lot of exciting applications for these high frequency circuits.

2018-19 Courses

Stanford Advisees

All Publications

  • Duty Cycle and Frequency Modulations in Class-E DC-DC Converters for a Wide Range of Input and Output Voltages IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS Park, S., Rivas-Davila, J. 2018; 33 (12): 10524–38

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2809666

    View details for Web of Science ID 000445355900046

  • C-OSS Losses in 600 V GaN Power Semiconductors in Soft-Switched, High- and Very-High-Frequency Power Converters IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS Zulauf, G., Park, S., Liang, W., Surakitbovorn, K., Rivas-Davila, J. 2018; 33 (12): 10748–63

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2800533

    View details for Web of Science ID 000445355900066

  • An Integrated RF Power Delivery and Plasma Micro-Thruster System for Nano-Satellites FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS Liang, W., Charles, C., Raymond, L., Stuchbery, A., Surakitbovorn, K., Gu, L., Boswell, R., Rivas-Davila, J. 2018; 6

    View details for DOI 10.3389/fphy.2018.00115

    View details for Web of Science ID 000447153600001

  • A Very High Frequency dc-dc Converter Based on a Class 2 Resonant Inverter Rivas, J., M., Letermann, O., Han, Y., Perreault, D., J.
  • A high-frequency resonant inverter topology with low voltage stress Rivas, J., M., Han, Y., Leitermann, O., Sagneri, A., D., Perreault, D., J.
  • Design of a Class-DE Rectifier with Shunt Inductance and Nonlinear Capacitance for High-Voltage Conversion IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS Park, S., Rivas, J. M. 2018; 33 (3): 2282–94

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2017.2693271

    View details for Web of Science ID 000417819300037

  • 60 V-to-35 kV Input-Parallel Output-Series DC-DC Converter Using Multi-Level Class-DE Rectifiers Park, S., Gu, L., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2018: 2235–41

    View details for Web of Science ID 000434981902062

  • FPGA-based Dynamic Duty Cycle and Frequency Controller for a Class-E-2 DC-DC Converter Park, S., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2018: 282–88

    View details for Web of Science ID 000449328900036

  • High-Frequency Resonant Converter with Synchronous Rectification for High Conversion Ratio and Variable Load Operation Gu, L., Surakitbovorn, K., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2018: 632–38

    View details for Web of Science ID 000449328900092

  • Vacuum Testing of a Miniaturized Switch Mode Amplifier Powering an Electrothermal Plasma Micro-Thruster FRONTIERS IN PHYSICS Charles, C., Liang, W., Raymond, L., Rivas-Davila, J., Boswell, R. W. 2017; 5

    View details for DOI 10.3389/fphy.2017.00036

    View details for Web of Science ID 000409039400001

  • Implementing an impedance compression network to correct misalignment in a wireless power transfer system Choi, J., Rivas, J., IEEE IEEE. 2017

    View details for Web of Science ID 000426864800057

  • A Portable Electrostatic Precipitator to Reduce Respiratory Death in Rural Environments Talukder, S., Park, S., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2017

    View details for Web of Science ID 000426864800040

  • Isolated Resonant DC-DC Converters with a Loosely Coupled Transformer Park, S., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2017

    View details for Web of Science ID 000426864800017

  • Power Loss of GaN Transistor Reverse Diodes in a High Frequency High Voltage Resonant Rectifier Park, S., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2017: 1942–45

    View details for Web of Science ID 000403242802009

  • Universal Line Input Power Factor Preregulator Using VFX Technique Gu, L., Liang, W., Praglin, M., Chakraborty, S., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2017: 1810–15

    View details for Web of Science ID 000403242801143

  • A Unified Model for High-Power, Air-Core Toroidal PCB Inductors Zulauf, G., Liang, W., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2017

    View details for Web of Science ID 000426864800125

  • Output Capacitance Losses in 600 V GaN Power Semiconductors with Large Voltage Swings at High- and Very-High-Frequencies Zulauf, G., Liang, W., Surakitbovorn, K., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2017: 352–59

    View details for Web of Science ID 000426933900060

  • 3-D-Printed Air-Core Inductors for High-Frequency Power Converters IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS Liang, W., Raymond, L., Rivas, J. 2016; 31 (1): 52-64

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2015.2441005

    View details for Web of Science ID 000361908600008

  • A Design Methodology for Class-D Resonant Rectifier with Parallel LC Tank Park, S., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2016

    View details for Web of Science ID 000389467400096

  • Evaluation of a 900 V SiC MOSFET in a 13.56 MHz 2 kW resonant inverter for wireless power transfer Choi, J., Tsukiyama, D., Rivas, J., IEEE IEEE. 2016

    View details for Web of Science ID 000389467400091

  • Comparison of SiC and eGaN devices in a 6.78 MHz 2.2 kW resonant inverter for wireless power transfer Choi, J., Tsukiyama, D., Rivas, J., IEEE IEEE. 2016

    View details for Web of Science ID 000400778402013

  • 13.56 MHz High Density DC-DC Converter With PCB Inductors IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS Liang, W., Glaser, J., Rivas, J. 2015; 30 (8): 4291-4301

    View details for DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2014.2357398

    View details for Web of Science ID 000353128500025

  • 27.12MHz GaN Resonant Power Converter with PCB Embedded Resonant Air Core Inductors and Capacitors Liang, W., Raymond, L., Gu, L., Rivas, J., IEEE IEEE. 2015: 4251–56

    View details for Web of Science ID 000378882904083

  • 13.56 MHz 1.3 kW Resonant Converter with GaN FET for Wireless Power Transfer Choi, J., Tsukiyama, D., Tsuruda, Y., Rivas, J., IEEE IEEE. 2015

    View details for Web of Science ID 000380542500072

  • 27.12MHz GaN Bi-directional Resonant Power Converter Gu, L., Liang, W., Raymond, L. C., Rivas-Davila, J., IEEE IEEE. 2015

    View details for Web of Science ID 000380547800005

  • Performance evaluation of diodes in 27.12 MHz Class-D resonant rectifiers under high voltage and high slew rate conditions IEEE 15th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics (COMPEL) Raymond, L. C., Liang, W., Rivas, J. M. IEEE. 2014

    View details for Web of Science ID 000345760200035

  • 3D Printed Air Core Inductors for High Frequency Power Converters Liang, W., Raymond, L., Rivas, J., IEEE IEEE. 2014: 971–79

    View details for Web of Science ID 000411444300137

  • A 13.56 MHz High Density dc-dc Converter with PCB Inductors Liang, W., Glaser, J., S, Rivas, J., M. 2013
  • 13.56 MHz High Density dc-dc Converter with PCB Inductors Liang, W., Glaser, J., Rivas, J., IEEE IEEE. 2013: 633–40

    View details for Web of Science ID 000324988600100

  • 27.12 MHz Large Voltage Gain Resonant Converter with Low Voltage Stress Raymond, L., Liang, W., Choi, J., Rivas, J., IEEE IEEE. 2013: 1820–27

    View details for Web of Science ID 000345216902017

  • 27.12 MHz large voltage gain resonant converter with low voltage stress Raymond, L., Liang, W., Choi, J., Rivas, J. 2013
  • A Very High Frequency dc-dc Converter Based on a Class 2 Resonant Inverter IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Rivas, J., M., Leitermann, O., Han, Y., Perreault, D., J. 2011; 26 (10): 2980-2992
  • Opportunities and Challenges in Very High Frequency Power Conversion Perreault, D., J., Jingying, H., Rivas, J., M., Han, Y., Leitermann, O., Pilawa-Podgurski, R., C.N. 2009
  • A High-Frequency Resonant Inverter Topology With Low-Voltage Stress IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Rivas, J., M., Han, Y., Leitermann, O., Sagneri, A., D., Perreault, D., J. 2008; 23 (4): 1759-1771
  • Design Considerations for Very High Frequency dc-dc Converters Rivas, J., M., Jackson, D., A, Leitermann, O., Sagneri, A., D., Han, Y., Perreault, D., J. 2006
  • New Architectures for Radio-Frequency dc-dc Power Conversion IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics Rivas, J., M., Wahby, R., S., Shafran, J., S., Perreault, D., J. 2006; 21 (2): 380-393
  • Performance improvement of alternators with Switched-Mode Rectifers IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion. Rivas, J., Perreault, D., Keim, T. 2004; 19 (3): 561-568
  • New Architectures for Radio-Frequency dc-dc Power Conversion Rivas, J., M., Wahby, R., S., Shafran, J., S., Perreault, D., J. 2004
  • Performance improvement of alternators with switched-mode rectifiers Rivas, J., M., Perreault, D., J., Keim, T. 2003