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Obara Lab (Power Electronics Lab)
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A power electronics lab aiming for power conversion that emits no electromagnetic noise.
AboutAbout the lab
Creating clean power conversion technology.
The Obara Lab studies power conversion using power semiconductor devices, along with related and applied technologies.
Power electronics is widely used, from smartphones and home appliances to power generation and transmission facilities such as mega solar plants and frequency converter stations.
The lab aims to create clean power conversion technology that drives an advanced electrified society.
Now that highly efficient power conversion is taken for granted, the lab is taking on the challenges of lower noise, higher reliability, smaller size, lower cost, and more advanced functionality, which are required in an era of mass deployment of power converters.
Key terms
- power semiconductor device
- A semiconductor element that performs the switching operation in power conversion. It underpins highly efficient power conversion.
- electromagnetic noise
- Electrical noise whose generation is inevitable in principle with switching operation.
- active gate control
- Control that changes the gate drive strength partway through switching, using digital control.
NewsLab news
Associate Professor Obara received the Isao Takahashi Power Electronics Award
A master's student received the Outstanding Poster Presentation Award in the student poster competition at IPEC-Nagasaki2026
Associate Professor Obara received the Readers' Award at the NE Power Electronics Award 2024
Received the Third Best Paper Award at ICRERA2024, an international conference on renewable energy
An undergraduate student received an Encouragement Award at the Power Electronics Summer School
ResearchResearch themes
This lab studies power conversion using power semiconductor devices, along with related and applied technologies. To achieve goals such as the lower noise required in an era of mass deployment of power converters, it works on methods that emit no electromagnetic noise and on gate drive control.
*Illustrative imagePower conversion that emits no electromagnetic noise
Power converters that rely on switching operation inevitably generate electromagnetic noise in principle. The lab aims to propose and demonstrate a method that generates no noise at all while maintaining high conversion efficiency, and to systematize it as a technology. The core elements are ultra-multilevel operation and linear operation of power semiconductor devices, their control, and high-density mounting.
*Illustrative imageDigital active gate control
Using active gate control, which can change the gate drive strength during switching through digital control, the lab appropriately controls switching transient waveforms according to the mounting conditions and the operating state of the circuit. This research aims to optimize switching loss and electromagnetic noise.
MembersFaculty
The Obara Lab's members consist of faculty, part-time faculty, administrative assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorHidemine Obara
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Inverter Fronius = Sunways NT 6000-01ASD” Asurnipal / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Power conversion that emits no electromagnetic noise: “J-POWER SAKUMA frequency converter station” Jihara19 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Digital active gate control: “Nedap ESD1 - power supply board 1 - ON Semiconductor U” Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Sano Lab): “Horn Antennas Atop a Microwave Relay Tower” Kkiefuik This photo was taken with Canon EOS 90D / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Nishiguchi Lab): “Quantum dots demonstration set” Physicsexperimentsorg / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tomii Lab): “Multimedia Engineering” Beamthanadol / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Shirakawa Lab): “UPS Power Management Module, racks with network cabling in NERSC data center” Derrick Coetzee from Berkeley, CA, USA / CC0 (cropped)
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