Dr. Dominik Bortis

Dominik Bortis received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering and Ph.D. degrees from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland, in 2005 and 2008, respectively. During his studies, he majored in communication technology and automatic control engineering. After the internship with ABB Switzerland, Turgi, where he developed a power supply with wide input voltage range for synchronizing system, he carried out his diploma thesis in industry at Levitronix realizing a signal processing unit for magnetically levitated pump systems.

In May 2005, he joined the Power Electronic Systems Laboratory (PES), ETH Zurich, as a Ph.D. student. During his Ph.D. in collaboration with Siemens Medical, Erlangen, he realized a 20MW pulsed power systems for cancer treatment where he investigated on fast pulse generators, current balancing methods for high power IGBT modules and the design of high step-up transformers with extremely fast pulse rise times. From 2008 to 2011, he has been a Postdoctoral Fellow and from 2011 to 2016 a Research Associate with PES, co-supervising Ph.D. students and leading industry research projects.

During this time he gained comprehensive knowledge in power electronics, e.g. in the design of compact and efficient PFC rectifier systems with soft-switching TCM modulation, the realization of ultra compact inverter systems for the Google Little Box Challenge where the latest power semiconductor technology (SiC and GaN) are employed, the design of future variable speed motor drive systems with PCB-integrated power semiconductors for electric cars, the realization of a high temperature automotive inverter system or the design of light weight rotating transformers used for the power transfer in advanced high speed spindles applied for ultrasonic assisted grinding.

In 2010, he founded the ETH Spin-off company Enertronics GmbH, a consulting company in the field of power electronics system engineering and prototyping. The collaborations with leading international companies allowed him to set up a wide network of industry partners and to gain deep insight into industry demands which is mandatory for the technology transfer from academia to industry.

Since January 2016 Dr. Bortis is heading the newly established research group Advanced Mechatronic Systems at PES, which concentrates on ultra-high speed motors, magnetic bearings and bearingsless drives, new actuator and machine concepts, and machine integrated power electronics. In this context, multi-objective optimizations concerning weight/volume/efficiency/costs, the analysis of interactions of power electronics and electric machines, and EMI are given special attention. Targeted applications include advanced industry automation and manufacturing, e.g. highly dynamic and precise positioning systems, medical and pharmaceutical systems, e.g. ultra-high purity pumps, and future mobility concepts, including motors and actuators for hybrid and electric vehicles, more electric aircraft and satellites.