Liong Ma

SiC Inverter

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

High Efficiency PMSM Inverter for EV Application | https://github.com/liongma/Inverter

Co-Optimization of a 3-Phase, 50 kW, 600 V Power-Dense SiC VSI for PMSM Drive

Liong Ma Massachusetts Institute of Technology liongma@mit.edu

1. Introduction

Electric vehicles (EVs) are advancing quickly to meet decarbonization goals, driven by better batteries, faster charging, and higher-performance motors. At the heart of every EV is the traction inverter — the power electronics that converts battery DC power into the AC power needed to drive the motor. Because EVs are judged on range, performance, and cost, traction inverters are under constant pressure to become more efficient and more power-dense.

Website!

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I made it finally!

Inverter Optimizer

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Traction Inverter Optimization

PMSM Controls

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

PMSM Controls area complicated.

Quad Inverter

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

High Efficiency PMSM Quad Inverter Assembly for EV Application | https://github.com/liongma/Inverter

GaN DAB Converter

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

GaN DAB Converter designed for on-board-charging application.

This converter makes use of high frequency planar magnetics to achieve high power density in high voltage vehicles.

LV Battery

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This was a battery I designed for FSAE MY25. I designed the nickel welding tabs, the BMS, and also the mechanical structure to hold everything together.

Active Aero Driver

Sat, 31 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This was a mini servo driver designed to power the active aero system for MY25. Unfortunately, it did not end up getting used because the mechanical setup for active aero did not end up happening :(

SiC Inverter

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is my first iteration of a SiC Inverter. It gets its own page because this version was a much less serious attempt at a working product. But it at least spun a motor!

Microwave Gun

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Microwave Gun! If you’re already building laser rifles, why not build low frequency stuff too!

Mini Telsa Coil

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Coils are super fun! I wanted to show other people the coolness of tesla coil power transfer. Besides, my large desktop tesla coils are a bit big, why not make one super small? This one uses the very popular slayer exciter circuit topology which requires very few components and does not rely on very precise tuning. The result is a pretty cute high voltage tesla coil that can still wireless transfer power but remains relatively safe.

Sentient Fridge

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Wow AI got really popular. Anyways wouldnt it be funny if my fridge was sentient? I’m not sure what this says about my moral character, but I made the fridge very sassy and fatphobic towards you any time you try to open the fridge. It has a accelerometer and it uses that to tell if you’re trying to eat something. Then, it uses state of the art technology to vocalize its distaste against your consumptive attempts of self preservation.

Vortex Fountain

Tue, 16 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I made this with my friend jaeden. It uses some pumps to spin the water and lights it up from the bottom :0

Scanning Quantum Tunneling Microscope

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is a scanning tunneling microscope i made! If it looks janky, thats because it absolutely is. In fact, most times in the day, the thermal expansion of the device causes the SNR to be extremely low causing the device to be unusable. But for a couple hours of the day (for me around 4PM), the temperature peaks and theres a brief 20 minute window for some mesmerizing photos to be made.

Fluid Visualizer

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s a laser experiment i always wanted to try! You can get a lense that is designed to reflect a ccollimated laser beam into a line of light. This is nifty because you can then use it to light up a plane of gasses. This is a cross section of moving water vapor.

Plasma Orb

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is my first iteration of a SiC Inverter. It gets its own page because this version was a much less serious attempt at a working product. But it at least spun a motor!

Plasma Ring

Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Xenon gas has the really nice ability to be very thick and viscous, and as a result, create these pretty stable plasma rings which soak up power from high frequency magnetic fields.

Solid State Tesla Coil

Sat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How about a singing tesla coil? I designed this tesla coil to use an antenna to feedback oscillations so it can tune itself. Because of all the parasitics of tesla coils, having it self tune is pretty common. Im then using a 555 timer to modulate the signal so that the output power can be adjusted. Because of this modulation technique, the plasma patterns are super unique!

RGB Mask

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Mini Buck

Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

LED Screen

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It was really hard to see the screen for our boat drivers. Why not fix that problem by making our own custom screen? This actually worked pretty well!

Laser Gun

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Laser guns are not strictly legal but as long as im not selling it or using it, i should be fine. This laser is found in high power projectors and has been given a new life as this cool laser gun. The laser gets quite hot so its recommended to have a pretty beefy cooling solution on it.

Laser Pointer

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is the first laser experiment i made. This one is already powerful enough to blind you if you touch it!

Reflow Plate

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This is a reflow plate i made out of a clothes iron. Typical reflow plates can be pretty expensive but i made this one for around 10 dollars.

Electric Race Car

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Overview

This project’s objective is to design and prototype an affordable electric racecar to demonstrate the potential for EVs as an economically viable and environmentally sustainable transportation solution.

Objective

The main objective is to create an electric vehicle within 6 months with a budget of $15,000 or less, capable of reliable road performance while minimizing the use of premade or off-the-shelf components.

Scope

This project involves the design, engineering, and fabrication of the following systems: Mechanical Chassis, Suspension Assembly, Traction battery, Electric power train, Auxiliary Battery, Auxiliary System, Secondary System, Proximity System, Thermal Regulation, User Interface, Energy Management, and Communication Systems.

Spot Welder

Tue, 03 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This spot welder is just a bunch of supercapacitors all tied together. I dont recommend it. Technically did the job but it also wore through a ton of electrodes.

Optical Spectrometer

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This thing is so cool. I bought a diffraction grating and thought about how cool it would be if I could make something to decode the signals. I have it fed into a raspberry pi with a screen, that calibrates from LEDs and then uses that to find peaks at different optical frequencies. This is then used to find an element in its database to figure out what exactly is producing that light. Then, I used one of my many plasma generators to test how well it works.

Custom Nano

Tue, 02 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This was my first custom microctroller board. I thought it might end up being cheaper to buy a bunch of these really cheap PCBs and solder them myself than buying a bunch of arduino Nanos. In fact it ended up being a lot more finicky than i originally thought so it looks like making your own custom Nano doesn’t make too much sense.

Voltage Multiplier

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Flyback Generator

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This flyback generator is a super simple self stable high voltage oscillator. It’s switching a transformer near resonance and getting insanely high power out of it.

Floodlight

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is a floodlight I made out of a cob led panel and a big battery pack!

Seismometer

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

One of my dad’s colleagues mentioned to me that it would be a cool idea to try to make a digital seismometer, and so thats what i did.

Thermocouple

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

When making my cloud chamber, i wanted to measure the very low base plate temperatures continuously. Why not make something to measure it? Unfortunately, thermistors are fairly nonlinear meaning they’re not so accurate, especially at low temperatures. Whats typcically used for the job is thermocouples, which use voodoo physics to measure precise temperature differentials. I plugged this into an arduino and shoved it into a small tin with an OLED, and it definitely did the job. The next big thing to do would have been to then tune it but that would require buying actual equipment :(

UV Lamp

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Nuclear Fusor

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Light Display

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Jacobs Ladder

Tue, 26 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Spark gap tesla coil are definitely one of the scariest you can make. Not only are they super illegal, but they’re also very dangerous and violent. I made 3, and they’re soooooo cool. They also absolutely rust the heck out of the spark gaps on account of the excessive amounts of ozone generation. I have them powered from various size flyback generators. Since its a pulsed power source, the resonance calculations are not as important meaning its not too difficult to scrap one together without a ton of analysis.

HV Transformer

Sun, 17 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Reality Breaker

Sun, 03 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This uses radioactive decay to trigger a geiger muller tube, which converts the timing of this to a a random number. This is a truly random number since radioactive decay is inherently nondeterministic which means it breaks the laws of classical physics.

Cloud Chamber

Thu, 26 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Electric Boat Battery

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This was the auxiliary and traction battery pack for the applied engineering boat! It uses welded lithium ion cells to work.

Electric Boat Inverter

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is the traction system for the AE boat. It uses a bunch of quickly switching FETs to drive the motor, and uses two relays to switch the direciton the boat is moving, pretty intuitive stuff!

RGB Clock

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This was one of my favorite projects, cutting led strips to make it glow into specific number formations.

RGB Clock App

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

RGB! CLOCK!

Tesseract

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Continuing on with my theme of making glowing objects, the tesseract was something that really caught my eye. I designed my own stand and 3D casing for the device, hoping to cut sheets of acrylic with a solar film to create a very low cost 2-way mirror. I ended up making a better one a year later as a gift with added structural rigidity. The whole thing is programmed with an arduino and plays various mesmerizing patterns.

Tesseract Mini

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Remote Relay

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Un-Toaster

Sun, 28 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I got the inspiration for this project from Joel Creates. It was too funny of an idea to not try out, and i was looking for things to do with my atomizer! My family doesnt really eat toast so i went to friends house to try it out, and it kind of works…? It just tastes like toast that you’ve left out, sort of like slightly soggier bread ends. Highly recommend, definitely a 10/10 decision. Added RGB lighting for extra FPS.

UWU Light

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I strung together phosphor cables which can conduct high voltage and be used to create nice consistent lighting! Nowadays, you can achieve the same thing with small LEDs on flex PCBs but this was a pretty cool art project. If only the flyback transformer’s Magnetostriction wasn’t so audible at night…

Bio Poster

Sun, 14 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This was a lightup display i made to teach kids how adenosine traveled in the signal transduction pathway.

CO2-Monitor

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Pumpkin Cat

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Cute!

Alarm Clock

Sat, 16 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Mushroom Lights

Sun, 05 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I really like mushrooms! I saw somewhere that you can make your own mushrooms out of silicone, and i decided to give it a try! Needless to say, i think it works pretty well.

Plasma Vortex

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Plasma Flame Generator

Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Spark Gap Big

Fri, 05 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Flyback Generator

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This flyback generator was used to create super high voltages for some other interesting projects like the plasma vortex.

Spark Gap

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Slayer Exciter

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Theremin

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Your body has lots of capacitance! The idea of this theremin is that a bistable oscillator can use your capacitance to affect the frequency of a note, pretty cool!

Spark Gap Mini

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Kirlian Photography

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Gesture Replicator

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Quadracopter Drone

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Simon Game

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I felt like it would be cool to make a game for some family friends’ kids who are really young. They ended up loving this game and actually really challenged themselves to get up really high. Unfortunately, there’s no flash memory to save the high scores, but you should believe me when i can say my score is in the high hundreds.

Remote

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Quadraped

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This spider robot was printed and then programmed by me. It uses these tiny stepper motors and was pretty flimsy. I eventually upgraded it to be remote controlled by adding a radio module to it. Then I connected it to my fleet of remote controllers including my gesture sensor, but also my drone controller.

RGB Print

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This was very popular in the school orchestra.

RGB Violin

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This was very popular in the school orchestra.

Line Follower

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

RC Car

Sat, 24 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

RC Car

Sat, 24 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Scrapped this together with a basic NRF transciever, arduino, and 18650 li-ion batteries.

Toy Car

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Cardboard Robot Arm

Sat, 15 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This was one of my first projects which involved putting multiple functional parts together. This was super cool because it was the first time I made something that was different from the tutorials i saw online. All this one took was some tape, legos, servos, and cardboard.

Swamp Cooler

Fri, 31 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

When it was really hot one summer, i decided to 3D print my own swamp cooler. It works by having a vessel containing water on an upper compartment, and having capillary action suck that water through paper towels down into a fan. This was great for the hot LA summers!

Boat