Dr Jonathan Davidson

PhD, MEng

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Senior Lecturer

Jonathan Davidson
Profile picture of Jonathan Davidson
jonathan.davidson@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5825
Profile

I joined the department in 2006 and studied both my MEng and PhD here, graduating in 2010 and 2015 respectively.

After a brief time as a postdoctoral researcher, I was appointed as a lecturer in the Electrical Machines and Drives group in 2015. I was made Senior Lecturer in 2022.

In both my research and teaching, I address interdisciplinary problems and themes and work with other academics from across the faculty.

My main research focus is on power electronics and covers two distinct but overlapping topics: electrical power conversion, and impedance sensing and system modelling. My power conversion research covers primarily resonant converters using both traditional magnetic resonant tanks and piezoelectric transformers (Grant: FPeT £600k, 2017) and lately high frequency supplies for chemical species selective reactions (Grant: Targeted waveform plasma reactor £980k, 2019). Notable successes in the field include the development of a design criterion for efficient piezoelectric transformers and a thorough exploration of the geometry requirements for transformers.

I have applied impedance sensing and system modelling to several areas. In the converter scene, it has driven the evaluation of piezoelectric transformer design and it is an enabling technology for the chemical species selection. In addition, it is the primary enabler of work on sewage sensing (Grants: Hydro Intl £200k, 2019; NBIC £50k 2020) which focusses on early detection of sediment build-up, examining the chemistry during destructive testing of electrochemical cells and producing accurate dynamic thermal models of power electronics. I currently lead a KTP (Grant: InnovateUK £230k, 2024) designing intelligent waste reduction machinery for the food industry.

My teaching focus has been on electrical engineering for interdisciplinary engineers. I was originally appointed as the electrical engineering lead to design a new programme in general engineering; I continue to lecture students in their first and second years on electrical engineering and interdisciplinary design. I have held several teaching leadership roles including deputy director of aerospace engineering, director of education for the former department of engineering interdisciplinary programmes and I am presently the deputy director of education for the new school of electrical and electronic engineering.

My teaching uses a combination of traditional visualiser note-making, pre-prepared videos, role-play group work and laboratory projects to provide students with an experience of all that engineering has to offer. I also offer final year projects to general, aerospace and electrical engineering students.

Qualifications
  • PhD (Electronic and Electrical Engineering), University of Sheffield, 2015
  • MEng (Electronic Engineering), University of Sheffield 2010
Research interests
  • Power electronic converters and drives
  • Piezoelectric transformer-based power supplies
  • Electrical sensing of water systems
  • Thermal modelling and temperature estimation
  • Pseudorandom binary sequences for system identification
  • Electrochemical battery modelling
Publications

Journal articles

  • O’Keeffe H, Foster MP & Davidson JN (2025) . IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, 53(10), 3105-3112.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2025) . IET Power Electronics, 18(1).
  • O’Keeffe H, Rehman FJ, Holmes TD, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Zimmerman WBJ (2025) . Ozone: Science & Engineering, 47(4), 423-431.
  • Yang Z, Forrester J, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2023) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 38(12), 15645-15658.
  • Forrester J, Davidson J & Foster MP (2023) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 38(10), 12874-12885.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2023) . IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, 59(3), 3674-3685.
  • Forrester J, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2023) . Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 32(1), 103-116.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2023) . IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 70(3), 2652-2661.
  • Forrester J, Li L, Yang Z, Davidson JN, Sinclair DC, Reaney IM, Foster MP & Stone DA (2022) . Advanced Engineering Materials, 24(12).
  • Wang Z, Wang Z, Davidson J, Foster M & Gladwin D (2022) . IET Power Electronics, 15(13), 1264-1278.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2022) . IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics, 3, 26-35.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2022) . IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 69(9), 9145-9154.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2021) . IET Power Electronics, 14(5), 1032-1043.
  • Mizani A, Ansari SA, Shoulaie A, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2021) . IET Power Electronics, 14(3), 492-502.
  • Forrester J, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2021) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 36(1), 617-629.
  • Bugryniec P, Davidson J & Brown S (2020) . Journal of Power Sources, 474.
  • Wang S, Corredor Garcia JL, Davidson J & Nichols A (2020) . Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 20(20), E5854.
  • Yang Z, Forrester J, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2020) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 35(10), 10466-10476.
  • Forrester J, Li L, Davidson JN, Foster MP, Stone DA, Sinclair DC & Reaney IM (2020) . Electronics Letters, 56(7), 347-350.
  • Foster MP, Davidson JN, Stone DA & Yappa R (2019) . The Journal of Engineering, 2019(17), 3639-3642.
  • Petersen A, Stone DA, Foster MP & Davidson JN (2019) . IET Power Electronics, 12(7), 1652-1661.
  • Bugryniec PJ, Davidson JN, Cumming DJ & Brown SF (2019) . Journal of Power Sources, 414, 557-568.
  • Forrester J, Davidson J, Foster M, Horsley E & Stone D (2018) Automated design tools for piezoelectric transformer-based power supplies. 9th International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives.
  • Davidson JN, Stone DA, Foster MP & Gladwin DT (2016) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 31(4), 2709-2719.
  • Foster MP, Davidson JN, Horsley EL & Stone DA (2016) . IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, 31(7), 5057-5066.
  • Davidson J, Stone D, Foster M & Gladwin D (2015) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.
  • Davidson JN, Stone DA & Foster MP (2015) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 30(6), 2950-2961.
  • Davidson JN, Stone DA, Foster MP & Gladwin DT (2014) . IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 29(9), 4817-4828.
  • Davidson JN, Stone DA & Foster MP (2014) . Electronics Letters, 50(4), 260-262.
  • Fairweather AJ, Stone DA & Foster MP (2013) . Journal of Power Sources, 226, 191-201.
  • Davidson JN, Stone DA & Foster MP (2012) . Electronics Letters, 48, 400-402.

Conference proceedings

  • O’Keeffe H, Foster MP & Davidson JN (2024) . IET Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2024(3) (pp 576-581). Nottingham, United Kingdom, 10 June 2025 - 10 June 2025.
  • Forrester J, Davidson J & Foster M (2023) . 2023 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE) Proceedings (pp 195-201). Nashville, Tennessee. USA, 29 October 2023 - 29 October 2023.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2023) . Pcim Europe Conference Proceedings (pp 2411-2419)
  • Forrester J, Li L, Davidson J, Foster M, Stone D, Reaney I & Sinclair D (2022) . IMAPSource Proceedings 2022 (HiTEN), Vol. 2022(HiTEN) (pp 125-130). Oxford, 18 July 2022 - 18 July 2022.
  • Forrester J, Foster M & Davidson J (2022) . 48th Annual Conference of the Industrial Electronics Society IECON 2022 Conference (pp 1-6). Brussels, Belgium, 17 October 2022 - 17 October 2022.
  • Yang Z, Forrester J, Davidson J, Foster M & Stone DA (2022) . IECON 2022 – 48th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. Brussels, Belgium, 17 October 2022 - 17 October 2022.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2022) Analysis of Test Methods for Measurement of Leakage and Magnetising Inductances in Integrated Transformers. 24th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications EPE 2022 Ecce Europe
  • O'Keeffe H, Foster M & Davidson J (2022) . Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) 2022
  • Forrester J, Li L, Yang Z, Davidson JN, Foster MP, Stone DA, Reaney IM & Sinclair DC (2022) . 11th International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD 2022) (pp 41-46). Newcastle, UK (hybrid conference), 21 June 2022 - 21 June 2022.
  • Wang Y, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2022) . 11th International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD 2022) (pp 131-135). Newcastle, UK (hybrid conference), 21 June 2022 - 21 June 2022.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2022) . 11th International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD 2022) (pp 260-265). Newcastle, UK (hybrid conference), 21 June 2022 - 21 June 2022.
  • Yang Z, Forrester J, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2022) . IET Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2022(4) (pp 357-361)
  • Forrester J, Li L, Yang Z, Davidson JN, Sinclair DC, Reaney IM, Foster MP & Stone DA (2022) Comparison of BSPT and PZT piezoelectric ceramic transformers for high temperature power supplies. International Conference and Exhibition on High Temperature Electronics Network (HiTEN 2022). Oxford, 18 July 2022 - 18 July 2022.
  • Wang S, Nichols A & Davidson J (2022) . Proceedings of the IAHR World Congress (pp 1843-1851)
  • Arab Ansari S, Davidson J, Foster M & Stone D (2021) Analysis and Design of a Fully-Integrated Planar Transformer for LCLC Resonant Converters. EPE 2021, 6 September 2021 - 10 September 2021.
  • Forrester J, Davidson J, Foster M & Stone D (2021) . 2021 23rd European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'21 ECCE Europe) (pp P.1-P.7), 6 September 2021 - 10 September 2021.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2021) . 2021 23rd European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'21 ECCE Europe) (pp P.1-P.8), 6 September 2021 - 10 September 2021.
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2020) . IET Conference Publications, Vol. 2020(CP766) (pp 670-675)
  • Yang Z, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2020) . IET Conference Publications, Vol. 2020(CP766) (pp 455-460)
  • Wang Z, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2020) . IET Conference Publications, Vol. 2020(CP766) (pp 261-265)
  • Ansari SA, Davidson JN & Foster MP (2020) . IECON 2020 The 46th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (pp 1273-1278), 18 October 2020 - 21 October 2020.
  • Bugryniec PJ, Davidson JN & Brown SF (2020) . Energy Reports, Vol. 6 (pp 189-197)
  • Kankanamalage RR, Foster MP & Davidson JN (2019) Online electrolytic capacitor prognosis system for PWM drives. 2019 European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'19 ECCE-Europe). Genova, Italy, 2 September 2019 - 2 September 2019.
  • Forrester J, Davidson J, Foster M & Stone D (2019) Equivalent circuit parameter extraction methods for piezoelectric transformers. 2019 European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE'19 ECCE-Europe). Genova, Italy, 2 September 2019 - 2 September 2019.
  • Bugryniec PJ, Davidson JN & Brown SF (2018) . Energy Procedia, Vol. 151 (pp 74-78)
  • Forrester J, Davidson J & Foster M (2018) Effect of spurious resonant modes on the operation of radial mode piezoelectric transformers. PCIM Europe 2018; International Exhibition and Conference for Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management (pp 1740-1747). Nuremberg, Germany, 5 June 2018 - 7 June 2018.
  • Hewitt D, Green J, Davidson J, Foster MP & Stone D (2016) . IECON 2016 - 42nd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. Florence, Italy, 24 October 2016 - 24 October 2016.
  • Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2016) Thermal Analysis Using 2-Dimensional Impedance Spectroscopy and Pseudorandom Binary Sequences. IWIS 2016
  • Hewitt D, Green J, Davidson J, Foster MP & Stone D (2016) Meaurement of Electrical Parameters of Electrolytic Capacitors Using Real-World Drive Waveforms for State-of-Health Determination. 9th International Workshop on Impedance Spectroscopy. Chemnitz, Germany, 26 September 2016 - 26 September 2016.
  • Hewitt DA, Green JE, Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2016) Electrolytic Capacitor Age Estimation Using PRBS-based Techniques. Proceedings of PCIM 2016. Nuremburg, Germany, 10 May 2016 - 10 May 2016.
  • Tsang C, Bingham C, Foster MP, Stone D, Davidson JN & Leech JM (2016) . The 8th IET International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD) 2016. Glasgow, UK
  • Davidson JN, Foster MP & Stone DA (2014) . 7th IET International Conference on Power Electronics, Machines and Drives (PEMD 2014) (pp 1.9.04-1.9.04)
  • Davidson JN, Stone DA, Foster MP & Gould CR (2013) . 2013 15th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications (EPE) (pp 1-9), 2 September 2013 - 6 September 2013.
  • Davidson J, Stone D & Foster M (2013) Mixed PRBS technique for thermal impedance spectroscopy of power electronic systems. Pcim Europe Conference Proceedings (pp 1047-1054)
  • Davidson JN, Stone DA & Foster MP (2012) . Electronics Letters, Vol. 48(11) (pp 665-666)
  • Hewitt D, Green J, Davidson J, Foster MP, Stone D & Foreman MRS () Observations on Changes to Electrolytic Capacitor Electrical Properties Caused by Gamma Irradiation. 9th International Workshop on Impedance Spectroscopy. Chemnitz, Germany, 26 September 2016 - 26 September 2016.

Presentations

  • Forrester J, Li L, Davidson J, Foster M, Stone D & Reaney I Investigation of using BSPT for ring-dot piezoelectric transformers for use in high-temperature resonant power supplies. Oxford.
Research group

Power Electronics & Systems

Teaching interests

Power electronics and converters
Impedance spectroscopy of systems
Interdisciplinary applications of electrical engineering

Teaching activities
  • EEE228 - Design Project
  • GEE102 - Introduction to Electrical Engineering
  • GEE201 - Interdisciplinary Design II
  • GEE301 - Interdisciplinary Design III
Professional activities and memberships
  • Deputy Director, Aerospace Engineering
  • Electrical engineering theme liaison, General Engineering

Links

Electrical Machines and Power