Course Title & Code :

Power Electronics EE-411

EE-7th A&B

Department of Electrical Engineering

Wah Engineering College, University of Wah

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 Power Electronics
(History)
• Power electronics refers to control and conversion of
electrical power by power semiconductor devices wherein
these devices operate as switches.
• Advent of silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs) led to the
development of a new field of application called the power
electronics.
• Before SCRs, mercury-arc rectifiers (1900) were used for
controlling electrical power, but such rectifier circuits were
part of industrial electronics and the scope for applications of
mercury-arc rectifiers was limited.
• Once the SCRs were available (1957), the application area
spread to many fields such as drives, power supplies, aviation
electronics, high frequency inverters and power electronics
originated. 1
 Mercury-arc Rectifiers

Operation of the Mercury-arc rectifier relies on an electrical arc discharge between

electrodes in a sealed envelope containing mercury vapor at very low pressure. A pool of
liquid mercury acts as a self-renewing cathode that does not deteriorate with time. The
mercury emits electrons freely, whereas the carbon anodes emit very few electrons even
when heated, so the current of electrons can only pass through the tube in one direction,
from cathode to anode, which allows the tube to rectify alternating current. 2
 Power Electronics
• The main task of power electronics is to control
and convert electrical power from one form to
another form.
• Scope of power electronics: mW ⇒ GW
• Power electronics is a growing field due to the
improvement in switching technologies and the
need for more and more efficient switching
circuits.

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 Power Electronics
• Power electronics combine power, electronics and
control.
• Power deals with the static and rotating power
equipment for the generation, transmission, and
distribution of electric energy.
• Electronics deal with the solid-state devices and
circuits for signal processing to meet the desired
control objectives.
• Control deals with the steady-state and dynamic
characteristics of closed-loop systems.
• Power electronics may be defined as the applications
of solid-state electronics for the control and
conversion of electric power. 4
Interdisciplinary Nature of Power Electronics

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 Applications
• Heating and lighting control
• Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)
• Fluorescent lamp ballasts: Passive; Active
• Electric power transmission
• Automotive electronics
• Electronic ignitions
• Motor drives
• Battery chargers
• Alternators
• Energy storage
• Electric vehicles
• Alternative power sources: Solar; Wind; Fuel Cells
• And more!

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 Course Outline
Course Outline:
• Principles of power electronics, converters and applications, circuit components
and their effects, control aspects.
• Power Electronic Devices: Power diode, power BJT, power MOSFET, IGBT and SCR,
GTO and TRIAC and DIAC. Construction, characteristics, operations, losses, ratings,
control and protection of thyristors.
• Halfwave and full-wave rectifiers with resistive and inductive loads, un-controlled,
semi controlled and fully controlled rectifiers, three-phase rectifiers: un-controlled,
semi controlled and full controlled, 6-pulse, 12-pulse and 24-pulse rectification.
• PWM converters, DC to AC converters, three-phase inverter, six-pulse, twelve-
pulse inverters, PWM inverters, switching mode power supplies.
• DC to DC conversation, buck converter, boost converter and buck-boost
converters, isolated converters, forward converters, flyback converters.

Recommended Books:
M. H. Rashid, "Power Electronics: Circuits, Devices and Applications“, Latest Edition.

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 Our Focus in Power Electronics

• AC-to-DC conversion
• DC-to-AC conversion
• DC-to DC conversion
• AC-to-AC conversion

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Example

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 Converters
Electronic power converter is the term that is used to refer to a
power electronic circuit that converts voltage and current from
one form to another.

 Rectifier converting an ac voltage to a dc voltage

 Inverter converting a dc voltage to an ac voltage
 Chopper or a switch-mode power supply that converts a dc
voltage to another dc voltage
 Cycloconverter and cycloinverter converting an ac voltage to
another ac voltage.

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 Rectifiers
Rectifiers may be classified as uncontrolled and controlled rectifiers.
Controlled rectifiers can be further divided into semi-controlled and fully-
controlled rectifiers.
Uncontrolled rectifier circuits are built with diodes, and fully-controlled
rectifier circuits are built with SCRs.
Both diodes and SCRs are used in semi-controlled rectifier circuits.

 Single-phase semi-controlled bridge rectifier

 Single-phase fully-controlled bridge rectifier
 Three-phase three-pulse, star-connected rectifier
 Three-phase semi-controlled bridge rectifier
 Three-phase fully-controlled bridge rectifier
 Double three-phase fully-controlled bridge rectifiers with IPT.

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 DC to AC Conversion
The converter that changes a DC to AC is called an inverter.
Earlier inverters were built with SCRs. Since the circuitry required to turn the
SCR off tends to be complex, other power semiconductor devices such as
bipolar junction transistors, power MOSFETs, insulated gate bipolar
transistors (IGBT) and MOS-controlled thyristors (MCTs) are used nowadays.

 Emergency lighting systems

 AC variable speed drives or VFD
 Uninterrupted power supplies
 Frequency converters.

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 DC to DC Conversion
When the SCR came into use, a dc-to-dc converter circuit was called a
chopper.
Nowadays, an SCR is rarely used in a dc-to-dc converter. Either a power BJT or
a power MOSFET is normally used in such a converter and this converter is
called a switch-mode power supply.

 Step-down switch-mode power supply

 Step-up chopper
 Fly-back converter
 Resonant converter.

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 AC to AC Converter

• A cycloconverter or a cycloinverter converts an ac voltage, such as the mains

supply, to another ac voltage. The amplitude and the frequency of input voltage to
a cycloconverter tend to be fixed values, whereas both the amplitude and the
frequency of output voltage of a cycloconverter tend to be variable.
• The circuit that converts an ac voltage to another ac voltage at the same
frequency is known as an AC-chopper. A typical application of a cycloconverter is
to use it for controlling the speed of an ac traction motor and most of these
cycloconverters have a high power output, of the order a few megawatts and SCRs
are used in these circuits. In contrast, low cost, low power cycloconverters for low
power ac motors are also in use and many of these circuit tend to use TRIACS in
place of SCRs.
• Unlike an SCR which conducts in only one direction, a TRIACS is capable of
conducting in either direction and like an SCR, it is also a three terminal device. It
may be noted that the use of a cycloconverter is not as common as that of an
inverter and a cycloinverter is rarely used.

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Application of Power Devices

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 Classification of Power Devices
• Uncontrolled turn on and off (e.g., diode);
• Controlled turn on and uncontrolled turn off (e.g., SCR);
• Controlled turn-on and -off characteristics (e.g., BJT, MOSFET,
GTO, SITH, IGBT, SIT);
• Continuous gate signal requirement (BJT, MOSFET, IGBT, SIT);
• Pulse gate requirement (e.g., SCR, GTO):
• Bipolar voltage-withstanding capability (SCR. GTO);
• Unipolar voltage-withstanding capability (BJT, MOSFET, GTO,
IGBT);
• Bidirectional current capability (TRIAC, RCT);
• Unidirectional current capability (SCR, GTO, BJT, MOSFET,
IGBT, SITH, SIT, diode).

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All correspondence through the following website:

www.sites.google.com/a/wecuw.edu.pk/pe

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