Course overview
This course aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how to efficiently convert and control electrical power, focusing on the characteristics of power electronic devices and their switching performance, power losses and thermal design. This enabling technology covers the classes of power converters, including rectifiers, AC-AC converters, DC-DC converters, inverters, voltage and current source converters, hard and soft-switching, resonant circuits and power supplies. The course further explores advanced energy-efficient motor drives, reviewing motor theory, power electronic control principles, vector and servo drives (stepper, DC, induction, brushless PM, and switched-reluctance), modulation methods, and motor and drive selection and application. It emphasizes system design, implementation, control, computer interfacing, and electromagnetic interference, providing insight and defining common characteristics for future industrial drives spanning from robotics to electric vehicles and renewable energy integration.
- Introduction and Power Electronics Circuit Basics
- "Powers” in Power Electronics
- Three-Phase Supply
- Switching Devices
- DC-DC Converters, Switched Mode Power Supplies
- Inverters (DC to AC Converters)
- Electric Motors and Motion Control
Course learning outcomes
- Analyse the operating characteristics of key power semiconductor devices (diodes, MOSFETs, IGBTs, thyristors) by quantifying their voltage and current ratings, switching speeds and thermal resistances through measured experimental data and correlated theoretical models.
- Evaluate the efficiency of fundamental power electronic converters (AC-DC, DC-DC, DC-AC) by calculating power losses and achieving a measured efficiency under specified load conditions, validated through individual experiments.
- Model and predict the steady-state and transient behaviour of power electronic circuits by calculating circuit parameters (such as voltage ripple, current overshoot) with a limited deviation from simulated values, using appropriate circuit analysis techniques
- Design and optimize buck-boost converters for specific applications by selecting components that meet specified voltage, current, and thermal requirements, and achieving a simulated efficiency under defined operating conditions.
- Independently evaluate the operational performance of industrial power converters (DC-DC converter, brushless PM motor drive) by measuring key parameters (such as output voltage and current regulation, harmonics) and determining limitations within a specified operating range through independent laboratory experiments
- Synthesize and justify the selection of power converter topologies and control strategies for specific applications (motor drives, renewable energy systems and power supplies) by comparing solutions based on performance, cost and reliability metrics.