Power Electronics

: On the completion of this course, students should be able to: 1. understand the principles of power control by switching; demonstrate the benefits of switched mode circuits; be familiarised with the commonly used semiconductor switching devices; 2. demonstrate a full understanding on several DC-DC converters; perform analysis on their operation principles; develop design equations for selecting their components; 3. be able to explain how the steady-state AC voltage and current are related to each other in power circuits using phasor analysis; 4. understand and be able to quantify active, reactive and apparent power; 5. comprehend the operation principles for several thyristors-based rectifiers; quantify the current harmonics and the average power drawn by a rectifier; and 6. understand the H-bridge based inverters and their several control methods; develop the skills in analysing the different modes of operations for the inverters; gain the understanding on how the power is delivered or absorbed by grid-connected inverters.

The basics of three-phase circuits, connections, voltage and current analysis and real and reactive power calculations; the fundamentals of electricity conversion from the form supplied by the source to the forms required by the load; power electronic conversion techniques, including the basic converters (DC-DC, AC-DC and DC-AC) and their power switching and control methods; the methods of circuit analysis applicable to switched mode circuits; essential properties of the relevant semiconductor devices; simple converters for practical applications. Characteristics of power devices; DC-DC converters; AC Current, Voltage and Power; AC-DC converters and Inverters (DC-AC converters).