POWER ELECTRONICS

Source: Interactive Power Electronics Online Text

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, abbreviated as SCRs, led to the development of a new area of application called the power electronics. Prior to the introduction of SCRs, mercury-arc rectifiers 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, the application area spread to many fields such as drives, power supplies, aviation electronics, high frequency inverters and power electronics originated.

Main Task of Power Electronics

Rectification referring to conversion of ac voltage to dc voltage,

DC-to-AC conversion,

DC-to DC conversion and

AC-to-AC conversion.

Electronic Power Converter

• 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, and
• Cycloconverter and cycloinverter converting an ac voltage to another ac voltage.