Introduction to Power Electronics
- In the recent past, the power electronics has radically modernized the concept of power conversion and the control of electric motor drives. The word Power Electronics is a combination of three terms namely power, electronics and control.
- Power : Power is the term related with the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power.
- Electronics covers the solid state devices and circuits to process the signal for meeting certain control objectives.
- Control explains the steady state and dynamic characteristics of a closed loop control system.
- In short Power Electronics is defined the branch of solid state electronics which deals with the applications of the conversion and control of electric power.
- The relation between power,electronics, control and power electronics is shown in Figure.
Principle of Power Electronics
- Power electronics is based on the principle of switching of the power semiconductor devices. Power handling capacity and speed of switching are the two most important criterions related to the power devices.
- The microprocessors and microcontrollers are being used for control and for synthesizing the control strategies of the power semiconductor devices.
- In short power semiconductors act as muscles and microprocessors act as brain for a modern power electronics equipment.