Advanced Power Electronics Applications

The dynamic revolution of power electronics in this era is due to the advancements in power semiconductor devices which lead to use the power electronics technology in several key areas. This impact has been bought with the use of newly improved or modern power electronic devices and advanced control techniques.

The power electronics system is popular among several areas like AC and DC regulated power supplies, electrical machine drives, static var compensation, power filtering, induction heating, etc. Compared with conventional semiconductor switches, power electronic devices give highly efficient switching with lower power loss. We are encouraging you to know how the power electronics product comes from 1970’s to 2014.

Consider an inverter circuit with conventional transistors, a high voltage drop across the transistor raises power loss which further increases heat across it, so, it is not efficient and not economical. With advent of MOSFETs, digital IC’s inverter circuit which is being followed today reduces the power losses at greater extent but, it is also not much efficient. Further, advanced microcontroller or microprocessor driven MOSFET’s is the latest and most efficient technology compared to older technologies. IGBT”s can handle much better voltages than MOSFET so, in a few applications IGBTs are used in inverters.

Thus, trends in power electronics facilitates better processing of electrical power, which eventually leads to be suitable for several applications. These applications include power systems, renewable energy systems, modern power electronic drives and equipment’s and other industrial applications.

Here we gathered opinions from a few experts, which reveal some application advancements of power electronics and can enhance the reader’s awareness regarding the advance power electronics applications.

Ch. Sampath Kumar
M.tech (VLSI System Design), B.tech(E.C.E)
Technical Content Writer

The applications of Power electronics play an increasingly vital role in the advance technologies. One of the main application of power electronics is cost-effective N-channel enhancement-mode power MOSFETs, which offers a fast switching performance.

Viswanath Prathap
M.Tech (EPE), B.Tech (EEE)
Technical Content Writer

The advancement in power electronics devices or technology integrated its applications. The power electronics devices find applications in switch mode power supply, battery chargers, variable frequency drives, DC motor drives, HVDC transmission systems, and so on. Even in the mobile phones the power electronics devices such as DC/DC converters are used for maintaining the fixed voltage value irrespective of the battery voltage levels. Similarly, AC/DC converters are used as rectifiers, DC/AC converters are used as inverters. The hybrid electric vehicles, electric trains (power electronics in automotive applications) are also designed using power electronics devices.