POWER ELECTRONICS

Power Electronics is the technology associated with efficient conversion, control and conditioning of electric power from its available input into the desired electrical output form.

Power Electronics also refers to the research and developments in electrical and electronics engineering – dealing in the design, development and integration of components, devices, equipment’s and systems for the process of electricity and its application.

The very first power electronic component were the mercury valves. The modern power electronic components are the semiconductor switching devices such as diodes, thyristors, transistors, mosfets, IGBT etc.

An AC to DC converter (also called rectifier), DC to AC converter (also called inverter), DC to DC and AC to AC converters are the primary and most basic power electronic device.

Power electronics has found an important place in modern technology being a core of power and energy control. Almost all the new electrical and electromechanical – gadget, appliance and or equipment contain power electronics circuits. The power levels encountered in this field range from less than one watt in supplies for the battery-operated portable equipment to tens, hundreds, or thousands of watts in power units of office equipment, kilowatts to megawatts in variable-speed motor drives, approaching megawatts in the rectifiers and inverters that interface the local transmission lines with the high power systems.