Introduction to Power Electronics and Status Review (2014)

This course note presents the introduction of power electronics for beginners. Some selected applications are addressed and recent development status in selected areas are introduced. Power electronics is a synergy technology for electrical power processing and conversion to achieve high efficiency, high power density, high reliability, modularity, and low cost. The core of a power electronic system is a switching power converter. The switching of voltage and current will result switching losses which are proportional to its switching frequency. The average power is the purpose of the switching converter, however, it will also introduce the conduction losses. Higher switching frequency can reduce the size of passive energy storage components, however, it will also increase the switching losses. The design and manufacturing of a power electronic equipment involves compromises between many consideration factors. This course note presents an overview of power electronics for the beginning of further study.