1-1

Chapter 1: Introduction

What is power electronics?

Power electronics is the application of electronics for high power conversion and
control, including control of machine drives. There are four types of power
conversion

Conversion from/to
AC/DC

Circuit name
Rectifier

DC/DC

Chopper
Switch mode
regulators
Inverter

DC/AC

AC/AC

Cycloconverter
AC-PAC
Matrix
Converter

Function
AC to DC
voltage/current
Constant to variable
DC or variable to
constant DC
DC to AC of
desired voltage and
frequency
AC of desired
frequency and
magnitude from the
line

Chapter
2

These converters must also have very low loss. The reason for this requirement is
explained later.

First let us see typical power consumption by electrical equipment in a country.

Fig.1.Percentage of electricity consumption by various sectors in USA

(from teaching slides by Ned Mohan)

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Some applications of power electronics (from teaching slides by Ned Mohan)

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Sustainability Issues and Power Electronics

Worlds energy consumption is growing. Cars burn oil producing carbon dioxide. So
it is suggested that they be replaced with electric vehicles. We of course have power
electronics applications in these vehicles. But simply replacing internal combustion
engines with electric motors will not help as much of the electricity is generated by
burning fossil fuels. One obvious way to reduce or energy consumption is to make our
equipment more efficient, i.e. reduce losses in these equipment. One example is the
tungsten bulb used in lighting. These bulbs produce more heat than light. USA for
example has decreed that the sale of these lamps will be discontinued. Their near
replacement will be compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) which are more energy
efficient (more light per watt) than tungsten bulbs. In the not so near future they will
be replaced by even more efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs). CFLs require high
frequency (above 20kHz) supply which is provided by an AC-AC converter with
mains input. LEDs require small DC voltages. Once again an AC-DC converter is
needed. Note that simply using more efficient lighting does not save energy unless
their drive electronics are highly efficient. So the power electronic circuits have to be
highly efficient.
In Fig.1, it is not surprising the IT equipment is a substantial power consumer. This is
not surprising considering the number of computers and the power hungry data
centres. Here again, energy efficient power electronics helps. In fact our PCs already
employ power electronic AC DC conversion (switch mode regulators). In fact,
many other equipment can be fitted with power electronic circuits to reduce
consumption.
Another way to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels is to use renewables
(eg.solar, wind, wave, geothermal). The electricity generated must be converted to
high voltages for power transmission as higher voltage reduces loss in the power
lines. Here again efficient power electronic converters are needed. Moreover, the
frequency for wind and wave systems may vary, This problem is solved by using
power electronic converters which can maintain a constant frequency output for AC
transmission. Currently power generation is highly centralized. With renewables,
power generation is expected to more distributed as customers premises will generate
electricity which can be sold to the utility. So, someday we will see the power
electronic converters in our homes. Again, the converter must be efficient.

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Applications where power requirements are to be minimized

These applications are in battery operated systems, such as robots and in satellites
where power is obtained from solar cells. In these systems, several DC voltages are
required to operate subsystems. The use of voltage regulator in these systems causes a
waste of power. It is easy to see why. Consider a voltage regulator used to obtain 5 V
from a 9 V battery, as shown in Fig.2. The voltage regulator is a linear circuit which
essentially operates by dropping the voltage across a series transistor. Suppose the
output current is 500 mA. Then the output power is 5X500 mw=2.5W . The voltage
drop in the series transistor is 4V and hence the power lost in the series transistor is
4X500 = 2W. The power input is 2.5+2=4.5W. The efficiency is 2/4.5 = 44.4%. If we
use a DC-DC converter, the efficiency is much higher. This means much lower loss
which will increase battery life.

Fig.2 Linear voltage regulator (adapted from Fig.1-2(a) of Mohan)

Types of switches
Power electronics circuits employ switches. The switches can be classified as follows:

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Assumptions for switches required for simplifying analysis

The switches are considered to be ideal. The ideal switch has the following
characteristics:
(1) When the switch is off, it can have any voltage across it. There is no
breakdown or leakage current.
(2) When the switch is on. The voltage across it is zero.
(3) Switches can be turned from OFF to ON or ON to OFF instantaneously. The
turn on and turn off times are zero.
(4) No power is needed to turn switches ON or OFF.
These three assumptions imply that there is no loss in switches. Once the basic circuit
is designed, we can estimate the switching losses analytically and obtain exact
waveforms and losses by simulation.
Free wheeling or commutating diode
Fig. 3(a) shows a half wave rectifier circuit with a resistive load. The diode D1
conducts for the positive half cycle of the AC input voltage In electronics, the voltage
ripple is reduced by a capacitor across the resistor. However, power loads are often
highly inductive. So a diode D2 is placed across the load as shown inFig.3(b). During
the positive half cycle, D2 is reverse biased and does not affect the circuit. However
during the negative half cycle when D1 is OFF, D2 turns ON to provide a path for the
inductor current which can not change suddenly. (see chapter on switched regulator).

Fig, 3(a)

Fig,3(b)

Fig.4 shows the diode current in the circuit of Fig.3(b) in the absence of D2.

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Fig.4
It is seen that the diode D1 conducts for more than half a cycle (1800). This can cause
the load voltage to be negative as shown in Fig,5.

Fig,5
With the diode D2 across the load, the D1 conducts for 1800). Thus the purpose of the
diode D2 is to make the diode turn OFF after the positive half cycle and also to
prevent a negative voltage across the load. The former is called commutation. So the
diode D2 is called a commutating diode. As the current free wheels through this
diode in the negative half cycle, it is also called a free wheeling diode. There are two
advantages of a free wheeling diode:
(1) Without the free wheeling diode, the average (DC) voltage is lower as the
diode is on during part of the negative half cycle
(2) The power factor is improved with a free wheeling diode.
Steady state in a power electronic circuit
Power electronic circuits use switches. So the waveforms are non-sinusoidal. So small
signal (linearized) AC analysis employed in electronics can not be used in general.
The steady state occurs when the waveforms repeat with a time period T that depends
on the specific nature of the circuit.

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Fourier series
Waveforms in power electronics circuits are periodic at steady state but not
sinusoidal, Thus a Fourier series analysis has to be carried out to find the average,
fundamental and harmonics.
The periodic wave form, say a voltage, V (t ) = V (t + T ), where t is time and T is the
time period. The frequency of the fundamental is f =1/T with the corresponding
angular frequency = 2f . = t has the dimension of angle in radians. It is then
more compact and neater to express the voltage as a function of , V ( ) . The
1
corresponding repetition angle is T = 2f = 2
f
We can express V ( ) in a Fourier series as:

a
(1)
V ( ) = 0 + (a n cos n + bn sin n )
2 n =1
Note that the first term a9 / 2 is the average value, n=1 gives the fundamental and the
rest are harmonics.
From known V ( ) . The coefficients are calculated from

an =

bn =

V ( ) cos n

d for n=0,1,2

(2)

d for n,1,2

(3)

V ( ) sin n
0

The cosine and sine terms for any n can be combined to obtain say a cosine function
bn
an
by writing
= sin .
= cos and
a n2 + bn2
a n2 + bn2
is then an angle given by

bn
an

= tan 1

and, a n cos n + bn sin n = a 2n + bn2 cos(n )

The series is often simplified due to symmetry.

(4)
(5)

Even symmetry, V ( ) = V ( )
In this case all sine terms are zero and the Fourier series simplifies to

a
V ( ) = 0 + (a n cos n )
2 n =1
Odd symmetry, V ( ) = V ( )
In this case all cosine terms are zero and the Fourier series simplifies to

(6)

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a0
(7)
V ( ) =
+ (a n sin n )
2 n =1
Note that the zero of the axis can be arbitrarily chosen. By suitably choosing this,
we can immediately tell by inspection if the waveform has even or odd symmetry.

Parsevals Theorem
2

1
a
(8)
V = 0 + a n2 + bn2
2 n =1
2
Electrical Engineers can remember this very easily by considering V ( ) to be the
2
voltage across a 1 ohm resistor. The power in the resistor is Vrms
/ 1 . The power
calculated from the RHS terms of the Fourier series is the sum of the powers
2
1
a0
calculated for each term, i.e., + a n2 + bn2 . The powers must be equal as
2 n =1
2
the same voltage is producing the power.
But each of the second term is the rms value of a harmonic. Thus we can write
2
rms

2
rms

a
2
= 0 + Vrms
n
2
n =1

(9)