Advance Power Electronics

Spring 2022
Introduction to
Power Electronics
Assistant Professor
DR. ABDUR REHMAN
rehmanmstel@gmail.com

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 Power Quality [PQ]
 The waveform of electric power at generation stage is purely
sinusoidal and free from any distortion.
 It determines the fitness of a power supply system.
 Mainly deals with continuity of supply and quality of
voltage.
Power Quality Problems
 Any problem that causes voltage, current or frequency deviations in
the supply and may result in failure or mal-operation of end-user
equipment
• Any significant deviation in :-
 Magnitude or frequency of voltage
/current
 Wave shaping of voltage /current

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 Power System Issues
Disturbance/Issue Description
Voltage magnitude decreases to less than 10% of its
Interruption nominal value (up to 3 seconds duration)

A decrease in RMS ac voltage less than 90% at the power

frequency (longer than 1 min duration)
Under Voltage

Increase in RMS ac voltage greater than 110% at the power

Over Voltage frequency (lasting longer than one min).

A reduction in RMS voltage over a range of 0.1-0.9 p.u. for

Voltage Sag duration of one-half cycle to one minute.
[Dip]

An increase in RMS voltage over a range of 1.1-1.8 p.u. for

duration of one-half cycle to one minute.
Voltage swell
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 Power System Issues (Contd)
Disturbance/ Description
Issue
Systematic variations of the voltage to a value between 0.9 to 1.1
Flicker p.u. Continuous and rapid variations in the load
  current magnitude which causes voltage variations .

Deviation in magnitude of voltage/current of any one or two of the

Unbalance three phases.
   
Power interruption/power failure/blackout (for not exceeding 60
Outage seconds duration)
   
Sudden/abrupt rise (change) of a signal (lasting less than 16 milli
Transients seconds)
 
Non-sinusoidal wave forms
Harmonics -sinusoidal voltages having frequency that are integer multiples of
the fundamental frequency (usually 50 or 60 Hz)
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 POWER ELECTRONICS (Definition)

Power Electronics is the branch of electronics which uses electronic circuits in controlling
the flow of electrical energy.
Basically Power Electronics is a hybrid field which merges the field of electrical power
systems and solid state electronic devices  such as Thyristors, IGBT(insulated-gate bipola
transistor), SCRs( silicon controlled rectifier ) utilizing their ability to act as very fast
switches.
The main application of Power Electronic circuits are in energy converters.
Electronics deals with transmission of information/signals in the form of electrical
energy. Whereas power electronics deals with transmission of electrical energy
itself.
Some examples of uses for power electronic systems are DC/DC converters used in many mobile

devices, such as cell phones or PDAs{ A PDA is a small mobile device that commonly has a

hardware keyboard and no touch screen}, and AC/DC converters in computers and televisions.

Large scale power electronics are used to control hundreds of megawatt of power flow across our

nation.

 Rapid growth of Power Electronics is due to:

– Advances in power (semiconductor) switches
–Advances in microelectronics (DSP(Digital Signal Processors), VLSI(very large
scale integration) (the process of creating an integrated circuit (IC) by combining
thousands of transistors into a single chip), microprocessor /microcontroller)
– New ideas in control algorithms
– Demand for new applications
Scale of Integration
 Comparison: PE & Signal Processing
Power Electronics —
- The focus is on power conversion at the highest possible efficiency
using very small control signals.
-Semiconductor devices work as switches.
-Power handled may range from a few watts to several mega-watts.
In Signal Processing —
- Semiconductor devices generally work as controlled sources in the
linear region of their characteristics.[Between cutoff and saturation along the
load line is the active region of the BJT or also known as linear region. For the BJT to
operate in the active region, the condition is that the base-emitter junction should be
forward-biased while the base- collector junction is reverse-biased].

-The focus is on information processing with minimum loss of

information.
- Power handled will be of the order of few milli-watts or few watts.
POWER PROCESSOR
 History of PE
188:
Classification of Power Electronic Devices

 The diode in which the intrinsic layer of high resistivity is sandwiched between the P
and N-region of semiconductor material such type of diode is known as the PIN diode.
The Schottky Diod
 The Schottky Diode is a type of metal-semiconductor diode having a low forward
voltage drop and a very fast switching speed
Classification by Control

GTO(Gate Turn Off Thyristor)

IGCT(Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor]

A half controlled rectifier (full bridge) can only control power flow in a

single quadrant. A full-controlled rectifier uses SCR's for all control
elements - 4 in a single phase bridge, 6 in a three-phase bridge. Full
controlled rectifiers can control power in quadrants 1 and 2.
• Pulse width trigger allows triggering on positive or negative pulses shorter or longer than a specified
time. To trigger on a pulse, the scope uses two levels to determine the flanks of the pulse the same
way as rising and falling edge triggers.(FF)
• In the sequential circuit, if the output changes during the high voltage period or low voltage period, it
is called level triggering. In other words, the output changes during either high voltage or low voltage
period- not during the edges like in edge triggering.(Latches)
• A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes
as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor, uses only one
kind of charge carrier.
 Devices under Categories

Current driven(current controlled)devices

Thyristor, GTO(Gate turn-off thyristor) ,GTR (Giant transistor )
Voltage-driven(voltage-controlled) devices:
(Field-Controlled Devices):power MOSFET(Metal-Oxide
Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors),IGBT(insulated-gate
bipolar transistor), SIT(Static induction
transistor) ,SITH,MCT(MOS-controlled thyristor,
IGCT(integrated gate-commutated thyristor).
Pulse triggered devices: thyristor, GTO(Gate turn-off thyristor)

Level-sensitive(Level-Triggered) devices:
GTR power, SITH, MCT, IGCT
Uni-polar devices(Majority carrier devices):
SBD(Schottky barrier diode), power MOSFET, SIT
Bipolar devices(Minority carrier devices):
Ordinary power diode, thyristor, GTO, GTR, IGCT, IGBT, SITH, MCT
Composite devices: IGBT, SITH , MCT
(General Purpose/Standard Diode)

A unijunction transistor is a three-lead

electronic semiconductor device with
only one junction that acts exclusively
as an electrically controlled switch. 
(METAL-OXIDE SEMICONDUCTOR FIELD
EFFECT TRANSISTORS).
Static Induction Transistor (SIT)
An Static Induction Transistor (SIT) is a high-power high-frequency device and is
essentially the solid state version of triode vacuum tube. It was commercially
introduced by Tokin Corp, Japan, in 1987

• High frequency high power vacuum triode-like device (1500 V, 180 A)

• Switching speed faster than MOSFET (Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect
Transistors), (tON = 0.35μs,tOFF = 0.35μs)
• Lower gate-to-source capacitance and resistance
• SOA (safe operating area) limited by Tj
• Easy paralleling of devices
• Not good for general PE applications
THYRISTORS
MCT (MOS-Controlled Thyristor)
IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor) is an improvement over a BJT (Bipolar Junction
Transistor) using a MOSFET (Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors), to
switch on or switch off the anode current. Similarly, MCT (MOS-controlled thyristor) is an
improvement over a thyristor with a pair of MOS FETs to switch the current. There are
several devices in the MCT’s family but the p-channel is commonly preferred.
 COMMUTATION
• Commutation of SCR (silicon controlled rectifier) is defined as the process of
turning off an SCR / Thyristor. It is the process by which an SCR or thyristor
is brought to OFF state from ON state. We know that, an SCR is turned on by
applying a gate signal to a forward biased SCR

 The process of the current flowing through the thyristor is forced to

become zero by external circuitry is called as forced commutation.

 Natural or Line commutation is an  SCR (silicon controlled rectifier)

commutation technique in which, a thyristor is turned off due
to natural current zero and voltage reversal after every half cycle. This
commutation method is only applicable for AC circuit and mostly used
in Phase-Controlled Converters, Line-Commutated Inverters, AC
voltage controllers and Step-down cycloconverters. The commutation
of SCR does not involve any external circuit. SCR is commutated just
because of the natural reversal of AC load current and source voltage,
this is the reason it is called Natural Commutation.
1. Uncontrolled turn on and off(Power Diode)
2. Controlled turn on uncontrolled turn off(Thyristor).
3. Controlled turn on and off characteristics (Power Transistor, BJT(Bipolar Junction
Transistor) ,MOSFET(Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors),GTO(Gate
turn-off thyristor) ,IGBT(insulated-gate bipolar transistor)
4. Continuous gate signal requirement (BJT(Bipolar Junction Transistor)
,MOSFET(Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors),IGBT(insulated-gate
bipolar transistor)
5. Pulse gate requirement (SCR(silicon controlled rectifier) ,GTO(Gate turn-off thyristor))
6. Bipolar voltage-withstanding capability (SCR(silicon controlled rectifier) ,GTO(Gate
turn-off thyristor))
7. Unipolar voltage-withstanding capability(BJT(Bipolar Junction Transistor) ,MOSFET
(Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors),GTO(Gate turn-off Thyristor)
,IGBT(insulated-gate bipolar transistor))
8. Bidirectional current capacity (TRIAC: Triode for Alternating Current)
9. Unidirectional current capacity (SCR(silicon controlled rectifier) ,GTO(Gate turn-off
thyristor),BJT(Bipolar Junction Transistor) ,MOSFET(Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field
Effect Transistors),IGBT(insulated-gate bipolar transistor))
Types of Converters
 (Short burst of light)

1 horsepower equals 746 watts

A hot tub is a large tub of heated water that people often use
for relaxation, hydrotherapy, or simply for fun

SMES is a large superconducting coil capable

of storing electric. energy in the magnetic field
generated by dc current flowing. through it 
-Turns On – Off in zero time.
-ON state, Zero voltage drop, High current.
-OFF state, Zero current flow. Withstand high voltage.
-Zero power dissipation.
-Little power for controlling.
-High reliability.
-Small size and weight.
-No maintenance
 Advantages
-High efficiency
-High reliability
-Long life and less maintenance
-Fast dynamic response
-Small size and less weight & cost.

Drawbacks of Power Electronics

-Harmonics generating tendency

-Power regeneration is difficult
-Low overload capacity.
AC – DC & AC – AC converters operate at low i/p power factors.
APPLICATIONS
-Industrial

-Transportation

-Utility systems

-Power supplies for all kinds of electronic equipment

-Residential and home appliances

-Space technology

-Other applications
 Sector wise Applications
 Industrial applications  Residential and home appliances
Motor drives Lighting
Electrolysis Heating
Electroplating Air conditioning
Induction heating Refrigeration & freezers
Cooking
Cleaning
 Transportation applications
Trains & locomotives
Subways
Trolley buses
Magnetic levitation
Electric vehicles
Automotive electronics
 Sector wise Applications
 Utility systems
High-voltage dc transmission(HVDC)
Flexible ac transmission(FACTS)
Static VAR (volt-ampere reactive)
compensation & harmonics suppression:
TCR (Thyristor controlled reactor), TSC
(thyristor-switched capacitor), SVG
(Static VAR (volt-ampere reactive)  Other Applications
Generator), APF(Active power filters)
Nuclear reactor control
Custom power & power quality control
Power systems for particle
 Power supplies for all kinds of accelerators
electronic equipment
Environmental engineering
Telecommunications
Computers
Office equipment
Electronic instruments
Major Issues of Concern in Power Electronics
END