Power electronics

Application of electronic circuits to energy conversion is known as power electronics. Power electronics deals with power processing at the highest possible efficiency using a very small control signal. Here power semiconductor devices are operated as switches. A power electronic circuit which converts voltage and current from one another is known as converter. A power processor is comprised of two converters. Each converter is composed of one or more semiconductor switching devices and energy storing elements like inductors and capacitors. More than one stage of power conversion is possible in power processors. Converters usually employ switches to make a connection between the source of power and load. Some semiconductor devices used in power electronics are power diodes, silicon controlled rectifiers (SCR), light activated SCR (LASCR), Triode AC semiconductor switch (TRIAC), power bipolar junction transistor, power MOSFETs, insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), gate turn off thyristor, static induction thyristor and MOS controlled thyristor. Different types of power electronics circuits are rectifier, AC voltage controller, inverter, chopper, cycloconverter and static switching circuits. A few merits of power electronic converters are high efficiency, compactness, possibility of implementation of sophisticated algorithms and fine control of high speed motors.