Power Electronics

Power Electronics play an increasingly important role in the future energy landscape. The german Energiewende and increased flexibility of future transmission and distribution grids lead to new applications for Power Electronics. In addition to HVDC systems and renewable energy sources new developments also address low and medium voltage applications with enhanced features, efficiency and reliability. New circuit topologies and power semiconductors enable promising solutions to replace or enhance the performance of conventional systems.

The course will present the fundamentals of Power Electronics including the most important power semiconductors and basic circuit topologies. The students will have a solid understanding of DC/DC and DC/AC energy conversion systems.

The most commonly used power semiconductors will be introduced including their electrical and thermal behavior as well as packaging technologies. Furthermore DC/DC converters will be presented followed by an in-depth analysis of the transient behavior of power semiconductors during switching.

After introducing three-phase inverters the lecture will give an overview an various application examples. Selected topics will also be covered in exercises.

 

Basic knowledge of the principles of electrical networks is required.

 

- Introduction to Power Electronics
- Overview of Power Semiconductor Switches (Diodes, Thyristors, GTO, BJT, Mosfet)
- Drive and Snubber Circuits
- Structure of Power Module Packages
- Heat Transfer of Power Semiconductors
- DC-DC Switch-Mode Converters (Step-Down Converter, Step-Up Converter, Buck-Boost Converter, Flyback Converter)
- Line-Frequency Phase-Controlled Rectifiers and Inverters (Single-Phase, Three-Phase)
- High Voltage DC Transmission
- Switch-Mode Inverters (Single Phase, Three Phase)
- Concepts of Current Control in Swicht-Mode Inverters
- Variable Frequency Inverters