Subject Overview

An advanced study of power semiconductor devices, converter topologies, modeling, control, design, applications and lifecycle management. The subject integrates classical conversion principles with wide-bandgap devices, renewable energy, electrified transport, digital control, AI-enabled diagnostics, standards, sustainability and emerging power-electronic grids.

Learning Goal

Students will be able to analyze, model, design, control, simulate, implement and critically evaluate power-electronic systems; select appropriate devices and topologies; address power quality, reliability, safety, economics and governance; and make strategic engineering decisions for contemporary industrial and energy applications.

Syllabus

1. Power Electronics Foundations and Energy Conversion

Learning Objective: Explain power conversion principles, converter classifications, switching functions, waveforms, steady-state power calculations, harmonics, efficiency, power density and the roles of passive components and magnetic circuits.

Category: foundation

2. Power Semiconductor Devices and Characteristics

Learning Objective: Analyze diodes, thyristors, GTOs, BJTs, MOSFETs, IGBTs, silicon-carbide and gallium-nitride devices using static, dynamic, loss and safe-operating-area models; compare devices for voltage, current, frequency and thermal requirements.

Category: foundation

3. Gate Drives, Protection, Thermal Design and Packaging

Learning Objective: Design isolated gate drives, dead-time and commutation circuits; apply snubbers, clamps and overcurrent protection; calculate junction temperatures; and evaluate cooling, insulation, parasitics, packaging and layout.

Category: core

4. Line-Commutated and AC–AC Converters

Learning Objective: Analyze single- and three-phase diode and thyristor rectifiers, controlled rectification, AC voltage controllers, cycloconverters and matrix converters, including overlap, source inductance, harmonics, power factor and regeneration.

Category: core

5. Non-Isolated and Isolated DC–DC Converters

Learning Objective: Derive operating modes and design equations for buck, boost, buck–boost and derived converters; analyze CCM, DCM and boundary operation; and design flyback, forward, push-pull, half-bridge and full-bridge isolated converters.

Category: core

6. Inverters and Pulse-Width Modulation

Learning Objective: Analyze voltage- and current-source inverters; apply square-wave, sinusoidal, selective-harmonic-elimination, space-vector and discontinuous PWM; evaluate dead-time, common-mode voltage, harmonics and DC-link utilization.

Category: core

7. Resonant, Soft-Switching and Multilevel Conversion

Learning Objective: Evaluate resonant tanks, ZVS, ZCS, LLC and phase-shifted converters; analyze neutral-point-clamped, flying-capacitor, cascaded H-bridge and modular multilevel converters for high-frequency, medium-voltage and high-power applications.

Category: advanced

8. Dynamic Modeling and Control of Converters

Learning Objective: Develop switched, state-space-averaged, small-signal and discrete-time models; design voltage-, current- and power-control loops; assess stability, impedance interactions, bifurcation and digital-control effects using classical and modern control methods.

Category: advanced

9. Power Quality, Active Filtering, FACTS and HVDC

Learning Objective: Quantify harmonics, reactive power, flicker and electromagnetic interference; design power-factor correction and active filters; and evaluate STATCOM, SVC, UPFC, HVDC and modular multilevel solutions against grid-code requirements.

Category: application

10. Electrical Drives and Transportation Electrification

Learning Objective: Apply converters to DC, induction, synchronous, permanent-magnet and switched-reluctance drives; examine field-oriented and direct-torque control, regenerative braking, traction inverters, onboard chargers and vehicle-to-grid operation.

Category: application

11. Renewable Energy, Storage, Microgrids and Grid-Forming Control

Learning Objective: Design interfaces for solar, wind, batteries, fuel cells and hybrid storage; implement MPPT, battery management and bidirectional conversion; and compare grid-following, grid-forming, droop, virtual-inertia and microgrid control strategies.

Category: contemporary

12. Digital Implementation, Simulation and Validation

Learning Objective: Implement converter control using DSPs, microcontrollers, FPGAs and real-time platforms; address sampling, quantization, delays and firmware architecture; and use circuit simulation, co-simulation, rapid prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop testing.

Category: application

13. Reliability, EMC, Safety and Standards

Learning Objective: Apply reliability physics, mission-profile analysis, lifetime prediction, derating, FMEA and condition monitoring; design for EMC, insulation coordination and functional safety; and interpret relevant IEC, IEEE, UL and grid-interconnection standards.

Category: strategic

14. Intelligent Design, Diagnostics and Digital Transformation

Learning Objective: Use optimization, digital twins, data analytics and AI for converter sizing, predictive maintenance, anomaly detection and adaptive control; evaluate data quality, explainability, cybersecurity and the limitations of AI in safety-critical power systems.

Category: contemporary

15. System Engineering, Economics, Governance and Emerging Directions

Learning Objective: Make topology and technology decisions using lifecycle cost, efficiency, reliability, supply-chain and sustainability metrics; manage technical risk, compliance and ethical impacts; and assess solid-state transformers, MVDC systems, wireless power, integrated power modules and future power-electronic-dominated grids.

Category: strategic