Power Electronics is the art of converting electrical energy from one form to another in an efficient, clean, compact, and robust manner for convenient utilisation.A passenger lift in a modern building equipped with a Variable-Voltage-Variable-Speed induction-machine drive offers a comfortable ride and stops exactly at the floor level. Behind the scene it consumes less power with reduced stresses on the motor and corruption of the utility mains.Silicon Controlled Rectifier was proposed by Bell Labs and commercially produced by General Electric in the earlier fifties. The Mercury Arc Rectifiers were well in use by that time and the robust and compact SCR first started replacing it in the rectifiers and cycloconverters. The necessity arose of extending the application of the SCR beyond the line-commutated mode of action, which called for external measures to circumvent its turn-off incapability via its control terminals. Various turn-off schemes were proposed and their classification was suggested but it became increasingly obvious that a device with turn-off capability was desirable, which would permit it a wider application.
- History of Power Semiconductor devices
- Power Diodes
- Silicon Controlled Rectifier
- Thyristors In Power electronics
- Power electronic devices and classification
- Power Converter Topologies
- Base / gate drive circuit
- Protection of Power devices and converters