Empowering Tomorrow: Illuminating the Path of the Power Electronics Market in 2024 – Energizing Innovation, Electrifying Progress, and Powering Dreams!

What types of electronic power circuits are available in the power electronics market?

Power electronics is a field of electrical engineering that manages the processing of currents and high voltages to deliver power that supports a variety of requirements.  Control mechanisms and power semiconductors process power supply from one form to another, supplying controlled and regulated power. Power electronics market is providing various control applications with precise control and efficiency like electrical motors, mechanical actuators, and control systems.

Importance of power electronics:

Apart from power production, power processing plays an important role in the efficient utilization of available power. It is necessary that raw power must be converted to usable form for different applications. Power electronics play a vital role in providing power based on desired criteria. The basic application which displays the significance of power electronics in our daily lives is fan regulator. To control the speed of a fan, the AC mains voltage is passed from a resistor which is connected in a series with the fan. So, at the time when a fan is on, there is a continuous power indulgence in the series resistor. Research and development activities have come up with more advanced and innovative ways to control the motors and fans, in general, by controlling frequency and voltage. This is possible with the use of power semiconductor devices.

In space applications, weight, size, and reliability are important parameters. If we manage power at a low frequency, transformers and energy storage elements take up a large amount of space. With switching converters that operate at high frequencies, size of the energy storage is significantly reduced. The size of these elements is inversely proportional to varying frequencies. Hence, devices with low switching times help to decrease the overall weight and size of systems.

State-of-the-art power electronics devices can manage power from a few watts to numerous megawatts, enabling reliable and efficient interfaces between raw and regulated power. Therefore, the industry is substituting hydraulic and mechanical actuators with electric motors, which power electronic interfaces can handle precisely.

What are electronic circuits in power electronics?

Electronic circuits are used to control the switches in power electronic systems. Circuits play a vital role in minimizing losses by delivering efficient and high-quality power to different applications. The control block in the power electronic system gets feedback and reference signals as input and provides switching signals as outputs. Electronic circuits act as an input and output controller. There are various types of power converters based on application type. Based on power source there are two main power sources alternating current and direct current. This forms four common types of power electronic circuits described below:

• AC to DC Converters: Convert AC voltage to output DC voltage at required levels using a diode bridge rectifier. This configuration generates high harmonic content. Boost converters demonstrate currents in phase with AC voltage.
• DC to DC Converters: Transform regulated or unregulated DC voltage into regulated DC power. It is very difficult to produce variable DC power without using power electronics converters. DC power levels at the desired stage have become indispensable with the availability of various configurations. Boost, buck, and buck-boost converters represent three general converters utilized for stepping down, stepping up, and providing both stages respectively.
• DC to AC Converters (commonly known as inverters): Inverters convert input DC power from batteries into AC power, which efficiently and precisely controls AC motors. In high-power transmission systems, inverters facilitate grid connections.
• AC to AC converters (commonly known as cyclo-converters): Convert the variable magnitude and frequency of the AC input to produce an AC output with regulated frequency and magnitude. The popular application of these converters is wind power generation. The output of wind power generators varies in both frequency and magnitude depending on wind speed. To attach this power to the load or grid, the frequency and voltage require regulation. This capability is provided by the AC-to-AC converters.