Power electronics technology is an emerging electronic technology applied in the field of power, which uses power electronic devices (such as thyristors, GTOs, IGBTs, etc.) to transform and control electrical energy. The power generated by power electronics technology can be as high as hundreds of MW or even GW, or as low as several W or even below 1W. Unlike information electronics technology, which mainly focuses on information processing, power electronics technology is mainly used for power conversion.
Power electronic technology is divided into two branches: power electronic device manufacturing technology and converter technology (rectification, inversion, chopping, frequency conversion, and conversion).
It has become an indispensable foundational course in modern electrical engineering and automation, and plays an important role in cultivating talents in this field.
The name Power Electronics emerged in the 1960s. In 1974, W. in the United States Newell described power electronics using an inverted triangle (as shown in Figure 1), stating that it was formed by the intersection of three disciplines: electricity, electronics, and control theory. This viewpoint is widely accepted worldwide. "Power Electronics" and "Power Electronics Technology" are referred to from two different perspectives: academic and engineering.
It is generally believed that the birth of power electronics technology was marked by the first thyristor developed by General Electric in 1957. The concept and foundation of power electronics technology were established due to the development of thyristors and thyristor converter technology. Previously, there were electronic technologies used for power conversion, so the period before the emergence of thyristors can be referred to as the prehistoric or dawn period of power electronics technology. In the late 1970s, fully controlled devices represented by gate turnable thyristors (GTOs), power bipolar transistors (BJTs), and power MOSFETs developed rapidly (the characteristic of fully controlled devices is that they can be turned on and off by controlling both the gate and base of the gate). The appearance of power electronics technology has been revitalized and entered a new stage of development. In the late 1980s, composite devices represented by insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs can be seen as a combination of MOSFETs and BJTs) had low driving power, fast switching speed, low on state voltage drop, greater current carrying capacity, and superior performance, making them the main conductive devices in modern power electronics technology. In order to make the structure of power electronic devices compact and reduce their volume, several power electronic devices and necessary auxiliary devices are often made into modules. Later, drive, control, protection circuits, and power devices are integrated together to form a power integrated circuit (PIC). The power of PIC is still relatively small, but this represents an important direction for the development of power electronics technology.
