ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview and basic understanding of various power electronics devices: rectifiers, inverters, direct current-to-Direct current choppers, cycloconverters, pulse width modulation-based voltage source converters, and current source inverters. Power electronics is the application of solid-state electronics for the control and conversion of electric power. Power electronic converters can be found wherever there is a need to modify a form of electrical energy. Power semiconductor devices are semiconductor devices used as switches in power electronic circuits. With the improvements brought about by metal–oxide–semiconductor technology, power metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFET) became available in the late 1970s. Some common power devices are the power diode, thyristor, power MOSFET, and insulated gate bipolar transistor. A power diode or MOSFET operates on similar principles to its low-power counterpart but is able to carry a larger amount of current and typically is able to support a larger reverse-bias voltage in the off state.
