Good power electronics

Lecture 1. Introduction to power electronics A good power electronic circuit generally dissipates (or wastes) much less
power than it outputs.
In this lecture:
• What and Why • Ideal and real components Counter-example: a bad power electronic circuit
• Power electronics: Major • Inductors and capacitors store energy Figure 1 (right): a 230V AC
applications • Harmonics in power supplies source supplying power, via
10kΩ 0-12 VAC
a resistor network (including
What and Why 230 VAC 40 W
a dimmer switch), to a light
bulb. The dimmer switch
• Power electronics is the design of electronic circuits to control the flow of 0-500Ω (the potentiometer) allows
energy.
the voltage across the light
• Electrical energy is consumed differently by different appliances, e.g. bulb to be varied between 0
Figure 1. A 230V AV supply outputs power to a 12V V and about 12 V.
o 5V or 12V D.C.: e.g. domestic equipment (like P.C.s, TVs etc.) light bulb -- but how much power is wasted?
o Variable DC high-voltage: e.g. electric trains
o Variable frequency AC: e.g. variable-speed A.C. machines Question 1.1: What proportion of the total power drawn is
• These appliances need to be supplied correctly. Power electronics can dissipated (uselessly) in the resistors? [If you have problems
perform the conversion from what’s available (e.g. 230VAC) to what’s working out the answer yourself, take it to the online forum!]
needed (e.g. 12V D.C.)
Good power electronics maximizes the power to the load, and minimizes the
• So power electronic circuits take electrical power in one form as input, and power wasted.
output the power in another form.
EE301 GB01 page 1 EE301 GB01 page 2

Major applications of power electronics

1 Conversion to D.C. Ideal and real components
In circuit theory, we deal with ideal components, e.g.
• Most consumer electronics need a stable low voltage DC supply – very
little variation in supply voltage An ideal switch:
1. Switch closed: Rswitch=0, Vswitch = 0 (looks like a short circuit)
• Power requirements can be huge; e.g. PCs need more than 300W ! 2. Switch open: Rswitch=∞, Iswitch = 0 (looks like an open circuit)
• They need In the real world, however, components are not quite perfect: e.g.
A real switch:
o AC-to-DC converters
1. Switch closed: Rswitch > 0 very small, so Vswitch >0 causes small V2/R
o DC-to-DC converters (one D.C. level to another) power loss.
2. Switch open: Rswitch<∞, so Iswitch > 0 causes small I2R power loss.
2 Conversion to A.C.
We can’t always ignore S rs
• AC motors are efficient, powerful and easy to maintain – especially big the imperfections – a
ones tiny resistance in a
switch, for example,
• Controlling their speed required a variable-frequency AC power source can waste a lot of Real Ideal Tiny
= +
power! switch switch resistance
• Power electronics can create an A.C. signal at any desired frequency,
Figure 2. We can model real components by combining
to power A.C. machines at any desired speed. This D.C.-A.C. process ideal components that have the same effect
is called AC inversion.
EE301 GB01 page 3 EE301 GB01 page 4
Inductors and capacitors store energy Harmonics in Power supplies
Many of the circuits we will come across contain capacitors and inductors. Harmonic distortion
Capacitors and inductors are energy storage devices, which must not be
energized indefinitely! A circuit that energizes a capacitor or inductor must • Most poser supplies are polluted with higher-frequency components
allow it to de-energize again. (called harmonics).

• They can degrade the performance of the devices powered in many

ways, for example
1A 1A o Mains hum from an amplifier
1 µH 1 µF o High-frequency spikes in a supply to a microprocessor cause
incorrect digital transitions
o AC generators produce an imperfect sine wave
(a) (b)
• So unwanted harmonics can be minimized, but never completely
+ + avoided
9V 1 µF 9V 1 mH
• Practically all periodic signals (voltages, currents, vibrations of any sort)
- -
can be represented as a sum of sine waves called harmonics.
(c) (d)
• Each harmonic’s frequency is an integer multiple of the base frequency.
Figure 3. Sources, capacitors and inductors. Which are unstable? The amplitude of each harmonic affects the shape of the signal.
Question 1.2: Which of the circuits of Figure 3 above are unstable?
Remember how current and voltage are related in each component. If you
have problems, hit the discussion forum.
EE301 GB01 page 5 EE301 GB01 page 6

Example: a sinusoidal signal Example: two sinusoidal signals

v(t)=Vmsinωt v0(t)=Vmsinωt v1(t)=½Vmsinωt
Vm Vm
Vm t (ms) t (ms)

20 40 20 40

20 40 60 80 t (ms)

v(t)=v0(t)+v1(t)
P/P0 Vm
t (ms)
0 dB
20 40 60 80 100

P/P0

0 50 100 150 200 f (Hz) 0 dB

Figure 4. A pure sine wave has one harmonic. 0 50 100 150 200 f (Hz)

Figure 4 shows a pure sinusoidal voltage, and its frequency spectrum. This is Figure 5. A signal composed of two sine waves
a graph of the power in the signal at different frequencies.
The voltage in the example above is composed of two harmonics – the
Remember: The powers in each harmonic are usually measured relative to fundamental (at 50 Hz) and the first harmonic (at 100 Hz).
the power in dB (decibels) of the fundamental frequency (sometimes called
the zeroth harmonic).
Question 1.3. Calculate the power (in dB) of the first harmonic,
relative to the fundamental.
EE301 GB01 page 7 EE301 GB01 page 8
Example: a square-wave signal Example: a rectified sinusoidal signal
v(t)=|Vmsinωt|
Vm
Vm

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16

0 20 40 60 80 t (ms)
Time (s)
P/P0 P/P0
0 dB 0 dB

0 200 400 600 800 1000 f (Hz)

Frequency (Hz)
0 100 200 300 400
Figure 6. A square wave has an infinite number of odd harmonics
Figure 7. A rectified sinusoidal voltage
• The square wave of Figure 6 has (ideally) an infinite number of odd
harmonics, at odd multiples of the fundamental frequency (1,3,5, …). • The rectified sine wave (Figure 7 above) is derived from a sinusoidal
signal – the negative parts of the sinusoidal signal are made positive.
• These higher harmonics are quite powerful compared to the
fundamental, and correspond to the hard transitions (the sharp corners) • Its frequency spectrum shows a very strong fundamental frequency and
in the square-wave signal. lots of higher-order even harmonics – but their powers are very small,
and get smaller with increasing frequency.
Question. What is the period of the signal of Figure 6? What is the
Question: What is the fundamental frequency of the rectified
fundamental frequency? What are the odd harmonic frequencies?
sinusoid in Figure 7? What is the frequency of the sine wave that
created it?
EE301 GB01 page 9 EE301 GB01 page 10

Harmonics cause trouble!

Example:
• A switched power electronic circuit handles 1000W
• Switching in the circuit at 25kHz causes harmonics up beyond 250kHz!
• At this frequency, wires can act as antennae.
• Result: a very powerful accidental radio!

In the following lecture we will see ways of measuring the quality of a

signal, and some ways to minimize harmonic distortion.

END OF LECTURE
EE301 GB01 page 11