The high quality of power electronics is provided by using efficient components that form a basis for a secure power electronics system. Let’s talk about the main power electronics units you need to use for creating a top-notch power electronics product. For implementing these functionalities, you need to use the following units:
Semiconductor is a material that provides conductivity between metals and insulators and allows for controlling the flow of electrons. All the main components – power semiconductors – are made from this material.
Resistors, capacitors, and inductors are basic passive circuit units that perform vital functions for a power electronics system. Resistors oppose electricity flow, capacitors store energy in an electric field, and inductors are responsible for energy storage in a magnetic field. Diodes are semiconductor devices used for heading current flow in only one direction. Besides, they isolate signals from supply and mix signals. Thyristors are used for high-power applications mostly and allow for controlling high voltages and high levels of power, switching currents in microseconds, and managing direct current devices. They are inexpensive, easy to operate, quick to activate, and have a small size. MOSFET stands for Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor, so this is a type of transistor. They can be used as switchers for controlling DC power to a load and as amplifiers. This is a common type of transistor and can be applied in both analog and digital circuits.
IGBT stands for Isolated Gate Bipolar Transistor. It combines a control input and bipolar power transistor. It provides the fastest switching of electric currents and ensures the achievement of the lowest switching losses.
These are the basic elements that every power electronics system contains. Besides, a power electronics system can contain a battery and a microcontroller. The most significant issues in building power electronics are heating of the hardware and high-level of electromagnetic interference (EMI). To avoid them, it is crucial to create power electronics with optimized efficiency and use EMI filters for blocking emissions. Also, in the case of building an MCU-based power electronics device, you should pay attention to writing proper firmware that allows for improving power consumption and improving overall performance. Power electronic devices include power converters, rechargeable batteries, motor controllers, lighting control systems, chargers, and battery management systems. All of them find their application in consumer electronics, industrial solutions, and aerospace applications to name a few and every industry has its own requirements for electric power processing. It means, that you should pay special attention to meeting certification requirements, and safety standards while creating a power electronics device. Check out Integra Sources for additional case studies if you want to know more about outsourcing projects and various project development phases.
