Students will investigate the role of power electronics and power devices for global scale energy problems. The efficiency of converting and controlling electrical energy contributes significantly to making progress with green innovation. Power devices are key devices in the infrastructure of a society such as railroads, power transmission, renewable energy, automobiles, home electronics, and information devices. Compared to the human body, CPU and memory correspond to the brain, and power electronics to the heart. Students first learn about device physics which determine the performance of power devices from this course. They then gain an understanding of the structure and operating principle of various devices such as power diodes, thyristors, power MOSFET, and insulated gate bipolar transistors, as well as the characteristics of wide-gap semiconductor devices, in addition to learning the fundamentals for applying them to power electronics.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) Express the physics and characteristics of semiconductor power devices
2) Explain the issues and key technologies for the power device applications and energy problem
Power devices, Smart, Power Converters, Smart grid, IGBT, Wide-gap semiconductors
✔ Specialist skills | Intercultural skills | ✔ Communication skills | ✔ Critical thinking skills | ✔ Practical and/or problem-solving skills |
At the beginning of each class, solutions to exercise problems that were assigned during the previous class are reviewed. Towards the end of class, students are given exercise problems related to the lecture given that day to solve. To prepare for class, students should read the course schedule section and check what topics will be covered. Required learning should be completed outside of the classroom for preparation and review purposes.
Course schedule | Required learning | |
---|---|---|
Class 1 | Global energy issues and Power electronics, devices | Understand and solve the exercises of energy problem and power semiconductor devices |
Class 2 | Power devices: physics, device structures, characteristics | Understand and solve the exercises of power semiconductor devices and device physics |
Class 3 | pin Diodes | Understand and solve the exercises of power semiconductor devices -Diode |
Class 4 | Thyristors | Understand and solve the exercises of power semiconductor devices -Thyristors |
Class 5 | Power MOS transistors | Understand and solve the exercises of power semiconductor devices -Power MOS transistors |
Class 6 | Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) | Understand and solve the exercises of power semiconductor devices - Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) |
Class 7 | Wide-gap semiconductor power devices | Understand and solve the exercises of Wide-gap power semiconductor devices |
Class 8 | Applications to power electronics, Exercise problems to assess the students' level of understanding on what has been taught so far, and explain how to solve the problem. | Applications to power electronics, Exercise problems |
None required.
All materials used in class can be found on OCW-i.
Stefan Linder “POWER SEMICONDUCTORS“ EPFL Press
Josef Lutz “Semiconductor Power Devices: Physics, Characteristics, Reliability“ Springer
Students will be assessed on their understanding of the power devices (physics, device structure, characteristics, applications, and important roles in the society ). Students' course scores are based on final exams (80%) and exercise problems during each class (20%).
No prerequisites are necessary, but enrollment in the related courses (Electron devices) is desirable.