Power Electronics and Drives
Addis Ababa Science & Technology
University
College of Engineering
Department of Electromechanical Engineering
Power Electronics and Drive
By: Birhanemeskel A. (MSc in Mechatronics)
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Power Electronics and Drives
Chapter-One
IntroductIon to power electronIc
devIces
The task of power electronics is to process and control the flow of electric
energy by supplying voltages and currents in a form that is optimally suited
for user loads.
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The power converters which requires the application of power electronic
dives are:
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Power Electronics is applied in high voltage DC transmission.
Advantage of a DC Transmission
It needs fewer conductor than AC
Does not suffer from problem inductance, capacitance.
Voltage drop in DC is less than AC transmission for the same load and
transmission end
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• For smaller distances AC transmission is preferable over DC transmission
while for larger distances, DC transmission is preferred.
Critical distance
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The Importance of Power Electronics Devices
Need to reduce dependence on fossil fuel: Depletion of Coal, natural gas
and nuclear power resource
Green Environment: Burning of fossil fuel,
Emits gases such as CO2, CO (oil burning).
Creates global warming (green house effect), acid rain and urban
pollution from smokes.
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• Solution
The solution is using renewable energy resources: Especially. Solar,
wind.
Such sources highly requires the application of power electronics.
Schematic diagram of solar and wind power transmission using Power
Electronic application.
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Power Semiconductor Devices
Power semiconductor devices constitute the heart of modem power
electronic apparatus. They are used in power electronic converters in the
form of a matrix of on-off switches, and help to convert power from ac-
to-dc (rectifier), dc-to-dc (chopper), dc-to ac (inverter), and ac-to-ac at
the same level (ac controller) or different frequencies (cycloconverter).
Designing cost-effective, reliable and efficient systems with optimum
performance requires a broaden understanding of the devices and their
characteristics.
The evolution in modern power electronics has generally followed the
evolution of power semiconductor devices.
Power Diode (D) Bipolar Junction Transistors (BJT)
Power MOSFETs Silicon Controlled Rectifiers (SCR)
Gate Turn off (GTO) Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)
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Power Semiconductor Devices
Power semiconductor devices are based on high-purity, single-crystal
silicon. Silicon is a member of group IV of the periodic table of
elements.
A pure silicon material is known as an intrinsic semiconductor with
resistivity that is too low to be an insulator and too high to be a
conductor.
The resistivity can be changed by adding specific impurities. The process
of adding impurities is called doping.
Doping is the process of adding impurities to intrinsic semiconductors to
alter their properties. Normally Trivalent and Pentavalent elements are
used to dope Silicon and Germanium. When an intrinsic semiconductor is
doped with Trivalent impurity it becomes a p−Type semiconductor.
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Power Semiconductor Devices
If pure silicon is doped with Pentavalent elements (Phosphorus, arsenic,
antimony) each atom of the dopant forms a covalent bond with silicon and
leaves a loose electrons. (Electrons are the majority carrier and holes are
the minority carriers). This yields an n-type material.
If pure silicon is doped with a Trivalent elements (Boron, gallium) each
atom of the dopant forms a covalent bond with silicon a vacant location
called a hole is introduced into the silicon lattice. (Holes are the majority
carrier and electrons are the minority carriers) . This results in a p-type.
There are free electrons available in an n-type material and a free holes in
a p-type material.
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• Power Diode
• A power diode is a two terminal p-n junction device.
• A p-n junction is formed by alloying, diffusion or epitaxial growth.
• A power diode has larger power-voltage and current handling capacity than
ordinary signal diodes.
• A p-n junction diode contains a p-type (Si or Ge, Group III :holes) and n-
type (Si or Ge, Group V:electrons) impurities doped with silicon substrate.
• An applied electric field can cause a current flow in an n-type or p-type
material.
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• Power Diode
• The diode is said to be forward biased when the anode
potential is positive with respect to the cathode.
• A conduction diode has a relatively small forward voltage drop across it.
• The diode is said to be reverse biased when the cathode potential is
positive with respect to the anode.
• Under reverse biased condition, a small reverse current (leakage current
micro or milli ampere) flows and it increases slowly in magnitude with the
reverse voltage until avalanche or Zener voltage is reached.
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• Power Diode
• This V-I characteristics can be expressed by an equation known as
Schockley diode equation:
Where,
: Current through diode.
: Forward diode voltage.
: Leakage Current ( ).
n: Ideality factor (1(Ge)-2(Si)).
: Thermal voltage.
q: Electric Charge ( C).
T : Absolute temperature (K)( ).
K : Boltzman Constant ( )
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• Depending on the practical diode V-I characteristics region of diode
operation can be divided into three regions.
• A: Forward Biased Region ( )
• In the forward biased region, . The diode current is very small if
the diode voltage is less than a specified value, .
The diode conducts fully if if higher than this value., , which is
referred to as a threshold voltage, cut-in voltage or turn-on voltage.
• B: Reverse Biased Region ( ) If is negative and the
exponential term in the diode current equation becomes negligibly small
compared with unity and the diode current becomes :
• This indicates that the diode current in reverse direction is constant and
having a values of .
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• C. Breakdown region:
• In the breakdown region, the reverse voltage is high, usually with a
magnitude greater than 1000 V. The magnitude of the reverse voltage may
exceed a specified voltage known as a breakdown voltage (
• With a small change in reverse voltage beyond the reverse current
increases rapidly.
• Example 1.1: The forward voltage drop of a diode is =2.5 V at =
300 A. Assuming that n=2 at room temperature, find the reverse saturation
current Is.
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• Reverse recovery time, trr
• The current in a forward biased junction is due to the net effect of majority
and minority carriers.
• When the forward current is reduced to zero the diode continues to
conduct due to minority carriers that remain stored in the pn-junction and
the bulk semiconductor material.
• If a diode is initially driven in forward bias, and the polarity suddenly
switches to reverse bias, the diode will still remain conducting for some
time. The time required for conduction to settle into the reverse bias state
is the diode's reverse recovery time.
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• The slope of the graph is given by,
Area under time -current curve is the reverse recovery charge ( ),
If << , , then
Example 1.2: The manufacturer of a selected diode gives the rate of fall
of the diode current di/dt = 20A/μs, and its reverse recovery time trr = 5 μs.
What value of peak reverse current do you expect?
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• Types of Power Diodes
• Diodes are classified according to their reverse recovery
characteristics. The three types of power diodes are as under:
i. General purpose diodes
ii. Fast recovery diodes
iii. Schottky diodes
i. General Purpose Diodes
• These diodes have relatively high reverse recovery time, of the
order of about 25 us. Their current ratings vary from 1 A to
several thousand amperes and the range of voltage rating is
from 50 V to about 5 kV. Applications of power diodes of this
type include battery charging, electric traction, electroplating,
welding and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).
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ii. Fast-Recovery Diodes
• The diodes with low reverse recovery time, of about 5 us or less, are
classified as fast-recovery diodes. These are used in choppers,
commutation circuits, switched mode power supplies, induction heating
etc. Their current ratings vary from about 1 A to several thousand amperes
and voltage ratings from 50 V to about 3 kV. For voltage ratings below
about 400 V, the epitaxial process is used for diode fabrication. These
diodes have fast recovery time, as low as 50 ns. For voltage ratings above
400 V, diffusion technique is used for the fabrication of diodes. In order to
shorten the reverse-recovery time, platinum or gold doping is carried out.
But this doping may increase the forward voltage drop in a diode.
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iii. Schottky Diodes
• This class of diodes use metal-to-semiconductor junction for rectification
purposes instead of pn-junction. Schottky diodes are characterized by very
fast recovery time and low forward voltage drop. Rectified current flow is
by majority carriers only and this avoids the turn-off delay accompanied
with minority carrier recombination. Their reverse voltage ratings are
limited to about 100 V and forward current ratings vary from 1 A to 300 A.
Applications of Schottky diodes include high-frequency instrumentation
and switching power supplies.
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