Power Electronics — Systems, Control, and EMC

Power electronic circuits are everywhere: from the phone charger in your pocket to the multi-kilowatt drives of electric and hybrid vehicles.
This lecture takes a holistic view of power electronic systems—from functional block diagrams and component-level trade-offs to control strategies and EMC testing—bridging theory, simulation, and lab-grade design practice.

Learning Objectives

Professional skills

• Solid knowledge of key components, topologies, control strategies, and application domains of power electronic systems.
• Ability to connect device physics, converter behavior, and system-level requirements (efficiency, thermal, EMC).

Methodological skills

• Analyze, conceptualize, and design converters from specs to implementation.
• Use simulation and first-principles models to size magnetics, choose semiconductors, and validate control/EMC constraints.

Content

• Power electronics basics: switching vs. linear, losses, waveforms, figures of merit
• Basic converter circuits: buck, boost, buck-boost; Ćuk/SEPIC and other derived topologies
• Power electronic components: diodes, MOSFETs/IGBTs/GaN/SiC, capacitors (incl. electrolytics), magnetics
• Galvanic isolation: transformer fundamentals; forward, flyback, push-pull, half-/full-bridge
• Control methods: current/voltage-mode; digital control basics; gate-drive essentials
• Inverters: single-/three-phase, space-vector modulation; intro to FOC
• Power factor correction (PFC): boost PFC theory + simulation exercise
• Resonant converters: overview and design levers
• EMC & power electronics: emissions/immunity, skin/proximity, layout and filtering; industrial visit (BRUSA, TBD)

Literature/Media

• Lesson script (provided).
• Fundamentals of Power Electronics — Robert W. Erickson, Dragan Maksimović (core reference).
• Principles of power electronics Book by John G. Kassakian

Assessment & deliverables (suggested)

• Exercises (30%): four design/simulation hand-ins (buck, boost, forward/flyback, magnetics).
• Mini-project (30%): converter specification → design → simulation → short report  considerations.
• Oral (30%): fundamentals, control, and EMC rationale.

Prerequisites (recommended)

Basic circuit theory, signals & systems, and an intro to control.

Tools & software

MATLAB/Simulink or PLECS (or equivalent), LTspice/PSPICE, Python (NumPy) for post-processing; optional FEM for magnetics.

Teaching methods

Lectures + worked examples; simulation-based labs; design reviews; industrial visit for EMC practice.