Introduction to the Power Electronics Research Group
The Power Electronics Lab is a graduate research laboratory specialising in the fast growing field of Power Electronics. This field is very wide, ranging from small power supplies (50W) to high voltage static convertors (1.2GW).
Most of the research in this lab is in the use of switching Power Electronics, some members of the Power Systems Group study large static convertors used in HVDC (high voltage DC) systems.
Power Electronics is more Electronics than it is Power. We still use transistors, diodes, resistors and capacitors, along with more specialised devices such as IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors). The emphasis in this lab is to build working 'things' and the use of these to solve a problem.
Examples of past and present research include:
- Electric Car Projects
- 15kW electroplating DC power supplies
- Inverter for an electric car drive
- Active power filter (power-line conditioning)
- Cryogenic power electronics and device characterising
- High power lead-acid battery charger
- Variable speed AC motor drives
Most research involves the use of switching power electronics. Switching power supplies and amplifiers are far more efficient than their linear counterparts. This becomes very important when the power levels are large, if the power supply is limited (as in a battery powered device), or both (as in an electric car).
Power Electronics brings together theory from all aspects of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The main disciplines are:
- Analogue electronics
- Control theory
- Analogue communications
- Electromagnetics
- Electrical machines
however the following fields are becoming increasingly important:
- Digital electronics
- Computer hardware
- Embedded software engineering
You can find our Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC) publications at the AUPEC archive site.