Innovating Ideas Through Power Electronics Product Development

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Power electronics product (PEP), a static power control equipment, often in combination with other, is used for efficient energy conversion, control, and conditioning of electrical power to make an energy source optimally compatible to the nonlinear dynamic load behaviour. It ensures energy delivery to load at optimal efficiency without polluting the electrical energy (EE) domain. Be it in lighting, drives, HVAC, automotives, etc., over the
last several decades the astonishing growth of PEPs has nearly captured the EE domain. In EE domain i.e., for a grid-connected PEP, its design is primarily influenced by the dynamic load behaviour. This presentation discusses that the growth of PEP is critical for energy sustainability. It needs continuous innovations, whose origins could be many; each one may offer certain new features to the product and/or influence the load behaviour. For a particular load type, several approaches exist to design an equipment, where the choice of power components, power conversion topologies, control concepts, embedded systems, etc. could offer wide range scopes to product innovations. Additionally, being an integral part of product design, other design aspects such as thermal, magnetics, EMI/EMC, product reliability, etc. offer scopes to product innovations. On the other hand, for sustainability, a commercial PEP needs to be sensitive to cost, compactness, and several other market driven features. This presentation discusses the perspectives of innovations while designing a PEP from its market point of view where market expectations and market competitiveness brings several challenges. As the speaker is a product designer for control of arc welding and induction heating processes, any given example will mostly have links to those fields.