Power Electronics is now one of the main areas of study for Electrical Engineers. It is directly related to the control of electrical machines, drive systems, and in general, the control, conversion, management, and quality of the provided electrical energy.

This book aims to cover the laboratory part of the course. It includes a series of appropriately selected representative laboratory exercises on the basic types of converters (DC/DC, DC/AC, AC/AC, AC/DC, etc.), with the goal of understanding their operation, construction, and their overall impact on the network and load.

In the introduction of the book, the basic components are presented, their general characteristics are analyzed, as well as their performance and applications. The different types of power converters are also presented and analyzed, with emphasis on their fields of application.

Each exercise (out of the 19 selected ones) is accompanied by a theoretical part, which provides a detailed analysis of the operation of the arrangement it refers to, with proof of the basic functional relationships and waveforms, for various operational scenarios.

Specifically, the first three exercises refer to the basic characteristics of thyristors and a gate triggering circuit.

Exercises 4 to 8 refer to all types of uncontrolled rectifier arrangements, for various charging conditions.

Exercises 9 to 15 concern controlled (and semi-controlled) rectifier arrangements, for various charging conditions.

Exercises 16 and 17 refer to single-phase and three-phase DC/AC converters (fixed frequency).

Exercise 18 refers to AC/AC converters (voltage reduction) and finally, exercise 19 refers to voltage source inverters.

In the appendices, various useful definitions of power, different coefficients (distortion, ripple, etc.), and other characteristic quantities are given, as well as the methodology for analyzing periodic signals using Fourier analysis, as well as the methodology for studying and designing the commutation circuit of a controlled single-phase half-wave rectifier arrangement.

We hope that this book will be a valuable aid for students and engineers in their studies and practical work. [...]

(from the authors' preface)