ELECTRONICS DEFINITION

ELECTRONICS DEFINITION

Power electronics refers to control and conversion of electrical power by power semiconductor devices wherein these devices operate as switches. Advent of silicon-controlled rectifiers, abbreviated as SCRs, led to the development of a new area of application called the power electronics. Prior to the introduction of SCRs, mercury-arc rectifiers were used for controlling electrical power, but such rectifier circuits were part of industrial electronics and the scope for applications of mercury-arc rectifiers was limited. Once the SCRs were available, the application area spread to many fields such as drives, power supplies, aviation electronics, high frequency inverters and power electronics originated.