Power electronics and drives-technology advances and trends

Summary form only given. The technology of power electronics and variable frequency drives has gone through intense evolution in the recent years, and it is now finding widespread acceptance in numerous applications. This paper starts with an introduction that gives a perspective of the technology, which emphasizes its importance in industrial automation, energy saving and environmental pollution control. The recent advances of the devices, particularly IGBT and MCT, are reviewed and the future potential of SiC and diamond materials is discussed. Power converter technology, with particular emphasis of the potential of soft-switched converters, is reviewed. The recent advances and future trends of devices, converters, machines, DSPs, control and estimation techniques are widely reviewed, giving examples of their application. Fuzzy logic and neural network based intelligent control are discussed, again giving examples of their application. Finally, a perspective of the 21/sup st/ Century trends is discussed.