Power Block Geometry Applied to the Building of Power Electronics Converters

This paper proposes a new methodology, Power Block Geometry (PBG), for the presentation of power electronics topologies that process ac voltage. PBG's strategy uses formal methods based on a geometrical representation with particular rules and defines a universe with axioms and conjectures to establish a formation law. It allows power electronics configurations observed in the technical literature to be obtained by just following PBG's proposed rules, taking a systematic approach and using the familiar concept of connection blocks. Such an approach provides the formal outline needed for a comprehensive didactic presentation .

I. Introduction

A particular aspect of power electronic courses is their interdisciplinary nature, which requires the integration of the practices and assumptions of each academic discipline involved, as well as calling for significant prerequisites on the part of the students enrolled. Fig. 1 illustrates this by analogy, with the prerequisite skills needed for a power electronics course being shown as the roots of a tree, the various power electronics devices and topologies as the trunk, and the resulting technologies and applications (power quality, renewable energy systems, etc.) as the branches.