This page is a curriculum outline. Detailed lessons are still being developed.
Prerequisites: Magnetics and practical design
Purpose
This stage shows how power converters become real products, platforms, and infrastructure.
Learners should see the field as a collection of useful systems, not just isolated circuits.
Core Topics
- phone chargers, laptop adapters, server power supplies, and telecom power
- EV traction inverters, onboard chargers, DC fast chargers, and auxiliary supplies
- battery management system interfaces and energy storage converters
- solar inverters, microinverters, optimizers, and grid-tied converters
- motor drives and variable-frequency drives
- UPS systems, solid-state transformers, and grid support converters
- reliability, cost, manufacturability, safety standards, and product tradeoffs
- system block diagrams and requirements decomposition
Must-Know Ideas
- A converter is usually one part of a larger system.
- Requirements drive topology, device, control, and protection choices.
- Product design balances efficiency, cost, size, reliability, manufacturability, compliance, and serviceability.
- Different industries use the same fundamentals with different constraints.
Practice Projects
- Draw the power chain of an electric vehicle.
- Compare a solar microinverter and a server power supply at the block-diagram level.
- Write requirements for a 12 V to 5 V converter module.
- Ask an AI tutor to interview you as if you were a junior power electronics engineer.
Exit Criteria
Before finishing the track, the learner should be able to:
- map a system into converter blocks
- explain how application requirements affect design choices
- discuss tradeoffs between efficiency, cost, density, reliability, and safety
- choose a next specialization path