Summary

Most power electronics textbooks use PSpice for the simulation of circuits, even though MATLAB is a much easier and user-friendly tool. Fundamentals of Power Electronics Using MATLAB teaches students and engineers how to use MATLAB as a simulation and computational tool for power electronics. Designed as a hands-on reference, the scope of the material in the text is not as broad as other reference-style texts, thus making the material less intimidating and more attainable to the reader. Each portion of the text starts with an example based on the section material, followed by a detailed solution. A conclusion is then drawn to emphasize the point of the problem and finally an exercise similar to the example is presented to challenge engineer. This format provides an immediate illustration of how to use the material and an opportunity for students to apply the material on their own. The text also introduces sliding mode control (SMC) of converter circuits where the converter is treated as a variable structure system, in addition to traditional pulse-width-modulation (PWM) control. SMC is a relatively new method of control and is a robust and attractive alternative to PWM. with the text because a toolbox is provided on the companion CD-ROM that allows them to use MATLAB and obtain results immediately. The toolbox provides functions to perform power computations, waveform analysis, and power converter circuit design and simulations.