Engineering course
Power Electronics Academy
An engineering-level course on the electronics that move power around an EV — inverters, semiconductors, DC/DC conversion, charging electronics and the vehicle control unit that ties them together. Built around a system-wide power electronics explorer, PWM and DC/AC simulators, virtual labs and fault diagnosis scenarios.
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- System-wide power electronics explorer
- PWM and DC/AC conversion simulators
- Inverter and PWM tuning virtual labs
- Fault diagnosis scenarios and engineering calculators
What you will learn
- Explain how an inverter converts DC battery power into controlled three-phase AC
- Compare MOSFET, IGBT, silicon carbide and gallium nitride switches on engineering criteria
- Describe how HV-LV DC/DC converters and on-board chargers are built and controlled
- Explain power factor correction and the stages inside an on-board charger
- Understand bidirectional charging and vehicle-to-grid power flow
- Describe the vehicle control unit's role in arbitration, functional safety and fault handling
Course content
Module 1
Inverters
How DC becomes controlled three-phase AC.
6 lessons
- What an inverter doesThe box between the battery and the motor that turns DC into three-phase AC. 11 min
- Six-step switching vs. space-vector PWMTwo ways to approximate a sine wave, and why most drives use the smarter one. 12 min
- Modulation index and overmodulationHow much of the DC bus voltage you can actually use, and what happens when you ask for more. 10 min
- Field-oriented controlHow the inverter decides what current to command, tens of thousands of times a second. 12 min
- Field weakening and top speedHow a motor keeps spinning faster once it has run out of voltage. 10 min
- Inverter control loops in practiceNested loops, sampling rates and what happens when a fault is detected. 11 min
Module 2
Power semiconductors
MOSFET, IGBT, SiC, GaN, losses and thermal design.
6 lessons
- MOSFETs and IGBTsThe two workhorse switch families and why each was chosen for different eras of EV drives. 11 min
- Silicon carbide (SiC) power devicesA wider bandgap material that is reshaping the traction inverter market. 12 min
- Gallium nitride (GaN) in EV electronicsWhere GaN fits today, and why it is not (yet) the traction inverter material. 9 min
- Switching and conduction lossesWhere the watts actually go inside a power module. 11 min
- Thermal management of power modulesGetting heat out of a die that is smaller than a postage stamp but dissipates hundreds of watts. 10 min
- Power module packaging and reliabilityHow dies, substrates and housings are assembled into a module that must last the life of the car. 11 min
Module 3
DC/DC conversion
HV-LV conversion, boost converters and 800V/400V architectures.
6 lessons
- The HV-LV DC/DC converterThe quiet component that replaced the alternator. 10 min
- Buck and boost converter topologiesThe two fundamental building blocks of every DC/DC converter on the car. 11 min
- 800 V vs. 400 V architecturesWhy some EVs doubled their system voltage, and what it costs elsewhere in the car. 12 min
- Converter control and regulationHow a DC/DC converter holds a rock-steady output despite a swinging input. 9 min
- 48 V systems and their relationship to full EVsA second low-voltage standard, and why some platforms use both. 8 min
- DC/DC converter faults and diagnosticsWhat happens to the car's electronics when this quiet component fails. 10 min
Module 4
Charging electronics
On-board chargers, PFC, rectification and vehicle-to-grid.
6 lessons
- The on-board chargerThe converter that turns wall AC into battery-ready DC. 10 min
- Power factor correctionWhy a charger cannot simply rectify AC and be done with it. 10 min
- Rectification and the isolated DC/DC stageFrom corrected AC to a regulated, isolated DC output. 11 min
- DC fast charging and the vehicle inletWhat is different when a station, not the on-board charger, does the conversion. 10 min
- Bidirectional charging and vehicle-to-gridTurning the on-board charger into a two-way power converter. 11 min
- Charging electronics faults and safetyWhat can go wrong during a charge session, and how the system contains it. 10 min
Module 5
Vehicle control unit
CAN/LIN networking, functional safety and diagnostics.
6 lessons
- The vehicle control unitThe controller that decides what the car should do, not how each module does it. 10 min
- CAN and LIN bus fundamentalsThe two workhorse networks that let dozens of controllers share one wire pair. 11 min
- Functional safety in the VCUHow the software that controls torque proves it will fail safely. 12 min
- Diagnostics and DTC managementHow the VCU records, reports and reacts to faults across the whole vehicle. 10 min
- Limp-home and fault response strategiesHow a car keeps moving, safely and deliberately reduced, after something goes wrong. 10 min
- Diagnosing a network faultA worked case: tracing an intermittent warning back to its source on the vehicle bus. 11 min