PEGO powerpack: A modular power electronics learning platform

While the past decade has seen a widespread adoption of power electronics curriculum at various university electrical engineering programs, authentic laboratory experiences for students remains to be a challenge for inclusion in the programs. This paper discusses a modular power electronics learning platform called PEGO. PEGO consists of self-contained two terminal modular building blocks for power converters which may be cascaded stage by stage to achieve an overall functional objective. The system has been developed to complement a lecture based design oriented theory course in power electronics. The theory course and the laboratory platform are designed to lead to a system level project experience for the students. A primitive UPS system consisting of a battery charger, high frequency isolated dc-dc converter and a low frequency pulse width modulated inverter is illustrated as a candidate project experience. A detailed description of the system along with sample results from the hardware/software exercises are presented in the paper.