Paving the Path Toward the Use of Power Electronics Building Blocks [Editor’s Column

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the application fields of power electronics have significantly grown. This underlying trend is primarily driven by the necessary and drastic reduction in CO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> emissions to be achieved in the short term at a global scale. This imposes electrifying all types of transportation and entirely rethinking the grid to massively integrate renewable energy and storage systems. Other important sectors are also impacted, such as building and telecommunications, to name a few. Thus, by its intrinsic high flexibility in changing the nature of the current (ac to dc and vice versa) and voltage/current levels of use, power converters are naturally becoming essential to achieving this (r)evolution. This statement is also supported by a second important trend that consists of the ever pervasive use of digital technologies, whether at embedded or cloud levels. Indeed, power converters are easily digitally controllable, thus reinforcing their ability to adapt electrical power to any specific needs.