IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2021 - 93

White Hot

(continued from page 96)

the second edition. The chapter on
power semiconductor devices is
expanded and updated. There is a
bit more on t he oper a t ion a nd
switching of power diodes including the role of reverse recovery in
s w it c h i n g lo s s . W id e b a nd g a p
devices are also briefly introduced
along with a new discussion on
MOSFET drivers.
The chapters on modeling have an
updated discussion on average modeling. I admit that as I write this I
have only skimmed through this but a
detailed reading of this new material
is on my to do list. One thing I find
interesting is that in the discussion
on current mode control the authors
use the Tan and Middlebrook model
rather than the Ridley model. I will
have to dig into this a bit more as I
have found the Ridley model quite
accurate when comparing calculation to measurement. A nice addition
in this edition is a new discussion of
digital control.
I think that after catching up to
the changes this third edition of
" Fundamentals of Power Electronics "
will become my new favorite power
electronics textbook.
That said, I do have one notable
criticism of the book. The number of
pages has increased from 883 to
1084. And even though the third
edition is proportionately thicker
(61.4 mm versus 47.3 mm as measured by my trusty Starrett 799 digital calipers) the paper in the third
edition is so thin that you can see
the printing on the other side of the
page. I hope that this can be fixed in
future printings without raising the
cost very much.
I had known that this next book
was a work in progress for some
time. In the summer of 2018 I even
contributed a review to some early
material to a publisher with a recommendation that the book be published. After my review, I contacted
one of the authors about publishing
the book but they were still trying to
figure out the best way to publish.

Tom Wilson and Harry Owen. Tom
After that I heard nothing until a
Wilson's background was in magnetcouple of months ago when someics and that shaped his perspective
one on a power supply design disand teaching. Wilson's 1966 paper
cussion group mentioned the book.
with his graduate student, Edward
A quick check of Amazon and there
Moore, " Basic Conit was. I ordered it
siderations for DC to
on the spot.
DC Conversion NetI am talking about
In my opinion,
works " is an absot he t wo volu me s
lute must read for
" Power Electronics-
in the United States
anyone working in
Principles of Analythe modern era of
power electronics.
sis and Design
power electronics
The power elecEmphasizing Magwas launched by
tronics program at
netics " from Thomtwo different
D u ke Un i ver s it y,
as G. Wilson, Harry
university research
which ended with
A . O w e n J r., a n d
the retirements of
Thomas G. Wilson
groups.
Professors Wilson
Jr (Figure 3).
a nd Owen s, wa s
In my opinion, in
known not for the
the United States
quantity of its graduates but for the
the modern era of power electronics
was launched by two different uniquality of its research, its publicaversity research groups. One was the
tions, and its graduates. Any paper
group at CalTech led by Professor
from the program was of the highest
David Middlebrook. Middlebrook's
quality and made a clear new contribackground was solid-state circuits
bution to power electronics. Perhaps
and circuit theory which shaped that
the best known graduate of the Duke
group's perspective leading to contriUniversity power electronics probutions like the Extra Element Theogram is Dr. Fred Lee, who went on to
rem and switch-mode modeling
found the power electronics program
advances by Gene Wester, Slobodan
at Virginia Tech and the Center for
C´uk, and later Don Tan.
Power Electronics Systems (CPES).
The other group was at Duke UniThe textbook " Power Electronics-
versity and was led by Professors
Principles of Analysis and Design

FIG 3 The two volumes " Power Electronics - Principles of Analysis and Design Emphasizing Magnetics. "

March 2021

z IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE

IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power Electronics Magazine - March 2021