The Power Electronics Resource List

Power electronics engineers are often looking for good ways to expand their knowledge of the field. In our conversations we start with reminding ourselves that the best learning comes from doing—experiments and simulation. Yet adding a dimension of learning from others' experiences definitely helps. Here I present a collected list of works that I have come to admire over the years (arranged in alphabetical order of author surname). As with most technical books, I have not read each one of them cover-to-cover, but have often referred parts of them and come back to the bench with lesser ignorance and some aha moments.  

Update: This list now incorporates additions based on suggestions from James Green, Iain Mosely, and Janamejaya Channegowda. Thank you!

Books

 

1. Basso 2008: 'Switch-Mode Power Supplies: SPICE Simulations and Practical Designs' by Christophe P. Basso  

 

2. Billings 2011: 'Switchmode Power Supply Handbook' by Keith Billings and Taylor Morey

 

3. Bossche 2005: 'Inductors and Transformers for Power Electronics' by Alex Van den Bossche and Vencislav Cekov Valchev

 

4. Brown 1990: 'Practical Switching Power Supply Design' by Marty Brown 

 

5. Brown 2001: 'Power Supply Cookbook' by Marty Brown 

 

6. Brown 2007: 'Power Sources and Supplies' by Marty Brown 

 

7. Dixon 2001: 'Unitrode Magnetics Design Handbook' by Lloyd Dixon 

 

8. Erickson 2001: 'Fundamentals of Power Electronics' by Robert Erickson  

 

9. Hart 2010: 'Power Electronics' by Daniel Hart  

 

10. Kazimierczuk 2008: 'Pulse-width Modulated DC–DC Power Converters' by Marian K. Kazimierczuk

 

11. Kazimierczuk 2014: 'High-Frequency Magnetic Components' by Marian K. Kazimierczuk 

 

12. Lenk 2005: 'Practical Design of Power Supplies' by Ron Lenk 

 

13. Maniktala 2006: 'Switching Power Supplies A to Z' by Sanjay Maniktala 

 

14. Mammano 2017: 'Fundamentals of Power Supply Design' by Robert Mammano 

 

15. McLyman 2004: 'Transformer and Inductor Design Handbook' by Colonel Wm. T. McLyman

 

16. Mohan 2007: 'Power Electronics: Converters, Applications, and Design' by Ned Mohan, Tore M. Undeland, and William P. Robbins 

 

17. Pressman 2009: 'Switching Power Supply Design' by Abraham Pressman, Keith Billings, and Taylor Morey 

 

18. Ramanarayanan 2008: 'Course Material on Switched Mode Power Conversion' by V Ramanarayanan 

 

19. Roberts 2017: 'DC/DC Book of Knowledge: Practical tips for the User' by Steve Roberts 

 

20. Roberts 2019: 'AC/DC Book of Knowledge: Practical tips for the User' by Steve Roberts 

 

21. Ruan 2014: 'Soft-Switching PWM Full-Bridge Converters: Topologies, Control, and Design' by Xinbo Ruan

 

22. Sandler 2014: 'Power Integrity: Measuring, Optimizing, and Troubleshooting Power Related Parameters in Electronics Systems' by Steve Sandler 

 

23. Sandler 2018: 'Switched-Mode Power Supply Simulation with SPICE' by Steve Sandler   

 

24. Umanand 1992: 'Design Of Magnetic Components For Switched Mode Power Converters' by L Umanand and S.P. Bhat

25. Umanand 2009: 'Power Electronics: Essentials & Applications' by L Umanand

 

 

Online resources

 

1. Bodo's Power Systems: https://www.bodospower.com/

 

2. How2Power: www.How2Power.com (Editor: David Morrison)

 

3. Iain Mosely Webinars: https://vimeo.com/powerguru

 

4. Monolithic Power Systems YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqOx8jWRKEq4TpfcjCz0Isw

 

5. Ray Ridley Webinars: https://ridleyengineering.com/videos-e/
 

6. Texas Instruments 'Power Supply Design Seminar' (PSDS) archives (1983-present): https://ti.com/psds
 

7. Texas Instruments 'Power Tips' video series: https://training.ti.com/power-tips (Robert Kollman et al.)

 

8. Wurth Elektronik YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/wuerthelektronik/videos

 

5 Takeaways from a Symposium on Effective Teaching

As a postdoc with keen interest in teaching, I attended the Symposium for Effective Teaching and Learning in the Sciences, 1 September 2016, at University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). The speakers were experienced educators in various sciences -- physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, forensic science, computer science, among others. Added to my inexperience as a teacher, I was perhaps the only engineer in a room of scientists. However, with plans to offer some courses in coming terms, I brushed aside any concerns and went on to glean some handy tips from the seasoned teachers.


1. Apply your research skills to teaching

Keynote speaker, Dr. Simon Bates points out that collaboration and experimentation is something we do as researchers, not so much as educators. That needs to change if you want to become a better educator. You need not create all the course content on your own. There is plenty of good quality, open, free content created by others available on the internet. You can save a lot of hours, for yourself and for your students, by curating and separating the good content from the not-so-good.

Traditionally, teachers have despised gadgets in class. However, experimenting with use of new technology in teaching is worth a try because the next generation is most at ease with tech. E.g. It is possible to get instantaneous feedback from students at mid-course stage, not merely at end-of-course. In one of his courses, Dr. Bates garnered 8000 words of feedback in 3 minutes via smartphones. On similar lines, senior lecturer Kimberley Nugent demonstrated live polling for multiple-choice questions in class using Socrative. Other approaches to explore are - encouraging students to come up with test questions, gamification of learning, various other active learning techniques. But how do we accommodate all these new methods in the limited lecture hours? Therein comes your own judgment on how to ration time. In extenuating circumstances, it may be required to cut some content. As Walter Lewin would say, “What counts is not what you cover, but what you uncover.”

2. Don't settle merely at being a good lecturer

Dr. Rupinder Brar, a TVO Best Lecturer awardee, identifies that a good lecturer isn't necessarily a good educator. Making use of results from educational research and even conducting educational research take a lecturer closer to being a effective educator. There are specific grants available for carrying out such research. E.g. Teaching Innovation Fund at UOIT. Several good lecturing practices, live demonstrations for instance, are great for capturing students' attention. However, engagement happens to be only a necessary, not sufficient, condition for learning. Dr. Joseph MacMillan explains, “In-class demos work if done using predict-observe-discuss (POD) method. Else only entertainment, no learning.”
 
3. Get off the podium

Dr. Yuri Bolshan asserts it's important to make students solve problems in classroom, individually and in groups. While they're at it, get off the podium, move around in the class, interact with students, help them out. Talk to about 2-5 students per problem. Any more, and you're left with little time to lecture. Counter-intuitively, this method can actually reduce Professor Fear as the students notice you're only trying to help.

4. Try Slack

Dr. Jeremy Bradbury proposes that Slack, a team-messaging app popular in the industry, can be put to good use in classrooms. Compared to conventional learning management systems like Blackboard (Bb), Slack can offer orders of magnitude higher student engagement. E.g. 130 messages on Bb versus 10,000 messages on Slack over a completed course involving 70 students. It is faster than email, and students like it when personal (Facebook, Twitter) and professional (Slack) stuff are kept separate.

5. Create training videos

Master lecturer in mathematics, Ilona Kletskin advocates creating training videos of any procedural stuff such as worked out examples. This also resonates with the engineering ethos to automate the repetitive stuff. I should probably start with some training videos of how to use and configure lab equipment for the grad students in our research group. 

Do you use any of these methods in your teaching? May be you have some tried and tested techniques of your own. Please do share. I'm all ears.

Learning How to Learn

This blog post is a course assignment for the Coursera MOOC titled "Learning How to Learn" taught by Prof Barbara Oakley and Prof Terrance Sejnowski, University of California, San Diego. Here I discuss my ideas and experiences with three of the learning techniques mentioned in the course: (1) Switching between focused and diffuse mode of thinking, (2) Memory: spaced repetition and associations, and (3) Interleaving.

1. Focused and diffuse mode of thinking

The pinball analogy described by Prof Barbara Oakley is a very elegant way of conveying how the focused and diffuse mode of thinking work.

Depiction of focused and diffuse mode of thinking in Prof Barbara Oakley's lecture.

[Source: http://projectfidgetyfingers.blogspot.in/2015/01/how-to-be-creative-switching-between.html]

The importance of playing ping-pong between these two modes in cementing the learning cannot be over-emphasized. Several accomplished people have vouched for it. Prof Arindam Ghosh at the Indian Institute of Science is a renowned scientist in the field of low-temperature nano-electronics. I happened to be team mates with him in the institute cricket team and once did an interview of him where he stressed the importance of playing sports. "Sport rejuvenates the mind. In research or, for that matter, any profession that involves a fair deal of thought, it is very easy to get stuck in a thinking loop. Sports helps break that loop so that you can start your thought process afresh, from a new perspective", he avers. You can read the full interview here.

I've come up with my own analogy to illustrate the importance of switching between the focused and diffuse modes. Picture a fly trying to escape out of a car banging against the glass window. The window is half open but the fly is pushing away at the closed part of the window duped by its transparency. Its trying really hard in its focused approach to get out of the car. But no amount of pushing and buzzing against the glass will solve the fly's problem. What it needs to do is to back away from the glass (akin to going into a relaxed diffuse mode) and come back at it a few inches from where it had approached earlier and voila! It's an open window. The problem is solved, the fly is free.


2. Memory: Spaced Repetition and Associations

I tend to browse and read about a diverse range of subjects. In the process of looking up new information all the time, I might not repeat what I already learnt and hence tend to forget many of the things that I learn. On the contrary, when it comes to identifying plants along with their common and scientific names and their key features, I found that I had a very good memory. The key difference that I noticed was that of spaced repetition. Every time I take a walk in the campus to and from my laboratory, I notice these plants and recall their names while observing them. This routine of recall and spaced repetition helped cement the details of these plants in my mind. I now intend to use the same technique in other aspects of my learning.

Another common problem that I had was to frequently forget where I parked my bicycle possibly because I'm absent minded, not paying attention while I'm parking. Lately, I started leveraging my good plant memory for solving this problem. Every time I park my bicycle, I notice the nearest tree. By building this association, the next time I'm looking for the bike I just have to recall the tree and I find my bike!

3. Interleaving

Prof Barbara Oakley stresses the importance of interleaving one's learning using various techniques and from various perspectives. This helps in gaining a better understanding and in better retention of the material. An interleaving technique that I often use and that has helped me in learning various subjects is what I call "Repeated Classification" of the material. I shall illustrate this technique in the following paragraphs.

Number based classification

After having studied a chapter or several chapters of a book on a subject XYZ, I try to cull out all the numbers mentioned in the text and put them together in a list called "XYZ in numbers." E.g. recently I attended a colloquium by Prof Arnab Rai Choudhuri titled "The mysterious magnetic personality of our sun." I distilled out the numbers he presented at various points of the talk as follows.

The sun in numbers:
Surface temperature of sun = 6000K
Temperature at sunspots = 3000-4500K
Temperature of corona discharge = 1,000,000K
Strength of the sun's poloidal magnetic field = 0.3T
Strength of the magnetic field at sunspots = 10T
Time taken by the sun to complete one rotation about its own axis = 27 days
Time period of the sunspot cycles = 11 years
Time period of the polar magnetic field reversals = 22 years

Time based classification: (when)
Another form of classification is based on the historical timeline of events pertaining to a field of study. Systematically listing down the years of occurrence of significant events provides a sense of how a particular field evolved and creates a storyline that makes it easier to grasp the complete picture. Call it the "Timeline of XYZ."

Spatial classification: (where)
Making a list of places and the associated events is another handy way of classifying. Marking the places on map is even better. This can provide insights on how geographically diverse or concentrated the development of a particular field has been. Call it the "XYZ map."

People based classification: (who)
List down the names of all the people associated with the field of study, preferably along with their significant contributions and quotes. Here's a list of the people who appeared in the 'Learning How to Learn' course lectures and interview videos along with a memorable quote or key take-way from each of them:

Dr Barbara Oakley: "Do not just FOLLOW your passions. Instead, BROADEN your passions."

Dr Terrance Sejnowski: "Unfortunately, there is no instruction manual for the brain."

Dr Robert Bilder: "Disagreeability can spark creativity."

Daphne Gray-Grant: "Do not edit while writing!"

Benny Lewis: "Why children learn language easily is because they are not afraid of making mistakes."

Dr Norman Fortenberry: "Multi-mode input is critical for learning."

Scott Young: "Learn a language by immersing yourself in it."

Amy Alkon: "Fast reading tip: approach a book like a buffet; do not eat everything!"

Dr Robert Gamache: "Study every subject everyday, even if it is for only 10 min"

Dr Keith Devlin: "Switching from one task to another is when one is most likely to fall into the procrastination trap."

Dr Richard Felder: "Don't wait for that 'block of time' to get things done. Do the task in short bursts with whatever time slots are available."

Dr Rebecca Brent: "Give your subconscious an assignment."

John G Maguire: "The secret to good writing is objects, not ideas."

Kalid Azad: "The ADEPT method of learning: Analogy, Diagram, Example, Plain English, Technical Description."

While we looked at questions like how many, how much, when, where and who, several other ways of classification are possible using 'what' based questions. E.g. classifications based on techniques, methods, objectives, products, types, resources etc. There are no limitations to how many different ways you can classify the material and play with it providing various insightful perspectives. It is down to your own imagination. Happy learning!