Overview
In this unit, you will build on your electronics knowledge previously acquired. You will learn more about power semiconductor devices and their modeling, such as diodes, silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs), metal oxide silicon field effect transistors (MOSFETs), and isolated gate bipolar junction transistors (IGBTs), including their theory of operation and limitations. You will also learn to calculate thermal dissipation requirements of power semiconductors and to choose suitable heat sinks. You will be introduced to the concepts of alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), AC to AC, DC to DC, and DC to AC converters. You will analyse circuits and it's waveforms using Fourier analysis. You will also review different types of motors and learn about their drives and control, including DC motor drives and AC motor drives. You will learn to design/develop power electronics solutions and test them by simulation and prototyping in the lab. In this unit, you must complete compulsory practical activities. Refer to the Engineering Undergraduate Course Moodle site for proposed dates.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisites: (ENEX12002 Introductory Electronics OR ENEE13018 Analogue Electronics) AND (ENEX12001 Electrical Power and Machines OR ENEE12015 Electrical Power Engineering) ENEE12015 Electrical Power Engineering may be studied as a co-requisite.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 2 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from By email and in class.
Students enjoyed the new LabVolt practicums and the reinforcement of theory work.
It is proposed that more links between the theory work and practicums be pointed out in the laboratory instruction document and during the actual laboratory sessions.
Feedback from Unit evaluation and emails.
Unit Evaluation feedback showed lower scores for 'Clear Unit Requirements', 'Useful Learning Materials' and 'Learnt From Assessments', possibly interconnected. The high study workload, coupled with many students having full-time jobs, seems to result in a survival-mode approach. Shortcomings in recent assessments show that some students do not know under which week the work is found in Moodle or where in the textbook to fetch relevant information.
It is proposed that weekly contact sessions should focus on: (i) Introducing students to the assessment questions and their technical content. (ii) Showing students where to find the required information in Moodle and the textbook. (iii) How to synthesise the information to overcome the challenge/s presented by the assessment questions.