ENEX13002 - Power Electronics

General Information

Unit Synopsis

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

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
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).

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Residential School Compulsory Residential School
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Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2025

Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Mackay
Mixed Mode
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Mackay
Mixed Mode

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).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 72.73% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 39.29% response rate.

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.

Source: In class, email.
Feedback
Weekly Zoom support meetings were very useful, and helpful that they were recorded.
Recommendation
Keep the weekly Zoom support meetings. Invite questions via email and a Q&A forum for non-attending students.
Action Taken
Implemented as planned.
Source: Email.
Feedback
Self-paced learning is facilitated by all the unit material being online and available.
Recommendation
Keep this approach and improve further.
Action Taken
Implemented as planned. Also recorded prepping sessions for the week 11 residential schools.
Source: In class.
Feedback
Students enjoyed the new LabVolt practicums, and found it helpful.
Recommendation
Keep this approach and improve further.
Action Taken
Practicum instructions were reviewed and updated. Labvolt equipment was fully available in MKY and ROK campuses.
Source: By email and in class.
Feedback
Students enjoyed the new LabVolt practicums and the reinforcement of theory work.
Recommendation
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.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Unit evaluation and emails.
Feedback
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.
Recommendation
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.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes
This information will not be available until 8 weeks before term.
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.