Power Electronics (Thyristor to IGBT)
GE's silicon thyristor (1957) and the IGBT (1982-83) let a chip switch kilowatts to megawatts, making variable-speed motors, HVDC links, solar inverters and electric-car drives possible.
Open in the interactive tree →Before 1957 large currents were switched by mercury-arc rectifiers and gas-filled thyratrons, bulky and unreliable. The silicon controlled rectifier introduced by General Electric in 1957 (an IEEE Milestone, plaque in Clyde, New York) brought motor speed control, electric traction and, later, high-voltage DC converters. B. Jayant Baliga demonstrated the first practical insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) at GE in 1982, and GE sold devices in 1983. IGBTs now sit in electric-car inverters, trains, air conditioners, welding sets and the converters of solar and wind plants.
Prerequisites
- Transistor1947The thyristor is a four-layer cousin of the transistor
- Ultrapure Silicon & Chips1954Power devices are cut from ultrapure silicon
- MOSFET & CMOS (The Chip Switch)1959The IGBT puts a MOSFET gate on a bipolar power switch.
Unlocks
- High-Voltage DC Transmission (HVDC)1954Thyristor and IGBT valves replaced mercury-arc valves in modern HVDC converters.
- Mass-Produced Electric Car2008–2012The traction inverter switches battery current with IGBTs
- Solar Boom & Price Collapse2015–2026Solar plants feed the grid through power-electronic inverters
- Stable 100% Renewable GridopenGrid-forming inverters are power-electronics converters