PSpice Simulation of Power Electronic Circuits - an introductory guide

International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, Jan 1998 by Bollen, Math

PSpice Simulation of Power Electronic Circuits - an introductory guide:

R. RAMSHAW and D. SCHUURMAN

(Chapman and Hall, 1996, 388 pp., 29.99)

This is not the most interesting of books to read. It's not as bad as the Swedish-Dutch dictionary but occasionally it comes close. However, being Dutch and living in Sweden, that dictionary is very useful. So will this book be if you belong to the right target group: those willing to learn about power electronics and willing to learn about the use of PSpice.

The book explains the various features of PSpice by means of over 50 examples. By using subcircuits and model elements, each simulation input file is kept small and organized. Very interesting is the description of several ideal elements for power electronics devices (diode, BJT, thyristor, triac, GTO, mosfet, IGBT and MCT). After a number of driver circuits, the authors discuss DC-DC converter circuits, diode rectifiers, controlled rectifiers, switch-mode inverters and resonant converters. In the final chapters some details are discussed of the PSpice models of the diode, the thyristor, the triac, the mosfet and the BJT. All the examples and the model library can be obtained from the author's website. According to the authors all the examples can be run on the free evaluation version of PSpice obtainable from MicroSim.

Previously, in IJEEE, I have expressed my objection against giving program listings in a book. For this book I want to make an exception to that. As one of the principle aims of the book is to teach the reader how to use PSpice, program listings cannot be avoided. And the authors have done a very good job in explaining the various lines of PSpice input code. A very good example for everybody writing programs (not only in PSpice).

For somebody willing to learn PSpice and with knowledge of power electronics, this looks like a very good book. I somewhat doubt if it will give power electronics knowledge to somebody with knowledge of PSpice. The largest target group could well be those with some knowledge of both, and who want to use PSpice to get a working knowledge of the behaviour of the various power electronics converters. From there, it's a short step towards using this book (or parts of it) in a computer lab supporting a power electronics course.

MATH BOLLEN Department of Electric Power Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden