Brief History of Power Electronics

The first power electronics device developed was the Mercury Arc Rectifier during the year 1900. Then the other power devices like metal tank rectifier, grid controlled vacuum tube rectifier, ignitron, phanotron, thyratron and magnetic amplifier were developed and used gradually for power control applications until 1950. The first Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) or Thyristor was invented and developed by Bell Lab’s in 1956 which was the first PNPN triggering transistor. The second electronic revolution began in the year 1958 with the development of the commercial grade Thyristor by the General Electric (GE) Company, thus the new era of power electronics was born. After that many different types of power semiconductor devices and power conversion techniques have been introduced. The power electronic revolution is giving us ability to convert shapes and control large amounts of power.