Power Electronics Laboratory.

OVERVIEW

MIT's 6.131 Power Electronics Laboratory centers on designing real power-electronic systems from scratch: magnetics, switching devices, control, debugging, and measurement included. Over the term I designed, built, and tested switching stages, buck/boost/flyback converters, lighting and dimming systems, and motor-control electronics.

The course concluded with a wirelessly powered lamp using resonant energy transfer and closed-loop resonance tracking. That final project has its own detailed project page.

MOTOR DRIVE

A buck converter configured to drive a 36 V DC motor

AUDIO

This multi-block system used a 6 V battery, a self-starting 15 V boost converter for the amplifier rail and gate drivers, an adjustable 15 V to 3–12 V buck converter for volume control, and two half-bridge speaker drivers for independent left and right signals.

LIGHTING

A high-frequency electronic ballast designed to strike and run a fluorescent lamp using a resonant LC network. The inverter produces the high peak voltage needed to strike the lamp; once lit, the lamp load reduces resonant gain and establishes a lower steady-state operating voltage.

CONVERTERS

A step-up isolated flyback supply targeted approximately 200 V DC, emphasizing transformer turns ratio, saturation avoidance, load reflection, and high-voltage clamp design. A separate DCM boost converter focused on controlled LED-current delivery, ripple targets, and PWM dimming behavior.

MOTORS

A hands-on DC motor build connected electromagnetic theory to physical geometry and assembly. A separate six-pulse, three-phase induction-motor drive focused on generating phase waveforms from a DC source, coordinating switching devices, and validating the power stage and controls as a system.

FINAL PROJECT

The course final project integrated resonant LC transmitter and receiver tanks, custom coil design, rectification, regulation, load integration, and closed-loop resonance tracking.