Aspects of power electronics evolution in Europe

This article describes the state of the art and the main evolutionary trends in Europe in the fields of power semiconductor devices and technology, industrial drives and power conditioning, traction drives, and space and military applications. Similarly high is the number of universities and RandD centers active in power electronics, which are also active in various cooperation programs under patronage of the European Union. This article focuses on main topics only, the perspective being that of the members of the IEEE-IAS-IPCC European Working Group (EWG), which was established in 1990 as the European subcommittee of the Industrial Power Converter Committee. The areas covered in the article are power semiconductor technology, and applications regarding traction and automotive, space and avionics, industrial drives, UPS systems, and induction heating. The state of the art and main evolutionary trends are discussed