A Test Circuit Design for Robustness Checking of the Power Electronic Components

One of the parameters affecting student performance in laboratory courses is whether the used components in the circuit are robust or not. The failure of the used components in the circuit affects the performance outputs of the students, negatively. In this study, it is aimed to design a test circuit that checks the robustness of the power electronic elements in order to overcome this problem that the students encounter during their experiments. For this purpose, the robustness checks of DIODE, BJT, MOSFET, JFET, IGBT, SCR, TRIAC components can be successfully performed with this designed test circuit. After the component, which power electronic component will be tested, is connected to the input connector to be tested in this circuit and this component is selected with the multiple switches in this circuit. Whether the relevant component is intact or not is printed on the screen with a 2x16 LCD panel and this control process on the test circuit is provided by the PIC16F877A microcontroller. Thus, the robustness of the used component can be tested before and after the experiments in a short time by the students or the laboratory manager without the need for an additional testing process. In addition, instead of spending time on a problem encountered in an experiment with a faulty component, the students are provided with the opportunity to spend time in a more productive lesson where they reinforce their knowledge with practical application and develop their problem-solving skills.