This paper presents the overview and working procedure of dSPACE1103 controller and its applications for power electronics converters. The configuration and control desk parameter settings have been discussed in detail. The pulse width modulation (PWM) for duty cycle control of DC-DC converter and sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) for voltage and frequency control of DC-AC converter using real-time interface (RTI) library blocks in dSPACE and MATLAB simulink blocks in MATLAB simulink environment are presented. The simple blocksets in simulink and RTI library are used to obtain the control signals in order to turn on and turn off the power semiconductor switches in converters. The programming skills and knowledge are not required to generate the control signals. The real-time prototype implementation of DC-DC converter and DC-AC converter in MATLAB with dSPACE controller is presented. Experimental results are provided to enhance the performance of dSPACE controller. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2020.