Due to recent advancements in the field of power electronics and power semiconductor devices, a long known topology is back in the focus of research. The matrix converter topology has been known for more than three decades and yet not many products using the matrix converter are currently available. This converter has several attractive features that have been investigated in the last two decades. In the last few years, an increase in research work has been observed, bringing this topology closer to the industrial application. Matrix converters are direct AC to AC power converter topology that can generate required amplitude and frequency of AC sinusoidal wave from conventional AC source. It is a forced commutated converter which uses an array of controlled bi-directional switches as the main power elements to create a variable output voltage system with unrestricted frequency. It operates at unity power factor and is capable of regeneration. Often referred to as an all-silicon solution as no DC-link capacitors are required, the matrix converter provides inherent bidirectional power flow, sinusoidal input and output current, power factor control, and minimal energy storage requirements. This paper presents development of this converter, starting with a brief historical review and topologies used in matrix converter.