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A Low‐Loss Medium‐Voltage Inverter Applying Series Connected General Purpose 1.2 kV Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors with Accurate Voltage Balancing Techniques
Author(s) -
Abe Yasushi,
Matsubara Kunio,
Sasagawa Kiyoaki,
Matsuse Kouki
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
ieej transactions on electrical and electronic engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.254
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1931-4981
pISSN - 1931-4973
DOI - 10.1002/tee.20242
Subject(s) - insulated gate bipolar transistor , electrical engineering , inverter , voltage , bipolar junction transistor , transformer , electromagnetic coil , gate driver , transistor , capacitance , engineering , electronic engineering , physics , electrode , quantum mechanics
This paper presents a medium‐voltage inverter applying series connected general‐purpose 1.2 kV insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) as a switching device to achieve low switching losses compared to inverters applying high‐voltage IGBTs with over 3 kV rating. Gate signal synchronization, which is essential to keep the balance of collector‐emitter voltages across the IGBTs, is achieved by magnetically coupling all gate lines using a simple two‐windings transformer. In order to obtain better voltage balancing, influence of stray capacitance distribution associated with an insulating substrate in a two‐in‐one IGBT module on the voltage sharing is investigated, and an optimized layout of heat sinks for the IGBT modules is proposed. To validate some performances concerning the device losses and the voltage sharing, a 170 kVA inverter based on three 1.2 kV IGBTs connected in series is built and evaluated. The experimental results are shown. Copyright © 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.