[EEE 1999 International Conference on Power Electronics and Drive Systems, PEDS'99, July 1999, Hong Kong.

Feasible Performance Evaluations of 3-Level 3-Phase Voltage Source Soft-Switching Inverter using IGBT Modules
M. Yamamoto*, M. Yoshida", T. Honda*, H. Iwamoto*, E. Hiraki*, S. Sugimoto**, I. Kouno** and M. Nakaoka*
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, *Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi,755-8611, Japan ** R & D Center, Chubu Electric Power Co. Ltd. Aichi, Japan
Abstract. 7his paperpresents feasible pe~ormance digitally-conof trolled 3-lev1d3-phase voltage soulce type soft switching inverter with two Auxiliary Resonant DC link snubbers which can operate under a condition oj Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS). The operating principle o this inverter topology suitable for high power energy storage utilif zation system is discussed as compared with 2-level soft switching f inverte1 The system effectiveness o new inverter treated here are proved on the basis of the experimental results.

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the voltage source type three-phase inverters and conventers using IGBTs which can operate under principle of zero voltage or zero current transition soft switching schemes have been developed in order to minimize the switching losses of power switching power devices such as IGBTs, MOSFETsJEGT, SITh and MCT, in addition to the reductions of

their electrical dynamic voltage and current stresses, leak current due to dv/dt stress, high di/dt related insulation break-down of reactor and transformer, as well as voltage and current switching surge related EM1 noises under high frequency switching sinewave modulation scheme. On the other hand, in order to apply for higher output power conditioning and processing in the new energy utilization system, the multiple level 3-phase voltage-fed hard switching PWM inverters and PWM converters have developed for telecommunication energy conditioner and FACT power system. In this paper, the circuit configuration and operating principle in the steady-state of a 3-level 3-phase voltage sourcetype soft-switching inverter with two resonant DC link snubbers, which can achieve zero voltage soft-switching, and 3level space vector modulated inverter performances operating at ZVS transition are presented and evaluated as compared with the conventional 3-level 3-phase voltage source hard-switching inverter on the basis of experimental results.

Low Pass Filter

I

n+%wm-dfi mm-x'wwm&<k

vs

-+M,-Aw

,wm*<---*?,.wm<-

ARDCL 2
Fig.1 Three phase of DC linked three-level three-phase voltage source soft switching inverter

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3. STEADY STATE OPERATION

VsR

Vcrl
0

Auxiliary Swilch 2 Auxiliary Switch 3

Sui, Su2, Su3 :ON

Fig.2 Operation waveforms and switching sequences of quasi-resonant DC link circuit

To illustrate the operating principle of this new resonant DC link snubber for 3-level 3-phase voltage-fed inverter using IGBT modules, switching sequences and steady-state operation waveforms of one of two auxiliary resonant circuits are shown in Fig.2. In Figure 3, three steady-state operation modes of this inverter with active resonant snubbers are described. In this paper, the mode transition (State B to State A) is only illustrated. As shown in Fig.4, seven operation modes exist in this resonant snubber circuit. The operating principle of resonant DC Link circuit in a steady-state can be described as follows: State B : mode 0 ( t < to) A positive load current Ix is freewheeling through D2, D3, S2, and S3, while S2 and S3 remains on, and resonant capacitor voltage Vcrl is charged in half of dc-voltage Vs. State B : mode 1 ( to - ti) Sa3 is turned on under zero current switching condition. The

Fig.3 Three steady-states operation modes

2. NEW THREE-PHASE NPC SOFT-SWITCHING INVERTER SYSTEM

Fig. 1 shows the equivalent circuit of 3-level 3-phase voltage source type soft switching inverter with two resonant DC link snubbers which is suitable and acceptable for large power application. This resonant DC link scheme of 3-level 3-phase inverter and converter with space voltage modulation strategy has two auxiliary resonant DC link snubber circuits. Another auxiliary resonant circuit (ARDCL 2) has the same operation waveform and switching sequences. To achieve soft-switching, the resonant operation using inductor Lrl and capacitor Crl or Lr2 and Cr2 is taken advantage of.

lLrl <=o

Sa2 :ON

Fig.4 Equivalent circuits for one phase and mode transition condition

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resonant inductor current iLri through Da2 and Sa3 begins to increase linearly. When the resonant inductor current h i rises until the stored energy is high enough to discharge the quasiresonant capacitors Crl, Sal is to be turned off under zero voltage switching condition.. State B : mode 2 ( tl - t2) After tuining off Sal with ZVS, the resonant capacitor Crl begins to discharge toward zero. This is based on a quasi-resonance between the resonant inductor ;Lrl and the capacitors ; Crl. State B : mode 3 ( tz - t3) At t3, as soon as the resonant capacitor voltage Vcrl reaches to zero, D1 begins to conducting and resonant inductor current iLr1 begins to decrease linearly, and when this inductor current reaches to zero, this mode changes to the next mode, Mode 4. State B : mode 4 ( b - t4) In mode 4, the resonant inductor current iLri remains zero, and resonant capacitor voltage Vcrl is also zero. State B : mode 5 ( t.4 - ts) At t4, when Sa2 is turned on under zero current switching condition, ihe resonant inductor current iLri begins to increase linearly towards the minus direction and continues to rise until the stored energy of resonant capacitors, Crl . State B : mode 6 ( b - t6) After turning off S3 with ZVS, the resonant capacitor Vcrl begins to charge to Vsl2. State B : mode7 ( t > ts) At ts, as soon as the resonant capacitor Vcrl reaches Vsl2, Dal begin:; to conducting and the resonant inductor current begins to decrease linearly towards a minus direction. When the resonant inductor current becomes zero, Sa2 is turned off under zero current switching condition and this mode condition transforms to state A : mode 0.

,~

Low Pass Filter

vs

Auxiliary Switch Drive Circuit

Main Circuit Drive Circuit

Controller Circuit

State Detecter

Fig.5 Brock diagram of experimental apparatus

Table 1

Design specifications Vref(rms)

100 [vmS]

Utility Power Source Voltage

In this operation, the resonant capacitor Crl or Cr2 behaves as quasi-resonant switching transition mode due to a lossless capacitive snubber together with the inductor.

Output Power
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pr
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3 tkVA1
~

Boost Current 1 2

Resonant Inductor

Ibl Ib2 Lr 1=Lr2

37 [AI 37 [AI
5.4 [,U HI

4. FEASIBILITY STUDY OF INVERTER SYSTEM

( A ) Experimental Set-up Fig.5 deimonstrates the experimental total system of 3-level 3-phase voltage source inverter with resonant DC link snubbers. This soft-switching inverter system is composed of its DSP based controller, and resonant DC link soft-switching inverter and control circuit including high precise contactless voltage and current sensors. The control circuit receives a PWM signal from DSP controller and then starts resonant commutation operaoion, and sends the inverter switching signals immediately when the voltage across each switching power device comes down to zero.

Resistance Component of Resonant Inductor

Resonant Capacitor

R
Crl=Cd

0.2 [a]
0.141 [pFl

Smoothing Capacitor

c l = c k C 3 = c 4 8200[F]
cUV=cVW=cWU

Filter Capacitor
AC reactor
Sampling Frequency Output Frequency

65 [ p F] 500.0 [ p HI 5.76 [kHz] 60 [Hz]

LU=LV=LW fs fe

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__

_.

--

6 Mar 1999

SOVldiv, lONdiv, SuSldiv

20'40'08

(a) Turn on operation

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5.OOV

Ch2

l.0OV

M5.00pS Chl

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SOVIdiv, lONdiv, SuSIdiv

SOVIdiv, 1ONdiv, SuSIdiv

20:23:31

(b) Turn off operation

(b) Turn off operation

Fig.7 Turn on and turn off operationg waveforms of main devices in hard switching inverter Sul

Fig.6 Turn on and turn off opetationg waveforms of the soft switching inverter main devices Sul

A conventional hard-switching PWM control scheme can be easily obtained by using this experimental set-up, directly connecting with DSP controller and converter interfaced driver circuit. In this case, the dead time in the hard switching scheme can be easily selected on the basis of DSP controller hardware setting.

( B ) Experimental Results of Soft-Switching Inverter In order to verify the total converter system performances in a steady state operation of soft-switching inverter, the resonant DC link soft-switching inverter system is built and tested under a resistive load condition.Table1 indicates the design specifications of this soft-switching inverter system in addition to a conventional hard switching inverter system. Fig.6 shows some observed turn-on switching waveforms of the main active power switch Sul for soft switching scheme in addition to hard switching scheme. In case of hard switch-

ing scheme, the current and voltage waveforms cross over respectively, and the current waveform includes voltage and current surge components. On the other hand, in case of soft switching scheme, the current and voltage can not cross over at all. This means that a perfect soft-switching can be achieved, and the switching losses of active power switches are effectively reduced. And from this figure, the voltage Waveforms of the main active power switch in soft switching have a slow sloop, so it is expectable that EMIRFI noises could be reduced. Similarly, from Fig.7, it is clear that switching losses are also lowered for the realization of the soft switching scheme waveforms as compared to the hard switching waveforms. Fig.8 (a) displays the input and output voltage waveforms obtained from this soft-switching active inverter system. The input and output voltage waveforms of conventional hard switching inverter system are also shown in Fig.8 (b). From these figures, this inverter system can achieve inverter opera-

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r t
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Time (2ms/div)
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Time (2mddiv)
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(a) PWM Line-to-Line Voltage (lOOV/div)

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(a) PWM Line-to-Line Voltage (100V/div)

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Time (2ms/div)
2 loomv M2 00 ms Chl 1 120

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6 Mar 1999 19.19:29

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(b) Filter Capacitor Voltage (SOV/div)

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(c) Load Current (10Ndiv)

(c) Load Current (10Mdiv)

Fig.8 Output voltage waveforms of three level three phase inverter

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tions in soft-switching scheme as compared with that in hard switching scheme.

5. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has described the operating principle and unique features of 3-level 3-phase voltage source type resonant DC Link snubber-based soft-switching inverter. In addition, it was proved that a soft switching inverter treated here can efficiently operate with high performance ZVS-PWM so as to minimize the switching losses, leak current dynamic electrical stresses as well as EM1 noises as compared with those of conventional hard switching inverter. The effectiveness of this inverter topology suitable for high power energy storage utilization plants was confirmed by the small scale experimental set-up. In the future, 3-level 3-phase voltage-fed soft-switchinginverter using resonant DC Link snubbers which are more suitable and acceptable for energy utilization applications should be newly investigated and evaluated from a practical point of view.

REFERENCES
[ 11 A.Nabae, I.Takahashi, H.Akagi A New Neutral-PointClamped PWM Inverter, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., Vol.IA-17, NOS, pp.5 18-523, September/October 1989 [2] W.MacMarray Resonant Snubbers With Auxiliary Switches, IEEE-IAS7 89 Records, pp829-834,1989 [3]R.W.De Doncker Hard and Soft-switched Voltage Source Inverters, PESC94, Taiwan, R.0.C [4] H.Yonemori, H.Ishii, M.Yoshida and M.Nakaoka ThreePhase ZVS-PWM Inverter System with Transformer-Assisted Quasi-Resonant DC Link and its Feasible Comparative Evaluations, Proceedings of IEEE-PESC, vol. 1, pp. 171- 176,June 1996 [5] Yong C.Jung, Hyo L.Liu, Guk C.Cho, and Gyu H.Cho Soft Switching Space Vector PWM Inverter Using a New QuasiParallel Resonant DC Link, Proceedings of IEEE Trans. Power Electronics, Vol. 1, No.3, pp.503-5 11, May 1996 [6] M.Yamamoto, E.Hiraki and M.Nakaoka Three Phase Voltage-Fed Soft Switching PFC Rectifier with an Instantaneous Power Feedback Control Scheme, Proceedings of ICEE98, Vol. 1, pp.202-205, July 1998 [7] M. Yamamoto, M. Yoshida, H. Iwamoto, E. Hiraki, S . Sugimoto, I. Kouno and M. Nakaoka Three-phase Voltage Source NPC Soft-Switching Inverter for Interactive Energy Storage Plants, Proceedings of IEEE-INTEREC99, To be published, June 1999

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