Neutral-point-clamped inverter with parallel driving of IGBTs for industrial applications

Author

Miyazaki, Hideki ; Fukumoto, Hideshi ; Sugiyama, Shigeru ; Tachikawa, Makoto ; Azusawa, Noboru

Author_Institution

Hitachi Ltd., Ibaraki, Japan

Volume

36

Issue

1

fYear

2000

Firstpage

146

Lastpage

151

Abstract

This paper describes the design and construction of a neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter and converter, with outputs of 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 MVA, which use insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). The inverter and converter are suitable for industrial drive applications, such as rolling mills, water pumps, and so on, and they are composed of multi-inverter units in parallel. Each inverter unit is composed of four pairs of parallel IGBTs connected in series. In order to share current among the parallel-connected IGBTs, influences of wiring inductance and device characteristics are evaluated by simulation using novel power device models and experimental results. To reduce both switching voltage swing and power consumption, a variable-capacitance snubber circuit is also presented for the NPC inverter

Keywords

electric drives; insulated gate bipolar transistors; invertors; power consumption; semiconductor device models; snubbers; 0.8 to 3.2 MVA; IGBT; current sharing; industrial applications; industrial drive; insulated gate bipolar transistors; multi-inverter units; neutral-point-clamped converter; neutral-point-clamped inverter; parallel driving; power consumption reduction; power device models; rolling mills; series connected parallel IGBT pairs; switching voltage swing reduction; variable-capacitance snubber circuit; water pumps; wiring inductance; Circuit simulation; Construction industry; Energy consumption; Inductance; Insulated gate bipolar transistors; Inverters; Milling machines; Switching circuits; Voltage; Wiring;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-9994

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/28.821809

Filename

821809