High efficient power modules for dispersed generation units using reverse blocking IGBTS

The total worldwide energy consumption growths year by year this is mainly driven by several developing countries and rising industrial sectors. Consequently the number of inverters and converters increases due to the rising demand for electrical power. In order to guarantee the power supply many dispersed generation units are inevitable which feed power to the grid. Therefore the inverters have to have two properties: high efficient and high reliable. Highest efficiency can be achieved by using 3-level inverter. The main advantage is lowest total harmonic distortion of the output current and hence smallest output current filters are necessary. Basically an improved topology of the classic neutral-point-clamped topology (NPC1) is applied to 3-level inverter which is known as NPC2. The realization of a NPC2 topology can be done by a common collector configuration of IGBT and diodes in the clamping path. The other variant uses two reverse blocking IGBTs (RB-IGBT) to reduce the amount of switching and conduction components. This paper discusses the merits of the RB-IGBT and provides solutions to increase the efficiency and power of dispersed generation units.