The Resonant Commutated Twin Pole Inverter

The resonant commutated twin pole inverter (RCTPI), a novel resonant pole inverter topology using only main switches, is introduced. One phase of a voltage source RCTPI consists of four switches arranged in two symmetric half-bridges called the twin poles. Each pole carries half of the phase current. The switches are turned off as zero voltage switch (ZVS) and zero current switch (ZCS) respectively and turned on under ZCS both. Switching losses in the semiconductor devices can be reduced in all operating points by soft switching, while overall losses are reduced only at high load currents. The concept can be realised using IGBTs in standard packages. Single switch modules, half- and full-bridge modules and some six-packs are suitable - this is an advantage compared to many other resonant topologies.