Semiconductor Power Loss Comparison of Space-Vector Modulated Direct and Indirect Matrix Converter

This paper presents the analysis and comparison of total semiconductor power losses in direct (DMC) and indirect (IMC) matrix converters. The models of average total losses for the DMC and the IMC are derived basing on the semiconductor characteristics and the space-vector modulation method used. With the DMC, the use of reverse blocking IGBTs (RB-IGBT) instead of conventional IGBTs is also presented. The calculated results of average loss models are compared to both the simulations with real semiconductor models and the power loss measurements. The calculations give more accurate results than simulations and are faster to perform. The DMC losses depend on the load current magnitude mainly and the IMC losses depend on the active load power. In most cases, the DMC has lower losses than the IMC. The calculations also show that a RB-IGBT DMC should have lower losses than a conventional IGBT based DMC.