Power converters with IGBTs for the new light rail vehicle for the City of Frankfurt

The transport authority of the City of Frankfurt (Germany) ordered twenty light rail vehicles with completely new traction equipment. The cars are driven by eight asynchronous motors which are mounted in the wheel hubs. These motors are fed by four pulse-width modulated (PWM) voltage source inverters which are equipped with insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBT). The maximum blocking voltage of these devices is 1200 V. The aim of this paper is to describe some details of the power electronics and the control strategy of the light rail vehicle for Frankfurt. Further, some interesting hardware aspects are given, especially the advantages of the technology used. This IGBT technology marks a new trend in the field of traction power converters for light rail vehicles