Dead‐time assignment for single‐phase half‐bridge PWM inverters

A new dead‐time assignment technique for single‐phase half‐bridge PWM inverters is presented. Three modulating signals, including the original one and two auxiliary modulating signals with calculated offset voltages are, respectively, compared to the high‐frequency carrier signal. The suitable switching functions without dead‐time degradation effects are determined by sensing the load current polarity. The proposed method can be applied to both online and off‐line PWM schemes as well. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An active‐passive capacitor‐commutated converter for HVDC systems with a three‐phase voltage‐source PWM converter

This paper introduces a new approach to the capacitor‐commutated converters (CCCs) for HVDC systems. A small‐rated three‐phase voltage‐source PWM converter is connected between a series commutation capacitor and thyristor converter through matching transformers. The PWM converter acts as auxiliary commutation‐capacitor for the thyristor converter while the series passive capacitor acts as the main commutation capacitor. The capacitance, which is the sum of the small‐rated active and series passive capacitors, is variable, so that stable commutation is obtained. In CCCs, commutation failure occurs when the AC bus voltage is recovered whereas the proposed combined commutation‐capacitor can achieve successful commutation for both rapidly decreasing and increasing AC bus voltages. The basic principle of the proposed active–passive capacitor‐commutated converter is discussed in detail. Then, constant margin angle control with a constant firing angle of the thyristor converter is proposed using a function generator block. Digital simulation demonstrates the novelty and effectiveness of the proposed active–passive capacitor‐commutated converter. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 151(1): 66–75, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20030     

A novel prototype of auxiliary edge resonant bridge leg link snubber‐assisted soft‐switching sine‐wave PWM inverter

This paper proposes a new circuit topology of the three‐phase soft‐switching PWM inverter and PFC converter using IGBT power modules, which has the improved active auxiliary switch and edge resonant bridge leg‐commutation‐link soft‐switching snubber circuit with pulse current regenerative feedback loop as compared with the typical auxiliary resonant pole snubber discussed previously. This three‐phase soft‐switching PWM double converter is more suitable and acceptable for a large‐capacity uninterruptible power supply, PFC converter, utility‐interactive bidirectional converter, and so forth. In this paper, the soft‐switching operation and optimum circuit design of the novel type active auxiliary edge resonant bridge leg commutation link snubber treated here are described for high‐power applications. Both the main active power switches and the auxiliary active power switches achieve soft switching under the principles of ZVS or ZCS in this three‐phase inverter switching. This three‐phase soft‐switching commutation scheme can effectively minimize the switching surge‐related electromagnetic noise and the switching power losses of the power semiconductor devices; IGBTs and modules used here. This three‐phase inverter and rectifier coupled double converter system does not need any sensing circuit and its peripheral logic control circuits to detect the voltage or the current and does not require any unwanted chemical electrolytic capacitor to make the neutral point of the DC power supply voltage source. The performances of this power conditioner are proved on the basis of the experimental and simulation results. Because the power semiconductor switches (IGBT module packages) have a trade‐off relation in the switching fall time and tail current interval characteristics as well as the conductive saturation voltage characteristics, this three‐phase soft‐switching PWM double converter can improve actual efficiency in the output power ranges with a trench gate controlled MOS power semiconductor device which is much improved regarding low saturation voltage. The effectiveness of this is verified from a practical point of view. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 155(4): 64–76, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20207     

Pulse current regenerative resonant snubber‐assisted two‐switch flyback‐type ZVS PWM DC‐DC converter

In this paper, a two‐switch high‐frequency flyback transformer‐type zero voltage soft‐switching PWM DC‐DC converter using IGBTs is proposed. Effective applications for this power converter can be found in auxiliary power supplies of rolling stock transportation and electric vehicles. This power converter is basically composed of two active power switches and a flyback high‐frequency transformer. In addition to these, two passive lossless snubbers with power regeneration loops for energy recovery, consisting of a three‐winding auxiliary high‐frequency transformer, auxiliary capacitors and diodes are introduced to achieve zero voltage soft switching from light to full load conditions. Furthermore, this power converter has some advantages such as low cost circuit configuration, simple control scheme, and high efficiency. Its operating principle is described and to determine circuit parameters, some practical design considerations are discussed. The effectiveness of the proposed power converter is evaluated and compared with the hard switching PWM DC‐DC converter from an experimental point of view, and the comparative electromagnetic conduction and radiation noise characteristics of both DC‐DC power converter circuits are also depicted. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 152(3): 74–81, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20081     

AC voltage and current sensorless control method for three‐phase PWM converter

We present a three‐phase PWM converter without AC voltage and AC current sensors. The phase angle used in the control system is adjusted by using a PLL controller without sensing AC voltage. To prevent overcurrent at startup, the initial phase angle of the source voltage is estimated from the shunt current using a novel strategy. Furthermore, the phase currents can be reconstructed from the shunt current without any modification of the PWM pattern. To reduce the effect of current ripple, the shunt current is sampled twice for every phase in one PWM period and the sample timings are carefully adjusted. All of the proposed control schemes can be implanted using a single chip microprocessor (SH7046, Renesas Tech.). Simulation and experimental results with a 5‐kW prototype confirmed that the schemes worked well. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 172(4): 48–57, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20983     

Direct space vector PWM strategy for matrix converters with reduced number of switching transitions

This paper proposes a novel “Direct Space Vector PWM (Direct SVPWM)” strategy based on the direct AC/AC conversion approach for three‐phase to three‐phase matrix converters. This method allows the sinusoidal input and output waveforms as a major premise, and gives top priority to the improvement of output control performance in motor drive applications, such as providing maximum riding comfort in elevators, etc. Output voltage harmonics, switching losses, and common‐mode voltages can be reduced across the entire voltage region. In addition, the switching count can be reduced even further by fully utilizing the output current detection value. Direct space vectors are first defined, and the method of selecting space vectors is described. Next, the PWM duty calculation technique is explained. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparison with the conventional virtual indirect method based on experimental and analytical results. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 172(3): 52–63, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20953     

一种新型的零电压谐振极型逆变器

为实现一种结构简单，高效，高频，低的电压应力，易于控制的软开关三相逆变器。该文提出一种新型的三相谐振极逆变器，它可以实现逆变器主开关的零电压开通，辅助开关管的零电流开关，谐振电路功率小，与传统的辅助谐振变换极逆变器(ARCPI)不同，它避免了ARCPI使用的2个大电容，也没有中性点电位的变化问题。与三角形或星型谐振吸收逆变器(RSI)的三相谐振电路之间互相耦合不同，它的三相之间是互相独立的，这就使得逆变器易于应用各种控制策略。该文选取一相电路，对其工作原理进行了分析，给出了在不同工作模式下的等效电路图，仿真和实验结果都验证了原理的正确性。     

Comparisons between a hybrid shunt active filter and a pure shunt active filter

This paper deals with the hybrid shunt active filter for harmonic compensation of a three‐phase diode rectifier in a 480‐V adjustable‐speed motor drive system. The hybrid filter is formed by a three‐phase LC filter tuned around the seventh harmonic frequency and a small‐rated three‐phase voltage‐source PWM inverter. The LC filter and PWM inverter are directly connected in series. As a result, the DC capacitor voltage of the PWM inverter in the hybrid filter is much lower than that of a conventional pure shunt active filter. This results in higher efficiency, less switching ripple, and less EMI emission. Computer simulation is carried out to compare the hybrid filter with the pure filter in terms of circuit configuration and filtering performance. Simulation results indicate that the hybrid filter is superior in effectiveness and viability to the pure filter. In addition, theoretical analysis based on vector loci confirms the validity of the simulation results. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 153(2): 61–70, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20145     

A three‐vector‐based direct power control strategy for three‐phase voltage source PWM converters

For traditional direct power control strategy, there exist high steady‐state power ripples and large current harmonics. To solve this problem, this work proposes a novel three‐vector‐based direct power control strategy for three‐phase voltage source pulse‐width‐modulated (PWM) converters. Different from traditional predictive direct power control strategy, an improved vector table is presented and three voltage vectors are selected, which considers the impact of voltage vectors on the active and reactive power simultaneously. The performance of the three‐phase voltage source PWM converters with the proposed control strategy is investigated and compared with the predictive deadbeat direct power control strategy. Furthermore, the three‐phase voltage source PWM converters have also been tested in the condition of different loads and when voltage unbalance occurs. Simulation and experimental work are conducted. The results conclude that the proposed strategy is of simple structure and fast dynamic response. Besides, it can effectively reduce steady‐state power ripples and current harmonics, improving the performance of the three‐phase PWM converters. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel PWM technique with switching‐loss reduction for independent drive of two 3‐phase AC motors fed by a five‐leg inverter

This paper presents a novel pulse width modulation (PWM) technique with switching‐loss reduction for a five‐leg inverter (FLI). The PWM technique, in which the available maximum voltage for two motors adds up to DC bus voltage, has been proposed as the strategy for the FLI. Therefore, the DC bus voltage is fully available as the PWM strategy. However, the conventional PWM technique requires the frequency, phase, and amplitude of the phase voltage commands of a motor to produce zero‐sequence voltages (ZSVs). The novel PWM strategy has some efficient features. These features are discussed in this paper. The validity of the novel PWM technique will be shown by experimental results. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Three‐Phase AC Filter Inductor Design for Three‐Phase PWM Inverter for Conversion Efficiency Improvement at Low Load

The inductor losses in a three‐phase ac filter inductor used in a three‐phase pulse‐width modulation (PWM) inverter are evaluated. First, a three‐phase inductor is designed to obtain the same value of inductance for each phase. Then, based on the design, a three‐phase inductor that uses two magnetic materials is proposed. The conversion efficiency of a 1 kVA three‐phase PWM inverter that uses the conventional and proposed ac filter inductors is simulated. Simulation results show that conversion efficiency improves. Finally, the conversion efficiency of an actual three‐phase 1 kVA PWM inverter that uses the conventional and proposed ac filter inductors is measured. In the experiment, the conversion efficiency obtained for the case of the proposed inductor improves by approximately 1% at low power load as compared to the conventional inductor. Furthermore, the calculated inductor losses are in good agreement with measured losses. Improvement in efficiency is verified trough simulations and experiments.     

A New Neutral-Point-Clamped PWM Inverter

A new neutral-point-clamped pulsewidth modulation (PWM) inverter composed of main switching devices which operate as switches for PWM and auxiliary switching devices to clamp the output terminal potential to the neutral point potential has been developed. This inverter output contains less harmonic content as compared with that of a conventional type. Two inverters are compared analytically and experimentally. In addition, a new PWM technique suitable for an ac drive system is applied to this inverter. The neutral-point-clamped PWM inverter adopting the new PWM technique shows an excellent drive system efficiency, including motor efficiency, and is appropriate for a wide-range variable-speed drive system.     

T型中点钳位三电平逆变器的零电流转换软开关技术

依据T型中点钳位(T-NPC)三电平逆变器的换流特点,提出了一种零电流软开关拓扑,每相桥臂仅需要额外使用两个辅助谐振开关器件和一条LC谐振支路。详细介绍了该软开关技术的换流过程和工作原理,在不改变传统PWM控制策略的前提下就能够保证主桥臂和辅助桥臂的开关器件实现零电流开关。通过对拓扑电路的简化并结合相平面分析图的方法,指出了所提出软开关拓扑具有谐振圆心偏移的对偶关系,并对该软开关拓扑的谐振参数选择和辅助桥臂的控制时序进行了理论分析和推导。最后通过半桥样机实验,对所提出软开关拓扑的可行性和优点进行了验证。     

A control method to realize sinusoidal input and output current waveforms for matrix converters based on PWM

A matrix converter (MC) is a three‐phase AC‐to‐AC direct converter without any energy storage requirement. It is expected to be a next‐generation converter by reason of possibilities of small size and high efficiency. At present, there are some problems preventing it from being used practically. One of the problems is the distortion in the input current. The control methods proposed so far have not realized sufficient reduction of the input current harmonics compared with conventional PWM rectifiers. As a solution to these problems, many approaches have been proposed. In the present paper, an improved PWM method that can achieve both sinusoidal input and output currents simultaneously is considered. In this method, the MC is treated as a controlled voltage source viewed from the load side. On the other hand, it is treated as a controlled current source viewed from the line side. The proposed control method is based on the mathematical expression of the function of the PWM operation of MC. To improve the input current waveform, two line‐to‐line voltages of the three‐phase line are used to control the output current. The output duty ratio of the two line‐to‐line voltages is utilized to improve the input current waveform without affecting the controllability of the output current. In addition, the compensation of the variations in the line voltage and the output current are introduced. In this way, the proposed method can realize the sinusoidal input and output currents. The effectiveness of the proposed control method is confirmed by some experimental results employing a laboratory prototype. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 161(1): 66–76, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20242     

一种新型的软开关正弦波PWM逆变器

为实现一种结构简单、高效、高频、低电压应力、易于控制的软开关三相逆变器控制.提出了一种新型的三相谐振极型软开关PWM逆变器,它与传统的辅助谐振极逆变器(ARCPI)不同,避免了ARCPI使用的2个大电容,没有中性点电位的变化问题.它的三相谐振电路之间是相互独立的,这就使得逆变器易于应用各种控制策略.本文选取一相电路,对其工作原理进行了分析,给出了不同工作模式下的等效电路图和最优电路设计.仿真和试验结果表明:逆变器的主开关和辅助开关都能实现软开关,谐振电路功率小,对减少电磁干扰和提高效率很有意义.     

Novel three‐phase current‐regulated digital PWM and its behavioral analysis

There have been various studies of PWM algorithms for a three‐phase voltage‐source AC/DC power converter since the analog modulation scheme based on a triangular carrier wave was proposed in the 1960s. The PWM algorithm can be considered the heart of electronic power conversion. With progress in digital technology, there is an increasing need for gate signals to be generated directly by digital ICs, such as MPU, DSP, or FPGA/CPLD. This paper analyzes quantitatively the precision of current control of digital PWM taking account of both the sampling period and the delay time (the latter is inevitably accompanied by a digital procedure). The delay time is shown to have a double effect on the current error. In addition, the paper theoretically derives the conditions for digital PWM to meet the PPCR (Pulse Polarity Consistency Rule, that is, the next gate command moves only to the adjacent ones or commands). So far as the authors know, no paper has presented the mathematical requirements for PPCR taking account of the effect of the delay time of digital PWM. The derived theoretical results are summarized as digital PWM design criteria for a three‐phase PWM converter in order to facilitate practical implementation of the theory, guaranteeing PPCR behavior as well as quantitative accuracy of current regulation. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 150(2): 62–77, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10330     

A self‐commutated back‐to‐back system and its performance under a single line‐to‐ground fault condition

This paper deals with a self‐commutated BTB (Back‐To‐Back) system for the purpose of power flow control and/or frequency change in transmission systems. Each BTB unit consists of two sets of 16 three‐phase voltage‐source converters, and their AC terminals are connected in series to each other via 16 three‐phase transformers. Hence, the BTB unit uses totally 192 switching devices capable of achieving gate commutation. This results in a great reduction of voltage and current harmonics without performing PWM control. Simulation results verify the validity of the proposed system configuration and control scheme not only under a normal operating condition but also under a single line‐to‐ground fault condition. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 143(3): 68–78, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10124     

多电平最优空间矢量PWM控制方法的研究

空间矢量PWM控制方法已在常规二电平板式逆变器广泛应用，而由于电平数增多，采用常规的空间矢量调制方法从数以百计千计的矢量中选取合适的矢量非常困难，因此多电平变流器的控制只用于电平数目较低如三电平、四电平或五电平。该文提供了一种新型的用于多电平变流器的多电平最优空间矢量PWM控制方案（MOSV PWM）。这种控制方法基于空间矢量PWM控制的思想，从三相参考电压得到8个待选空间矢量和参考电压矢量，然后选择与参考电压矢量最近的空间矢量。这种方法微机执行时间短且执行时间与电平数目无关，不受电平数目增加的影响，还可以与最优开关频率PWM法同时使用以提高调制系数。采用异步电动机调速系统对这一方法进行了验证。     

谐振极ZVT-PWM三相逆变器的实现及控制策略

对一种改进的用于电机驱动的谐振极零电压过渡脉宽调制（RP ZVT－PWM）三相逆变器电路的工作过程及实现策略进行了详细的分析和实验验证，重点讨论了几种基于空间矢量的改进调制方法，结合表明，为了实现该软开关电路中主开关所有状态的零电压过渡，改进传统的空间矢量调制，所提出的控制策略是切实可行的。     

An investigation of methods to improve input/output waveforms in matrix converters

The matrix converter is a three‐phase AC‐to‐AC direct converter without any energy storage requirement such as DC link capacitors. However, the matrix converter has some practical problems such as the necessity for bidirectional power devices, necessity for special commutation sequence, and complexity of the control method. Thus, there are no practical systems in which matrix converters are used. In this paper, the control strategy for matrix converters with basic configuration is investigated so as to realize practical matrix converters. First, the necessity of the phase detector for the input voltage and the output current sensor is pointed out from the viewpoint of realization of the basic operation. With these sensors required in the basic configuration, the instantaneous control of the output current is realized. It is also pointed out that three‐phase switching is effective in improving the input current waveforms. Some methods for implementation of three‐phase switching are proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed control methods is confirmed by some experimental results employing a test system. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 151(4): 55–64, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience. wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20031