• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.653-663
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• 2017

Multilevel active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) converter combines the advantages of three-level ANPC converter and multilevel flying capacitor (FC) converter. However, multilevel ANPC converter often suffers from capacitor voltage balancing problems. In order to solve the capacitor voltage balancing problems for five-level ANPC converter, phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PS-PWM) is used, which generally provides natural voltage balancing ability. However, the natural voltage balancing ability depends on the load conditions and converter parameters. In order to eliminate voltage deviations under steady-state and dynamic conditions, the active voltage-balancing control (AVBC) methods of floating capacitors and dc-link capacitors based on PS-PWM are proposed. First, the neutral-point current is regulated to balance the neutral-point voltage by injecting zero-sequence voltage. After that, the duty cycles of the redundant switch combinations are adjusted to balance the floating-capacitor voltages by introducing moderating variables for each of the phases. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed AVBC methods is verified by experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.661-670
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• 2014

A new DC/DC converter with zero voltage switching is proposed for applications with high input voltage and high load current. The proposed converter has two circuit modules that share load current and power rating. Interleaved pulse-width modulation (PWM) is adopted to generate switch control signals. Thus, ripple currents are reduced at the input and output sides. For high-voltage applications, each circuit module includes two half-bridge legs that are connected in series to reduce switch voltage rating to $V_{in}/2$. These legs are controlled with the use of asymmetric PWM. To reduce the current rating of rectifier diodes and share load current for high-load-current applications, two center-tapped rectifiers are adopted in each circuit module. The primary windings of two transformers are connected in series at the high voltage side to balance output inductor currents. Two series capacitors are adopted at the AC terminals of the two half-bridge legs to balance the two input capacitor voltages. The resonant behavior of the inductance and capacitance at the transition interval enable MOSFETs to be switched on under zero voltage switching. The circuit configuration, system characteristics, and design are discussed in detail. Experiments based on a laboratory prototype are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1632-1642
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• 2014

This paper presents an interleaved resonant converter to reduce the voltage stress of power MOSFETs and achieve high circuit efficiency. Two half-bridge converters are connected in series at high voltage side to limit MOSFETs at $V_{in}/2$ voltage stress. Flying capacitor is used between two series half-bridge converters to balance two input capacitor voltages in each switching cycle. Variable switching frequency scheme is used to control the output voltage. The resonant circuit is operated at the inductive load. Thus, the input current of the resonant circuit is lagging to the fundamental input voltage. Power MOSFETs can be turn on under zero voltage switching. Two resonant circuits are connected in parallel to reduce the current stress of transformer windings and rectifier diodes at low voltage side. Interleaved pulse-width modulation is adopted to decrease the output ripple current. Finally, experiments are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.389-398
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• 2015

This paper presents a 1.92 kW resonant converter for medium voltage applications that uses low voltage stress MOSFETs (500V) to achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) turn-on. In the proposed converter, four MOSFETs are connected in series to limit the voltage stress of the power switches at half of the input voltage. In addition, three resonant circuits are adopted to share the load current and to reduce the current stress of the passive components. Furthermore, the transformer primary and secondary windings are connected in series to balance the output diode currents for medium power applications. Split capacitors are adopted in each resonant circuit to reduce the current stress of the resonant capacitors. Two balance capacitors are also used to automatically balance the input capacitor voltage in every switching cycle. Based on the circuit characteristics of the resonant converter, the MOSFETs are turned on under ZVS. If the switching frequency is less than the series resonant frequency, the rectifier diodes can be turned off under zero current switching (ZCS). Experimental results from a prototype with a 750-800 V input and a 48V/40A output are provided to verify the theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1147-1156
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• 2014

This study proposes a quasi-fixed-frequency hysteresis current tracking control strategy for modular multilevel converters (MMCs) on the basis of voltage partition principle. First, by monitoring the grid voltage and the deviation between the output and reference currents, the output voltage is determined, thus prompting the output current to quickly and efficiently track the given current. Second, the voltages of the upper/lower capacitor of the arm and the voltages between the upper and lower arms are balanced by combining these arms with virtual loop mapping and arm voltage balance control, respectively. In particular, the proposed method is designed for any level and number of sub-modules. The validity of the proposed method is verified by simulations and experimental results of a five-level MMC prototype.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.567-577
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• 2012

This paper introduces a new scheme to balance the DC bus voltages of a cascaded H-bridge converter which is used as a Distribution Static Synchronous Series Compensator (D-SSSC) in electrical distribution network. The aim of D-SSSC is to control the power flow between two feeders from different substations. As a result of different cell losses and capacitors tolerance the cells DC bus voltage can deviate from their reference values. In the proposed scheme, by individually modifying the reference PWM signal for each cell, an effective balancing procedure is derived. The new balancing procedure needs only the line current sign and is independent of the main control strategy, which controls the total DC bus voltages of cascaded H-bridge. The effect of modulation index variation on the capacitor voltage is analytically derived for the proposed strategy. The proposed method takes advantages of phase shift carrier based modulation and can be applied for a cascaded H-bridge with any number of cells. Also the system is immune to loss of one cell and the presented procedure can keep balancing between the remaining cells. Simulation studies and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method in the balancing of DC bus voltages.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.469-477
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• 2003

This paper proposes a Carrier-Rotation (CR) PWM technique that is a new solution for the voltage unbalancing problem of flying capacitors in the Flying Capacitor Multi-level Inverter (FCMI). The proposed technique equalizes the utilization of phase leg voltage redundancies corresponding to the charging and the discharging state of individual flying capacitors during each switching period of all the switches. Therefore, the charging and the discharging quantity of flying capacitors are equal, which makes the average variation of flying capacitor voltages become zero and keeps their voltage stable during minimum specified period. It also has the reduced harmonic contents of output voltage and the same switch utilization since all the carrier signals are in phase and the switching frequency of each switch is identical. The proposed technique is analyzed precisely in flying capacitor 3-level inverter and then it has expanded to the FCMI (N-level, N>3). Experimental results on the laboratory prototype flying capacitor 3-level inverter confirm the validity of the proposed technique.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1315-1324
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• 2018

A novel three-phase four-wire inverter topology is presented in this paper. This topology is equipped with a special capacitor balance grid without magnetic saturation. In response to unbalanced load and unequal split DC-link capacitors problems, a qusi-full-bridge DC/DC topology is applied in the balance grid. By using a high-frequency transformer, the energy transfer within the two split dc-link capacitors is realized. The novel topology makes the voltage across two split dc-link capacitors balanced so that the neutral point voltage ripple is inhibited. Under the condition of a stable neutral point voltage, the three-phase four-wire inverter can be equivalent to three independent single phase inverters. As a result, the three-phase inverter can produce symmetrical voltage waves with an unbalanced load. To avoid forward transformer magnetic saturation, the voltages of the primary and secondary windings are controlled to reverse once during each switching period. Furthermore, an improved mode chosen operating principle for this novel topology is designed and analyzed in detail. The simulated results verified the feasibility of this topology and an experimental inverter has been built to test the power quality produced by this topology. Finally, simulation results verify that the novel topology can effectively improve the inhibition of an inverter with a three-phase unbalanced load while decreasing the value of the split capacitor.

• Journal of international Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.176-183
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• 2014

Three-phase four-wire distribution systems are used for both three-phase three-wire loads and single-phase two-wire consumer appliances in South Korea, Myanmar and other countries. Unbalanced load conditions frequently occur in these distribution systems. These unbalanced load conditions cause unbalanced voltages for three-phase and single-phase loads, and increase the loss in the distribution transformer. In this paper, we propose constant DC capacitor voltage control based strategy for the active load balancer (ALB) in the three-phase four-wire distribution systems. Constant DC capacitor voltage control is always used in active power line conditioners. The proposed control strategy does not require any computation blocks of the active and reactive currents on the distribution systems. Balanced source-side currents with a unity power factor are obtained without any calculation block of the unbalanced active and reactive components on the load side. The basic principle of the constant DC capacitor voltage control based strategy for the ALB is discussed in detail and then confirmed by both digital computer simulations using PSIM software and prototype experimental model. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy for the ALB can balance the source currents with a unity power factor in the three-phase four-wire distribution systems.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.82-89
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• 2021

This study proposes a DAB two-stage series structure with insulated bidirectional DC-DC converter for two-way power transfer between the renewable energy of high voltages (1 kV and above). The proposed circuit transforms the existing DAB converter into a two-stage series structure to reduce the pressure in the switch. The problem of power imbalance occurring in the design of the DAB converter second-stage series is improved by applying the cell balancing method circuit and the common mode coupled inductor using an external flying capacitor instead of reflecting the existing improvement measures, voltage balance control, and inductor current control. In addition, a no-load supercharging sequence is proposed in high voltages and high-speed switching by using the fixed duty output method. This study presents the analysis results through the structure of the proposed circuit, the principle of improving the power imbalance problem, and simulations. Prototypes were manufactured to meet the specifications of input/output voltage of 1700 V, maximum load of 65 kW, and switching frequency of 51kHz, and the validity of the topology was verified using the experimental results and efficiency data.