Gate-assisted reverse and forward recovery of high-power GTOs in series resonant DC-link inverters

Author

Holtz, Joachim ; Stamm, Michael

Author_Institution

Electr. Machines & Drives. Labs., Wuppertal Univ., Germany

Volume

14

Issue

2

fYear

1999

fDate

3/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

227

Lastpage

232

Abstract

The series resonant DC-link inverter is an attractive circuit topology for interfacing a DC current with a three-phase AC system. It uses gate turn-off thyristors (GTOs) as semiconductor switches. The conventional solution requires an additional series diode to perform the turn off process and to enable forward recovery of the GTO. This paper uses a single GTO along with a special gate drive to provide reverse and forward recovery. A new device testing circuit was designed to create the same electrical and thermal stresses as in a series resonant DC-link inverter. Experimental results using 2000 A GTOs at 26 kHz switching frequency demonstrate that the total device losses are reduced, while the hold-off time is slightly increased. The new single-device solution makes resonant switching attractive for very high-power applications

Keywords

invertors; power semiconductor switches; resonant power convertors; switching circuits; thyristor convertors; 2000 A; 26 kHz; DC current; circuit topology; device testing circuit; electrical stresses; gate drive; gate turn-off thyristors; gate-assisted forward recovery; gate-assisted reverse recovery; high-power GTO; hold-off time; semiconductor switches; series resonant DC-link inverters; thermal stresses; three-phase AC system; Circuit testing; Circuit topology; Inverters; RLC circuits; Resonance; Semiconductor diodes; Switches; Switching frequency; Thermal stresses; Thyristors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8993

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/63.750175

Filename

750175