The performance of high-power GTOs operated as fast turn-off thyristors

The series resonant DC link inverter is an attractive circuit topology for interfacing a superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) inductance with the electric utility. The principle of zero current switching (ZCS) ensures low switching losses at high switching frequency, provides power factor correction capability, and reduces the harmonic line currents. For applications at high power level, the use of GTOs as semiconductor switches is mandatory. High-power devices behave differently at switching than the smaller GTOs treated in previous publications. The device losses in the kiloampere range are reduced by gate-assisted forward recovery. The dynamic performance of different power switch topologies is experimentally evaluated