Design and test of a high power inverter for a ground based radar system for theater missile defense

A scaled prototype for a MW level inverter for the power supply of a new ground-based radar system for theater missile defense has been designed and tested. The full-scale inverter is specified to supply three-phase, 60 Hz AC power at 4160 V with a continuous power level of 1 MW. In order to achieve this high output voltage in an IGBT switched inverter without the use of a transformer, a three-level inverter topology, called a neutral point clamped power converter (NPCC) was used. The design rating of the scaled prototype was 100 kW. Experimental results show representative waveforms for voltage and current and describe a test setup for regenerative high power testing using two coupled induction machines.