Investigation of a 2/3-step voltage-based commutation method for matrix converters

Matrix converter technology has grown up to a competitive alternative towards the common voltage source back-to-back inverter technology over the last years. Hence, the interest is still restricted to academic researchers. A process of industrial penetration is not yet initialized. The main reason for that is the current commutation of the matrix converter, which suffers from an omnipresent risk of load current interruption and input voltage short circuits. Provided that no additional hardware is used, the commutation in matrix converters is performed as a staggered multistep commutation. The papers subject is the investigation of a novel 2/3-step voltage-based commutation method, which is characterized by an increased safety against input voltage short circuits. Next to the basic commutation state machine, some numerical calculations on a space vector modulated matrix converter have been carried out to analyze the impact on output voltage and input current quality as well as the converter efficiency. The obtained theoretical results will be proved by experimental results, finally.