Layout of IGBT-based Current Source Converter for low stray inductance

In this paper, a layout of Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor(IGBT)-based Current Source Converter (CSC) to reduce stray inductance is proposed. Due to the rapid evolution of IGBT, it has become a competitive switching device in comparison with other high power switching devices even in MW power conversion system. The higher switching frequency of IGBT might reduce the size of other passive component of CSC significantly, and the demerits of CSC can be diminished remarkably, while the merits of CSC can be retained. However, since the switching speed of IGBT is high, the overshoot of the voltage across IGBT due to the stray inductance increases. And, the switching loss and voltage stress would be prohibitive. To decrease the stray inductance, a layout of power circuit exploiting magnetic coupling between bus bar connecting switching devices is devised in this paper. The stray inductances of two different layouts of IGBT-based CSC are compared to verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy, experimentally.