Control of the single-phase three-leg AC/AC converter

This paper investigates the control of a single-phase three-leg ac/ac reversible converter in which a leg is shared by both the grid and the load side. Pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) techniques based on scalar and vector approaches are developed, introducing the concept of local and general apportioning factor and, also, a complete equivalence between scalar and space vector PWM. A hysteresis current controller capable of taking into account the shared leg is developed and a zero current error linear controller is presented. Furthermore, a control strategy to obtain maximum utilization of the dc-bus voltage is proposed. In addition, several relevant characteristics of the converter are addressed, such as voltage rating, harmonic distortion, shared leg and capacitor currents, and power rating. The converter is compared to four-leg and two-leg converters. Experimental results are presented.