International Conference on Smart Manufacturing Application April.

9-11, 2008 in KINTEX, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

3-Phase Transformer Isolated Multi-level Inverter Using Common Arm Song Jiseok, Song Dooyoung, Ju Hongju, Song Sunggun, Kim Dongok, Park Sungjun Department of Electrical Engineering, Chonnam Nationl University, Gwangju, Korea
(Tel: +82-62-530-0743; E-mail: geeseokghanmail.net)

Abstract: The number of transformer and the size of transformer in inverter using 3-phase transformer could be reduced compare with a multi-level inverter using single phase transformer. But still the 3-phase transformer inverter needs many switches. In this study, we proposed the isolated multi-level inverter using 3-phase transformers and common arm, in this paper. Also, using phase angle control method with switching frequency equal to output fundamental frequency, harmonics component of output voltage and switching loss can be reduced. Finally, we tested multi-level inverter to clarify electric circuit and reasonableness through Matlab simulation and experiment by using prototype inverter. Keywords: H-Bridge, Multi-level inverter, 3-Phase transformer, CHML, Common arm 1. INTRODUCTION
Rcently the research on multi-level inverter has been received a great consideration in industrial field. It has the advantages of low switching excess loss for its low switching frequency, generating high voltage on low switching frequency. It is a kind of suitable choice of replacing the existing PWM inverter. Commonly multi-level inverter can be clarified into: Flying Capacitor Circuit (FCC), Diode Clamped Circuit (DCC), and Isolated H-bridge Circuit (IHC). In the IHC type multi-level inverter the low voltage H-Bridge modules are connected in series so it is possible to use module that consist dependent DC link cells, but it is the disadvantage that the dependent voltage need to be provided to each H-Bridge separately. In order to overcome shortcomings of IHC inverter, many researches on using isolated transformers and single DC source have been done. In these researches it is necessary of many voltage levels for improving the quality of inverter output voltage. In case of necessary of many switch elements and isolated transformers the 3-phase multi-level inverter is applied. In this paper, for reducing the number of the transformers, the 3-phase transformers are applied instead of single transformer. Based on the voltage-piling method the isolated 3-phase transformer H-Bridge multi-level inverter (IHCML) has been constructed. In order to reducing the number of switch elements in the isolated 3-phase transformer H-Bridge multi-level inverter a novel common-arm inverter construction has been proposed. In the proposed multi-level inverter the switching frequency is uniformed to the basic frequency by firing angles control through the same-area-method, THD of output voltage is reduced and the switching loss is decreased.

2.3-PHASE ISOLATED H-BRIDGE MULTILEVEL INVERTER 2.1 3-phase IHCML inverter The structure of 3-Phase IHCML inverter using commonarm proposed in this paper is shown as figure 1. As shown in figure 1, there are five 3-phase transformers and one DC source in the IHCML construction. The transformers are low frequency type for getting the voltage-piling.

Fig. 1. Structure of 3-Phase IHCML inverter using

common-arm
In proposed inverter, for using 3-phase transformers, the number of transformers and the volume of system can be reduced and the price of system is deservedly down. In primary side of transformers each phase connected by HBridges which can generate voltages, and in secondary side each phase is connected in serial for piling voltages. For restraining unbalanced magnetic composition of 3-phase

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transformers, each phase is connected in A winding. In IHCML inverter for reducing the output THD the level should be increased, it means that the same number of switch elements should be increased in the circuit. As shown in figure 3, in the proposed IHCML inverter all firing angles are in the range of and all extinction angles are in the range of, so all polarities of H-Bridges are the same. As isolated transformers and single DC source are applied, one of the H-Bridge's arms can be connected in common. As shown in figure 1, the arms that decide the polarity of each phase are connected in common, 24 switch elements are reduced by this way. If transformers are used in the inverter the number of reduced switch elements can be calculated as
p
=

expressed the product of the input voltage and the turn ratio of transformer as below.
VAk
V

Vak
=
_
T

Bk

Vbk
_

(4)

VCk

Vck

6(k -1)

(1)

But when IHCML inverter is used, because voltages Vak, Vbk, V,k of 1st side of transformer are generated by independent H-Bridge bringing voltage levels VDC, 0 and VDC, three phases are often not balanced. So instead of formula (4), formula (2) is usually used. The output voltage of IHCML inverter is generated by the voltages of transformers connected in series is able to be expressed by the line voltage VAB, VBC, VCA as shown.

In this construction, it can be known that the current on common-arm switch element is greater than other arms. But the number of switch elements is reduced, so it has the excellent characteristic on reducing the switching loss. In figure 2, three transformers are shown. Each phase of IHCML inverter is expressed as a 3-phase transformer. It can be known that the input is 3-phase voltage and the output is single-phase voltage and the outputs are connected in series for piling the voltages. In figure 1, voltages Vak, Vbk, Vck are the output voltage of kth H-Bridge and voltages VAk, VBk, Vck are the output voltages of each phase of transformers. Therefore the relation between input voltage and output voltage of 3-phase transformer is shown as below.
VA S
CA~~~~A

LVAB VBC VCA

VAS VBS VCS _

VA + VA2 VB1 + VB2 VCI + VC2

+ + +

VAk + VBk + VCk _

(5)

By using formula (2) and (5), the output voltage of inverter can be expressed by the output voltage of H-Bridge as shown as below.

IVAB]
VBC
VCA
Here,
k

1
1

-1

VbS
ILvs]

(6)

-1
E

V's
Vbs

i=l

Vji

k
=

Z Vbi
i=l

(7)

IHA

F v7 fa V4s |~~~~ v BC ~

VCS

=
i=l

vci

Fig. 2 Simplified structure of 3-Phase IHCML inverter

VAk VBk
T

L2

-1
1

-1

-Vak-

2
-

-1

-VC

-I

-Vck

Vbk

(2)

In the above formula, it means that the inputs of transformer are connected in series, but actually the outputs of H-Bridges are all from the same DC source and can not be connected in series, so the above formula is the virtual sum expression. It can be known from formula (6) that the line voltage of 3-phase IHCML may be expressed by the sum of output voltages of each transformer and the sum of the input voltage can be controlled by the VaS, VbS, V,S5

Here, T is the transform ratio ( n2 / n1 ) between the 1 st side and the 2ed side of the transformer. If the input voltage is balanced in three phases, the sum of all voltages of each phase is 0 as shown below.
Vat + Vbk +

2.2 Generating of switching signal When five H-Bridges are used for generating the sinusoidal wave output, the output wave of each H-Bridge is shown as figure 3. Here, the switching frequency is controlled as same as the basic frequency of the sinusoidal wave.

V,k

(3)

From formula (1) and (2), the output voltage is able to be

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o
I,
i

-L-

7= -1

cos( 7a1) + cos( 7a2 ) + cos( 7a3) + cos( 7a4 ) + cos( 7a5 ) = 0 + + cos( 11a3) + 11a2) cos( 11aI) cos(
cos( 11a4) + cos( 11a5)
=

(10)
0

..L
-Fai

-IS

V-1 A.
V.Z
A

L--J--P.
P

i
i t
i

-r

cos( 13 a) + cos( 13 a2 ) + cos( 13 a3 ) + cos( 13 a4 ) +cos( 13 a5

i.
I

V-,
f.

--IA
7L,

p-

Fig. 3. The switching function of IHCML inverter

In the inverter, shown as figure 3, according to the firing angles a 2, (3 , 64, (X5 the RMS value of output voltage is shown as formula (8).

In the above, m is the modulation index. It is a nonlinear equation that can be solved by the iterative method such as Newton-Rapson method and is impossible to be solved by algebraic method. But it is impossible to solve the equation at real time so the pre-calculated modulation index table is applied. For the continuous control on the firing angle is impossible the Equal Area method shown as figure 4 is used to control the firing angle in this paper. The intersect point of each level voltage and sinusoidal reference voltage is shown as below.
=

VO

VDC J-(81Ta

33a2 5ax3 7a4 9a5 ) (8)

sin

V;

(11)

As shown in the above formula for the expected RMS output voltage, there are not the unique corresponding firing angles a1' a2 a6 a4 (X5 but there are countless possibility. And for generating a same RMS value, through the firing angle control that can reduce harmonics compositions the THD of output voltage can be improved. In order to analyze basic composition and harmonics compositions of the output voltage under the firing angles of each inverter the Fourier analysis is necessary. If the output voltage of inverter is odd function, as half-wave symmetry the coefficient of Fourier series is shown as below.
, , ,

If the nth junction shown the formula below is used.

n

as

the formula (11) does not exist,

IT
2

(12)

By using the intersect point calculated above the firing angles that can uniform the two area shown as figure 4 are decided by formula below.

n
Here I

-1

bn

4DC [cos( nal )

n rT

cos(

na,2) + cos( ncr3)

na,5)]
(9)

VDC =

f(VP sin( 0)

nVdc )o

(13)

00 =0

+ cos(

na,4) +
-

cos(

Vt

Here,

n =

1,3,5

2,1

It can be known that if the output voltage is controlled by the delay angles a, a2 6(3, 6(5 the basic composition is generated while the special harmonic compositions are reduced. In formula above by controlling five delay angles four harmonics compositions can be reduced. In 3-phase inverter, the harmonics compositions in multiple of 3 do not exist. For reducing 5th, 7th, 11th, 13th harmonic compositions the formula that decides that firing angles are shown as below.
64,

xri

..7i
I
I

_ i-

11

Fig. 4. The principle of conduction angle determination for THD reduction

3. SIMULATIONS AND RESULTS

To verify the validity of proposed IHCML inverter, the simulation in Matlab and the experiment using a prototype inverter in Lab have been done. The input voltage is set to 1OOV and the transformer ratio is set to 1. When modulation index is 1.0 the output voltage of each H-Bridge, the reference voltages using Equal-Area method and virtual output voltage are shown as figure 5. It is obvious that the frequency of each switch and basic frequency is same.

cos(

,)

+ cos(

2) + cos(
cos(
a4

,)

+
a

) + cos(

5)

5m 4

cos( 5a1) + cos( 5cr2)+ cos( 5cr3) +

cos( 54 ) +cos(55)

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*IF'W

Dit1

.......r........ .......r................

.......

iLo

Rf

'iO a0f

AO

L2

&

Fi.5.HBideouptanrernc vltg
{wj l 1~~~~~~~LA

onmduaio

approximately same and the DF of current is under 50 when the modulation index is over 0.3. As shown in figure 8 the proposed prototype inverter is made and tested to clarify the reasonableness of the proposed 3phase IHCML inverter by using five 3-phase transformers and six IPMs in the Lab. The processor is DSP 2812 and the IQmath of TI is used to calculate the firing angles and junction angles on-line. For controlling many switches the 2-level latch circuit is used to generate the dead time and the control signals are synchronous.

"I
w

lo.

L..L.

;. . ."'IT----,. . i

--l"

Fig. 6. Transformer and inverter output voltage on modulation 1.0

When modulation index is 1.0, A-phase output voltage of each 3-phase transformer, the reference voltages and final output voltage of inverter generated by piling transformer voltages are shown as figure 6. It can be known that though each phase input is rectangular wave but the output is like the wave shown as figure base on the formula (2). It can be know from the figure that the basic composition and polarity of output voltage in each transformer are all same and the phase and polarity have no change despite connecting transformers in series. It is also obvious that the final output voltage of inverter can follow the reference voltage very well.

Fig. 8. Prototype 3-Phase IHCML inverter When the modulation index is 1.0 the reference voltage and output voltage of each H-Bridge in experiment are shown as figure 9. As same as simulation result it can be known that all output polarities are same and the frequency of each switching is equal to the basic frequency.

.X
/E~

Ch3F7 R7q77 dh'4r I v= |~

Fig. 9. The output voltage of H-Bridge and reference

idg

.3

12W20k221;41 .26

voltage

gM

lAl SfPs PRevu

31-,[ +7b +7

Ti F4+ 17,

Fig. 7. Output voltage THD and DF for different

modulation When the formula (10) is used to solve the result of nonlinear equation THD and DF of output voltage according to the firing angles calculated by the Newton-rapson method are shown as figure 7. It can be known that 2 results are

ml+T+h

1n-+T)

Fig. 10. The output voltage of each 3 -phase transformer

Fig.

5ttV A _. : v 22h 10. Theoutputvoltageofeach3-phasetransform23e0r;21

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4. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a common-arm low frequency 3-phase isolated multi-level inverter using 3-phase transformers is proposed. The proposed prototype inverter is tested to clarify the proposed electric circuit and reasonableness of control signal for the proposed inverter. In the proposed construction the single DC source is used for appling isolated transformers and the output polarity of each H-Bridge is uniform for using the control that uniform the switching frequency and the basic frequency. And the arms that decide the polarity of each phase are connected in common, 24 switch elements are reduced compared with existing method. Based on this construction, because the switching frequency, the number of elements and the switching loss are all reduced, the inverter is very efficient. In this paper the firing angles of switches are controlled on-line thought Equal-Area method and the switching method that can reduce THD of output voltage is used. The advantages of proposed common-arm IHCML inverter using 3-phase transformers are shown as below.

-Efficient and economical by using one transformer -Increase of utilization rate and decrease of volume by using 13 12W2J0 U0 3-phase transformer (b) -Decrease of elements and increase of efficiency by using Fig. 11. Waveform of inverter reference voltage, output common-arm method voltage and FFT at modulation 1.0 & 0.5 -Little transition loss of switch for low frequency suitable for (a) modulation 1.0 (b) modulation 0.5 great capacity The output of transformers connected in series is shown as -Little EMI when generating high voltage for piling voltage figure 10. It can be known that there is voltage distortion in method output voltage of each transformer because of the magnetic -Decrease of output voltage THD by using controlling firing unbalance but there is no distortion in final output voltage of angle on-line based on Equal-Area method inverter connected as. This research was financially supported by the Ministry of When the modulation index is 1.0 the reference voltage and output voltage of IHCML inverter are shown as figure 11(a). Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) and Korea Here the THD of voltage is 6.4% and DF is 0.38%. When the Industrial Technology Foundation (KOTEF) through the modulation index is 0.5 the THD of voltage is 6.4% and DF is Human Resource Training Project for Regional Innovation. 0.38% as shown in figure 11(b). It can be known they are 5. REFERENCES similar with the simulation results. The output voltage and phase-to-neutral voltage of 3-phase [1] K.A. Corzine, M.W. Wielebski, F.Z. Peng and J. Wang, "Control of load side connected as are shown as figure 12. Cascaded Multi-Level Electric Machines and Drives
[2]

[3] [4] [5]

[6]
Ii V 4 .6V

Fig. 12. Output voltage of inverter and phase-to-neutral voltage of load

May 2002. [7] Lipo, T.A. and Menjrekar, M.D. "Hybrid Topology for Multi-Level Power Conversion", U.S. Patent Number 6,005,788, 1999.

Inverters", Conference, Vol. 3, 2003, pp.1549 1555. Tolbert, L.M., Fang Zheng Peng and Habetler, T.G., "Multilevel converters for large electric drives" Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions, Vol. 35, 1999, pp.36-44. Fu-San Shyu and Yen-Shin Lai, "Virtual Stage Pulse-Width Modulation Technique for Multilevel Inverter/Converter" Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions, Vol. 17, 2002, pp.332-341. Timothyl. S "THE POWER ELECTRONICS HANDBOOK Industrial Electronics Series", Chap 6 Jih-Sheng Lai, Fang Zheng Peng, "Multilevel Converters-A New Breed of Power Converters", Industry Applications, IEEE Transactions, Vol. 32, 1996, pp.509 517. Fu-San Shyu, Yen-Shin Lai, Virtual Stage Pulse-Width Modulation Technique for Multilevel Inverter/Converter, IEEE Trans. Vol 17, No3

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