Power Electronics

Chapter 5
DC to AC Converters
( Inverters )
Power Electronics Applications of Inverters
Conversion of electric power from DC type energy
sources to AC type load
– Battery
– Photovoltaic cell (Solar cell)
– Fuel cell
As a part of composite converter
– AC-DC-AC frequency converter (for AC motor drive)
– AC-DC-AC constant-voltage constant-frequency converter (for
uninterruptable power supplies)
– AC-DC-AC Converters for induction heating
– AC-DC-AC-DC switching power supplies

2
Power Electronics Outline
5.1 Commutation

5.2 Voltage source inverters

5.3 Current source inverters

5.4 Multiple-inverter connections and multi-level inverters

3
Power Electronics 5.1 Commutation types
Basic operation principle of inverters
uo
S1 S3
io Load
io
Ud
S2 uo S t1 t2 t
4

A classification of inverters
– Square-wave inverters (are discussed in this chapter)
– PWM inverters ( will be discussed in Chapter 6)
The concept of commutation

4
Power Electronics 4 types of commutation
Device commutation:
Fully-controlled devices: GTO, IGBT, MOSFET

Line commutation
Phase-controlled rectifier
Phase-controlled AC controller
Thyristor cycloconverter

Load commutation

Forced commutation

5
Power Electronics Load commutation

Condition: Load current is leading load voltage

Application: capacitive load, synchronous motor

6
 Forced commutation
Power Electronics (capacitance commutation)

Direct-Coupled With Coupling-Inductor

7
Power Electronics Another classification of commutations

4 types of Commutations

Device commutation For fully-controlled

devices
Self-commutation
Forced commutation

Line commutation For thyristors

External
commutation
Load commutation

8
Power Electronics 2 classes of inverters

Voltage Source Inverter Current Source Inverter

(VSI) (CSI)

9
Power Electronics 5.2 Voltage source inverter (VSI)
+
V3 VD3
VD 1
C V1
R io L
Ud
V2 uo
VD4
VD 2
V4

-
Features
DC side is constant voltage, low impedance (voltage
source, or bulk cap)
AC side voltage is square wave or quasi-square wave.
AC side current is determined by the load.
Anti-parallel diodes are necessary to provide energy
feedback path.
(freewheeling diodes , feedback diodes)
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Power Electronics Single-phase half bridge VSI

V1
Ud
VD
2 1
io R L
Ud
uo
Ud
2 VD
2
V2

-
The current conducting path is determined by the
polarity of load voltage and load current. (This is true
for analysis of many power electronics circuits.)

The magnitude of output square-wave voltage is Ud/2.

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Power Electronics Single-phase full bridge VSI
Operation principle
+
V3 VD 3
VD1
C V1
R io L
Ud
V2 uo
VD 4
VD2
V4

The magnitude of output square-wave voltage is Ud.

The effective value of output voltage (or fundamental
output voltage) can be changed by changing Ud.

12
Power Electronics Single-phase full bridge VSI
Quantitative analysis
Fourier series extension of output voltage

4U d ⎛ 1 1 ⎞
uo = ⎜ sin ω t + sin 3ω t + sin 5ω t + " ⎟ (5-1)
π ⎝ 3 5 ⎠
Magnitude of output voltage fundamental component
4U d
U o1m = = 1.27U d (5-2)
π
Effective value of output voltage fundamental component
2 2U d
U o1 = = 0.9U d (5-3)
π

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Power Electronics Single-phase full bridge VSI
Output voltage control by phase-shift

uG1
+ O
t
V3 VD 3 uG2
VD1
O
C V1 t
U
R io L uG3 θ
d O
V2 uo t
uG4
VD 4
VD2 O
V4 t
uo uo
io
- io
O
t3
t1 t2 t

14
 Inverter with center-tapped transformer
Power Electronics —push-pull inverter

Load
io
uo

+
V1 V2
Ud
VD1
VD2
-

15
Power Electronics Three-phase VSI

180o conduction
Dead time (blanking time) to
avoid “shoot through”

16
Power Electronics Three-phase VSI
Basic equations to obtain voltage waveforms
For line voltage For phase voltage of the load

U UN + U VN + U WN = 0

17
Power Electronics Three-phase VSI
Quantitative analysis
Fourier series extension of output line-to-line voltage
2 3U d ⎛ 1 1 1 1 ⎞
u UV = ⎜ sin ω t − sin 5ω t − sin 7ω t + sin 11ω t + sin 13 ω t − " ⎟
π ⎝ 5 7 11 13 ⎠
2 3U d ⎡ 1 ⎤
=
π ⎢ sin ω t + ∑ ( − 1) k sin n ω t ⎥ (5-8)
⎣ n n ⎦

Magnitude of output voltage (line-to-line) fundamental component

2 3U d
U UV1m = = 1.1U d (5-10)
π
Effective value of output voltage (line-to-line) fundamental
component
U UV1m 6 (5-11)
U UV1 = = U d = 0.78U d
2 π

18
Power Electronics 5.3 Current source inverter (CSI)
Features
DC side is constant
current, high impedance
(current source, or large
inductor)

AC side current is quasi-

square wave. AC side
voltage is determined by the load.

No anti-parallel diodes are needed. sometimes series

diodes are needed to block reverse voltage for other
power semiconductor devices.

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Power Electronics Single-phase bridge CSI
Parallel Resonant Inverter
Ld
A

Id
VT1 VT3
C
LT1 io LT3
uo
LT2 LT4
R L
VT2 VT4

Switching frequency is a little higher

than the resonant frequency so that the
load becomes capacitive and load
current is leading voltage to realize
load commutation.
20
Power Electronics Three-phase self-commutated CSI

120o conduction

21
Power Electronics Three-phase force-commutated CSI

22
Power Electronics Three-phase load-commutated CSI

23
 5.4 Multiple-inverter connections
Power Electronics and multi-level inverters
Series connection of 2 single-phase VSIs

24
Power Electronics Series connection of 2 3-phase VSIs

25
Power Electronics Multi-level Inverters
3-level inverter

26