Power loss and thermal characterization of IGBT modules in the Alternate Arm converter
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Judge, PD
Merlin, MMC
Mitcheson, PD
Green, TC
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Power losses in high power HVDC converters are dominated by those that occur within the power electronic devices. This power loss is dissipated as heat at the junction of semiconductor devices. The cooling system ensures that the generated heat is evacuated outside the converter station but temperature management remains critical for the lifetime of the semiconductor devices. This paper presents the results of a study on the temperature profile of the different switches inside a multilevel converter. The steady state junction temperatures are observed through the simulation of a 20 MW Alternate Arm Converter using 1.2kA 3.3 kV IGBT modules. A comparison of the Alternate Arm Converter is made against the case of both the half-bridge and full-bridge Modular Multilevel Converter topologies. Furthermore, the concept of varying the duty-cycle of the two alternative zero-voltage states of the H-bridge modules is introduced. Simulation results demonstrate that it can change the balance of electrical and thermal stress between the two top switches and the two bottom switches of a full-bridge cell. © 2013 IEEE.
Date Issued
2013-12-31
ISBN
9781479903351
Start Page
1725
End Page
1731
Journal / Book Title
2013 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, ECCE 2013
Copyright Statement
© 2013 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Description
29.10.14 KB. Ok to add accepted version to spiral