No abstract

Three-phase DC/AC power electronics converter systems used in battery-powered variable-speed drive systems or employed in three-phase mains-supplied battery charger applications usually feature two power conversion stages. In both cases, typically a DC/DC stage is attached to a three-phase DC/ AC stage in order to enable buck-boost functionality and/or a wide input-output voltage operating range. However, a two-stage solution leads to a high number of switched bridge-legs and hence, results in high switching losses, if the degrees of freedom available for controlling the overall system are not utilised. If the DC/DC stage is used to vary the DC link voltage with six times the ACside frequency, a pulse width modulation (PWM) of always only one phase of the DC/AC stage is sufficient to achieve three-phase sinusoidal output currents. The clamping of two phases (denoted as 1/3 PWM) leads to a drastic reduction of the DC/AC stage switching losses, which is further accentuated by a DC link voltage which is lower than for the conventional modulation schemes. This paper details the operating principle of a three-phase buck-boost converter system using 1/3 PWM and outlines an appropriate control system design. Subsequently, the switching losses and the voltage/current stresses on the converter components are analytically derived. There, a more than 66% reduction of the DC/ AC stage switching losses is calculated without any increase of the stress on the remaining converter components. The theoretical considerations are finally verified on a hardware demonstrator, where the proposed modulation strategy is experimentally compared against several conventional modulation techniques and its clear performance advantages are validated.Index Terms-Battery charger, control system design, modulation strategy, variable-speed drives, wide input-output voltage range.

No abstract

No abstract

Fuel cell technology is continuously gaining ground in E-mobility applications. Fuel cells require a constant supply of pressurized air, for which high-speed turbo compressors with air bearings are an optimal choice to reduce size, guarantee oil-free operation required for the lifetime of the fuel cell, and increase efficiency. However, the inverter driving the electric motor of the turbo compressor does not scale down with increasing speed; therefore, other technology advances are required to achieve an overall compressor system with low weight. New power electronic topologies (double-bridge voltage sources inverter), cutting edge power semiconductor technology (gallium nitride), and multiobjective optimization techniques allow reducing the inverter size, increasing inverter efficiency, and improving the output current quality and in return lowering the losses in the electric motor. This enables the electrical, mechanical, and thermal integration of the inverter into the compressor housing of very high-speed and compact turbo compressors, thereby reducing the size and weight of the overall compressor system by a factor of two. Furthermore, a turbo compressor with an integrated inverter reduces complexity and cost for operators with savings in casing, cables, coolant piping, and connectors and reduces EMI noise by shielding the high-frequency motor currents with one housing. Beside its main application for fuel cell air supply, the advantages gained by an integrated inverter can also be used in other boosting and air handling applications such as advanced air and exhaust handling in combustion engines. The proposed integration concept is verified with a 280,000 rpm, 1 kW turbo compressor, targeted for the Balance of Plant (BoP) of a 5–15 kW fuel cell. The experimental results show that the temperature limits on the power electronics parts can be kept below the limit of 90 °C up to a coolant temperature of 55 °C, and beside the advantage of lower cabling effort, the efficiency of the compressor system (turbo compressor and integrated inverter) is increased by 5.5% compared to a turbo compressor without an integrated inverter.