Hardware design of a 1.7 kV SiC MOSFET based MMC for medium voltage motor drives

Li, He; Potty, Karun; Ke, Ziwei; Pan, Jianyu; Chen, Yingzhuo; Zhang, Fan; Sabbagh, Muneer Al; Perdikakis, Will; Li, Gengyao; Yang, Xi; Na, Risha; Zhang, Julia; Xu, Longya; Wang, Jin

doi:10.1109/apec.2018.8341238

Cited by 41 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The switch uses Rohm SiC MOSFET (#BSM0015A). A two-layer driving and sensing board is attached to the power module and control the switches, which provides comprehensive protection functions, including over-current, over- voltage, over-temperature and EMI-shielding protection [19]. Figs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and compensation of circulating currents errors in modular multilevel converters in low‐frequency operation

Sabbagh

Pan

et al. 2020

IET Power Electronics

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Errors in the injected high-frequency circulating currents are originally investigated for modular multilevel converters (MMCs) in low-speed drive operation. The mathematical analysis reveals that the magnitude and phase errors in the injected circulating currents cause serious energy imbalance in the MMC arms, resulting in large voltage fluctuations in the submodules. Furthermore, these fluctuations get larger when the circulating currents are injected at higher frequencies, which reduces the drive system stability and damages the submodule capacitors. A remedy approach is proposed to minimise the error effects by adjusting the circulating current command. A full-scale system comprising a 1 MVA MMC and a 1 MW induction machine is simulated to verify the theoretical analysis. The experimental investigation of a down-scale MMC feeding an inductor is also conducted to validate the theoretical results.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis and compensation of circulating currents errors in modular multilevel converters in low‐frequency operation

Sabbagh

Pan

et al. 2020

IET Power Electronics

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“…The laboratory investigation to validate the proposed technique has been conducted on a three-level (N = 2) MMC [21] feeding a three-phase inductive load. A Texas Instruments TMS320F28379D digital signal processor (DSP) and an Altera Cyclone IV field-programmable gate array (FPGA) are used for control and protection of the overall system.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Then, the output current regulation and slip calculation tasks are performed, and the required three-phase output voltages v * o are calculated. After the v * o vector is determined, the circulating current reference i * z for each phase is computed using(21). The reference voltages v * o and v * z for each phase, along with the common-mode voltage v cm selected by(2), determine the required number of submodules in each arm through modulation with six phase-shifted carrier signals[19].…”

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confidence: 99%

Suppressing the Capacitor Voltage Fluctuations in Low Frequency Operation of Modular Multilevel Converters

et al. 2020

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Low frequency operation in the modular multilevel converters (MMCs) is enabled by applying a reference common mode voltage and circulating currents at a frequency much higher than the desired output frequency. The frequency of injected common-mode signals is limited for maintaining a good performance in the circulating current control. Firstly, this paper theoretically analyzes the effect of increasing the frequency of injected common-mode signals by evaluating the error between reference and actual circulating currents. Secondly, we introduce an additional parameter in the reference circulating current to enhance the suppression of MMC's capacitor voltage fluctuations. Intensive computer simulations are developed for a seven-level MMC driving a medium-voltage induction motor drive system to verify the circulating current error analysis and assess the capacitor voltage fluctuations. Finally, the proposed technique for suppressing the capacitor voltage fluctuations is experimentally validated on a 600-V three-level MMC feeding an inductive load. The voltage fluctuations are reduced by more than 50% (63.6%) when the proposed technique is applied with a high common-mode frequency. INDEX TERMS Modular multilevel converter, variable speed drive, low frequency operation, circulating current control.

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“…Since its introduction in 2003 by Marquardt and Lesnicar [1], the modular multilevel converter (MMC) has been considered as a promising candidate for medium-to-high voltage conversion applications such as high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems [2][3][4], flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) [5], medium-voltage motor drives [6], wind energy conversion systems [7], and large-scale photovoltaic generation systems [8]. This wide range of applications is due in large part to some of the salient features associated with this converter such as its modular design and scalability to different power and voltage levels, low switching frequency, simple capacitor voltage balancing control, and simple realization of redundancy [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifetime and reliability improvements in modular multilevel converters using controlled circulating current

et al. 2021

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Circulating current has been an inherent feature of modular multilevel converters (MMC), which results in second-order harmonics on the arms currents. If not properly controlled, the circulating current can affect the lifetime and reliability of a converter by increasing the current loading, loss distribution, and junction temperature of its semiconductor devices. This paper proposes controlled circulating current injection as a means of improving the lifetime and reliability of an MMC. The proposed method involves modifying the reference modulating signals of the converter arms to include the controlled differential voltage as an offset. The junction temperature of the semiconductor devices obtained from an electro-thermal simulation is processed to deduce the lifetime and reliability of the converter. The obtained results are benchmarked against a case where the control method is not incorporated. The incorporation of the proposed control method results in a 68.25% increase in the expected lifetime of the converter and a 3.06% increase on its reliability index. Experimental results of a scaled down laboratory prototype validate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.

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Hardware design of a 1.7 kV SiC MOSFET based MMC for medium voltage motor drives

Cited by 41 publications

References 13 publications

Analysis and compensation of circulating currents errors in modular multilevel converters in low‐frequency operation

Analysis and compensation of circulating currents errors in modular multilevel converters in low‐frequency operation

Suppressing the Capacitor Voltage Fluctuations in Low Frequency Operation of Modular Multilevel Converters

Lifetime and reliability improvements in modular multilevel converters using controlled circulating current

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