TY - GEN
T1 - Soft-switching topology for a fault-tolerant neutral-point-clamped converter
AU - Ceballos, Salvador
AU - Pou, Josep
AU - Zaragoza, Jordi
AU - Robles, Eider
AU - Villate, José Luis
AU - Martín, José Luis
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - This paper presents a new three-level topology based on the neutral-point-clamped converter. The new topology includes a fourth leg that provides fault tolerance to the converter. Furthermore, during normal operation mode, this leg is able to provide a stiff neutral voltage. Consequently, the low-frequency voltage oscillations that appear in the neutral point of the standard three-level topology for some operation conditions no longer exist. As a result, the modulation strategy of the three main legs of the converter does not have to take care of voltage balance, and it can be design to improve the efficiency of the converter. On the other hand, the addition of a fourth leg to the converter produces additional losses. However, in order to eliminate switching losses of this leg, all the power devices commutate under zero-current or zero-voltage transitions. Some simulation results are presented to show viability of this approach under both, normal operation mode and fault event.
AB - This paper presents a new three-level topology based on the neutral-point-clamped converter. The new topology includes a fourth leg that provides fault tolerance to the converter. Furthermore, during normal operation mode, this leg is able to provide a stiff neutral voltage. Consequently, the low-frequency voltage oscillations that appear in the neutral point of the standard three-level topology for some operation conditions no longer exist. As a result, the modulation strategy of the three main legs of the converter does not have to take care of voltage balance, and it can be design to improve the efficiency of the converter. On the other hand, the addition of a fourth leg to the converter produces additional losses. However, in order to eliminate switching losses of this leg, all the power devices commutate under zero-current or zero-voltage transitions. Some simulation results are presented to show viability of this approach under both, normal operation mode and fault event.
KW - Efficiency
KW - Fault tolerance
KW - Multilevel converter
KW - Neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converter
KW - Reliability
KW - Voltage oscillation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=50049093222&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ISIE.2007.4375125
DO - 10.1109/ISIE.2007.4375125
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:50049093222
SN - 1424407559
SN - 9781424407552
T3 - IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics
SP - 3186
EP - 3191
BT - 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics, ISIE 2007, Proceedings
T2 - 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics, ISIE 2007
Y2 - 4 June 2007 through 7 June 2007
ER -