• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2010

Reliability is an important issue in cascaded H-bridge converters (CHB converters) because they use a high number of power semiconductors. A faulty power cell in a CHB converter can potentially lead to expensive downtime and great losses on the consumer side. With a fault-tolerant control strategy, operation can continue with the undamaged cells; thus increasing the reliability of the system. In this paper, the operating principles and the control method for a CHB multilevel rectifier are introduced. The influence of various faults on the CHB converter is investigated. The method of fault diagnosis and the bypassing of failed cells are explained. A fault-tolerant protection strategy is proposed to achieve redundancy in the CHB rectifier. The redundant H-bridge concept helps to deal with device failures and to increase system reliability. Simulation results verify the performance of the proposed strategy.

• Journal of international Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.360-365
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• 2012

Cascaded H-Bridge rectifier (CHBR) is a more attractive solution in traction application for its transformerless structure. Because of the currents of different cells are exactly the same one, it is a challenge job to regulate the voltages of cells with only one current controller. In this paper, a PI-based control scheme is presented to deal with the voltages balance issue in CHBR. To satisfy the demand of rectifier such as unity power factor and regulated output DC voltages, the proposed control scheme consists of two parts. One is for shaping the grid current waveform and regulating the sum of DC-link voltages of all the cells; the other one is for balancing DC-link voltages. The latter is more concerned in this paper and is discussed in detail especially. Simulations and experiments are carried on. The results verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1763-1772
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• 2016

To reduce system complexity and implementation costs, fully-controlled H-bridge (FHB) modules and diode H-bridge PFC (DHB) modules are cascaded to form a hybrid cascaded H-bridge rectifier (HCHR). In this paper, the advantages of such a HCHR over other cascaded rectifiers are analyzed depending on the numbers of FHB modules and DHB modules. Therefore, to assign proper numbers to these two kinds of modules for the HCHR, a configuration determination method is investigated under balanced and imbalanced loads. Three principles are also presented to guide the configuration determination for the HCHR. In addition, the constraints for selecting the step-up ratio and filter inductance are derived based on a phasor diagram analysis. The proposed configuration determination method is validated by simulations under three different conditions in the PSIM environment. Finally, experiments are carried out on a scaled-down prototype where the configuration can be easily adjusted. The feasibility of the proposed theory is then verified by experimental results.

• Journal of international Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.354-359
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• 2012

A transformerless converter suitable for multiphase drive application is presented in this paper. The topology employs a cascaded H-bridge rectifier as the interface between the grid and multi inverters which drive the multiphase motor. Compared with the conventional structure, the new topology eliminates the input transformer and also has the advantages such as four quadrant operation, simple configuration, low cost, high efficiency, and so on. The control strategies for the grid-side cascade H-bridge rectifier and the motor-side inverter are studied accordingly. Based on the multi-rotational reference frame, modular control scheme is developed to regulate the multiphase drive system. Simulation results show the proper operation of the proposed topology and the corresponding control strategy.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.133-145
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• 2009

In this paper a modular high performance MV-to-LV rectifier based on a cascaded H-bridge rectifier is presented. The proposed rectifier can directly connect to the medium voltage levels and provide a low-voltage and highly-stable DC interface with the consumer applications. The input stage eliminates the necessity for heavy and bulky step-down transformers. It corrects the input power factor and maintains the voltage balance among the individual DC buses. The second stage includes the high frequency parallel-output DC/DC converters which prepares the galvanic isolation, regulates the output voltage, and attenuates the low frequency voltage ripple ($2f_{line}$) generated by the first stage. The parallel-output converters can work in interleaving mode and the active load-current sharing technique is utilized to balance the load power among them. The detailed analysis for modeling and control of the proposed structure is presented. The validity and performance of the proposed topology is verified by simulation and experimental results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.487-496
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• 2019

For a solid-state transformer (SST), some factors, such as signal delay, switching loss and differences in the system parameters, lead to unbalanced DC-link voltages among the cascaded H-bridges (CHB). With a control method implemented in the ${\alpha}{\beta}$ frame, the DC-link voltages are balanced, and the reactive power is equally distributed among all of the H-bridges. Based on the ${\alpha}{\beta}$ frame control, the system can achieve independent active current and reactive current control. In addition, the control method of the high-voltage stage is easy to implement without decoupling or a phase-locked loop. Furthermore, the method can eliminate additional current delays during transients and get the dynamic response rapidly without an imaginary current component. In order to carry out the controller design, the vector refactoring relations that are used to balance DC-link voltages are derived. Different strategies are discussed and simulated under the unbalanced load condition. Finally, a three-cell CHB rectifier is constructed to conduct further research, and the steady and transient experimental results verify the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed method.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2016.07a
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• pp.87-88
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• 2016

본 논문은, Cascaded-H-bridge 정류기를 사용하는 SST 시스템에서의 DC-link 전압 밸런싱을 위한 실용적이고 구성이 용이한 제어기에 관한 것이다. 제안하는 제어기는 DC-DC stage의 Dual active bridge 컨버터의 개별적인 위상 제어를 통해 DC-link의 전압을 개별 조정한다. 기존의 연구된 전압 밸런싱 기법들에 비해, 제안하는 제어기는 별도의 회로 및 장치가 필요 없고, 확장성이 용이 하며, 구성이 용이하면서 실용성을 가지는 장점들이 있다. 제안하는 제어기는 5kW의 7-level SST 시제품을 제작하여 검증하였다.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.399-413
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• 2016

This paper presents a topology for a modular power electronic transformer (PET) and a control scheme. The proposed PET consists of a cascaded H-Bridge rectifier on the primary side, a high-frequency DC/DC conversion cell in the center, and a cascaded H-Bridge inverter on the secondary side. It is practical to use PETs in power systems to reduce the cost, weight and size. A detailed analysis of the structure is carried out by using equivalent circuit. An algorithm to control the voltages of each capacitor and to maintain the power flow in the PET is established. The merits are analyzed and verified in theory, including the bi-directional power flow, variable voltage/frequency and high power factor on the primary side. The experimental results validated the propose structure and algorithm.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.664-673
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• 2017

With the development of multilevel converters, cascaded single-phase H-bridge rectifiers (CHBRs) has become widely adopted in high-voltage high-power applications. In this study, sequence pulse modulation (SPM) is proposed for CHBRs. SPM is designed to balance the dc-link voltage and maintain the smooth changes of switch states. In contrast to phase disposition modulation, SPM balances the dc-link voltage even after removing the load of one submodule. The operation principle of SPM is deduced, and the unbalance degree of SPM is analyzed. All the proposed approaches are experimentally verified through a prototype of a four-module (nine-level) CHBR. Conclusions are drawn in accordance with the results of SPM and its imbalance degree analysis.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.95-101
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• 2017

A simple and practical voltage balance method for a solid-state transformer (SST) is proposed to reduce the voltage difference of cascaded H-bridge converters. The tolerance device components in SST cause the imbalance problem of DC-link voltage in the H-bridge converter. The Max/Min algorithms of voltage balance controller are merged in the controller of an AC/DC rectifier to reduce the voltage difference. The DC-link voltage through each H-bridge converter can be balanced with the proposed control methods. The design and performance of the proposed SST are verified by experimental results using a 30 kW prototype.