• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.171-180
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• 2008

One of the major problems in electric power quality is the harmonic contents. There are several methods of indicating the quantity of harmonic contents. The most widely used measure is the total harmonic distortion (THD). Various switching techniques have been used in static converters to reduce the output harmonic content. This paper presents and compares the two harmonic optimization techniques, known as optimal minimization of the total harmonic distortion (OMTHD) technique and optimized harmonic stepped-waveform (OHSW) technique used in multi-level inverters with unequal dc sources. Both techniques are very effective and efficient for improving the quality of the inverter output voltage. First, we describe briefly the cascaded H-bridge multi-level inverter structure. Then, we present the switching algorithm for the inverter based on OHSW and OMTHD techniques. Finally, the results obtained for the two techniques are analyzed and compared. The results verify the effectiveness of the both techniques in multi-level voltage-source inverter with non-equal dc sources, clarifying the advantages of each technique.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1380-1391
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• 2015

This paper provides a loss analysis and comparison of high power semiconductor devices in 5MW Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) Medium Voltage (MV) Wind Turbine Systems (WTSs). High power semiconductor devices of the press-pack type IGCT, module type IGBT, press-pack type IGBT, and press-pack type IEGT of both 4.5kV and 6.5kV are considered in this paper. Benchmarking is performed based on the back-to-back type 3-level Neutral Point Clamped Voltage Source Converters (3L-NPC VSCs) supplied from a grid voltage of 4160V. The feasible number of semiconductor devices in parallel is designed through a loss analysis considering both the conduction and switching losses under the operating conditions of 5MW PMSG wind turbines, particularly for application in offshore wind farms. This paper investigates the loss analysis and thermal performance of 5MW 3L-NPC wind power inverters under the operating conditions of various power factors. The loss analysis and thermal analysis are confirmed through PLECS Blockset simulations with Matlab Simulink. The comparison results show that the press-pack type IGCT has the highest efficiency including the snubber loss factor.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.946-959
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• 2016

A novel Virtual Space Vector (VSV) modulation strategy for complete control of potential neutral point (NP) issues is proposed in this paper. The neutral point potential balancing problems of multi-level converters, which include elimination of low frequency oscillations and self-balancing for NP dc unbalance, are investigated first. Then a set of improved virtual space vectors with dynamic adjustment factors are introduced and a multi-objective optimization algorithm which aims to optimize these adjustment factors is presented in this paper. The improved virtual space vectors and the multi-objective optimization algorithm constitute the novel Virtual Space Vector modulation. The proposed novel Virtual Space Vector modulation can simultaneously recover NP dc unbalance and eliminate low frequency oscillations of the neutral point. Experiment results show that the proposed strategy has excellent performance, and that both of the neutral point potential issues can be solved.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1791-1804
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• 2018

To achieve a fast dynamic response and to solve the multi-objective control problems of the output currents, capacitor voltages and system constraints, this paper proposes a deadbeat and hierarchical predictive control with space-vector modulation (DB-HPC-SVM) for five-level nested neutral point piloted (NNPP) converters. First, deadbeat control (DBC) is adopted to track the reference currents by calculating the deadbeat reference voltage vector (DB-RVV). After that, all of the candidate switching sequences that synthesize the DB-RVV are obtained by using the fast SVM principle. Furthermore, according to the redundancies of the switch combination and switching sequence, a hierarchical model predictive control (MPC) is presented to select the optimal switch combination (OSC) and optimal switching sequence (OSS). The proposed DB-HPC-SVM maintains the advantages of DBC and SVM, such as fast dynamic response, zero steady-state error and fixed switching frequency, and combines the characteristics of MPC, such as multi-objective control and simple inclusion of constraints. Finally, comparative simulation and experimental results of a five-level NNPP converter verify the correctness of the proposed DB-HPC-SVM.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.2015-2021
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• 2008

Recently, with the growth of photovoltaic system, many researchers and companies have concerned about the multi-level inverter which has an efficiency of boosting voltage. In this paper a novel structure of multi-level converter for reducing ripple of output voltage is proposed. In the proposed converter Buck converters are connected in series to generate the output voltage and the ripple of output voltage can be reduced compared with the exiting Buck converter. Especially when outputting lower output voltage the number of acting switching elements is less and the result of ripple reducing is more obvious. This paper implements a multi-level switching function based on the FPGA.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.396-402
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• 2009

A DC/DC converter generally needs to work under high switching frequency when used as an adjustable power supply to reduce the size of magnetic elements such as inductors, transformers and capacitors, but with the rising of the switch frequency, the switch losses will increase and the efficiency will reduce. Recently, to solve these problems, research is actively being done on a soft switching method that can be applied under high frequency and on a PWM converter that can be applied under low frequency such as a multi-level topology. In this paper a novel DC-DC conversion method for reducing the ripple of output voltage is proposed. In the proposed converter, buck converters are connected in series to generate the output voltage. By using this method, the ripple of output voltage can be reduced compared to a conventional buck converter. Particularly when output voltage is low, the number of acting switching elements is less and the result of ripple reduction is more obvious. It is expected that the converter proposed in this paper could be very useful in the case of wide-range output voltage.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.47-59
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• 2014

Back-to-back STATCOM configuration is an extension of STATCOM in which the reactive power at two-sides and the real power flow through the DC link can be controlled concurrently and independently. This flexible operation brings many advantages to the micro-grids, distributed generation based systems, and deregulated power systems. In this paper, the dynamic control characteristics of the back-to-back STATCOM is investigated by simulating the detailed converter-level model of the converters in PSCAD. Various case studies in a single-machine test system are studied to present that the real power control feature of the BtB-STATCOM, even with a simple controller design, can enhance the transient stability of the machine under different fault scenarios.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1037-1047
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• 2017

The Differential Power Processing (DPP) converter is a promising multi-module photovoltaic inverter architecture recently proposed for photovoltaic systems. In this paper, a DPP converter architecture, in which each PV-panel has its own DPP converter in shunt, performs distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) control. It maintains a high energy conversion efficiency, even under partial shading conditions. The system architecture only deals with the power differences among the PV panels, which reduces the power capacity of the converters. Therefore, the DPP systems can easily overcome the conventional disadvantages of PCS such as centralized, string, and module integrated converter (MIC) topologies. Among the various types of the DPP systems, the feed-forward method has been selected for both its voltage balancing and power transfer to a modified H-bridge inverter that needs charge balancing of the input capacitors. The modified H-bridge multi-level inverter had some advantages such as a low part count and cost competitiveness when compared to conventional multi-level inverters. Therefore, it is frequently used in photovoltaic (PV) power conditioning system (PCS). However, its simplified switching network draws input current asymmetrically. Therefore, input capacitors in series suffer from a problem due to a charge imbalance. This paper validates the operating principle and feasibility of the proposed topology through the simulation and experimental results. They show that the input-capacitor voltages maintain the voltage balance with the PV MPPT control operating with a 140-W hardware prototype.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.54 no.11
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• pp.547-552
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• 2005

This paper describes a pseudo-random carrier PW technique for the power converters. The proposed method generates a new pseudo-random carrier by randomly composing a carrier with fixed frequency and a carrier with opposition phase. To confirm the validity of the proposed method, a single-phase multi-level inverter was implemented and tested. The experimental results show that the output voltage and current harmonics spectra of an inverter have broadening effect of harmonics, as only simple composition of fixed frequency carries.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2014.07a
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• pp.333-334
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• 2014

Converters employing IGCTs usually require di/dt snubber and Over Voltage Protection (OVP) circuit for the protection of IGCTs and fast diodes. In these IGCT-based converters, conventional di/dt snubber and OVP circuit dissipates a significant amount of power loss. To reduce this loss of conventional di/dt snubber and OVP circuit, this paper proposes a flyback type snubber circuit with di/dt limiting characteristic for IGCT-based converters in medium voltage wind turbines. This flyback type snubber circuit simply consists of a flyback type transformer and diode. The proposed circuit reduces loss and simplifies conventional di/dt snubber by adopting the flyback type transformer. Loss analysis of conventional di/dt snubber and OVP circuit is performed for the 3-level NPC type back-to-back VSC supplied from grid voltage of 6.9kV. The proposed flyback type snubber circuit can save the loss of conventional snubber circuit in the 3L-NPC type back-to-back VSC in multi-MW MV wind turbine. The proposed snubber circuit has a fewer number of components and improved efficiency leading to a reliable and efficient wind turbine systems.