• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1426-1437
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• 2016

In different industrial and mission oriented applications, redundant or standby semiconductor systems can be implemented to improve the reliability of power electronics equipment. The proper structure for implementation can be one of the redundant or standby structures for series or parallel switches. This selection is determined according to the type and failure rate of the fault. In this paper, the reliability and the mean time to failure (MTTF) for each of the series and parallel configurations in two redundant and standby structures of semiconductor switches have been studied based on different failure rates. The Markov model is used for reliability and MTTF equation acquisitions. According to the different values for the reliability of the series and parallel structures during SC and OC faults, a comprehensive comparison between each of the series and parallel structures for different failure rates will be made. According to the type of fault and the structure of the switches, the reliability of the switches in the redundant structure is higher than that in the other structures. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed series and parallel structures of switches during SC and OC faults, results in an improvement in the reliability of the boost dc/dc converter. These studies aid in choosing a configuration to improve the reliability of power electronics equipment depending on the specifications of the implemented devices.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.30-33
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• 2000

Using power semiconductor switches such as IGBTs diodes and L-C circuits novel repetitive impulse voltage generator is developed. In the presented circuits high voltage pulse is generated by series-connection of capacitors and IGBTs. The charging of capacitors and voltage balance of IGBTs is done automatically. To verify the proposed circuit 20kV, 300A pulse generator is manufactured and tested.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.905-914
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• 2016

A high-performance rectifier is introduced in this study. The proposed rectifier combines the conventional pulse width modulation, soft commutation, and instantaneously average line current control techniques to promote circuit performance. The voltage stresses of the main switches in the rectifier are lower than those in conventional rectifier topologies. Moreover, conduction losses of switches in the rectifier are certainly lower than those in conventional rectifier topologies because the power current flow path when the main switches are turned on includes two main power semiconductors and the power current flow path when the main switches are turned off includes one main power semiconductor. The rectifier also adopts a ZCS-PWM auxiliary circuit to derive the ZCS function for power semiconductors. Thus, the problem of switching losses and EMI can be improved. In the control strategy, the controller uses the average current control mode to achieve fixed-frequency current control with stability and low distortion. A prototype has been implemented in the laboratory to verify circuit theory.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.291-293
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• 2003

A semiconductor switch-based fast hi-polar high voltage pulse generator is proposed in this paper The proposed pulse system is made of a thyristor based-rectifier, DC link capacitor, a push-pull resonant inverter, a high voltage transformer. secondary capacitor, a high voltage IGBT & diode stacks, and a variable capacitor. The proposed system makes hi-polar high voltage sinusoidal waveform using resonance between leakage inductance of the transformer and secondary capacitor and transfers energy to output load at maximum of the secondary capacitor voltage. Compared to previous hi-polar high voltage pulse power supply using nonlinear transmission line, the proposed pulse power system using only semiconductor switches has simple structure and gives high efficiency

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2016.07a
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• pp.107-108
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• 2016

Solid State Transformer(SST) has been recently regarded as a good alternative to conventional low frequency transformer. SST is consist of several high voltage power stage, so it is important to select optimal semiconductor switches for specification. This paper presents optimal IGBT switches for low switching losses using analyzing switching characteristics of several high voltage IGBT switches. Double Pulse Tester(DPT) experiment is used to verify characteristics of this IGBT switches.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.50 no.12
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• pp.624-630
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• 2001

The trend of the regulations on environmental issues are getting tight. Responding to this trend new technologies such as moving electrodes, wide pitch and pulsed power supply are also introduced in the electrostatic precipitator(EP) systems. The introduction of wide pitch and moving electrodes enhances the system performance of the EPs by improving air-flow and by improving the ash reentrainment on rapping. The power supplies for the EPs developed up to date include thyristor-based dc or intermittent type, SMPS(switching mode power supply) type and the pulsed-power supply type. The use of the pulsed ones is known to improve dust-collecting efficiency of high resistivity ash and reduces back corona occurrence in the collecting plate. There are two kinds of pulsed-power supplies; one with pulsed transformers and the other with direct dc switching devices. The latter uses rotary spark gap switches or semiconductor switches. Both have the merits and demerits: the spark gap switches are simple and robust but has short life time, hence, high maintenance cost, whereas the semiconductor switches have long life time but are costly. In this study, A high voltage power supply with superimposing voltage pulse on dc source was developed for EPs. This study describes circuit topology, operating principle of the scheme, and analysis of experimental results on Dong-Hae Power Plant. The pulsed power supply consists of a variable dc power supply with ratings of 60kV, 800mA and pulse generator which is made of high voltage thyristor-diode switch strings, an LC resonant tank and a blocking inductor. The pulse generator generates variable pulse-voltage up to 70kV using a high frequency resonant inverter with a variable dc source. Two prototypes were built and tested on 250MW DongHae power plant to verify the possibility of the commercial use and the normal operation in the transient states.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.951-963
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• 2015

In this paper, a new symmetric multilevel inverter is proposed. A simple structure for the cascaded multilevel inverter topology is also proposed, which produces a high number of levels with the application of few power electronic devices. The symmetric multilevel inverter can generate 2n+1 levels with a reduced number of power switches. The basic unit is composed of a single and double source unit (SDS-unit). The application of this SDS-unit is for reducing the number of power electronic components like insulated gate bipolar transistors, freewheeling diodes, gate driver circuits, dc voltage sources, and blocked voltages by switches. Various new algorithms are recommended to determine the magnitude of dc sources in a cascaded structure. Furthermore, the proposed topology is optimized for different goals. The proposed cascaded structure is compared with other similar topologies. For verifying the performance of the proposed basic symmetric and cascaded structure, results from a computer-based MATLAB/Simulink simulation and from experimental hardware are also discussed.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2014.07a
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• pp.367-368
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• 2014

This paper investigates characteristics of high power semiconductor device losses in 5MW-class Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) Medium Voltage (MV) wind turbines. High power semiconductor device of press-pack type IGCT of 6.5kV is considered in this paper. Analysis is performed based on neutral point clamped (NPC) 3-level back-to-back type voltage source converter (VSC) supplied from grid voltage of 4160V. This paper describes total loss distribution at worst case under inverter and rectifier operating mode for the power semiconductor switches. The loss analysis is confirmed through PLECS simulations. In addition, the loss factors due to di/dt snubber and ac input filter are presented. The investigation result shows that IGCT type semiconductor devices generate the total efficiency of 97.74% under the rated condition.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1298-1305
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• 2016

This paper presents the development of a short-circuit protection mechanism on a high voltage switch (HVS) board which is built by a series connection of semiconductor switches. The HVS board is able to quickly detect and limit the peak fault current before the signal board triggers off a gate signal. Voltage clamping techniques are used to safely turn off the short-circuit current and to prevent overvoltage of the series-connected switches. The selection method of the main devices and the development of the HVS board are described in detail. Experimental results have demonstrated that the HVS board is capable of withstanding a short-circuit current at a rated voltage of 10kV without a di/dt slowing down inductor. The corresponding short-circuit current is restricted to 125 A within 100 ns and can safely turn off within 120 ns.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1994.07a
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• pp.412-414
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• 1994

A new active resonant snubber (ARS) circuit providing the ideal switching conditions for PWM converter is presented. By using the proposed ARS circuit to PWM converters, the power switches can be operated to give zero-current and zero-voltage at both the instant of switch off and switch on, without increasing voltage/current stresses of the switches. Furthermore, the PWM converters employed ARS circuit has the advantage that it can operate at constant frequency, giving better definded EMI and filter ripple, and it is also suited for high-power application regardless of the semiconductor devices (such as MOSFETs or IGBTs) used as a power switches.