• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.206-209
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• 1999

There exists an acute need for high voltage solid-state-switches in a broad area of applications. With the proposed method using simple voltage balancing circuit with series connected IGBTs, it is realized high voltage semiconductor switches with working voltages of several order kilo-volts. The operation principle of the proposed circuit is explained and analyzed. Transient and static voltage-balancing is tested on a experimenta 3kV/45A switch with four series-connected IGBTs.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.68-78
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• 2019

The emergence of high voltage conversion applications has resulted in a trend of using semiconductor device series associations. Series associations allow for operation at blocking voltages, which are higher than the nominal voltage for each of the semiconductor devices. The main challenge with these topologies is finding a way to guarantee the voltage balance between devices in both blocking and switching transients. Most of the methods that have been proposed to mitigate static and dynamic voltage unbalances result in increased losses within the device. This paper introduces a new series stack topology, where the voltage unbalances are reduced. This in turn, mitigates the switching losses. The proposed topology consists of a circuit that ensures the soft switching of each device, and one auxiliary circuit that allows for switching energy recovery. The principle for the topology operation is presented and experimental tests are performed for two modules. The topology performs excellently for switching transients on each of the devices. The voltage static unbalances were limited to 10%, while the activation/deactivation delay introduced by the lower module IGBT driver takes place in the dynamic unbalances. Thus, the switching losses are reduced by 40%, when compared to hard switching configurations.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.415-419
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• 2004

A pulse power supply using IGBTs and MPC (magnetic pulse compression) circuit was developed for a metal vapor laser. The life time of the pulse power supply is expected to be much longer than that of a vacuum tube or thyratron type pulse power supply. A series-connected IGBT array generated a long pulse of its pulse width 2 ${\mu}\textrm{s}$ md then it was compressed to less than 100 ns by a three stage MPC circuit. This pulse power supply was applied to a laser plasma tube of 10 mm inner diameter and 0.5 m discharge length. and successfully operated.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1998.07f
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• pp.1966-1968
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• 1998

This paper describes a gate drive circuit for series connected IGBTs in high voltage applications. The proposed control criterion of the gate circuit is to actively limit the voltages during switching transients, while minimizing switching transient and losses. In order to achieve the control criterion, an analog closed loop control scheme is adopted. The performance of gate drive circuit is examined experimentally by the series connection of three IGBTs with conventional snubber circuits. The experimental results show the voltage balancing by an active control under wide variation in loads and imbalance conditions.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.26-27
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• 2011

This paper focuses on the zero-voltage/zero current transition voltage equalization circuit for the series connected battery cell. By adding auxiliary resonant cells at the main switching devices such as MOSFET or IGBT, zero current switching is achieved and turned off loss of switching elements is eliminated and by the voltage/second balancing of the inductor, zero voltage switching can be applied to switching element. Transformer coupling between battery cells and ZVZCT (Zero Voltage Zero Current Transition) switching method allow the fast balancing speed and high frequency operation, which reduces the size and weight of the circuit. The validity of the battery equalization is further verified using simulation involving four lithium-ion battery cell models.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.215-217
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• 2001

This paper describes an all solid-state switch pulse generator for various applications where square pulse voltage is required. The pulse generator produces various voltage pulses: voltage $5{\sim}100kV$. current $10{\sim}200A$, pulse width $1{\sim}10{\mu}sec$, repetition rate up to 500Hz. The output power is the combination of these parameters up to 10kW. It consists of a DC-DC converter and several pulse generating modules which are connected in series to obtain higher pulse voltage. Each module contains semiconductor switches (IGBT's), energy storage capacitors and control units to trigger switches. The structure and operational principle are described and the protection circuit for reliable operation is suggested. Experimental results show that the pulse generator can be used for applications with nonlinear loads.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2021

This paper describes the design of a power cell-based pulsed power modulator with fast rise times. The pulse-generating section of the pulse power modulator is a series stack of power cells. Each power cell is composed of a storage capacitor, a pulse switch, and a bypass diode. When the pulse switches are turned on, the capacitors are connected in series and the sum of voltages is applied to the load. For output pulses with fast rise times, an IGBT with fast turn-on characteristics is adopted as a pulse switch and the optimized gate driving method is used. Pspice simulation is performed to account for the gate driving method. A 10 kV, 12-power cell-based pulsed power modulator is tested under resistive load and plasma reactor load. The rise times of output pulses less than 20 ns are confirmed, showing that the pulsed power modulator can be effectively applied to pulsed power applications with fast rise times.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.96-105
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• 2017

In this paper, a hybrid modular multilevel converter (MMC) topology with an improved nearest level modulation method is proposed for medium-voltage high-power applications. The arm of the proposed topology contains N series connected half-bridge submodules (HBSMs), one full-bridge submodule (FBSM) and an inductor. By exploiting the FBSM, half-level voltages are obtained in the arm voltages. Therefore, an output voltage with a 2N+1 level number can be generated. Moreover, the total level number of the inserted submodules (SMs) is a constant. Thus, there is no pulse voltage across the arm inductors, and the SM capacitor voltage is rated. With the proposed voltage balancing method, the capacitor voltage of the HBSM is twice the voltage of the FBSM, and each IGBT of the FBSM has a relatively low switching frequency and an equalized conduction loss. The capacitor voltage balancing methods of the two kinds of SMs are implemented independently. As a result, the switching frequency of the HBSM is not increased compared to the conventional MMC. In addition, according to a theoretical calculation of the total harmonic distortion of the electromotive force (EMF), the voltage quality with the presented method can be significantly enhanced when the SM number is relatively small. Simulation and experimental results obtained with a MMC-based inverter verify the validity of the developed method.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.57-61
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• 2007

The current limiting characteristics of hybrid SFCL with additional power electronic devices was investigated in order to improve operation reliabilities. The hybrid SFCL developed consists of a superconducting trigger (S/T) part, a fast switch (F/S) module and a current limiting (C/L) part. Although hybrid SFCL had shown a excellent current limiting characteristics, this device was rather vulnerable to the residual arc currents which could exist during fast switch operation. This undesirable arc should be extinguished as quickly as possible in order to implement perfect fault current commutation. So, in order to eliminate the residual arcs between fast switch contacts, the power electronic devices (IGBT or GTO) were connected in series between the S/T part and the interrupter of the F/S module. According to the fault tests conducting with an input voltage of $270\;V_{rms}$ and a fault current of $5\;kA_{rms}$, The power electronic devices could perfectly remove the arc generated between the contacts of the interrupter within 4 ms after the fault occurred. From the test analysis, it was confirmed that the hybrid SFCL could enhance the operation reliability by adopting additional power electronic devices.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.12
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• pp.1678-1687
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• 2013

This paper describes a prototype of 3-phase 3.3kV/220V 6kVA modular semiconductor transformer developed in the lab for feasibility study. The developed prototype is composed of three single-phase units coupled in Y-connection. Each single-phase unit with a rating of 1.9kV/127V 2kVA consists of a high-voltage high-frequency resonant AC-DC converter, a low-voltage hybrid-switching DC-DC converter, and a low-voltage hybrid-switching DC-AC converter. Also each single-phase unit has two DSP controllers to control converter operation and to acquire monitoring data. Monitoring system was developed based on LabView by using CAN communication link between the DSP controller and PC. Through various experimental analyses it was verified that the prototype operates with proper performance under normal and sag condition. The system efficiency can be improved by adopting optimal design and replacing the IGBT switch with the SiC MOSFET switch. The developed prototype confirms a possibility to build a commercial high-voltage high-power semiconductor transformer by increasing the number of series-connected converter modules in high-voltage side and improving the performance of switching element.