• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.653-663
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• 2017

Multilevel active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) converter combines the advantages of three-level ANPC converter and multilevel flying capacitor (FC) converter. However, multilevel ANPC converter often suffers from capacitor voltage balancing problems. In order to solve the capacitor voltage balancing problems for five-level ANPC converter, phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PS-PWM) is used, which generally provides natural voltage balancing ability. However, the natural voltage balancing ability depends on the load conditions and converter parameters. In order to eliminate voltage deviations under steady-state and dynamic conditions, the active voltage-balancing control (AVBC) methods of floating capacitors and dc-link capacitors based on PS-PWM are proposed. First, the neutral-point current is regulated to balance the neutral-point voltage by injecting zero-sequence voltage. After that, the duty cycles of the redundant switch combinations are adjusted to balance the floating-capacitor voltages by introducing moderating variables for each of the phases. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed AVBC methods is verified by experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.385-393
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• 2020

This study introduces an analysis and control method for the variation of neutral point current in a grid-tied three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) converter under various grid imbalance operating conditions. Various fault cases with unbalanced amplitude and phase are systematically categorized and described using a unified metric called the imbalance factor. The fundamental component of neutral point current is generated under grid imbalance cases. The pattern and behavior of this fundamental component of neutral point current highly depend on the imbalance factor regardless of the particular type of grid fault cases. The control scheme for regulating the negative sequential component of AC input current effectively reduces the size of the fundamental component of neutral point current under a wide range of grid imbalance cases. The control scheme will enable a grid-tied three-level NPC converter to operate reliably and stably under various types of grid faults.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.336-344
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• 2017

This paper presents the three-port DC-DC converter modeling and controller design procedure, which is part of the solid-state transformer (SST) to interface medium voltage AC grid to bipolar DC distribution network. Due to the high primary side DC link voltage, the proposed converter employs the three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) topology at the primary side and 2-two level half bridge circuits for each DC distribution network. For the proposed converter particular structure, this paper conducts modeling the three winding transformer and the power transfer between each port. A decoupling method is adopted to simplify the power transfer model. The voltage controller design procedure is presented. In addition, the output current sharing controller is employed for current balancing between the parallel-connected secondary output ports. The proposed circuit and controller performance are verified by experimental results using a 30 kW prototype SST system.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.34-41
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• 1999

A three-level ZCT(Zero Current Transition) IGBT inverter is presented for high power IGBT inverters. The concept of ZCT for the conventional boost converter is extended to the three-level inverter. Moreover, in order to improve the reliability of inverter, midpoint charge balance problem of the three-level inverter is analyzed with respect 150kw, 20kHz prototype are presented to verify the principle of ZCT Operation.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.448-451
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• 2000

This paper proposed a snubber circuit for flying capacitor multilevel inverter and converter. The proposed snubber circuit makes use of Undeland snubber as basic snubber as basic snubber unit and has such an advantage of Undeland snubber used in the two-level inverter. Comparing conventional RCD/RLD snubber for multilevel in verter and converter the proposed snubber keeps such a good features as fewer number of components improved efficiency of system due to low loss snubber and reduction of voltage stress of main switching devices due to low overvoltage. Furthermore the proposed concept of constructing a snubber circuit for flying capacitor 3-level inverter and converter can apply to any level of them. In this paper the proposed snubber applies to three-level flying capacitor inverter and demonstrates its feature by computer simulation and experimental result.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.376-379
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• 2021

The design and performance of a SiC-MOSFET-based 11-kW bi-directional on-board charger (OBC) for electric vehicles is presented. The OBC consists of a three-phase two-level AC/DC converter and a CLLLC resonant converter. All the power devices are implemented with SiC-MOSFETs to reduce the conduction losses generated in the OBC, and the DC-link voltage is designed to track the level of battery voltage in the forward and reverse powering modes. As a result, the CLLLC resonant converter always runs at the switching frequency near the resonant frequency, resulting in high-efficiency operation at the maximum powering modes. As the DC-link voltage varies according to the battery voltage, the AC/DC converter in the proposed OBC adopts an adaptive DC-link voltage controller. The performance of the proposed 11-kW OBC is verified by a prototype converter with the following specifications: three-phase 60-Hz 380-V input, 11-kW capacity, and battery voltage range of 214-413-V, resulting in the conversion efficiency of over 95.0-% in the forward and reverse powering modes.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 1997.07a
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• pp.352-356
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• 1997

This paper present the design of a novel neural-network (NN) based pulse-width modulation (PWM) techniques for a three-level power converter of electric trains along with nonlinear mapping of essential switching patterns and fault tolerance, which are inherent characteristics of NNs. Considering the importance of safety, power factor and harmonics of electric train power converters, two-level type and three-level type of power converters using NNs are precisely investigated and compared in computer simulation. A computer simulation shows that a new current control scheme provides an improved performance over a fixed-band hysteresis current control in many aspects.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.136-145
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• 2009

This paper proposes control methods and simulation models of a driving system, which consists of converters and inverters, for high speed trains employing multi-level power converters. The control method of a single phase three-level converter for high-speed trains is designed to use DC values instead of instantaneous current values which are usually used in single-phase application, so that it results in a fast and robust voltage control response. In addition, simulation models of Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) for single phase three-level converters as well as three level inverters are proposed. Experimental results demonstrate the validity of the simulation model for three-level inverters.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.34-44
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• 2018

This paper presents a pulse-width adjustment (PWA) strategy for a novel bidirectional DC-DC boost converter to improve the performance of the dynamic inductor current response. This novel converter consists of three main components: a full-bridge converter (FBC), a high-frequency isolated transformer with large leakage inductance, and a three-level voltage-doubler rectifier (VDR). A number of scholars have analyzed the principles, such as the soft-switching performance and high-efficiency characteristic, of this converter based on pulse-width modulation plus phase-shift (PPS) control. It turns out that this converter is suitable for energy storage applications and exhibits good performance. However, the dynamic inductor current response processes of control variable adjustment is not analyzed in this converter. In fact, dc component may occur in the inductor current during its dynamic response process, which can influence the stability and reliability of the converter system. The dynamic responses under different operating modes of a conventional feedforward control are discussed in this paper. And a PWA strategy is proposed to enhance the dynamic inductor current response performance of the converter. This paper gives a detailed design and implementation of the PWA strategy. The proposed strategy is verified through a series of simulation and experimental results.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.366-368
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• 2006

The conventional 3-Level LLC Converter using frequency-control has a disadvantage of designing magnetic components. To overcome this problem, a new constant frequency phase-shift controlled three-level LLC converter is proposed. Moreover, by employing voltage doubler type rectifier, an additional resonant capacitor is not needed. Therefore, this converter is promising for the high-power, high-voltage application with simple structure.