IGCT Switching Behaviour Under Low Current Conditions
Conference: PCIM Europe 2018 - International Exhibition and Conference for Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management
06/05/2018 - 06/07/2018 at Nürnberg, Deutschland
Proceedings: PCIM Europe 2018
Pages: 6Language: englishTyp: PDF
Personal VDE Members are entitled to a 10% discount on this title
Authors:
Stamenkovic, Dragan; Vemulapati, Umamaheswara Reddy; Dujic, Drazen (Power Electronics Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland)
Rahimo, Munaf; Stiasny, Thomas (ABB Semiconductors, Lenzburg, Switzerland)
Abstract:
As MVDC technology is slowly finding its way into the area of energy distribution, there is a need for reliable, efficient, compact and low maintenance medium voltage DC-DC converters, as a counterpart to AC transformers. Given the typical operating conditions and the design practices, IGCT manufacturers have paid, so far, little attention to the switch’s behaviour under low loads (below 10% of the device rated current) and this information is mostly unavailable in the datasheets. Low current turn-off performance of the IGCT, typical to some resonant converters, is explored throughout this paper, supported by TCAD simulations and test results obtained from a dedicated test setup. These tests show the prolonged duration of the turn-off process as the turn-off current decreases, which must be correctly taken into account during converter design.