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This paper proposes the new clamping angle control (CAC) pulse width modulation (PWM) method to restore its maximum linear modulation range of voltage source inverters (VSIs) reduced by the duty ratio limitation in hardware implementation, which makes the VSIs to operate nonlinearly in the high modulation range. The deadtime and the bootstrap gate driver circuit mainly cause this duty ratio limitation in practice. In particular, the bootstrap gate driver circuit is used in many industrial applications by avoiding the additional power supply to apply the gate-source voltage of power switches, and therefore making the VSIs to be small size with the low cost. First, the proposed CACPWM method is theoretically analyzed. Then, it is applied in the high modulation range to overcome the limitation of the duty ratio due to the use of the bootstrap gate driver circuit. Thereafter, its practical effectiveness is verified by both simulation and experimental tests. Also, the resulting harmonic distortions are compared with those by the conventional PWM methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nongenerative-boost type rectifier, which is called the Vienna rectifier, is advantageous in terms of efficiency and current total harmonic distortion. Therefore, the Vienna rectifier is used in grid-connected applications such as telecommunication systems and wind turbine systems. Owing to the structural characteristics of the Vienna rectifier, various switching methods exist. Among these methods, a carrier-based discontinuous pulse-width modulation (CB-DPWM) method guarantees high efficiency compared to continuous pulse-width modulation methods; moreover, it is simple compared to a DPWM method based on space vectors. In this paper, the performance of the CB-DPWM method, its applicable region depending on the power factor and modulation index (Ma ), and its efficiency are analyzed in detail. Then, based on the analysis, a neutral-point voltage balancing method for the CB-DPWM method is proposed. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed neutral-point voltage balancing method are verified by simulation and experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a power predictive control (PPC) method for three-phase pulse width modulated rectifiers without a proportional-integral controller. The proposed PPC method calculates the optimized voltage vector by analyzing the relationship between the virtual flux, active power, converter voltage, and filter parameters. Thus, an overshoot does not occur and the fast and accurate power control becomes possible. The predictive algorithm computes the power error that would be produced by applying each vector and selects the one that contributes the minimum error. The simulation and experimental results prove that the proposed method provides an excellent steady-state performance and quick dynamic response. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of neutral-point voltage balancing algorithms in the three-level neutral-point clamped (3L-NPC) topology is to eliminate the voltage unbalance of top- and bottom-side dc-link voltages (neutral-point voltage). These algorithms are divided into dc unbalance and ac unbalance compensation methods. The dc unbalance causes distortion of output currents; therefore, this problem has to be solved. The ac unbalance implies that there is an ac ripple in the top- and bottom-side dc-link voltages. In applications using 3L-NPC topology, a large dc-link capacitor value is required to mitigate this ac unbalance problem. As a result, the size and the cost of applications become large and expensive. In this paper, a compensation method for mitigating the ac unbalance of the neutral-point voltage is proposed, which causes the dc-link capacitor value to be small, when a carrier-based pulse width modulation method is applied. The proposed method compensates the ac unbalance of the neutral-point voltage by adding an optimal compensation value to the reference duty signals. This compensation value is calculated simply by currents and reference duty signals. The calculation process of the optimal compensation value is discussed, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified with simulations and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a simple control method of induction motors (IMs) with improved dynamic response and steady-state performance by using a model-based predictive control algorithm. The predictive torque control (PTC) method analyzes the relationship between the electrical torque and stator voltage of IMs by using the stator voltage vector magnitude to obtain the reference voltage vector angle and accurately control the electrical torque. However, the conventional PTC method has a fixed reference voltage vector magnitude and thus has a large torque ripple in the steady state and slow dynamics in the transient state. The proposed PTC method is based on mathematical equations, which allow minimization of torque error and calculation of a relevant reference voltage to establish a better dynamic response in the transient state and accurate control performance in the steady state. Excellent steady-state performance and a quick dynamic response of the proposed method are proved by the simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A modular multilevel converter (MMC) is regarded as a promising topology in high-voltage direct current systems. However, the MMC consists of numerous submodules (SMs) and switching devices, which lead to a considerable switching loss, and increased cost and size of the heat sink. To mitigate these issues, this paper presents a novel modulation method composed of fundamental frequency modulation (FFM) and multicarrier-based sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation schemes. The main purpose of this modulation method is the reduction of switching loss while maintaining good harmonic performance. However, the FFM scheme leads to the unbalanced capacitor voltage of each SM in the MMC. Accordingly, this paper additionally proposes the rotation method and selective voltage balancing control for SMs to ensure effective performance of the method. Simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness and performance of the proposed modulation scheme through switching loss and spectral analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]