A novel prototype of auxiliary edge resonant bridge leg link snubber-assisted soft-switching sine-wave PWM inverter.

This paper proposes a new circuit topology of the three-phase soft-switching PWM inverter and PFC converter using IGBT power modules, which has the improved active auxiliary switch and edge resonant bridge leg-commutation-link soft-switching snubber circuit with pulse current regenerative feedback loop as compared with the typical auxiliary resonant pole snubber discussed previously. This three-phase soft-switching PWM double converter is more suitable and acceptable for a large-capacity uninterruptible power supply, PFC converter, utility-interactive bidirectional converter, and so forth. In this paper, the soft-switching operation and optimum circuit design of the novel type active auxiliary edge resonant bridge leg commutation link snubber treated here are described for high-power applications. Both the main active power switches and the auxiliary active power switches achieve soft switching under the principles of ZVS or ZCS in this three-phase inverter switching. This three-phase soft-switching commutation scheme can effectively minimize the switching surge-related electromagnetic noise and the switching power losses of the power semiconductor devices; IGBTs and modules used here. This three-phase inverter and rectifier coupled double converter system does not need any sensing circuit and its peripheral logic control circuits to detect the voltage or the current and does not require any unwanted chemical electrolytic capacitor to make the neutral point of the DC power supply voltage source. The performances of this power conditioner are proved on the basis of the experimental and simulation results. Because the power semiconductor switches (IGBT module packages) have a trade-off relation in the switching fall time and tail current interval characteristics as well as the conductive saturation voltage characteristics, this three-phase soft-switching PWM double converter can improve actual efficiency in the output power ranges with a trench gate controlled MOS power semiconductor device which is much improved regarding low saturation voltage. The effectiveness of this is verified from a practical point of view. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 155(4): 64–76, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (<URL>www.interscience.wiley.com</URL>). DOI 10.1002/eej.20207 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]