Basic Principles of Power Electronics

Power electronics became an identifiably separate area of electrical engineering with the invention of the thyristor about 30 years ago. The growing demand for controllability and conversion of electric energy has made this area increasingly important, which in turn has resulted in new device, circuit and control developments. In particular, new components, such as the GTO and power MOSFET, continue to extend power electronic technology to new applications. The technology embodied by the name "power electronics" is complex. It consists of both power level and signal level electronics, as well as thermal, mechanical, control, and protection systems. The power circuit, that part of the system actually processing energy, can be thought of as an amplifier around which is placed a closed loop control system. The goal of this book is to provide an easily understood exposition of the principles of power electronics. Common features of systems and their behavior are identified in order to facilitate understanding. Thyristor converters are distinguished and treated according to their mode of commutation. Circuits for various converters and their controls are presented, along with a description of ancillary circuits such as those required for snubbing and gate drives. Thermal and electrical properties of semiconductor power devices are discussed. The line-converter and converter-load interfaces are examined, leading to some general statements being made about energy transfer. Application areas are identified and categorized with respect to power and frequency ranges. The many tables presented in the book provide an easily used reference source.

1 Introduction and Definitions.- 1.1 Development History.- 1.2 Basic functions of Static Converters.- 2 System components.- 2.1 Linear Components.- 2.2 Semiconductor Switches.- 2.3 Network Simulation.- 2.4 Non-linear Components.- 3 Power Semiconductor Devices.- 3.1 Semiconductor Diodes.- 3.1.1 Characteristic Curve.- 3.1.2 Switching Behaviour.- 3.2 Thyristors.- 3.2.1 Characteristic Curve.- 3.2.2 Switching Behaviour.- 3.2.3 Thyristor Specifications.- 3.2.4 Types of Thyristor.- 3.2.4.1 Triac.- 3.2.4.2 Asymmetrical Silicon Controlled Rectifier (ASCR).- 3.2.4.3 Reverse Conducting Thyristor (RCT).- 3.2.4.4 Gate-assisted-turn-off-thyristor (GATT).- 3.2.4.5 Gate Turn-off Thyristor (GTO).- 3.2.4.6 Light-triggered Thyristor.- 3.2.4.7 Static Induction Thyristor (SITh).- 3.3 Power transistors.- 3.3.1 Bipolar Power Transistors.- 3.3.1.1 Construction of a Transistor.- 3.3.1.2 Basic Connections.- 3.3.1.3 Characteristic Curves.- 3.3.1.4 Switching Behaviour.- 3.3.2 MOS Power Transistors.- 3.3.2.1 Construction of a MOSFET.- 3.3.2.2 Characteristic Curves.- 3.3.2.3 Control and Switching Behaviour.- 3.3.3 Static Induction Transistor (SIT).- 4 Snubber Circuits, Triggering, Cooling, and Protection Devices.- 4.1 Snubber Circuits.- 4.1.1 Recovery Effect Snubber Circuits.- 4.1.2 Rate of Rise of Voltage Limitation.- 4.1.3 Transformer and Load Snubber Circuits.- 4.1.4 Series Connection.- 4.1.5 Parallel Connection.- 4.1.6 Snubber Circuits for GTO-Thyristor.- 4.2 Triggering.- 4.2.1 Triggering Area.- 4.2.2 Trigger Pulse.- 4.2.3 Trigger Pulse Generator.- 4.2.3.1 Trigger Pulse Generator for Thyristor.- 4.2.3.2 Trigger Pulse Generator for GTO.- 4.2.4 Trigger Equipment.- 4.3 Cooling.- 4.3.1 Operating and Limiting Temperatures.- 4.3.2 Losses.- 4.3.3 Thermal Equivalent Circuit.- 4.3.4 Heat Sinks.- 4.3.5 Types of Cooling.- 4.4 Protection Devices.- 5 Switching Operations and Commutation.- 5.1 Switching Behaviour of Electrical networks.- 5.1.1 Switching an Inductance.- 5.1.2 Switching a Capacitor.- 5.2 Definition of Commutation.- 5.3 Natural Commutation.- 5.4 Forced Commutation.- 5.5 Types of Converters.- 6 Semiconductor Switches and Power Controllers for AC.- 6.1 Semiconductor Switches for Single-phase and Three-phase AC.- 6.1.1 Semiconductor Switches.- 6.1.2 Switching Single-phase AC.- 6.1.3 Switching Three-phase AC.- 6.1.4 Switching Inductances and Capacitors.- 6.2 Semiconductor Power Controllers for Single-phase and Three-phase AC.- 6.2.1 Controlling Single-phase AC.- 6.2.2 Controlling Three-phase AC.- 6.2.3 Reactive and Distortion Power.- 6.2.4 Control Techniques.- 7 Externally Commutated Converters.- 7.1 Line-commutated Rectifiers and Inverters.- 7.1.1 Operation in the Rectifier Mode.- 7.1.2 Operation in the Inverter Mode.- 7.1.3 Line Commutation.- 7.1.4 Load Characteristic.- 7.1.5 Converter Connections.- 7.1.6 Converter Transformer.- 7.1.7 Reactive Power.- 7.1.8 Half-controllable Connections.- 7.1.9 Harmonics.- 7.2 Line-commutated Cycloconverters.- 7.2.1 Double Converters.- 7.2.2 Cycloconverters.- 7.3 Load-commutated Inverters.- 7.3.1 Parallel Resonant Circuit Inverters.- 7.3.2 Series Resonant Circuit Inverters.- 7.3.3 Motor-commutated Inverters.- 8 Self-commutated Converters.- 8.1 Semiconductor Switches for DC.- 8.1.1 Closing a DC Circuit.- 8.1.2 Opening a DC Circuit.- 8.2 Semiconductor Power Controllers for DC.- 8.2.1 Current and Voltage Waveforms.- 8.2.2 Transformation Equations.- 8.2.3 Energy Recovery and Multi-quadrant Operation.- 8.2.4 Capacitive Quenching Circuits.- 8.2.5 Control Techniques.- 8.2.6 Calculation of Smoothing Inductance and Smoothing Capacitor Values.- 8.2.7 Pulse-controlled Resistance.- 8.2.8 Analysis of a Capacitive Quenching Process.- 8.2.9 Construction of an Energy Balance-sheet.- 8.3 Self-commutated Inverters.- 8.3.1 Single-phase Self-commutated Inverters.- 8.3.2 Multi-phase Self-commutated Inverters.- 8.3.3 Voltage Control.- 8.3.4 Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) Inverter.- 8.3.5 Converter with Sector Control.- 8.4 Reactive Power Converters.- 9 Power Systems for Converters.- 9.1 Characteristics of Electrical Power Systems.- 9.2 DC System.- 9.3 Single-phase and Three-phase AC Systems.- 10 Loads for Converters.- 10.1 Resistance, Inductance, and Capacitance as Load.- 10.2 Internal Impedance of the Converter.- 10.3 Motor Load.- 10.4 Battery Load.- 10.5 Distorting Load.- 10.6 Types of Duty and Classes of Load.- 10.7 Service Conditions.- 11 Energy Conditions.- 11.1 Energy Sources.- 11.2 Waveform of Power against Time.- 11.3 Types of Converter.- 11.3.1 Converters with Commutation on the AC Side.- 11.3.2 Converters with Commutation on the DC Side.- 11.4 Coupling of Power Systems.- 11.4.1 Coupling of Single-phase AC and DC Systems.- 11.4.2 Coupling of Three-phase AC and DC Systems.- 11.5 Pulse Number.- 11.6 Pulse Frequency.- 11.6.1 Pulse Converters with Commutation on the DC Side.- 11.6.2 Pulse Converters with Commutation on the AC Side.- 11.7 Reactive Power Compensation and Balancing of Unbalanced Load.- 11.7.1 Reactive Power Compensation.- 11.7.2 Balancing of Unbalanced Load.- 11.8 Losses and Efficiency.- 12 Control Conditions.- 12.1 Terms and Designations.- 12.1.1 Open-loop Control.- 12.1.2 Closed-loop Control.- 12.2 Converters as Correcting Unit.- 12.2.1 Open-loop Control with Converters as Correcting Unit.- 12.2.2 Closed-loop Control with Converters as Correcting Unit.- 12.3 Control System Elements.- 12.3.1 Linear Control System Elements.- 12.3.2 Dead Time Element.- 12.3.3 Characteristic Element.- 12.3.4 Configuration Diagram.- 12.4 Internal Closed-loop Controls.- 13 Semiconductor Converter Applications.- 13.1 Main Applications.- 13.1.1 Industrial Drives.- 13.1.2 Power Generation.- 13.1.3 Power Distribution.- 13.1.4 Electric Heating.- 13.1.5 Electrochemistry.- 13.1.6 Traction.- 13.1.7 Domestic Equipment.- 13.2 Power Range.- 13.2.1 Limiting Specifications of Power Semiconductor Devices.- 13.2.2 Line-commutated Converters.- 13.2.3 Load-commutated Converters.- 13.2.4 Self-commutated Converters.- 13.2.5 Semiconductor Switches and Power Controllers.- 13.3 Frequency Range.- 14 Tests.- References.