Solid state transformers could be the next big thing in power

electronics
There's been a lot of talk in the past few years about coming up with a
solid-state version of the distribution transformer that now sits on
utility poles in neighborhoods throughout the land. A solid-state
transformer (SST) would be at least as efficient as a conventional
version but would provide other benefits as well, particularly as
renewable power sources become more widely used. Among its more
notable strong points are on-demand reactive power support for the
grid, better power quality, current limiting, management of distributed
storage devices and a dc bus.
It is starting to look more likely that we'll see a practical SST design
as GaN and SiC power transistors with higher current and voltage
ratings start coming to market and their prices drop. But a practical
SST design could have an impact extending well beyond transformers
for electrical utilities.
One example of where SSTs could also find use is in variablefrequency drives for big induction motors. In that regard, Siemens
Industry Inc.'s Drive Technologies Div. in New Kensington, Pa. is
keeping an eye on SST work now underway at North Carolina State
University's FREEDM System Center for smart grid research.
Siemens Principal Engineer Mark Harshman says use of SSTs in the
medium-voltage motor drives that Siemens makes could conceivably
reduce the size of the VFDs by 30% and have similar beneficial
effects on their overall efficiency levels.
There have been several topologies suggested for SSTs but most being
evaluated today are based around the idea of a dual active bridge
(DAB) converter. A DAB uses a power bridge to modulate the
incoming ac waveform into a high-frequency square wave. The square
wave gets passed through a small high-frequency transformer to
another power stage. This converter demodulates the square wave and
sends it to another inverter which produces low-voltage ac.

This scheme still uses a conventional transformer, but one optimized

for higher frequencies (typically about 1 kHz). This makes it much
smaller and lighter than transformers optimized for ac line
frequencies.
The high-frequency transformer gives the SST galvanic isolation. It
also has some leakage inductance in its primary and secondary
windings, which also helps synthesize soft switching. During
switching transients, transformer current resonates with the capacitors
in parallel with switching devices, limiting the dv/dt and di/dt across
the switches, thus reducing switching loss and boosting power
efficiency.
The fact that DAB converters have a symmetrical circuit
configuration lets them handle bi-directional power flows, important
when it comes to renewable sources sending power back up the grid.
The power flow of a DAB converter can be controlled by varying the
phase shift between those two bridges which changes the voltage
across the transformer leakage inductance. Power transfers from the
leading bridge to the lagging bridge.
One of the difficulties in fabricating a SST is that the 7.2-kV line
voltages that characterize distribution power lines exceed the
operating voltage of today's IGBTs, 6.5 kV. So multiple devices must
be used in series to keep below the operating maximum. The NC State
prototype, for example, uses a topology that includes a seven-level
cascaded H-bridge for the high voltage rectifier stage.
There are other difficulties as well. One is that the minimum current
rating for the 6.5-kV IGBTs is 200 A. This is too large for the 20 kVA
transformer NC State is building because the input current is only
about 3 Arms. Thermal issues also affect the SST's operation, which
has forced NC State researchers to come up with special packaging
for their 25-A IGBTs. Additionally, the team had to come up with a
way to isolate IGBT drivers for both power supply and gating signals.
To sense the 7.2 kVac voltage, the researchers devised a sensor that
was compact and which incorporated high-voltage isolation because
existing models were too large and not isolated from the high input
voltage. Finally, they had to get around the fact that the insulation
capability for 6.5-kV IGBT is 10.2 kV, but the high-voltage-side dc

bus voltage is 11.4 kV. They ended up floating the heatsink for each
6.5-kV IGBT while maintaining ample clearance and creepage
distance between the heatsinks. To keep the voltage across input
inductor down to manageable levels, the team built eight identical
inductors and put them in series so the maximum voltage stress for
each of them is just 0.9 kV.
Researchers have also developed a prototype using 15 kV SiC
MOSFET/JBS diodes. They are not trying to identify other major
issues related to implementing a high-voltage system using SiC power
devices, including the challenges in designing a system to support
high dV/dt and dI/dt, and to design an efficient and compact highfrequency transformer.
More info from the FREEDM project:
http://www.freedm.ncsu.edu/index.php?s=3&p=439&i=2
Solid-state transformers ready to enable the Smart Grid? Story
originally by Michael J. Kawa, from Electronic Products
Magazine. The term solid-state transformer (SST) is something of a
misnomer because it is not a transformer in the traditional sense. It is
a collection of high-powered semiconductor components,
conventional high-frequency transformers and control circuitry which
is used to provide a high level of flexible control to power distribution
networks. Add some communication capability and the entire package
is often referred to as a smart transformer. Recently, MIT's
Technology Review magazine declared smart transformers to be one
of the ten most important emerging technologies of the last twelve
months. It specifically cited the work of Dr. Alex Huang, director of
the FREEDM Systems Center at North Carolina State University for
his work with high voltage semi-conductor materials such as siliconcarbon which have led to groundbreaking improvements in voltage
handling capacity. While the concept of SSTs has been around awhile,
its use in high-powered utility level applications was deemed
impractical due to the previous power limitations of existing

semiconductor materials. However, with that hurdle seemingly

overcome, the ability to directly integrate precise, high speed
electronic control with high voltage power distribution may have
arrived. SST technology can step up or step down AC voltage levels
just like that of the traditional transformer but it also offers several
significant advantages. These include: allow two way power flow
input or output AC or DC power actively change power
characteristics such as voltage and frequency levels improve power
quality (reactive power compensation and harmonic filtering) provide
efficient routing of electricity based on communication between
utility provider, end user site and other transformers in the network
greatly reduce the physical size and weight of individual transformer
packages with equivalent power ratings When SSTs are implemented,
they will radically change the way utility power is distributed. They
will also become integral components in the future Smart Grid enabling it to direct power from any source to any destination by the
most efficient route possible - See more at:
http://www.freedm.ncsu.edu/index.php?
s=2&t=news&p=121#sthash.8MCSwgLG.dpuf