Chapter 3 Introduction to Modern Power Electronics – Andrzej M.

Trzynadlowski

Supplementary Components and Systems

3.1. WHAT ARE SUPPLEMENTARY COMPONENTS AND SYSTEMS?

3.2. DRIVERS

 Low-voltage control system and high-voltage power circuit must be isolated electrically
o Pulse transformers.
o Optical coupling: light-emitting diode or fiber-optic cable.

3.2.1. Drivers for SCRs, Triacs, and BCTs

𝑑𝑖𝐺
 𝑖𝐺 must have sufficient magnitude and duration and a possibly short rise time (i.e. high ).
𝑑𝑡
 Isolation: either by an optocoupler or a transformer.
o An optocoupler requires a power supply and an amplifier on the thyristor side.
o Transformer needs extra circuitry to avoid saturation of the transformer core.
 SCR driver with pulse transformer:
 Optically isolated driver for an SCR:

 Non-isolated driver for a TRIAC:

o A transistor amplifier (TRA) provides the gate current for the triac.
  Optically isolated driver for triac using a light-activated triac (LATR):

3.2.2. Drivers for GTOs and IGCTs

 Very high gate current pulse magnitude required for turn-off.

 Drivers for GTO with optical isolation are also known.

o The GTO side of the driver must have its own power supply to provide the necessary gate
current, especially for turn-off.
 Instead of the SCR in the driver, a BJT, a power MOSFET, or a combination can be used to initiate
turn-on and turn-off gate pulses.
3.2.3. Drivers for BJTs
 High quality driver characteristics:

 Simple non-isolated drivers:

o 3.6.a -> requires only one transistor but its performance is inferior.
o 3.6.b -> power losses in the driver are reduced.


 Barker’s clamp:
 o Antisaturation circuit.
o Increase the turn-off speed.
o Purpose: shunt the current from the base through diode D0, in dependence on the
collector-emitter voltage, to shift the operating point of the transistor from the hard
saturation line to the quasi-saturation region.

o
 Isolation Transformer driver for BJT:
o When a BJT is to be employed in high-voltage power circuit.
o Range of available duty ratios of the driven BJT is limited to about 0.1 to 0.9.

 Optocoupler based driver for BJT:

3.2.4. Drivers for Power MOSFETs and IGBTs
 If high frequency switching is desired, an electric charge must quickly be transferred to and from
the gate capacitance -> high pulses of gate current at the beginning of the turn-on and turn-off
signals.
o Provisions must be made in the drivers to source or sink transient current pulses.
 Drivers shown here can also be used for IGBTs.
 Simple gate drive circuit with high-current TTL clock driver (CD) and Pulse transformer (PTR)
power MOSFET driver:

o The internal parasitic diode (D) in the auxiliary MOSFET (AM) provides the path for the
charging current to the main MOSFET’s gate capacitance.

o
 Driver for power MOSFETs and IGBTs with optical isolation:
o Provides overcurrent protection for the switch.

o
3.3. OVERCURRENT PROTECTION SCHEMES
 Protection to short circuit and overcurrents due to excessive load (too-low impedance and/or
counter-EMF).
 Three basic approaches:

 Low cost converters -> single fuse between the supply source and the input to the converter.
 More sophisticated solution:

 Special case of a potentially dangerous short circuit: short-through.

 o Specific for the bridge topology -> leg (branches) in totem-pole arrangement.
o States are mutually exclusive.
o If for any reason one switch is turned on before the other has turned off, a short circuit
occurs.
o To reduce the probability of an overshoot, the beginning of a turn-on signal for one switch
is delayed with respect to the end of a turn-off signal for the other switch by dead time.

3.4. SNUBBERS
 A rapid change in the switched current at turn-off would produce potentially damaging voltage
spikes in stray inductances of the power circuit. At turn-on, a simultaneous high voltage and high
current could take the operating point of a switch well beyond the safe operating area (SOA).
 Purpose:
o Prevent transient overvoltages and overcurrents.
o Attenuate excessive rates of changes of voltage and current.
o Reduce switching losses.
o Ensure that a switch does not operate outside its SOA.
o Maintain uniform distribution of voltages across switches that are connected in series to
increase the effective voltage rating, or currents in switches that are connected in parallel
to increase the effective current rating.
 Practical example: simple BJT-based chopper:
  Switching trajectory -> represents a locus of operating points of the transistor:

 Snubbers are not inherently necessary, as it is often possible to select power switches of such high
ratings that even large transient voltages and current would not be dangerous.
o Oversized semiconductor devices -> increased weight, bulk, and losses.
o Snubbers also contribute to the cost, weight, and size and not free of losses either.
 Snubbers for individual power switches are disposed of in resonant converters, where a single
resonant circuit is used to provide safe, low-loss switching conditions for all switches of the
converter.

3.4.1. Snubbers for Power Diodes, SCRs, and Triacs

 The rate of rise of the reverse recovery current in power diodes is high, so that an overvoltage at
turn-off is very likely, even with a small amount of stray inductance.
 Simple RC snubbers are connected in parallel with the diode.
o Turn-off snubber -> since it alleviates the voltage stresses at turn-off.

 RC snubbers are also employed in SCR and triac based converters, mostly for the purpose of
𝑑𝑣
preventing false triggering (firing) from excessive .
𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑖
 SCRs and triacs should also be protected from extreme 𝑑𝑡 values -> placing an inductor in series
with the device.
o Turn-on snubber: required inductance is low, so that just the stray inductance of wiring
of the power circuit is often sufficient.
3.4.2. Snubbers for GTOs and IGCTs

 A turn-on snubber protects the GTO from overcurrents when it takes over conduction of the
current from another slow device -> high-power freewheeling diode.
𝑑𝑖
o The 𝑑𝑡 is also attenuated.
o The diode-resistor circuit allows fast dissipation of the energy stored in the inductor when
the GTO turns off.

3.4.3. Snubbers for Transistors

 This snubbers can be applied to BJTs, MOSFETs, and IGBTs.

 Combined turn-on and turn-off snubber:

  When selecting a snubber, the entire converter topology should be taken into account, since other
components of the power circuit can interfere with proper operation of snubbers.
 Common snubbers for popular bridge converters:

 Also, bridge converters, a single inductor can be placed in series with the input terminals of the
bridge. If a converter is supplied directly from a transformer, the secondary leakage inductance
can play the role of a turn-on snubber, limiting the rate of change of currents in the converter.

3.4.4. Energy Recovery from Snubbers

 The energy stored temporarily in the inductive and capacitive components is dissipated in
resistors.
 In high-frequency and high-power converters, the amount of energy lost in snubbers is
substantial, straining cooling systems and reducing the efficiency of the converters.
 Measures have been developed to recover energy from snubbers and direct it to the load or
return it to the supply source.
 Can be passive or active, the latter involving an auxiliary power converter.
3.5. FILTERS
 Generally, depending on their placement, filters can be classified as input, output, and
intermediate.
o Input filters, also called line or front-end filters, screen the supply source from harmonic
currents drawn by converters and improve the input power factor of the converters.
o Output, or load, filters are employed to improve the quality of the power supplied to the
load.
o Intermediate filters, usually called links, interface two converters, forming a cascade, such
as that of a rectifier and inverter in the ac-to-dc-to-ac power conversion scheme.

 To make up for the usually low inductances, filter capacitors must have large capacitances.
o The highest capacitances are accompanied by low voltage ratings.
o It is desirable for capacitors in power electronic applications to have very low stray
inductance and low equivalent series resistance.
o The highest capacitance-per-volume ratios are obtained in polarized electrolytic
capacitors, which may not operate under reversed voltage.
  Special filters are needed to protect the power system from the conducted electromagnetic
interference (EMI).
o If high-frequency currents, particularly those of radio-level frequencies, were allowed to
spread in the system, they would severely pollute the electromagnetic environment and
disturb the operation of communication systems.
o EMI filters are also called radio-frequency filters.
 Power electronic converters are also sources of the radiated EMI, that is, electromagnetic waves
𝑑𝑖
generated due to high 𝑑𝑡 rates resulting from the switching mode of operation.
o Two factors help to minimize the environmental impact of this phenomenon:
 Snubbers, which reduce the rate of change of switched currents and voltages.
 Metal cabinets in which power electronic converter are usually enclosed ->
effective electromagnetic shields.

3.6. COOLING
 To maintain a safe temperature, a power switch must be equipped with a heat sink (radiator) and
be subjected to at least natural convection cooling. The heat generated in the switch is transferred
via the heat sink to the ambient air, which then tends to move upward and away from the switch
 Forced air cooling: cooling air is propelled by a fan.
o The energy consumption of the low-power fan does not tangibly affect the overall
efficiency of the converter.
 Liquid cooling: water or oil are used as the cooling medium.
o Fluid is forced through extended hollow copper or aluminum bars to which
semiconductor power switches are bolted.
o Power density of a converter is very high -> power to weight ratio.
 Thermal equivalent circuits:
o Facilitate design and analysis of cooling systems.
o Thermal quantities and electric equivalents:
 o Example: power diode with a heat sink:

3.7. CONTROL
 The main task of the converter control system is to generate signals for semiconductor power
switches that result in the fundamental output voltage or current desired.
 Also performed:
o Control of electromechanical circuit breakers connecting the converter with the supply
system.
o Monitoring operating conditions.
o Failure detection -> turns the converter off and displays the diagnosis.
o Supply information about operation of the converter back to the operator, through
displays, indicators, or recorders.
 Microcontrollers, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and Field-Programmable Logic Arrays (FPGAs)
are now firmly established as the tools of choice for control of modern power electronic
converters.
o DSPs:
 CPUs of DSPs are capable of extremely fast execution of a small set of simple
instructions.
 Floating-point arithmetic.
 Higher-level languages.
 Specialized functional blocks, such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog
converters, embedded timers, or generators of PWM switching signals.
o FPGAs:
 Programmable digital logic chips which contain thousands of small logic blocks
with flip-flops (memory elements) and programmable interconnects.
 Can be considered a virtual breadboard, which requires no component changes
and resoldering and which greatly facilitates fast prototyping.
 Are somewhat inferior to application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), but they
are less expensive and more convenient to use.