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Condition monitoring of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules is an effective way to improve the transient performance and reliability of modular multilevel converters (MMC). This article proposes a novel bond wire failure monitoring method for the multichip IGBT modules in the MMC half-bridge submodule (SM) structure. The collector voltage undershoot VCA(np) of the complementary IGBT switch is measured during the turn-off switching transition of the controlled IGBT switch. VCA(np) is sensitive to the induced voltage over the stray inductance of the IGBT bond wires and provides high sensitivity as a health indicator. The non-intrusive measurement technique is demonstrated using a half-bridge circuit during the turn-off transition of the controlled IGBT, while its complementary switch (i.e., the device under test) is in the off state. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the parametric drift due to wire bonding failures can be effectively monitored with high specific relative sensitivity and granularity. To ensure its effectiveness in practical applications, the influence of load current, SM capacitor voltage, and junction temperature is discussed. In addition, a readout circuit is designed featuring the integrated desaturation detection and voltage peak detection, which offers both the short-term overcurrent fault protection and long-term bond wire aging monitoring functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power-electronic-converter-induced motor bearing currents are a widespread problem in the field of electrical drives. Parasitic capacitances between the electrical machine's parts provide a path for leakage currents, which finally harm metallic ball bearings. Remembering that end-windings have a significant contribution in building up stray capacitances, a countermeasure affecting both the lamination stack and end-winding areas is needed. This article focuses on a countermeasure against the noncirculating bearing currents in the cluster of solutions at the motor side. The electrostatic shielding approach, which is a known principle to reduce capacitive couplings, is applied in electrical machines every now and then. In this article, the principle of slot-embedded grounded electrodes is extended to cover also the end-windings. Thus, the electrodes provide a better shaft-to-ground voltage mitigating effect compared to the case where electrodes are applied only in the lamination stack area. The feasibility and effectiveness of such a countermeasure are investigated. Different options in terms of scaling of both the machine size and diameter of the electrodes were analyzed and corresponding conclusions were pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel inverters (MLIs) featuring reactive power ability and common ground (CG) have become much popular in transformerless grid-tied photovoltaic applications. A switched-capacitor (SC) based five-level transformerless inverter configuration is thus proposed in this article, which requires only six switches, one diode, three capacitors, and one input dc voltage supply. Notably, only four power switches are operated in high frequency, thus, the switching losses are reduced. Moreover, the presented topology can effectively tackle the leakage current problem using a CG architecture. A multicarrier phase disposition pulsewidth modulation strategy is employed to achieve reactive power regulation and SC voltage self-balancing. To achieve the neutral point voltage balance of the presented five-level inverter, a simple closed-loop voltage-balancing control method is proposed. The operation principles with modulation strategy and voltage self-balancing of SC are discussed in depth. Comparisons between the proposed and the state-of-the-art MLIs are presented in detail. Finally, experimental tests on a single-phase 1.1-kW prototype validate the appropriate performance of the proposed inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online aging monitoring is the basis for high reliability operation of Insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). Most monitoring methods focus on the package-related aging. Leakage current (Ileak) has been proposed as a potential chip-related aging (CRA) indicator for IGBTs. However, this method has not been implemented online due to the difficulty in accurate online leakage current measurement. An effective online CRA monitoring method is still required for IGBTs. A novel online CRA monitoring method based on Ileak for IGBTs is proposed in this article. First, an online Ileak measurement circuit is proposed. Second, based on this circuit, an aging monitoring strategy is presented. Finally, accelerating aging tests validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The on-state voltage drop is selected as an aging indicator for comparison. The proposed method has three advantages. The online CRA monitoring is achieved. It can be used in slight aging situation with high sensitivity because Ileak is linear to the CRA levels. The measurement circuit required by this method is simple and low-cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In photovoltaic systems, common-mode voltage (CMV) generates leakage current, which shortens the insulation lifespan and causes safety problems. As for neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverters, zero CMV PWM (ZCMV PWM) can be implemented to eliminate leakage current, but unable to balance neutral-point (NP) voltage in dc side. This article presents a novel modulation technique for NPC PV inverter. The strategy contains ZCMV PWM and another two modulation modes which keeps CMV constant in one switching period, so as to eliminate leakage current. In order to balance NP voltage, NP current is adjusted by selection of optimal modulation mode and the leakage current is still well eliminated during the process of balancing NP voltage. Compared with conventional ZCMV PWM, the proposed scheme can remove both leakage current and NP voltage deviation. The output performance and limitations of the proposed method are also introduced in the paper. Experiments are provided to verify the validity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dual-transformer-based hybrid dual active bridge (DAB) converter for plug-in electric vehicle charging to cope with wide load voltages is introduced in this article. The control degrees of freedom are extended by splitting the leg and transformer of the conventional DAB converter (CDABC) in two parts. Based on the numerical analysis, the full-domain four-variable closed-form optimal trajectories targeting at the minimum root mean square value of the leakage inductor current is attainted, and the unified-segmental control strategy is proposed to handle the working modes shifting without the current inrush. As a result, the conduction losses and switching losses can be significantly reduced in boost mode compared to CDABC. The discussed converter and control strategy are verified by a 1.0-kW prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insulation aging of underground power cables may lead to severe fault and system outages. Condition monitoring of cable insulation is essential to maintain power system reliability. However, most existing insulation monitoring methods can only work in offline mode and cannot describe cable aging severity quantitatively. In this article, a novel online monitoring scheme for underground power cable insulation based on common-mode (CM) leakage current measurement is proposed. An online neutral-point voltage injection approach is proposed, and CM leakage current distribution model for both the cables with and without metal sheath under the injected voltage is derived. The insulation capacitance can therefore be monitored online without disturbance to the system operation. Simulations and experiments are conducted to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method. With the aid of a designed CM leakage current sensor, CM leakage current smaller than 5 mA can be detected and the accurate evaluation of aging severity is achieved. The key feature of the proposed method lies in its nonintrusiveness and online fashion: the normal operation of the system will not be interrupted, and accurate quantitative monitoring of cable insulation can be achieved online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A normally-off SiC-JFET/GaN-HEMT cascode device is recently proposed, featuring a cascode configuration that incorporates a high-voltage (HV, e.g., 1200 V) silicon-carbide (SiC) junction field effect transistor (JFET) delivering the HV blocking capability and a low-voltage (LV) enhanced-mode (E-mode) gallium-nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) providing the normally-off gate control. This all-wide-bandgap device exhibits superior thermal stability and high switching speed compared to its counterparts, e.g., the SiC/Si cascode device. In this article, we study short-circuit (SC) characteristics of a 1200-V/80-mΩ SiC/GaN cascode device by considering the interactions between the SiC and GaN devices. The single-event SC withstand time (SCWT) of the demonstrated SiC/GaN cascode device is tested to be ∼3 μs under a dc-bus voltage (Vdc) of 600 V when the turn-on gate voltage (VG-on) is set to 5 V. The SC failure occurs due to the formation of hot spots induced by thermal-runaway leakage currents inside the SiC JFET. The SCWT of the cascode device could be improved by applying a moderate VG-on (e.g., SCWT = ∼6.5 μs at VG-on = 3.5 V under v dc = 600 V) without affecting the on-state resistance (r on). However, it is identified that current oscillations tend to be triggered during the SC period when VG-on is too low (e.g., lower than 3 V). The oscillation behavior is attributed to the energy stored in the interconnection parts between the SiC and GaN devices. The harmful oscillations could be suppressed by applying higher VG-on, which drives the SiC JFET into low-transconductance mode by modulating the drain-to-source voltage (VDS-G) of the LV GaN HEMT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a modulation technique that nearly eliminates the common-mode (CM) leakage currents in the transformerless (nonisolated) dual-inverter single-phase charger. This improvement allows for the safe use and commercialization of the transformerless charger, making superior charger efficiency, power density, and cost possible. The CM model of the system is derived to guide the choice of the modulation scheme. Simulations are conducted to validate the CM performance predictions derived analytically. Finally, an experimental 6.6-kW charger prototype is presented to verify the CM leakage current elimination. The experimental results show not only that the proposed modulation meets the required standards regarding CM currents, but also that it does so by a wide margin, and it even outperforms the isolated system used for comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The semi-Z-source inverter (SZSI) with least switch count (only two switches) eliminates the leakage current due to the doubly grounded structure. However, the main disadvantage is the high voltage stresses of the switches (the sum of double photovoltaic output voltages and the grid voltage amplitude). This article proposed an improved inverter based on the SZSI. It inherits the advantage of less leakage current and owns another merit of lower switch voltage stress. Besides, the operation principle of the proposed inverter is bimodal and only two switches operate at high frequency in each mode. First, the circuit structure and the operation principle are introduced in detail. Then, the grid current controllers in both modes are designed. Two comparisons are investigated for better clarification of the pros and cons of the proposed inverter. Finally, experimental results, obtained with a 500-W laboratory prototype, are presented to validate its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insulation impedance monitoring methods such as capacitance/dissipation factor monitoring methods have been proposed for the online stator insulation condition monitoring. By measuring the insulation leakage currents and the phase-to-ground voltages, the groundwall and phase-to-phase insulation impedances can be calculated in frequency domain. In the existing methods, the calculation is based on the assumption that the differential mode phase-to-ground voltage decreases linearly along the stator winding and no phase angle deviation is considered. However, the phase angles of the induced electromagnetic forces in stator winding in different slots depend on the slot positions. The assumption in the existing methods neglects this phase deviation and causes errors in the monitoring results. In order to eliminate this effect, the effect of the phase angle deviation on monitoring results is analyzed in this article. Its dependency on the turn number, the winding configuration and the frequency of the selected monitoring signals is studied. A compensation method is proposed and the compensation coefficients are calculated for different winding cases for the demonstration purpose. The online experimental results prove that the accuracy of the online monitoring results is improved after the compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online monitoring for underground power cable insulation will lead to early alarms of insulation faults in distribution grids, which has become an urgent need in the industry. However, the existing approaches require complicated monitoring devices, and cannot provide an estimation of insulation ageing severity. A novel online monitoring method for underground power cable insulation based on common-mode (CM) signal injection is proposed in this article. A CM monitoring signal injection device is designed by modifying the secondary side of current transformer in the system, with no need of extra injection voltage source. A monitoring scheme based on CM leakage current measurement at selected monitoring frequencies is proposed and an ageing feature extraction method based on principle component analysis (PCA) is developed which provides an estimation of the insulation ageing severity. Simulations and experiments are conducted, which proves the effectiveness of the proposed device and method under different system operating conditions with different parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dual-transformer-based enhanced dual active bridge (DAB) dc–dc converter for wide voltage range applications is introduced in this article. A power leg and transformer of the conventional DAB converter (CDABC) are split in two parts, leading to an expansion of the control freedom. Its wide voltage operating range does not rely on the small leakage inductor design and high transformer turns ratio. The root mean square value of the leakage inductor current is optimized with the ensuring of full domain zero voltage switching. The conduction losses and switching losses can be significantly reduced in buck mode compared to the CDABC. A simple segment control strategy with four control degrees of freedom is employed to avoid inrush from mode switching. The analysis and control processes are simplified, and the control loop is a simple closed voltage loop without the need for look-up table checking. The discussed converter and control strategy are verified by a 1.0 kW prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an enhanced power quality solar photovoltaic (PV) inverter enabling common-mode leakage current elimination. A three-phase transformerless solar energy conversion system is considered here, which, along with peak active-power production from PV array, ensures different power quality improvement capabilities such as grid current harmonics mitigation, grid currents balancing while also offering the grid reactive power support. Unlike conventional power quality inverters, this strategy is robust with respect to abnormalities in grid voltages at far radial ends, and does not compromise with the leakage currents caused by parasitic capacitance of PV array with ground. Common practice in the PV inverter power quality control is to neglect the PV leakage currents; however, they considerably affect the system performance by deteriorating the power quality and causing the safety issues of operating personnel. The standards VDE-00126 and NB/T-32004, therefore, compel the transformerless PV systems to operate with leakage current under 300 mA range. Various simulation and test results show the satisfactory performance of the presented strategy, even under various grid-side abnormalities. The comparative analysis with the state-of-the-art techniques shows the effectiveness of the strategy. Under all test conditions, the harmonics in grid currents are observed within limits as per the IEEE-519 and IEC-61727 standards, whereas the PV leakage currents are maintained well within the range recommended by VDE-00126 standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter proposes a new push-pull dc/dc converter topology with complementary active clamped. First, a clamping capacitor is added between the active switches to maintain a clamping voltage and recover the energy stored in the leakage inductors. Second, the leakage inductors of transformer are effectively utilized to buffer the energy transfer, and greater leakage inductors are expected. Third, the active switches are mutually clamped via the added capacitor, and the natural soft-switching characteristics are given. Fourth, the rectifier diodes commutate naturally without reverse recovery. Finally, an experimental prototype is designed, and the correctness of the theoretical analysis is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel inverters are becoming more and more popular in photovoltaic applications because of lower total harmonic distortion, lower switching stress and lower electromagnetic interference. In this article, a single-phase five-level transformer-less PV inverter is proposed for the purpose of leakage current reduction. The inverter is based on a flying capacitor (FC) configuration, the voltages of FCs are balanced at Vdc/4 through the coordination of the two half-bridge at the switching frequency, helps to reduce investment cost in passive elements. Two bidirectional circuits are added to guarantee a constant common-mode (CM) voltage. The leakage current elimination mechanism is analyzed in detail with operational states and CM equivalent model. The losses are analyzed, the control strategy and the FCs are detailed designed. A comparison is also made in terms of the number of elements, voltage stress and CM voltage. Experiment results under grid-connected condition show that the proposed topology achieves both excellent differential-mode and CM performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The grid inverters play an important role in renewable energy systems, transferring the dc power to the ac grid. Galvanic isolation is usually needed between the dc source and the grid due to safety reasons and grounding leakage current mitigation. In this article, a soft-switching isolated grid inverter is proposed based on the current-fed matrix-type configuration. The topology of this converter is composed of a current-fed H-bridge on the side of dc source and a direct matrix converter on the grid side, which are linked by a high-frequency transformer. The current-fed H-bridge on the primary-side can smooth the dc-source current and control the dc-source current directly. The avoidance of dc-link energy-storage element in the single-stage matrix converter can prolong the system's life. A space-vector-modulation-based soft-switching scheme is proposed for the matrix converter on the grid side and a model-based commutation method is adopted in the current-fed H-bridge on the dc side. With the proposed modulation methods, the soft switching can be realized for all devices in the converter. Finally, a laboratory prototype of the proposed converter has been built to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leakage current issues are worthy of attention for nonisolated grid-connected systems. This article introduces the method of eliminating common-mode (CM) voltage and reducing the leakage current based on modulation, and analyzes the correlation between actual effects of the method and the flying capacitor (FC) voltage balance in three-phase three-level FC grid-connected inverter. The proposed carrier-based modulation can balance the FC voltage by changing the transmission sequences of pulses and theoretically achieve zero CM voltage. In order to deal with the low frequency fluctuation and bias voltage of FC caused by asymmetry of actual hardware, the control method is introduced, which controls FC voltage by changing the action times’ distribution of switches, while still eliminating the CM voltage. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate that the proposed method can control FC voltage and achieve good performance in suppressions of CM voltage, leakage, current and CM electromagnetic interference noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents a transformerless single-phase PV inverter, which combines with common-ground and active power decoupling techniques. The leakage current is eliminated and bulky electrolytic capacitors are removed, thus improving the system safety and reliability. In addition, it needs only four switches and can be implemented conveniently by a commercial H-bridge module. The validity of the inverter is verified with a 2-kW prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a dual active bridge (DAB) based single-stage isolated ac–dc converter is studied. By analyzing the root mean square value of the leakage inductor current, the high-frequency transformer turns ratio is optimized for higher conversion efficiency. Three operating modes of the DAB converter are utilized in the control strategy. The current and the voltage waveforms of these operating modes are analyzed. The control variables, including the phase-shift ratio ϕ, the primary side duty cycle d1, and the secondary side duty cycle d2 are combined based on instantaneous calculation according to achieve boundary zero voltage switching (ZVS). The mode transition is seamless while the switching frequency is constant. Furthermore, the magnetizing inductor of the transformer is designed to help the secondary side switches to achieve ZVS. ZVS conditions and parameter design are given in this article. Besides, a 1 kW prototype was fabricated to verify the effectiveness of the design and the control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel high switching frequency isolated voltage-fed hybrid bridge combining semiactive rectifier dc–dc converter is introduced for unidirectional power flow and wide voltage gain. Three potentially appropriate working patterns are elaborated, including ideal output power derivation, current stress analysis, working voltage matching, output power distribution, soft switching characteristics, etc. In consideration of the optimization of the minimum of the root-mean-square value of the leakage inductor current, two truly applicable working patterns are selected. Meanwhile, based on the consideration of soft switching, a segmented control strategy is implemented on it. With the optimization of current stress and the realization of soft switching, the converter can theoretically realize higher efficiency operation. Eventually, the effectiveness of the proposed converter and the control strategy is verified by a 1 kW prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a new pulsewidth modulation (PWM) strategy to reduce common-mode voltages (CMVs) in grid-connected two-level inverters. Reduction of CMVs is an important issue in the field of distributed energy resources (DERs) because CMVs at a high switching frequency cause ground leakage currents that lead to safety issues in the applications of DERs. In the proposed PWM strategy, each reference vector is split into two vectors during the PWM period. The peak-to-peak magnitude of CMV is reduced by one-third as the split vectors are synthesized without using zero vectors. The influence of the dead-time and its compensation in the proposed method are also described. Our proposed method can be easily implemented with carrier-based PWM. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the performance of the proposed strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leakage current in a transformerless cascaded H-bridge (CHB) inverter is a problem that deteriorates the system performance and causes safety concerns. In this article, a common-mode equivalent circuit is established for analyzing the occurrence of leakage current in an m-level CHB inverter with either asymmetrical or symmetrical inductance output filter configurations. The analysis provides a comparison between traditional phase shifted pulsewidth modulation, phase disposition pulsewidth modulation, and the proposed leakage current reduction pulsewidth modulation. It is reported that grid leakage current cannot be suppressed in an asymmetrical inductance filter configuration solely based on modulation methods. The proposed leakage current reduction pulsewidth modulation pulsewidth modulation can effectively reduce the grid leakage current in a symmetrical filter configuration nine-level CHB inverter. Simulation and experimental studies for aforementioned methods are provided and their performances are evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The single-phase five-level transformerless inverters have been gradually applied in photovoltaic grid-connected systems due to low voltage stress and excellent waveform quality. However, they also suffer from serious leakage current as conventional three-level inverters. In order to reduce the leakage current, a single-phase five-level transformerless inverter is proposed in this article. The proposed inverter guarantees that the common-mode (CM) voltage is clamped to a half of the dc-link voltage when outputting ±Vdc/2 and zero voltage levels. Consequently, the high-frequency CM voltage is avoided and the leakage current is suppressed. The voltage stresses of eight switches and two flying capacitors are only Vdc/4, thus the system investment cost and total losses are reduced. The conduction and switching losses are analyzed in detail and a comparison with some existing topologies is also made. Finally, simulations and experiment are carried out based on a 1-kW prototype. The results show that the proposed single-phase five-level inverter can obtain both excellent differential-mode and CM performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a novel dual-mode five-level common grounded type (5L-DM-CGT) transformerless inverter topology for a medium-power application with a wide input voltage range (200–400 V). It consists of nine semiconductor switches, two inner flying-capacitors, and a small LC filter at the output side. Due to the direct connection of the negative terminal of the photovoltaic to the neutral point of the grid, there is no leakage current in the 5L-DM-CGT. Depending on the magnitude of the input voltage, the converter can operate in both buck and boost mode to produce the same ac output voltage. The theoretical analysis shows the advantages of the dual-mode inverter for various industrial applications. Finally, the laboratory test results are presented to verify the theoretical analysis. Measurement results show that the proposed inverter rated at 1 kW has around 97±1% efficiency over a wide range of load with a peak efficiency of 98.96% at 130 VA in buck mode and peak efficiency of 99% at 122 VA in boost mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microinverters for photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion typically encounter challenges, including the requirement of a voltage boost and suppression of the high-frequency leakage current. These challenges are usually not met simultaneously if only a standard full (H)-bridge is used. Such limitation is, however, not applicable to the proposed dual-boost H-bridge inverter, which uses only four switches and a unique dual-boost circuit for voltage boosting and forming a common ground. The latter stops PV terminal voltages from changing rapidly, and hence, no high-frequency capacitive current leaking to the ground even without using extra switches. Additionally, the proposed inverter can operate with either one or two PV sources whose terminal voltages need not be balanced. One of the source voltages can, in fact, fall to zero (due to shading) without affecting the continuous operation of the inverter, whose modulation has been formulated to keep its conduction losses low at a steady dc-link voltage. The dc-link capacitor across the H-bridge meanwhile decouples the pulsating output power, which in practice, has always challenged the design of single-phase microinverters. These intended performances have eventually been proven by the simulation and experimental results of a 500-W prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel inverters with a common-ground structure and voltage step-up feature are beneficial for transformerless grid-connected photovoltaic applications. In this article, a novel topology of such converters with a five-level output voltage generation is presented. The proposed topology comprises of an integrated switched-boost (SB) module and a dual T-type (D2T) cell constructed with 10 power switches (six unidirectional and two bidirectional). An inductor in the integrated SB module is used to boost the voltage across two involved capacitors of the D2T cell. Therefore, a desirable ac voltage magnitude for the grid-connected application can be achieved over a wide range of input voltage changes. Current stress is also kept within a permissible input current range by the soft-charging operation of the involved capacitors through the inductor. A corresponding dead-beat continuous-current-control-set controller with a sinusoidal PWM modulator is implemented for controlling the real and reactive powers. The controller has an added benefit of achieving constant switching frequency for power switches. Circuit description, theoretical analyses, and comparative study are discussed. Simulation and experimental results are also presented to confirm the feasibility and correctness of the proposed topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The improved LCL filter is used in transformerless three-level photovoltaic inverter system for leakage current suppression. However, the common-mode (CM) resonance circulating current (CMRCC) is generated, which causes inverter-side current oscillation, leakage current increment, and system instability. To overcome these issues, an improved CM circulating current model with detailed analyses of CMRCC is proposed in this paper. Based on above theories, the CMRCC is influenced by filter parameters, zero-sequence duty ratio, and number of switching transitions. To suppress CMRCC, a hybrid control strategy composed of proportional integral (PI) and feedforward control is presented. It is realized by real-time adjusting zero-sequence duty ratio in space vector modulation technique. Compared with the conventional damping resistor techniques, the CMRCC and leakage current are effectively suppressed with the proposed method. Thus, the performance of inverter-side currents and leakage current suppression is greatly improved. Besides, the capacitor-voltage-feedforward control is adopted to eliminate resonance peak in the differential-mode circuit. Simulation and experimental results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of theoretical analyses and the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft-switching techniques of transformerless photovoltaic grid-connected inverters (TLIs) can significantly reduce switching losses, as well as soften switching processes. Conventional dc–ac soft-switching configurations proposed by Dr. Deepakraj M. Divan are invalid in TLIs because of the leakage current problem. In order to develop soft-switching techniques in TLIs, this paper proposes a new soft-switching configuration and a procedure to guide the invention of soft-switching TLIs. First, this paper proposes two basic resonance tanks related to dc bus polarities, and then, uses these basic tanks to elevate four popular full-bridge-type TLIs according to the proposed guideline. As a result, four soft-switching TLIs are gained. Second, this paper picks obtained soft-switching highly efficient and reliable inverter concept (HERIC) as example to analyze its soft-switching operation principle and performance. As a consequence, all active switches of the gained soft-switching HERIC circuit are switched under both of zero-current turn-on and turn-off conditions; the reverse recovery problem of freewheeling diodes is alleviated owing to the zero-current turn-off of diodes; meanwhile, the common-mode voltage at the switching frequency scale is still constant. Finally, some experimental results from a 3-kW universal prototype at 50-kHz switching frequency are provided to verify the effectiveness of the main contributions of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an optimized switching strategy to reduce the dc-link ripple current for three-level photovoltaic (PV) inverters. The large electrolytic capacitors are commonly used for the dc link of power electronics applications to stabilize the dc-link voltage. The most important factor of designing the dc-link capacitor is the allowable current ripple. The over-ripple current flowing through the capacitor causes a high heat loss, shortened lifespan, low stability, and reliability. The proposed switching scheme selects voltage vectors and reconfigures dwelling order of the vectors to reduce the capacitor ripple current. This switching method is able to extend the lifetime of the dc-link capacitors by simple software programming. In addition, this switching method reduces the common-mode voltage and leakage current that represent high reliability and safety of the system. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified with simulations and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a transformerless line-interactive uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with low ground leakage current. A high-efficiency bidirectional inverter is suggested, which performs the line-interactive UPS functions with low ground leakage current. It has a full-bridge inverter and a bidirectional switch, which operate with the unipolar pulsewidth modulation. Because the bidirectional switch operates at the line-frequency, switching losses can be lower than the previous transformerless inverters. As the inverter operates, the parasitic capacitance between the inverter and the ac voltage ground is clamped to zero voltage for a positive line cycle and to the ac voltage for a negative line cycle, respectively. Thus, the parasitic capacitance can be prevented from being charged or discharged, which ensures the absence of the ground leakage current. The operation modes of the proposed system are described. The control schemes are presented to design the proposed inverter for the line-interactive UPS. Experimental results for a 2.0 kW prototype are discussed to verify the performance of the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uninterruptible power system, photovoltaics inverters, home appliances, motor drives, and automotive systems require highly efficient, reliable, and compact single-phase inverters. This paper presents different industrial design approach and experimental performance of high power density (100 W/in3) single-phase inverter with power output of 2 kVA that was presented for Google Little Box challenge. Multiple technical challenges were addressed, different methodologies described to achieve high power density and high efficiency reliable design. High power density was achieved by using the combination of optimized forced air cooled heatsinks, fully digital control, optimized component packaging, and by the introduction of a series active filter that enabled to reduce the size of dc bus capacitors. Low-loss high flux density magnetic materials such as Amoflux powder iron for power inductors and nanocrystalline magnetic materials for electromagnetic interference filter were also used. To minimize inverter switching losses, SiC devices operating at low switching frequency were adopted. Also, an innovative ground current control strategy is devised to minimize the ground leakage currents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In trasformerless grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems, common-mode voltage (CMV) fluctuations cause leakage current flow through the stray capacitance of the PV panels. Shoot-through states in a quasi-Z-source inverter (q-ZSI) increase the amplitude of high-order harmonics of CMV. In this paper, by using the modulation technique based on odd pulse width modulation and minor change in the Z network of the three-phase q-ZSI, the leakage current is blocked. No extra semiconductor element is added. By the proposed technique, CMV is kept nearly constant during switching cycles. The experimental results for CMV analysis in a \text1\;\textkW prototype are presented to verify the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the leakage inductance of a single-tooth wound synchronous reluctance motor and its influence on motor performance. It is shown that the stator leakage inductance heavily influences the true saliency ratio in synchronous reluctance motors and a large stator leakage inductance has a serious detrimental impact on the operating power factor. It is also shown through analytical and finite element analysis analysis that synchronous reluctance motors with single-tooth windings suffer an inherent high stator leakage inductance that is dominated the air-gap harmonic leakage component, derived from the significant stator MMF harmonics experienced with this winding type. This explains for the first time the experimental results showing a low operating power factor compared to a distributed wound machine. Measurement of the stator leakage inductance is attempted on a prototyped machine and the standardized method is found to be lacking when single-tooth windings are employed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Transformerless cascaded H-bridge inverters have the advantages of low cost and high efficiency in low-power applications. However, the leakage currents resulting from the parasitic capacitors may increase system losses, electromagnetic interference, and safety concerns. To reduce the leakage current, this paper first establishes the equivalent common-mode circuit of the inverter with the parasitic capacitance and analyzes the characteristics of leakage current in the symmetrical and asymmetrical filter inductance circuit, respectively. The analysis shows that the traditional phase disposition pulse width modulation or phase-shift pulse width modulation cannot solve the leakage current issues, but modifying the modulation methods can eliminate the system leakage current in the symmetrical circuit, and it has a little effect in the asymmetrical circuit. For this reason, a modified phase disposition pulse width modulation for the symmetrical circuit, which can eliminate the leakage current effectively with simple implementation, is proposed. Simulation and experimental results are reported, along with evaluation and comparison results, against a conventional carrier-based pulse width modulation method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Leakage current measurement is the most reliable and effective method for condition monitoring of overhead insulators deployed in the field. However, a major challenge in the leakage current based insulator monitoring is to interpret the indices extracted from the leakage current measurements under varying harmonic content in system voltage. This paper reports the possibility of employing the instantaneous value of time-integral of leakage current as a low-sensitive parameter for the monitoring of leakage current in overhead insulators in the presence of voltage harmonics. It has been shown that any change in the harmonic content of the system voltage has a significant influence on the harmonic characteristics of the leakage current, but has a comparatively less severe effect on the time-integral. The monitoring technique has been validated through laboratory recorded experimental data and incorporated in an online measurement device that has been tested in the laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Three-phase cascaded inverter with leakage current reduction for the transformerless PV system is investigated in this paper. The common-mode loop model of the conventional three-phase cascaded H4 grid-connected inverter is established. The relationship among the leakage current, common-mode voltage, and differential mode voltage is analyzed. The inherent reason that the conventional cascaded H4 grid-connected inverter fails to reduce the leakage current is clarified. In order to solve the problem, a novel three-phase cascaded H5 grid-connected inverter and its modulation strategy are proposed. It can significantly reduce the leakage current. Finally, the performance tests of the cascaded H4 and H5 grid-connected inverters are carried out. The results verify the effectiveness of the proposed solution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an improved transformerless single-phase single-stage grid-tied flying inductor inverter is presented. The negative terminal of the photovoltaic (PV) array is grounded in the improved topology, which increases reliability and suppresses the leakage current. The proposed topology has buck–boost capability without increasing the number of required components and has a high efficiency. An improved control algorithm for proper operation of the proposed topology which decreases switching losses has been investigated. Moreover, a perturbation and observation maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm has been adapted to the proposed inverter, which does not utilize proportional–integral (PI) controllers, for the purpose of the MPPT. Furthermore, a design procedure of the passive elements of the converter based on the corresponding operating has been demonstrated. Simulation in MATLAB Simulink plus an experimental prototype is developed to reconfirm the designed results. Finally, a comparison study has been investigated for better clarification of the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes and validates model predictive control as an alternative control strategy for H-bridgeneutral-point-clamped (H-NPC) converters for single-phase grid-tied string photovoltaic (PV) systems. The presented control scheme achieves good quality current waveforms with unity power factor, dc-link voltage control, and neutral-point voltage minimization. Furthermore, the predictive controller has been further enhanced by including an average device switching frequency restriction and a $dv/dt$ mitigation. The main contribution of this paper is the avoidance of the potential leakage current due to parasitic capacitance of the PV modules by using a predictive model based control technique instead of modulated schemes and eliminating high-frequency common-mode voltage components. Experimental results during steady state and dynamic operation are presented to illustrate the behavior of the H-NPC converter commanded by the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new single-phase transformerless photovoltaic (PV) inverter for grid-tied PV systems. The topology is derived from the concept of a charge pump circuit in order to eliminate the leakage current. It is composed of four power switches, two diodes, two capacitors, and an LCL output filter. The neutral of the grid is directly connected to the negative polarity of the PV panel that creates a constant common mode voltage and zero leakage current. The charge pump circuit generates the negative output voltage of the proposed inverter during the negative cycle. A proportional resonant control strategy is used to control the injected current. The main benefits of the proposed inverter are: 1) the neutral of the grid is directly connected to the negative terminal of the PV panel, so the leakage current is eliminated; 2) its compact size; 3) low cost; 4) the used dc voltage of the proposed inverter is the same as the full-bridge inverter (unlike neutral point clamped (NPC), active NPC, and half-bridge inverters); 5) flexible grounding configuration; 6) capability of reactive power flow; and 7) high efficiency. A complete description of the operating principle and analysis of the proposed inverter are presented. Experimental results are presented to confirm both the theoretical analysis and the concept of the proposed inverter. The obtained results clearly validate the performance of the proposed inverter and its practical application in grid-tied PV systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A zero-voltage-transition highly efficient and reliable inverter concept (ZVT-HERIC) in transformerless photovoltaic grid-connected applications is derived from proposed basic resonant cells. By integrating resonant tanks and freewheeling switches, a compact resonant network is originated to make the switching transitions of high-frequency main switches softening. By utilizing the diode clamping scheme, the potential of the freewheeling loop of the ZVT-HERIC is suppressed on half of the input voltage and to restrict the leakage current. The derived inverter has the advantages of ZVT soft-switching, diode reverse-recovery alleviating, unipolar differential-mode voltage with low dv/dt, and constant common-mode voltage. The steady-state operation of the derived inverter is analyzed, and the circuit performance is discussed to explore the soft-switching region, voltage gain, as well as voltage and current stresses. Finally, the experimental results from a 3-kW prototype at 100-kHz switching frequency are provided to verify the effectiveness of the derived inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolation transformers and bulky electrolytic capacitors are often used in power electronic converters to reduce leakage currents and voltage ripples but this leads to low power density and reduced reliability. In this paper, an auxiliary capacitor is added to the widely used conventional full-bridge converter to provide a path for, and hence significantly reduce, the leakage current. The operation of the full-bridge converter is split into the operation of a half-bridge converter and a dc–dc converter so that the ripple energy can be diverted from the dc-bus capacitor to the auxiliary capacitor. Hence, the dc-bus capacitor can be significantly reduced while maintaining very low voltage ripples on the dc bus because it is only required to filter out switching ripples. The auxiliary capacitor is designed to allow high voltage ripples because its voltage is not supplied to any load. Accordingly, the auxiliary capacitor can also be very small as well. As a result, the total required capacitance becomes very small. The reduction ratio of the total capacitance is significant, which makes it cost-effective to use film capacitors instead of electrolytic capacitors. The proposed converters can be also operated as an inverter without any restriction on power factor because the adopted four switches are all bidirectional in terms of power flow. Experimental results for both rectification and inversion modes are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed converter in reducing the ripples, the leakage currents, and the total capacitance needed, with comparison to the conventional bridge converter without the auxiliary capacitor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Leakage current reduction of the single-phase transformerless cascaded H-bridge PV inverter is investigated in this paper. The high-frequency common-mode loop model of a typical single-phase cascaded H-bridge PV system is established. Based on the model, the main factors that affect the leakage current are discussed. The reason why the typical single-phase cascaded H-bridge inverter fails to reduce the leakage current is explained. In order to solve the problem, a cascaded topology based on the H5 inverter is presented, along with a new modulation strategy, which can ensure that the stray capacitor voltage is free of high-frequency components. In this way, the leakage current can be effectively reduced. Finally, a prototype with TMS320F28335DSP + XC3S400FPGA digital control is built. The performance tests of cascaded H-bridge and the proposed topologies are carried out. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 3-degrees of freedom magnetic bearing (3-DOF MB) with permanent-magnet (PM) biased has been applied to high-speed motor progressively for their advantages of small thrust disk, low wind friction loss, and small volume. To predict performance and guide design of the 3-DOF MB, an accurate analytical model including eddy-current effects and leakage effects is proposed. Both the solid and the laminated cores are applied in the 3-DOF MB, and therefore the eddy-current effects in different core materials are modeled separately. The frequency response characteristics of axial and radial stiffnesses are calculated according to the proposed model. The analytical results show that the eddy currents induced due to the changing currents will result in considerable magnitude decrease and phase lag of stiffnesses. The influences of leakage effects on the static and dynamic stiffnesses are also discussed. Furthermore, the leakage coefficients are influenced by the eddy-current effects will further decrease the dynamic stiffnesses. The stiffnesses are also investigated by the static and transient finite-element methods (FEMs). Finally, a prototype is designed and fabricated. The FEM results and experimental results demonstrate the validity of the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the design of stator bar structure, void transposition is an important way of reducing circulating current loss in water-cooled turbo-generators. The different void transposition structures have a great influence on circulating current loss. However, the influences of void transposition structure on the leakage magnetic field and circulating current loss are not definite. A 600-MW water-cooled turbo-generator is taken as an example. A three-dimensional (3-D) physical model of transposition bars in a single slot is established, and the field-circuit coupling method is used in 3-D numerical calculation of the leakage magnetic field and circulating current loss. The influences of segment number and length of the void transposition on the slot leakage magnetic field, current, and circulating current loss are obtained. The relationship between the slot leakage magnetic field distribution along the axial direction and circulating current loss based on different void transposition structures is clarified. The numerical calculation accuracy is validated with the current test experiment. New strategies and theoretical basis will be provided for the optimal design and technology of the transposition bars. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Renewable sources like solar photovoltaic (PV) and fuel cell stack are preferred to be operated at low voltages. For applications such as grid-tied systems, this necessitates high voltage boosting resulting in efficiency reduction. To handle this issue, this paper proposes a novel high voltage gain, high-efficiency dc–dc converter based on coupled inductor, intermediate capacitor, and leakage energy recovery scheme. The input energy acquired from the source is first stored in the magnetic field of coupled inductor and intermediate capacitor in a lossless manner. In subsequent stages, it is passed on to the output section for load consumption. A passive clamp network around the primary inductor ensures the recovery of energy trapped in the leakage inductance, leading to drastic improvement in the voltage gain and efficiency of the system. Exorbitant duty cycle values are not required for high voltage gain, which prevents problems such as diode reverse recovery. Presence of a passive clamp network causes reduced voltage stress on the switch. This enables the use of low voltage rating switch (with low “on-state” resistance), improving the overall efficiency of the system. Analytical details of the proposed converter and its hardware results are included. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In some topologies of yokeless and segmented armature (YASA) axial flux permanent-magnet (AFPM) machines, the particular frame structure required to fasten floating teeth can originate stray paths where parasitic currents may circulate. This paper investigates how the amplitude of these currents and the related additional Joule losses depend on the machine size. Reference is made to wind energy generators, rated from some tens of kilowatts up to a few megawatts. The developed model is mainly based on wind turbine basic data of vendor data sheets, and on the quantities evaluated and tested in two YASA AFPM prototypes, rated 50 and 200 kW. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a transformerless inverter topology, which is capable of simultaneously solving leakage current and pulsating power issues in grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems. Without adding any additional components to the system, the leakage current caused by the PV-to-ground parasitic capacitance can be bypassed by introducing a common-mode (CM) conducting path to the inverter. The resulting ground leakage current is therefore well controlled to be below the regulation limit. Furthermore, the proposed inverter can also eliminate the well-known double-line-frequency pulsating power that is inherent in single-phase PV systems. By properly injecting CM voltages to the output filter capacitors, the pulsating power can be decoupled from the dc-link. Therefore, it is possible to use long-lifetime film capacitors instead of electrolytic capacitors to improve the reliability of the PV system. The mechanism of leakage current suppression and the closed-loop control of pulsating power decoupling are discussed in this paper in detail. A 500-W prototype was also built and tested in the laboratory, and both simulation and experimental results are finally presented to show the excellent performance of the proposed PV inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Transformerless inverters are being widely used in grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) generation systems. Transformer elimination, in grid-connected PV systems, has many advantages. This not only reduces cost, size, and weight, but also increases the whole system efficiency. However, once the transformer is removed, there is no galvanic isolation between grid and PV array; as a consequence, leakage current appears due to parasitic capacitance to the ground, resulting in prohibitive electromagnetic interference and security issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, reduced common-mode voltage (CMV) pulsewidth modulation (RCMV-PWM) methods have been proposed to reduce the leakage current in three-phase transformerless photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, most of these studies only focus on leakage current elimination and neglect the overall performance of the PV systems on issues such as cost, voltage linearity, dc-link current ripples, and harmonic distortion. In this paper, a three-phase transformerless inverter, adapted from the single-phase H5 topology, is investigated. Since the H5 topology has been conventionally developed for a single-phase system, its adaptation to the three-phase system requires the development of corresponding three-phase modulation techniques. Hence, modulation techniques are proposed based on conventional PWM. The performances of the proposed PWM, in terms of CMV, leakage current, voltage linearity, output current ripples, dc-link current ripples, and harmonic distortion are studied and discussed via simulation and experiment. It is proven that the proposed topology is able reduce the leakage current without sacrificing the overall performance of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]