A Heuristic Method to Improve Power Cycling Related Lifetime in Series Connectable Modular Full-Bridge Inverter

This paper proposes a heuristic method to improve power cycling related lifetime in series connectable modular full-bridge inverters by means of load sharing. The load sharing scheme is realized by continuous alternation between two possible series configurations of the circuit at a heuristically-determined changeover frequency. Simulation results in the single-phase circuit are included, and the switches lifetime performance are compared with the reference cases. It is evident from the results that this method yields increased switches lifetime. Alternatively, it allows more current to be applied to the circuit for the same switches average junction temperature.