| Abstract |
Recent advancement in power semiconductors has been remarkable, and the number of power devices described in the literature is staggering and bewildering to both power device specialists and power electronics equipment designers. This paper identifies the main high voltage power switches suitable for a multi-megawatt, Pulse Width Modulated (PWM), Voltage Source Inverter (VSI). A comparison between the High Voltage (HV) Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) and the Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor (IGCT) is made. The application of both types of devices in MV inverter stack designs is briefly discussed and commented upon. The benefits offered by the soft-switching over hard-switching alternatives are highlighted. The paper concludes that a soft-switched HV IGBT stack design has significantly better performance over hard-driven devices, including the IGCT. |
