Experimental Investigation of Three-Level Active Neutral Point Clamped Voltage Source Converters using Integrated Gate-Commutated Thyristors

This investigation shows the evaluation of a 3L-ANPC phase leg using 5SHY55L-4500 IGCTs and D1961SH45T diodes. The main advantage of the 3L-ANPC phase leg compared to the 3L-NPC phase leg is the increased number of switch states and commutations. The 3L-ANPC phase leg features a total of 32 different commutations, which can be grouped in Type-Ia, Type-Ib, Type-II, and Type-III commutations. Each commutation type leads to a different switching loss distribution, allowing the increase of the converter output power, the increase of the converter switching frequency, and the reduction of the semiconductor thermomechanical stress.