Improved self‐balancing voltage five‐level ANPC converter and its control strategy

Abstract

SummaryFive‐level active neutral‐point‐clamped (5L‐ANPC) converters have great practical potential in the field of medium and high voltage variable frequency speed regulation. However, the dynamic and static voltage imbalance of the series IGBTs may cause permanent damage to the device, which limits its popularization and application. In this paper, an improved self‐balancing voltage 5L‐ANPC topology (ISBV‐5L‐ANPC) is proposed to address such voltage balancing problem as series switches and high voltage leaps, which realizes dynamic and static voltage equalization by connecting the self‐balancing module consisting of an auxiliary capacitor to the bridge arm, so that it clamps the series switches. In this paper, the operation principle of ISBV‐5L‐ANPC is given in detail, and the control strategy of ISBV‐5L‐ANPC is proposed, and the key parameters in the topology are analyzed and designed. Finally, an ISBV‐5L‐ANPC prototype was built, and the effectiveness of the proposed topology and the feasibility of the control strategy are verified through the experimental results.