550 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 39, NO.

2, MARCH/APRIL 2003

Novel Topology for Parallel Connection

of Soft-Switching High-Power
High-Frequency Inverters
Andreas Schönknecht and Rik W. A. A. De Doncker, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—Inductive heating applications like pipe welding or

steel strip annealing require electrical power ratings of several
megawatts at frequencies up to 100 kHz and higher. The large
power-frequency product represents a significant challenge for
today’s semiconductor technology. As the absolute maximum
rating of a single-stage inverter is often far below rated power,
several inverters or several devices have to be connected in par-
allel. This paper presents a novel topology, consisting of parallel-
connected soft-switching high-frequency inverters. Distinctive
features include flexible configurations, negligible shunt currents
between inverters, and equally shared power among inverters.
Furthermore, compared to a single-inverter system, no additional Fig. 1. Topology of an IGBT inverter with LCL resonant circuit.
reactive components are necessary for connecting inverters in
parallel and there is no need of a high-frequency transformer to
adapt the impedance of the load to the inverters. If devices are connected in parallel, exact simultaneous
Index Terms—Heating, high frequency, high power, insu-
switching has to be guaranteed at all times to avoid shunt
lated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), inductive, inverter, , currents between parallel connected devices. As a result, the
MOSFET, parallel connection, phase-locked loop (PLL), pipe spatial extension of an inverter is limited due to different
welding, resonant circuit, soft switching, steel strip, voltage source, delay times in long lines. Consequently, the number of devices
voltage-source inverter (VSI). connected in parallel and, therefore, the maximum power
transmitted to a single inductor, is limited.
I. INTRODUCTION A novel topology for connecting soft-switching inverters in
parallel is proposed in this paper. The following demands, which

I NDUCTIVE heating applications like pipe welding or

steel strip annealing require electrical power up to several
megawatts at frequencies of 100 kHz and above. It is a major
challenge for today’s semiconductor technology to deliver this
power. Former investigations in this area led to the development
of electron tubes. Nowadays, these devices have been replaced
by power semiconductors such as insulated gate bipolar tran-
sistors (IGBTs) or MOSFETs, as a result of their increased
performance. A suitable topology for a zero-voltage-switching
(ZVS) and near-zero-current-switching voltage-source inverter
(VSI) with an LCL resonant circuit at the output was proposed
in [1] and [3]. As the absolute maximum rating of a single
inverter often is far below the demanded power, either several
inverters or several devices have to be connected in parallel [2].
Paper IPCSD 02–081, presented at the 2001 Industry Applications Society
Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, September 30–October 5, and approved for pub-
lication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Indus-
trial Power Converter Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
Manuscript submitted for review November 1, 2001 and released for publica-
tion January 4, 2003.
A. Schönknecht was with the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical
Drives, Aachen University of Technology, 52066 Aachen, Germany. He
is now with Werner-Siemens-Schule, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany (e-mail:
Andreas.Schoenknecht@web.de).
R. W. A. A. De Doncker is with the Institute for Power Electronics and
Electrical Drives, Aachen University of Technology, 52066 Aachen, Germany
(e-mail: ddt@isea.rwth-aachen.de).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2003.809453
0093-9994/03$17.00 © 2003 IEEE
often cause difficulties, have to be taken into consideration:
1) no or negligible circulating currents, even if inverters
switch nonsynchronous;
2) equal power sharing among parallel-connected inverters;
3) flexible variation of the number of parallel inverters, en-
abling a wide power range and, thus, the possibility to
minimize the number of inverters for the given power;
4) no additional devices for connecting inverters in parallel;
5) minimization of losses in semiconductors by ZVS soft-
switching operation at near zero-current.
II. PRINCIPAL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVERTER TOPOLOGY
The principal topology of a single VSI with an LCL circuit
is shown in Fig. 1 [1]. An IGBT H-bridge generates a rectan-
gular voltage . An LC circuit feeds an inductive load with
a typical power factor of less than 0.1. If the inverter is oper-
ated at the resonant frequency of the LCL circuit, the devices
switch softly prior to the zero crossings of the output current .
A phase-locked-loop (PLL) control structure is required to guar-
antee operation at the optimum frequency [3]. The power of the
system is controlled by regulating the dc-link voltage . An
inverter of this topology with a frequency of more than 100 kHz
has been installed and tested in an industrial power plant and
has successfully been operated at above 100 kW in cooperation
with an industrial partner.
SCHÖNKNECHT AND DE DONCKER: PARALLEL CONNECTION OF SOFT-SWITCHING HIGH-POWER HIGH-FREQUENCY INVERTERS 551

This leads to the following solutions:

(1)

(2)

where

In general, the power factor of an inductor is very low. As a

result, the attenuation caused by can be neglected. This leads
Fig. 2. Currents and voltages of an LCL resonant circuit. to the following approximations:

It is a distinctive feature of this soft-switching inverter (3)

topology, which makes full use of the power semiconductors
by minimizing their switching losses, that it requires only a (4)
small number of components. Furthermore this topology does
not require any high frequency transformer to fit the impedance
of the load to the inverter, like many other induction heating The output impedances of the inverter are and
topologies [4]. As a result, the proposed LCL topology is very . In order to maximize the output power and
cost efficient. to profit from the bandpass filter characteristics of the circuit,
Fig. 2 shows currents and voltages of the LCL circuit of a the ideal operating frequency is . Based on the condition of
single-inverter system operated at resonant frequency . weak damping, the absolute value of at frequency can be
Assuming suitably designed LCL circuit parameters, the in- approximated by the following equation:
verter output current is nearly sinusoidal despite the rectan-
gular inverter output voltage . Another point of interest is that
(5)
both current and voltage at the inductor and are consid-
erably higher than at the output of the inverter and .
This LCL topology is not only advantageous for a single in- The input line-side rectifier controls the input power ,
verter, but also applicable for the parallel connection of multiple which is ultimately dissipated into heat, by controlling the
inverters. Fig. 3 shows the proposed topology. parallel-con- dc-link voltage . The power is determined by
nected high-frequency inverters INV –INV supply a single
load.
The resonant inductor of Fig. 1 is distributed among the (6)
inverters, whereas the resonant capacitor remains connected
in parallel to the load. The resonant inductors are designated as where is the rms value of the inverter output current (A), and
, where indicates to which inverter the inductor belongs to. is the dc-link voltage (V).
The inductance includes the resonant inductor and parasitic
inductances due to long lines from the inverter to the load. Con- IV. ANALYSIS OF AN -INVERTER SYSTEM
sequently, long distances between inverters and the load are not
critical. Based on this characteristic, multiple physically sepa- A. Transformation of an -Inverter System to a Single-Inverter
rated inverters can be connected in parallel. System
To enable soft switching, all inverters have to be operated at If all inverters switch simultaneously and all inverters are fed
resonant frequency . The proposed system is analyzed in the by the same dc-link voltage , the system of multiple inverters
following sections. (see Fig. 3) can by transformed into a single-inverter system (see
Fig. 1). The above-mentioned formulas for the single-inverter
III. ANALYSIS OF A SINGLE-INVERTER SYSTEM system can be used for the design of the CL circuit. The
For an optimum design of the reactive components and transformation rules are given by
to , an analysis of the resonant circuit of the system shown
in Fig. 3 is essential. The resonant frequencies of the LCL circuit is determined by: (7)
of a single-inverter system (see Fig. 1) can be evaluated by

and is determined by: (8)

552 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 39, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2003
Fig. 3. Parallel connection of soft-switching inverters.
This equation can be simplified if all resonant inductances
have the same value
if (9)
B. Hybrid Simulator
To validate analytical and simulation results, as well as to
prove the practicality of the proposed topology, a hybrid sim-
ulator, shown in Fig. 4, with a scaled working point was con-
structed. At the top of the rack, a model inductor is installed. In-
side this inductor, a water-cooled metal pot is mounted for heat
sinking. The control units are mounted in the front of the rack,
with the power electronic components at the backside. Eupec
IGBT modules, type BSM50GB60 DLC, dc-current of 50 A (at
80 C), were installed.
The parallel connection of five high-frequency inverters was
successfully tested with this hybrid simulator. The parameters
of the hybrid simulator, used in all measurements presented in
this paper, are listed in Table I.
C. Partitioning of the Power Throughput
With a suitable design of the resonant circuit parameters, the
voltage at the resonant capacitor is substantially higher
than the voltage at the dc link , if the system is operated at
(see Fig. 2). As a result, the output current of each inverter
and, thus, its power, is not determined by the switching behavior
of the inverters, but by the ratio . The following formulas
illustrate this behavior:
if
(10)
where is the power throughput of the th inverter.
This means that the distribution of the total power among
the single inverters is primarily determined by the design of the
resonant inductors .
The measurements shown in Fig. 5 validate (10). It shows
output voltages and currents of two parallel-connected
inverters switching simultaneously at resonant frequency
kHz. The operation point is specified in Table II (see also
Table I for LCL parameters). According to (10), the output cur-
rent (inverter 2) is twice (inverter 1), because the reso-
nant inductance (inverter 1) is twice (inverter 2). Fur-
thermore it is interesting that both output currents are in phase.
Thus, the output current, respectively, the power throughput of
the inverters can be adjusted individually.
D. Nonsynchronous Switching
Up to now, the behavior of the system has been investigated
for ideal, i.e., simultaneous, switching of the inverters. De-
pending on the applied control scheme, simultaneous switching
cannot be guaranteed for all working points. Consequently, the
system behavior during nonsynchronous switching has to be
investigated.
The plots in Figs. 6 and 7 show measurement results of the
hybrid simulator confirming (10), at the operating point speci-
fied in Table III. The crucial result of this investigation is that
the output currents of both inverters are nearly in phase and
have nearly the same amplitudes despite the nonsynchronous
switching. Only if there exists a large phase lag between the
output voltages of different inverters (see Fig. 7), the output
currents differ visibly from each other. Obviously, there is no
shunt current between different inverters due to nonsynchronous
switching.
E. Different DC-Link Voltages
To increase flexibility and reliability of the system, it might
be interesting to supply inverters or groups of inverters with in-
SCHÖNKNECHT AND DE DONCKER: PARALLEL CONNECTION OF SOFT-SWITCHING HIGH-POWER HIGH-FREQUENCY INVERTERS 553

Fig. 5. Two parallel synchronous switching inverters with different resonant

inductance L .

TABLE II
OPERATING POINT SHOWN IN FIG. 5

Fig. 4. Hybrid simulator.

TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF HYBRID SIMULATOR

Fig. 6. Measured switching behavior of two parallel-connected inverters

during nonsynchronous switching with a phase lag of 30 .

currents have nearly the same amplitudes and only a small

phase shift.
Regarding the power, this means , and
with (4)

dependent rectifiers. The behavior of a system fed by multiple (11)

isolated inverters has to be investigated as well.
Fig. 8 shows output currents and voltages of a two-inverter As a result, feeding inverters with different rectifiers is not
system, where the dc-link voltages differ by a factor of critical even though individual dc-link voltages have different
two. The operation point is specified in Table IV. The output values.
554 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 39, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2003

Fig. 7. Measured switching behavior of two parallel-connected inverters Fig. 8. Currents and voltages of two inverters with different dc-link voltage.
during nonsynchronous switching with a phase lag of 90 .

TABLE IV
OPERATING POINT SHOWN IN FIG. 8
TABLE III
OPERATING POINT SHOWN IN FIGS. 6 and 7

F. Redundancy
At industrial assemblies with a power demand in the
megawatt range, the system availability is of particular interest.
To achieve high reliability, it is desirable that operation with
possibly reduced power is ensured, even if one or more inverters
of the system are out of order.
The straightforward way to continue operation is to discon-
nect the defective inverter from the dc link and the resonant ca-
pacitor. In this case, one has to take the detuning of the LCL
circuit into consideration, especially if only a small number of
Fig. 9. One of two inverters is turned off.
inverters is connected in parallel.
Furthermore, it is interesting to investigate what happens if an
inverter, which is turned off, remains connected at the ac and dc TABLE V
OPERATING POINT SHOWN IN FIG. 9
sides. Fig. 9 shows a plot of this situation. The operation point
is specified in Table V. The inverter turned off transmits energy
from the LCL circuit back to the dc link via the freewheeling
diodes of its power semiconductors. Thus, an inverter turned off
operates “against” the running inverters. In Fig. 9, the running
inverter 1 represents three inverters feeding into the LCL circuit,
as its resonant inductor has an inductance , which is three
times smaller than inductance of the turned-off inverter 2.
Hence, as long as and if all resonant inductors have
the same inductance for all inverters), an inverter verter operating in forward mode back from the LCL circuit into
which is turned off feeds the same amount of power of an in- the dc link.
SCHÖNKNECHT AND DE DONCKER: PARALLEL CONNECTION OF SOFT-SWITCHING HIGH-POWER HIGH-FREQUENCY INVERTERS
The total power fed into the LCL circuit is determined by the
following formulas:
if (12)
where
equivalent inductance of resonant inductor;
number of inverters turned on;
number of inverters turned off.
The total power fed into the LCL circuit is calculated with (6)
(13)
As an inverter which is turned off is working against normal
operating inverters, it makes sense to disconnect a defect or not
operating inverter from the resonant circuit, especially in case
the dc bus is not common. This can be done either mechani-
cally after the assembly is turned of or by electrical switches
during operation. If the inverter has a short circuit, it must be
additionally disconnected from the dc link. By these two mea-
sures, operation can be continued with reduced power, if one or
more inverters are out of order.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The LCL resonant converter presents a novel topology to con-
nect high-frequency high-power VSI ZVS inverters switching at
near-zero current in parallel. This topology has a large number
of outstanding features:
• minimization of switching losses owing to the soft
switching topology;
• extremely low circulating currents despite allowable non-
synchronous switching;
• partitioning of power throughput between inverters is ex-
actly defined by resonant circuit design;
• any number of inverters can be connected in parallel and,
thus, the inverter means no limit in power;
• supply of single inverters with different dc-link voltages
is possible and, thus, paralleling rectifiers is not crit-
ical; however, additional protection mechanisms are re-
quired when one inverter shuts down;
• long distances from inverter to load are not critical;
• no high frequency transformer necessary to adapt the load
to the inverter;
• cost efficient due to the small number of components re-
quired;
• possibility to continue operation with reduced power, if
one or more inverters is out of order (redundancy).
To conclude, the LCL inverter topology was found to be suit-
able for inductive heating applications with a demand of high
555
power at frequencies, from about 10 kHz up to the megawatt
range. Depending on the frequency and the dc-link voltage, ei-
ther MOSFETs or IGBTs have to be applied.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Dieckerhoff, M. J. Ryan, and R. W. De Doncker, “Design of an IGBT-
based LCL-resonant inverter for high-frequency induction heating,” in
Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, 1999, pp. 2039–2045.
[2] H. Rüedi and H. G. Matthes, “1.6 MW/150 kHz inverter for welding
applications,” presented at the Power Conversion Conf. (PCIM2000),
Nürnberg, Germany, June 2000.
[3] H.-C. Doht, G. Birk, and G. L. Fischer, “Control mode for inverters with
resonance transformation in induction heating applications,” in Proc.
Power Conversion Conf., June 1994, pp. 57–67.
[4] J. Nuns, S. Legac, and M. Gillot, “High frequency transformers for in-
duction heating,” in Proc. Int. Induction Heating Seminar (IHS), 1998,
pp. 35–45.
Andreas Schönknecht received the Dipl.-Ing.
degree in electrical engineering from the
Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nürnberg,
Germany, in 1998.
In 1999, he joined the Institute for Power
Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA), Aachen
University of Technology (RWTH-Aachen), Aachen,
Germany. His main interests are soft-switching
IGBT inverter topologies for inductive heating
applications, which require high-power/fre-
quency products. Since 2002, he has been with
Werner-Siemens-Schule, Stuttgart, Germany.
Rik W. A. A. De Doncker (M’87–SM’99–F’01)
received the Doctor of Electrical Engineering degree
from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven,
Belgium, in 1986.
During 1987, he was appointed as a Visiting
Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin,
Madison, where he lectured and conducted research
on field-oriented controllers for high-performance
induction motor drives. In 1988, he was a General
Electric Company Fellow at the microelectronic
center, IMEC, Leuven, Belgium. In December
1988, he joined General Electric Company at the Corporate Research and
Development Center, Schenectady, NY, where he led research on drives and
high-power soft-switching converters, ranging from 100 kW to 4 MW, for
aerospace, industrial, and traction applications. In 1994, he joined Silicon
Power Corporation (formerly GE-SPCO) as Vice President Technology, where
he worked on high-power converter systems and MTO devices, and was
responsible for the development and production of the world’s first 15-kV
medium-voltage transfer switch. Since October 1996, he has been a Professor
at Aachen University of Technology (RWTH-Aachen), Aachen, Germany,
where he leads the Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Drives (ISEA).
He has authored over 150 published technical papers and is the holder of 20
patents, with several pending.
Dr. De Doncker is a member of the VDE. Currently, he is Chair of the Indus-
trial Power Conversion Systems Department of the IEEE Industry Applications
Society (IAS), a member of the IAS Executive Board, and a member of the IEEE
Power Electronics Society (PELS) AdCom and Steering Committee and Exec-
utive Committee. He is member of the European Power Electronics Executive
Council. He has won three IEEE Prize Paper Awards. In 2002, he received the
IAS Outstanding Achievement Award.