High Power Inverter using Press Pack IGBT for High Speed Applications

Bernard Gollentz Olivier Dirand

Technical Division of CONVERTEAM Technical Division of CONVERTEAM
3, avenue des Trois Chênes 3, avenue des Trois Chênes
90018 BELFORT Cedex, FRANCE 90018 BELFORT Cedex, FRANCE
Tel.: +33 / (0) – 3 84 55 30 99. Tel.: +33 / (0) – 3 84 55 15 58.
Fax: +33 / (0) – 3 84 55 19 49. Fax: +33 / (0) – 3 84 55 19 49.
bernard.gollentz@converteam.com olivier.dirand@converteam.com
www.converteam.com

Keywords
High speed drives, Multilevel converters, Induction motor, Modulation strategy, Industrial application

Abstract
Natural gas is an important base material and commodity for a host of industrial processes and is
becoming increasingly important against a background of growing environmental awareness and more
restrictive emission standards. Over seventy nations are currently supplied with natural gas. A variety
of processes -from extraction and storage via gas treatment and transport through pipelines - call for
turbo-compressors that must meet with the most varied requirements. High-speed drive systems are
capable of directly driving these turbo-compressors at speeds of up to 20,000 rpm / 8MW, using the
MV7000 converter, also described below.
.

Structure of the MV7000 converter

Single MV7000 converters with 3.3 kV mains supply voltage have a rated power of up to 8 MW. The
heart of the device is the inverter cubicle (so called Megamodule). It contains the three 3-level inverter
phase legs. Each inverter phase leg is designed as a separate clamp assembly, later described in detail.
The other parts of the converter, like DC-link cubicle, optional brake chopper, low inductive busbar
system, precharge, transformer premagnetisation and mains converter are described.
The PPIs are hard switched without snubber circuits (except for series connection). The only
components in parallel with the PPIs are clamp capacitors in the mega module, which enable a low
leakage inductance in the commutation circuit.

Stack assembly with press pack IGBT

Figure. 1: Stack assembly in 3-level phase leg configuration with PPI for a rated power of 8 MW

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 Figure. 1 shows the stack assembly of a phase leg in a 3-level topology. The IGBT cells are located in
the black holding devices directed upwards in the photograph. These devices also contain gate drive
and gate drive supply. PPI and gate drive thus form a cohesive unit. The IGBTs used here have a
flange diameter of 125 mm. The rated breakdown voltage of the cells at UCES = 4.5 kV and the rated
current is IC = 2.1 kA. Freewheeling diodes are not integrated in this type of device; they are located in
an additional clamping assembly not shown in the picture.

The holding device is also used to centre the devices in the clamped assembly without centring pins.
This makes the process of replacing cells considerably quicker and easier. The NPC diodes are located
in the center of the stack. All semiconductor devices in the clamping assembly are double side cooled.

Inverter cubicle

Three 3-level phase stacks are arranged in a Megamodule. The cooling boxes in the clamping
assemblies are connected to the coolant distribution pipes located at the bottom of the cubicle. The
cooling boxes are connected in series and in parallel (in a combination of both) in the cooling circuit,
optimised according to the expected losses. PPI firing and feedback information is transferred via fibre
optic cables. The phase legs are linked to the DC capacitor via low inductance busbars and cables; the
clamp capacitors required to optimise the commutation circuit are located directly behind the stack
assemblies and connected via short busbars.

Basic principles for a high speed motor control

Precalculated PWM

For high speed motor control up to 300 Hz, the PWM is obtained by precalculating the switching
angles, because of the quality of the voltage, and because of relatively low switching rate capability at
those high fondamental frequencies. By defining N switching angles between 0 and 90°, the whole
PWM pattern is defined because of symmetry. The harmonic voltage contains only odd ranks, given
by the following formula:
N
4
V2 k +1 =
(2k + 1)π
∑ cos((2k + 1).α
n =1
n ).(−1) n

where α1, α2, … αn are the switching angles between 0 and 90°.
There are N freedom degrees, one is used for the fundamental, and (N-1) degrees are used to eliminate
(N-1) typical harmonics. The harmonics multiple of three represent zero sequence voltage, the same
voltage is applied on all three phases. Then we can establish two kinds of strategy:

• First strategy is to suppress the N-1 first odd harmonics. The result is close to the sine
triangle PWM, without zero sequence voltage,
• Second strategy is to suppress the N-1 first harmonics non multiple of three. So it is
possible to suppress harmonics up to 1.5 times the frequency of first strategy. This result
can also be reached with the sine triangle PWM by choosing an appropriate zero sequence
voltage (made of harmonics multiple of three).

The advantages of the pre-calculated PWMs are: with these PWMs, the switching events are known.
As a consequence, the switching losses can readily be calculated contrary to an asynchronous mode
PWM. These PWMs are therefore relevant for high speed motors where the switching losses of an
asynchronous mode PWM would become excessive.
One result of the second strategy is presented in Table 1, when using the N-1 freedom degrees to
suppress typical phase to phase harmonics (non multiple of three).

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 Number of Eliminated Lowest remaining
angles Harmonics harmonic
2 5 7
3 5,7 11
4 5,7,11 13
Table 1: Precalculated PWM criteria

Precalculated PWM 2 pulses by quarter of motor period

For the second pre-calculated PWM, one switching angle is calculated to determine the magnitude of
the fundamental and one to eliminate the 5th voltage harmonic. The switching angles are found by
solving the following system of equations:

 π *M
cos(α ) − cos(α ) =
 1 2
4


cos(5 * α 1 ) − cos(5 * α 2 ) = 0
where M is the modulation depth

This system of equations has multiple solutions because the equations are non-linear and
transcendental. The non-linear equations were solved by the use of suitable numerical methods.
Figure 2 shows the solutions of the system of equations for different modulation depths:
100

90

80

70
Switching angle (°)

60

Alpha 1
50
Alpha 2

40

30

20

10

0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1 1,1 1,15 1,2
Modulation (pu)

Figure 2a: Switching angles calculation between 0° and 90° for Pre-calculated PWM 2

Figure 2b shows the output phase voltage with the pre-calculated PWM 2 for a modulation index of
0.7 and 1:

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 Modulation index = 1
1.5
U phase voltage
1

0.5

p.u
0

-0.5

-1

-1.5
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
(°)

Modulation index = 0.7

1.5
U phase voltage
1

0.5
p.u

-0.5

-1

-1.5
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
(°)

Figure 2b: Inverter output phase voltage in pu with Pre-calculated PWM 2

Precalculated PWM 3 pulses by quarter of motor period

For the third pre-calculated PWM, one switching angle is calculated to determine the magnitude of the
fundamental and two to eliminate the 5th and 7th voltage harmonics. The switching angles are found by
solving the following system of equations:

 π *M
 cos(α 1 ) − cos(α 2 ) + cos(α 3 ) = 4



 cos(5 * α 1 ) − cos(5 * α 2 ) + cos(5 * α 3 ) = 0

cos(7 * α ) − cos(7 * α ) + cos(7 * α ) = 0
 1 2 3

where M is the modulation depth

This system of equations has multiple solutions because the equations are non-linear and
transcendental. The non-linear equations were solved by the use of suitable numerical methods.
Figure 3a shows the solutions of the system of equations for different modulation depths:

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 100

90

80

70
Switching angle (°)

60

Alpha 1
50 Alpha 2
Alpha 3

40

30

20

10

0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1 1,1 1,15 1,17 1,187
Modulation (pu)

Figure 3a: Switching angles calculation between 0° and 90° for Pre-calculated PWM 3

Figure 3b shows the output phase voltage with the pre-calculated PWM 3 for a modulation index of
0.7 and 1:

Modulation index = 1
1.5
U phase voltage
1

0.5
p.u

-0.5

-1

-1.5
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
(°)

Modulation index = 0.7

1.5
U phase voltage
1

0.5
p.u

-0.5

-1

-1.5
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
(°)

Figure 3b: Inverter output phase voltage in pu with Pre-calculated PWM 3

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 Output filter

The filter must reduce frequencies which are higher than the PWM frequency. Therefore we can use a
sine filter as follow:

L1 L2
M Xm=0.3pu
Iinv Imot
C

Figure 4: Output filter structure.

This structure of filter has a resonance frequency given by the following formula, and set to 500Hz.

1 L1 + L 2 + Xm
f = ⋅
2π L1(L 2 + Xm )C

Tranfert fonction Umotor / Uinverter

Filter Amplification: U motor/ U inverter

100

50

0
1

10

100

1000

10000
Gain "Db"

-50

-100

-150

-200
Fréquency "Hz"

Figure 5: Output filter impedance.

The filter requirements are:

• resonance frequency (impedance seen by the inverter=0) < PWM frequency ~ 1kHz
• the capacitor must compensate the motor reactive power and the L1 reactor voltage drop
• the reactor L1 must be higher than 0.2 pu in order to limit the inverter current ripple

When we combine these two methods, we can split the motor frequency range in several areas. In each
area, we have a specific switching number in order to limit the first harmonic to a frequency higher
than the filter resonance frequency, see table 2:

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 switching nbr /
1/4 motor period 300Hz>Fmot>225Hz 225Hz>Fmot>150Hz 150Hz>Fmot>112Hz 112Hz>Fmot>90Hz
1 600Hz> Fpwm >450Hz
1500Hz>h5>1050Hz
2 900Hz> Fpwm >600Hz
h5=0
1575Hz>h7>1050Hz
3 900Hz> Fpwm >672Hz
h5=0, h7=0
1650Hz>h11>1232Hz
4 900Hz> Fpwm >720
h5=0, h7=0, h11=0
1456Hz>h13>1170Hz
Table 2: PWM choice vs frequency.

High speed compressor application

High speed motors can be designed with a solid rotor made of massive steel or with a rotor with
laminated steel. Compared to laminated steel rotors made of massive steel are even more sensitive to
harmonics. Eddy currents can circulate in the steel in a very thin surface due to the skin effect and
temperature can achieve not acceptable values. The total harmonic distortion of the stator current of
these motors is typically limited to about 3% as this motor is quite sensitive to harmonic distortions.
For this reason the design with laminated steel is selected which is more robust against harmonic
distortions and allows a better margin for the inverter design.

Figure 6: High speed motor and compressor 10500rpm 6MW

The measurements made after commissionning were in accordance with the spécifications of the
motor, in term of harmonic current limitations, torque ripple, vibrations, and noise. The figure 7 shows
the current on the inverter side, and figure 8, the motor current with less than 2% THD.

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 Figure 7: Inverter current

Figure 8: Motor current

Conclusions
The MV7000 series of devices described in this paper represents a new PWM drive family with a 3-
level topology in the power range from 4 MW to 32 MW with 3.3 kV and 6.6 kV rated voltage. Press
pack IGBTs are used in the inverter. This device combines the benefits of disc type housing
technology with the state-of-the-art IGBT technology.
A high speed application for gas compressor at 10500 rpm has been described.

References
[1] Tsukakoshi, M.; Mukunoki, M.; Nakamura, R.: High Performance IEGT Inverter for Main Drives
in the Steel Industry. IPEC 2005, Conference Proceedings CD-ROM.
[2] Jakob, R.; Keller, C.: Low Power Converters for High Output Voltages. EPE 2005, Dresden,
Germany, Conference Proceedings CD-ROM.
[3] Begin, D.; Gollentz, B.; Gruau, N.: Low Loss PWM for High Power Press Pack IGBT Inverters.
EPE 2003, Toulouse, France, Conference Proceedings CD-ROM.

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