High-power Area Research Articles

A SiC and Si Hybrid Five-Level Unidirectional Rectifier for Medium Voltage Applications

Following the continuous development of wide bandgap (WBG) devices and multilevel converter technology, medium voltage active front ends are becoming promising in future high-power-density and high-power applications. However, the cost issue is one of the major drawbacks, which stops the WBG devices from being widely applied in high-power areas. This article proposes a silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon (Si) hybrid five-level unidirectional rectifier. It requires only four SiC <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MOSFET</small> s with relatively low blocking voltage and four Si diodes. Meanwhile, by adding snubber capacitors, all the Si devices are with low-speed switching, and the voltage stresses of fast SiC <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MOSFET</small> s are minimized. In this article, operational analysis and carrier-based phase-disposition pulsewidth modulation scheme for this circuit are discussed in detail. The capacitor voltage balancing and unity power factor are both realized. Simulation and scaled-down experimental results are demonstrated to verify the proposed rectifier. Furthermore, the comparison of the hybrid five-level rectifiers is given to show the advantages of the proposed rectifier in terms of voltage stress, efficiency, and cost.

Thermal Behavior of an AlGaN/GaN-Based Schottky Barrier Diode on Diamond and Silicon Substrates.

Devices based on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures, for example, Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) and high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), have been intensively investigated for applications to high-frequency and high-power areas. Presently, the substrates widely distributed are AlGaN/GaN on SiC for its high performance in radio frequency (RF) applications, for examples high cutoff frequency (fT) or high maximum oscillation frequency (fmax), and AlGaN/GaN on Si for its high power performance, for examples high breakdown voltage or high voltage operation. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond substrates have a thermal conductivity of 12 W/cm·K, and this is a remarkable point because HEMTs or SBDs on AlGaN/GaN on CVD diamonds are one of the promising alternatives for power and RF applications. In comparison, the thermal conductivity of AlGaN/GaN on a sapphire substrate is 0.33 W/cm·K while that of AlGaN/GaN on a Si substrate is 1.3 W/cm·K and that of AlGaN/GaN on a SiC substrate is 4.9 W/cm·K. In this work, we fabricated SBDs with a 137 mm Schottky channel length on AlGaN/GaN on Si and also on a CVD diamond substrate. We also compared the thermal behaviors of these fabricated large scale SBDs on Si and a CVD diamond substrate.

Improved Control Strategy Based on Space Vectors for Suppressing Grid-Side Current Harmonics in Three-Phase Current Source Rectifiers with a Hybrid Switch

This paper analyses the harmonic pollution to power grids caused by several high-power rectifiers, summarizes the requirements for rectifiers in suppressing grid-side current harmonics and optimizes a new-type of current source PWM rectifier with a hybrid switch. The rectifier with a hybrid switch boasts significant current characteristics and cost advantages in the high-power area. To further enhance the working frequency of the current source rectifier with a hybrid switch for suppressing grid-side harmonics and reducing the inductance size, this paper proposes an optimal control strategy based on space vector. It also verifies that the optimal control strategy based on space vector can reduce the total harmonic distortion of the grid-side current of the rectifier with a hybrid switch via circuit simulation and experimental results.

Research on cascaded multilevel inverter and its application in STATCOM

Because of the broad application of multilevel converters in the high-power area, a cascaded multilevel voltage-source inverter with phase-shifted SPWM (PS-SPWM) switching scheme is proposed as a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM). This can eliminate the bulky and weighty transformers and reduce power loss. In addition, the equivalent carrier frequency can be doubled and the output harmonics will be reduced compared with the STATCOM being put into operation. The operating principle and control methods are analyzed in detail and the feasibility is validated by simulation with MATLAB.

A topographic investigation of the site of origin and subsequent propagation of uterine contractions in spontaneous labor and their clinical significance.

AbstractThis investigation involves the non‐invasive collection of data concerning the events associated with spontaneous labor contractions, by the utilization of computer processed abdominal surface potentials (ASP), graphically displayed two dimensionally as topograms.Subjects were 19 healthy women volunteers experiencing normal pregnancies of 37—41 weeks duration who were admitted due to the onset of spontaneous labor. Sixteen of these subjects progressed to normal vaginal deliveries.We were able to classify the electrical events displayed on the topograms into mono‐and multifocal origins of high power areas (HPA), with the monofocal origins leading to synchronous, and the multifocal leading to asynchronous patterns of bioelectric propagation.We feel that the use of topograms may prove to be of clinical value in assessing the progress of labor.