Effect on Digital Active Gate Control of a Practical IGBT Full-Bridge Inverter with the Additional DC-Link Capacitor Close to Power Devices

Abstract

This paper proposes and evaluates an active gate control method of switching waveform design with digital gate drivers for a practical full-bridge inverter equipped with additional dc-link capacitors. The full-bridge inverter employs 1700-V, 150-A IGBT power modules and has a practical circuit layout with additional capacitors. The experimental system has a capability of optimizing driving patterns for shaping the designed switching waveform. In experimental verification, active gate control can suppress the surge voltage from 70% to 10% with 30% lower switching loss in three different circuit layout of the proposed practical 50-kVA full-bridge inverter. As a result, this paper reveals that active gate control achieves reduction in effect of stray inductance and increases a freedom of the circuit layout in power converters.