VSC Report Version1
VSC Report Version1
3-phase, 2-Level
Voltage Source Converter
(Using discrete IGBTs)
IIT-Delhi, India.
Legal Disclaimer
The information given in this report is meant for educational and research purpose only.
However, all the data provided is considered non-binding and shall not create liability for us.
All component data referred in this report is subject to further research and development and
therefore, is to be considered exemplary only.
The publisher reserves the right not to be responsible for the accuracy, completeness or
topicality of any direct or indirect reference to or citation from law, regulations or directives
in this publication.
Edited by:
Martin Cheerangal J,
Sritam Jena,
2
ABSTRACT
In this report, step by step design of a 2-level, 3-phase Voltage Source Converter (VSC) is
explained. A 10kVA, 415V 3-phase VSC has been designed, fabricated and tested in the labs
in IIT Delhi. The design of VSC constitutes the gate driver circuit, gate pulse divider circuit,
power circuit, rectifier unit including DC-bus capacitor and the heat sink mounting. Every
chapter is included with the schematic diagrams, PCB layouts (with track widths) and bill of
materials (BOM). Detailed pictures of each circuit design and implementation have been
presented in the report.
The report is mainly intended for students and researchers to develop and fabricate a VSC on
their own in the lab.
3
Contents
1 CHAPTER – 1: VOLTAGE SOURCE CONVERTER .................................... 9
4
4.3 COMPONENTS OF POWER CIRCUIT ..................................................................... 30
4.4 COMPONENTS & BOM ...................................................................................... 30
4.5 PICTURES SHOWINGOF POWER CIRCUIT BOARD IN VSC .................................... 31
4.6 PCB LAYOUT OF POWER CIRCUIT ...................................................................... 32
5
LIST OF FIGURES
6
FIG. 4-5: POWER CIRCUIT PCB SEEN WITH GATE DRIVER BOARD ............................................... 32
FIG. 4-6: TOP COPPER LAYOUT OF POWER CIRCUIT PCB ........................................................... 32
FIG. 4-7: POWER CIRCUIT PCB ROUTING OF BOTTOM COPPER LAYER ........................................ 32
FIG. 5-1: OUTPUT CHARACTERISTICS OF IGBT SWITCH ............................................................ 34
FIG. 5-2: FORWARD CURRENT & VOLTAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF POWER DIODE ........................ 34
FIG. 5-3: FIGURE SHOWING THE SWITCHING ENERGY LOSS IN AN IGBT SWITCH AND DIODE ..... 34
FIG. 5-4: AVERAGE POWER DISSIPATION OF THREE-PHASE DIODE BRIDGE RECTIFIER................. 34
FIG. 5-5: THERMAL RESISTANCE OF SWITCH & DIODE ............................................................... 35
FIG. 5-6: THERMAL RESISTANCE INCLUDING DIODE BRIDGE RECTIFIER ..................................... 35
FIG. 5-7: OVERALL THERMAL RESISTANCE FROM JUNCTION TO AMBIENT .................................. 36
FIG. 5-8: HEAT SINK WITH HOLE DRILLED FOR IGBT SWITCHES ................................................ 36
FIG. 6-1: FIGURE SHOWING VSC, WITH DIFFERENT CURRENTS IN THE CIRCUIT ......................... 37
FIG. 6-2: THE NORMALIZED RMS EQUIVALENT CENTERED DC BUS CURRENT HARMONICS FOR
SPWM, 1ST CENTERED CARRIER FREQUENCY, 2ND, 3RD & 4TH MULTIPLE CARRIER FREQUENCY
.......................................................................................................................................... 38
FIG. 6-3: SEMIKRON’S POWER CAPACITOR & DIODE BRIDGE RECTIFIER ................................. 40
FIG. 6-4: CAPACITOR STAND ...................................................................................................... 40
FIG. 6-5: CAPACITOR STAND FIXED ON THE HEAT SINK .............................................................. 41
FIG. 6-6: DIODE RECTIFIER & IGBT SWITCHES MOUNTED ON HEAT SINK .................................. 41
FIG. 7-1: POWER CAPACITORS ALONG WITH THE POWER CIRCUIT BOARD................................... 42
FIG. 7-2: DC BUS PLATES WITH THE SERIES CONNECTED POWER CAPACITORS ........................... 42
FIG. 7-3: LUGS USED IN VSC’S INTERNAL CONNECTION ........................................................... 43
FIG. 7-4: STEEL STRIP USED AS AN EXTENSION OF –VE DC BUS PLATE ....................................... 44
FIG. 7-5: DC BUS PLATES SEEN WITH BRIDGE RECTIFIER ........................................................... 44
FIG. 7-6: DC BUS PLATE SEEN IN TOP VIEW ................................................................................ 44
FIG. 7-7: FRONT VIEW OF VSC .................................................................................................. 45
FIG. 7-8: SIDE VIEW OF VSC ..................................................................................................... 45
FIG. 7-9: TOP VIEW OF VSC ...................................................................................................... 46
FIG. 7-10: ACRYLIC SHEET TO COVER VSC ............................................................................... 46
FIG. 7-11: COMPLETE 2-LEVEL VSC WORKING SETUP .............................................................. 46
FIG. 7-12: EXPERIMENTAL SETUP OF VSI FED INDUCTION MOTOR DRIVE .................................. 47
FIG. 7-13: EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF VSI DRIVING AN INDUCTION MOTOR ........................... 47
FIG. 7-14: RESULTS OBTAINED FOR AN INPUT DC VOLTAGE OF 586V ........................................ 48
FIG. 7-15: RESULTS OBTAINED FOR A MAXIMUM LINE CURRENT OF IM ..................................... 48
7
List of tables
8
1 Chapter – 1: VOLTAGE SOURCE CONVERTER
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Two-level VSC’s are mostly used in low voltage, low power applications and in some
medium voltage applications. In order to obtain a better understanding of VSC, a two-level
VSC has been designed and implemented in the following report. The main idea behind
building the inverter is to get a hands-on experience in designing a gate-driver circuit, power
circuit, DC-link bus capacitor, and heat sink which forms the main constituents of a VSC.
S No Ratings Values
9
1.3 OVERVIEW OF VSC DESIGN
10
2 Chapter – 2: GATE DRIVERS CIRCUIT
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Gate driver circuit contains a gate driver IC 2ED020I12-F2 (Infineon), with a boot-
strap technique to drive a half bridge of the power circuit. It is an interface circuit between gate
pulse divider circuit and power circuit. This Infineon make IC is chosen as it provides
protection features like IGBT desaturation protection and active miller clamping protection.
On the left side of the driver IC, the signals are exchanged between the gate divider
circuits. This includes the input gate signal to the non-inverting terminal of driver IC, inverting
shutdown logic signal input, ready, /fault,/reset pins corresponding to the high side and low
side of the driver IC. On right is the bootstrap capacitor, diode, protections and exchange of
signals between the IGBT power circuit and driver IC.
Active miller clamping protection circuit as shown Fig. 2-1 is employed in gate driver
circuit to prevent parasitic turn-on of IGBT switch during turn off process. During turn off, due
to the sudden rise in VCE , gate voltage rises due to the miller capacitance. When voltage reaches
the IGBT threshold, a dynamic turn on of the power switch occurs. To avoid this, the clamp
pin monitors gate voltage during turn off state. It activates additional discharge path as the gate
voltage sinks 2V below 𝑉𝐸𝐸2𝑋𝑋 .
Desaturation protection is employed by the DESAT pin. This pin monitors the VCE
voltage to detect desaturation caused by short circuits. If the monitored voltage is above 9V,
and a certain blanking time has expired, the desaturation protection is activated by sending an
active low signal in the /FAULT pin (refer gate pulse divider circuit for further explanation)
and the IGBT is switched off. Blanking time is adjustable by external capacitor. Desaturation
and active miller clamping protections used in the gate driver circuit is shown in Fig. 2-2.
11
Fig. 2-1: Active miller clamping circuit to prevent turn on during turn off
Fig. 2-2: DESAT & Active miller clamping protection in gate divider circuit
Active low /FAULT signal triggers the inverting shutdown input logic, which switches
off the power IGBT switch. For /RESET function, refer gate divider circuit. READY pin gives
a high and low signal depending on the DESAT pin. A high signal is given for normal working
operation (Green LED is connected) and it gives a low signal during fault condition (Red LED
is connected). Fig. 2-3 shows the functionality of above pin functions in the gate driver circuit.
All the explanation is applicable to both high side and low side circuit.
12
Fig. 2-3: Protection employed in gate driver circuit
The galvanic isolation is employed in both high side and low side of the driver IC. This
increases the reliability of driver IC compared to the aging of opto-coupler isolation method
and the requirement of level shifter for isolation in output side.
13
2.4 GATE DRIVER CIRCUIT DESIGN
2.4.1 Boot-strap capacitor & diode rating
14
THICK FILM 10Ω, 603-
SMD-
2 RESISTOR, RC1206JR- 1 1.26 1.26
1/4W, 5% 1206
SMD 0710RL
THICK FILM 50Ω, 603-
SMD-
3 RESISTOR, RC1206FR- 2 1.68 3.36
1/4W, 1% 1206
SMD 0749R9L
THICK FILM 603-
100Ω, SMD-
4 RESISTOR, RC1206FR- 2 1.68 3.36
1/4W, 1% 1206
SMD 07100RL
THICK FILM 603-
270Ω, SMD-
5 RESISTOR, RC1206JR- 5 1.26 6.30
1/4W, 5% 1206
SMD 07270RL
THICK FILM 603-
820Ω, SMD-
6 RESISTOR, RC1206FR- 1 1.68 1.68
1/4W, 1% 1206
SMD 07820RL
THICK FILM 603-
1KΩ, SMD-
7 RESISTOR, RC1206FR- 2 1.68 3.36
1/4W, 1% 1206
SMD 071KL
THICK FILM 603-
10KΩ, SMD-
8 RESISTOR, RC1206FR- 9 1.26 11.34
1/4W, 5% 1206
SMD 071KL
MULTILAYER
77-
CERAMIC 220pF, SMD-
9 VJ1206Y221K 2 2.17 4.34
CAPACITOR, 50V, 10% 1206
XACBC
SMD
MULTILAYER
77-
CERAMIC 100nF, SMD-
10 VJ1206Y104K 8 2.31 18.48
CAPACITOR, 10V, 10% 1206
XQCBC
SMD
MULTILAYER
1uF, 77-
CERAMIC SMD-
11 VJ1206Y105K 3 4.62 13.86
CAPACITOR, 10V, 10% 1206
XQTBC
SMD
MULTILAYER
10uF, 581-
CERAMIC SMD-
12 12063C106KA 4 15.40 61.6
CAPACITOR, 25V, 10% 1206
T2A
SMD
15
CAPACITOR, 475KA88
SMD
ALUMINIUM
6.3X6. 647-
ELECTROLYTI 100uF,
14 3X7.7 UUA1C101M 1 20.65 20.65
C CAPACITOR, 16V, 20%
mm CL1GS
SMD
SCHOTTKY 750mA, 726-
SOD-
15 DIODE-BAT BAT165E6327 8 20.44 163.52
40V 323-2
165 HTSA1
STTH112U –
FAST 1A, 511-
16 SMB 3 30.10 90.30
RECOVERY 1200V STTH112U
DIODE
604-
GREEN LED- 62.5mW, SMD-
17 APTR3216SG 4 6.65 26.60
SMD 20mA 1206
C
75mW, SMD- 604-
18 RED LED-SMD 2 7.21 14.42
20mA 1206 APT3216EC
TERMINAL
19 2P,5mm DIL 651-1888687 4 70.5 282.00
BLOCK
FRC
653-XG2A-
20 CONNECTOR- 26 Pin DSC 205.1
1 205.1
2601
MALE
TOTAL 1 ₹ 957.50
For 3 Gate
3 ₹ 2872.50
Drivers IC’s
Tab. 2-1: BOM & List showing the components used in Gate driver circuit
16
2.6 PICTURES SHOWING GATE DRIVER BOARD IN VSC
Fig. 2-6: Front View of VSC showing three Fig. 2-7: Front View of single gate driver
gate driver PCB’s PCB mounted on mica board
Three FRC connector cable to power Two Screws are used to place the
divider circuit can be seen in Fig. 2-6 mica board on heat sink and it can be
seen in Fig. 2-7
17
Fig. 2-8: Top View of gate driver with heat Fig. 2-9: Side View of the gate driver PCB
sink seen behind setup on the heat sink
Length of mica board on which 3 gate driver PCB’s are mounted: 24cmX10cm
18
Fig. 2-11: Top copper layer routing of gate driver PCB
19
Fig. 2-13: Top copper layer of gate driver PCB (with Copper fill)
Fig. 2-14: Bottom copper layer of gate driver PCB (with Copper fill)
20
3 Chapter – 3: GATE PULSE DIVIDER CIRCUIT
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Gate pulse divider circuit is the interface between dead band circuit and the half bridge
gate driver circuit. This divider circuit segregates the gating pulse required for three gate driver
circuits along with the short circuit fault protection.
22
Fig. 3-2: FRC connector (male) pin configuration
Active low fault pin (/FLT) in FRC connector to each driver IC is activated whenever
there is a huge current flow due to short circuit problem. Short circuit in the load or arm rises
the collector emitter voltage of the IGBT switches. DESAT pin of the driver IC senses this
voltage and triggers an active low signal (/FLT) if the voltage goes beyond 9V. As shown in
Fig. 3-3, all the three /FLT pin from three driver IC is given to the input of NAND gate and the
output is given to the inverting input of all three driver IC. This compliments the gating logic
of switches and turns off the IGBT.
23
3.4.2 Reset function
Active low reset button (/RST) in the gate divider circuit resets the driver IC, when it
has previously received a fault input. During normal working it gets ‘+5V’ from the following
reset circuit shown in Fig. 3-4.
CAPACITOR - 140-50V5-
3 100nF, 10V DIL 1 ₹ 19.6 19.6
CERAMIC 104Z-RC
CAPACITOR -
4 1uF, 50V DIL 105CKE100M 1 ₹ 7.10 7.1
ELECTROLYTIC
CAPACITOR - ECA-
5 4.7uF,25V DIL 1 ₹ 11.2 11.2
ELECTROLYTIC 1HM47RI
24
ELECTROLYTIC 16V A1CKA101
SPST
7 RESET SWITCH DIL 1 ₹ 27.5 27.5
(LEADS)
TERMINAL
8 2P,5mm DIL 651-1888687 9 ₹ 70.5 634.5
BLOCK
FRC
653-XG2A-
9 CONNECTOR- 26 Pin DSC 4 ₹ 205.1 820.4
2601
MALE
595-
10 NOT GATE 14 Pin DIL 1 ₹ 37.8 37.8
SN74HC14N
TOTAL ₹ 1646.7
Tab. 3-2: BOM & List showing the components used in gate driver circuit
25
Fig. 3-6: Back side of Gate pulse divider Fig. 3-7: Side view of gate divider PCB
circuit PCB showing the mounting on acrylic sheet
circuit inside
Fig. 3-10: PCB layout of components used in gate pulse divider circuit PCB
Fig. 3-11: Top copper and bottom copper layer of gate divider PCB
Fig. 3-12: Top copper layer of gate divider PCB (With Copper fill)
Fig. 3-13: Bottom copper layer of gate divider PCB (With Copper fill)
28
4 Chapter – 4: POWER CIRCUIT
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Power circuit includes the three leg of the conventional two level voltage Source
Converter. It contains 6 discrete IGBT’s and the output AC three phase power leads(R, Y, B)
as shown in the schematics Fig. 4-1.
29
4.3 COMPONENTS OF POWER CIRCUIT
IGBT switches are placed at the back side of the PCB shown in Fig. 4-3. In Fig. 4-2,
the AC output leads are the corresponding R, Y, B colored banana connectors.
The lower set of banana connectors are for the DC-link capacitor voltage terminals,
+Vdc and –Vdc connection (4 connectors for +Vdc and 1 connector for -Vdc).
Back to back zener diode is placed to avoid the gate emitter voltage of IGBT’s to go
beyond certain value during short circuit conditions. Here, 20V zener diode is selected.
(For more information, please refer Application note AN4507 in the appendix)
TO- 726-
2 IGBT’s 1200V, 25A 6 ₹ 429.10 2574.6
247 IKW25T120
POWER BANANA
4 DIL 548-31602-0 8 ₹ 161.00 1288
CONNECTOR CONNECTOR
TOTAL ₹ 4003.72
Tab. 4-2: BOM & List showing the components used in power circuit
30
4.5 PICTURES SHOWINGOF POWER CIRCUIT BOARD IN VSC
31
Fig. 4-5: Power circuit PCB seen with gate driver board
32
5 Chapter– 5: HEAT SINK DESIGN
5.1 INTRODUCTION
In the operation of power semiconductor switches, part of the electric energy is being
transformed into heat energy. In order for any devices to operate within desired temperature
limits, power dissipation performance must be well understood. Power dissipation or losses in
any power semiconductor switches can be classified as conduction loss and switching loss.
Conduction power loss occurs when the switch is in on position. Eq-4.1&4.2 gives the
conduction loss in an IGBT switch [Refer: AN of IGBT power loss calculation].
1 ma cos 1 1 m cos 1
PCT uCEO IO rC IO 2 a (4.2)
2 8 8 3
1 ma cos 1 1 m cos 1
PCD uDO IO rD I O 2 a (4.4)
2 8 8 3
Where,
𝛥𝑢𝑐𝑒
𝒓𝒄 = CE on state resistance = ⁄𝛥𝐼 (0.045 Ω)
𝑐
𝛥𝑢𝐷
𝒓𝑫 = Diode on state resistance = ⁄𝛥𝐼 (0.025 Ω)
𝐷
33
𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝜱𝟏 = Motor displacement factor (1)
In order to find the uCEO & rC , the output characteristics of IGBT is to be studied. Fig. 5-1
shows the output characteristics of Infineon IKW25T120 IGBT switch
Fig. 5-1: Output characteristics of IGBT Fig. 5-2: Forward current & voltage
switch characteristics of power diode
Similarly, uDO & rD , can be obtained from the forward current and forward voltage
characteristics of power diode as shown in Fig. 5-2.
34
5.2.2 Switching losses
Switching loss in both IGBT switch and anti-parallel power diode can be found using the
energy loss graph as shown in Fig. 5-3 . Average power dissipation in the diode bridge rectifier
can be found from the datasheet as shown in Fig. 5-4.
PT 130W
Thermal dissipation from junction to ambient is given by the Eq-4.5
TJ TA
JA (4.5)
PT
110O 30O
RJA 0.615O C / W (4.6)
130W
Now the thermal resistance of IGBT & diode between junction and case as given in
datasheet would be parallel connected and the effective thermal resistance is 0.3939O C / W
as shown in Fig. 5-5.
Now, the thermal resistance of paste (1.5°C/W) used in the sink is added to get
1.8939°C/W (1.5 + 0.3939). Six such parallel IGBT’s are pasted onto the sink and thus the
overall thermal resistance is considered to be in parallel and it is 1.8939 / 6 0.31565O C / W .
Thermal resistance of the three-phase diode bridge included with the above resistance is
0.288°C/W as shown in Fig. 5-6.
Fig. 5-5: Thermal resistance of switch & Fig. 5-6: Thermal resistance including
diode diode bridge rectifier
Overall junction to ambient thermal resistance is shown in Fig. 5-7 and the sink to ambient
thermal resistance is taken for 10A current case.
The volume of the heat sink is found from the following equation,
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝐶𝑚2 °𝐶/𝑊) 800
Volume = = = 1980 𝐶𝑚3 , @ 0.4043 °𝐶/𝑊
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (°𝐶/𝑊) 0.4043
Two heat sinks of volume 15X13X7.5cms are mounted on 32X30X2.5cms iron base plate.
Fig. 5-8: Heat sink with hole drilled for IGBT switches
36
6 Chapter– 6: RECTIFIER UNIT & DC BUS CAPACITOR
6.1 INTRODUCTION
Selection of DC-link capacitor is an important part of designing the Voltage Source
Converter (VSC) circuit. In this section, a description of DC-link capacitor design and diode
bridge rectifier have been explained. In order to select a DC-link capacitor, the knowledge of
ripple currents flowing through the capacitor is necessary.
frequency ripple of multiple carrier frequencies ( I ih ). These ripple currents in DC-bus depends
on modulation index, load power factor, PWM strategy employed, PWM-VSC carrier
frequency and grid frequency [1]. Low frequency ripple ( I rh ) is found to be 5A from Eq-1.
12 103
I rh = 5A
10 415
3
Where, Pload is rated load power (12KW) & V phrms is the per phase grid voltage rms value.
Fig. 6-1: Figure showing VSC, with different currents in the circuit
37
To calculate high frequency ripple current, double FFT 3-D graphics used in [2] is used
for the various operating points (shown in Fig. 6-2). For the selected operating point of
modulation index mi =0.78 and pf =0.86 and assuming motor load current of 25A (peak), the
high frequency ripple current I ih obtained is 8.075A. The total ripple current rating of DC-bus
capacitor is found to be 9.5A using the Eq-2.
IC I rh2 Iih2
(2)
IC 52 8.0752 =9.5A
12 103
CDC = 1390uF
0.5 415
240 600 50
100 3
Fig. 6-2: The normalized rms equivalent centered DC bus current harmonics for SPWM, 1st
centered carrier frequency, 2nd, 3rd & 4th multiple carrier frequency
38
6.4 COMPONENTS & BOM
The component used and BOM of power circuit PCB is shown in the following table.
0.22uF, 871-
SNUBBER FILM Lug
4 1250V B32656S72 2 648.9 1297.8
CAPACITOR - PP type
DC 24K564
BANAN
POWER A 548-31602-
5 DIL 11 161 1771
CONNECTORS CONNE 0
CTOR
RING 571-
8 LUG 30 15.47 464.1
TYPE 324955
ACRYLIC BOX &
7 INSULATION 1500
SHEET
THERMAL
9 500
SHEET
METAL BASE &
10 1000
FOR CAPACITOR
TOTAL ₹ 19,492.40
Tab. 6-1: BOM & List of components used in rectifier unit & other parts of VSC
39
6.5 TOTAL COST OF VSC
S No Circuit Cost
Total ₹ 28,015.41
40
Fig. 6-5: Capacitor stand fixed on the heat sink
Fig. 6-6: Diode rectifier & IGBT switches mounted on heat sink
41
7 Chapter– 7: PICTURES OF COMPLETE VSC SETTINGS
Fig. 7-1: Power capacitors along with the power circuit board
Fig. 7-2: DC bus plates with the series connected power capacitors
42
7.2 VARIOUS LUGS USED IN VSC
43
7.3 DC BUS CONNECTION WITH RECTIFIER
44
7.4 COMPLETE VSC
45
Fig. 7-9: Top view of VSC
46
7.5 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF VSI
47
Fig. 7-14: Results obtained for an input DC voltage of 586V
48
7.6 PCB SPECIFICATIONS
7.6.1 Gate driver circuit
49
Special Info/Instructions: 1. PCB Manufacturing process must be lead-free and
RoHS compliant.
2. PCB Manufacturing must be compliant with IPC-A-
6012 Class 2
Quantity: 1
50
Reference
[1] A.M. Hava, U. Ayhan, V.V Aban, “A DC bus capacitor design method for various inverter
applications,” IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Sep 2012.
[2] U. Ayhan, A.M. Hava, “Analysis and characterization of DC bus ripple current of two-level
inverter using the equivalent centered harmonic appraoch,” IEEE Energy Conversion Congress
and Exposition (ECCE), Sep 2011
[5] Infineon AN-2006-01: Application Note for driving IGBT’s with unipolar gate voltage
[6] Infineon AN-2014-06 1EDI Compact family: Application Note for Gate driver IC.
[8] Infineon AN-2013-12: Application Note on “Recommendation for screw tightening torque
for IGBT discrete devices”.
[9] Infineon AN, V1.1, Jan 2009, “IGBT Power losses calculation using the datasheet
parameters” – Refer three phase AC motor drive.
[11] Texas Instruments’ App Report SLVA462-May 2011, “Understanding thermal dissipation
& design of a heat sink”.
51