1 lectura macro-trends power devices

7/26/2019 1 Lectura Macro-trends Power Devices

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Macro-Trend

and A Future

Expectation of

Innovations in

Power Electronics

and

Power

Devices

H. Shigekane*, T. Fujihira*,

K.

Sasagawa , Y.

Seki*, Y. Takahashi , and A. Takai*

Fu~ji

lectric Device Technology

Co. Ltd.

Tokyo

apan

Fuji Electric

Advanced

Technology Co. Ltd. Tokyo apan

Abstract The improvement

of power conversion efficiency

is important

for preventing global warming and

for

protecting

global environment.

Expecting

the direction

of

future

innovations

in

this

field

is also important and

effective.

Macro-trend

of

innovations

in

power

electronics

and power

devices

are reviewed to

derive

two

laws

of

innovations

in

this

field.

According

to

these

laws, an

expectation

to future innovation

of

power electronics,

PDM

technology using soft switching of SiC or GaN devices at

high frequency,

is

presented.

1 INTRODUCTION

As

30

to 40 of

the

world primary

energy

is

consumed

for

electricity

generation and as this

share is

forecasted

to

continue

increasing, power electronics and power devices

are key technologies

for reducing CO

2

emission

to prevent

global

warming and

to protect

global

environment. Year

by

year,

the

power conversion efficiency and the

cost

of

power electronic

systems have been being improved.

However, innovative

improvements, or innovations, of

power

electronic systems have not

been

introduced so

often. Therefore

t expect the direction of

future

innovations of this field is

very important and

effective. In

the present paper,

macro-trend

of

innovations in power

electronics

and power devices are

reviewed to derive two

laws

of

innovations in this field.

According to the two

laws, an expectation

to future innovation

of

power

electronics and power devices are presented.

11

MACRO-TREND OF INNOVATIONS

There have

been a

number

of

innovations introduced in

power electronics.

For example, the

industrial use

of PA M

(Power Amplitude Modulation)

and PWM (Pulse

Width

Modulation)

have introduced great

advancements of

the

motor

drive and of

the motion

control

technologies,

and,

then,

have contributed

to

the

progress

of the modem

industrialized

society. For example, the industrial use of

resonant circuits

or

matrix-converters have

greatly

improved the power conversion

efficiency in induction

heating and in power

supply or in elevator control.

Reviewing these innovations in power electronics, the

authors have find

two guiding laws that can be

used to

study future expectations of power electronics.

TABLE 1 THE TREND OF POWER

DEVICES

AND POWER

ELECTRONICS

EQUIPMIENTS

Year

1960

1970 1980 1990 2000

96

A1984

Thyristor

GTO

975 A 9

A198 994

A2002

PoerTrnsstr

raflsistor IGTM

ul IGBT

Module

IGBT

Module

Poevie

Module

I en. (3Gen.)

5Gen.)

A2003

A

1986

Al8

RB-IGBT

MOSFETM-Po

er

Low Medium

Transistor

Mti

Motor

wr Thyristor

PAM

Inverter

IB

Drive High

oad

Cretsuc

T

\

PMIvre

Power

MeiunDvd

ertier

Conve

nverer

Powe

Trnsisor

esonnt

onvererte

Thyri

stor

T

PwrConverter

Converter

978-1-4244-3557-9/09/ 25.00

C2009 IEEE

3

PM25

IPEMC2009


2/5

A

The First

aw

of

Innovations

in Power

lectronics

The first law of

innovations in power electronics we

would like to

present is

that

the innovation

of power

electronics occurs together with the

innovation of power

devices.

TABLE I shows the

trend of power devices and power

electronic equipments

[1].

Since

the

advent

of

thyristors

as

power

devices in

the 1960s, power electronics

had

made

rapid progress. Thyristors

can

be turned on at any

time,

but cannot be turned off by gate control.

Thyristors,

therefore,

applied

to rectifiers, DC motor

drives,

and so

on. The

circuit topology shown in

Fig. I

had applied for

a

part

of a variable speed drive system

for

AC

motors. The

DC-link

voltage,

Ed, can

be controlled

by

the thyristors

and an output

voltage having a rectangular

shape is

obtained by

the

inverter. Therefore, PAM can be

achieved. Since commutation

circuit

(CC) is

required for

turning off the

thyristors, the circuit configuration is

complicated.

Emerging

of

self

turn-off device, which, can meet

the

requirement

of the

advanced control applications, for

example,

variable

speed

control drives

of AC

motors and

uninterrupted power systems, was expected. Transistors,

which

were mainly used for

the small signal

amplifier,

were focused.

Through

the

research

of semi-conductor

physics

and

the innovation of the manufacturing

technology, the transistor was

changed

to

the power

transistor for the

switching use.

Power

electronics

have

been

rapidly developing since

power

transistors,

which

have been commercialized

in the

1970 s, were used.

Fig. 2

shows

the typical circuit

topology [2]. A constant DC-link

voltage

is

obtained

by

the

diode

bridge

rectifier and an AC power

is

output

from

the voltage

source

inverter.

The inverter controls the

amplitude

and the

frequency

of the output

voltage

by

PWM control.

PWM control is widely employed

in

power

electronics

equipments

and controllability for

voltage, current,

and

frequency

is

greatly improved.

Micro-controllers

and modern control

theories are applied

in the

control unit and use of digital

control technologies

are

dramatically

increased. On

the other

hand, isolated

modules for power

transistors have been

developed and

packaging technology

have been rapidly changed. This

brings

that

main

circuits are

simplified and

the volume is

reduced.

The switching frequency of such power transistors

can

be

limited within

a few kHz,

resulting in occurring

undesirable magnetic sounds.

To

overcome such

an

issue,

a new

type of power devices, IGBT (Insulated-Gate

Bipolar Transistor), has been developed. The

device has

specific characteristics of high-speed

switching and

tremendous

low drive power due to having combination

structure

of

a

MOSFET

(Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor

Field Effect Transistor) and transistor. The

IGBT has

been improved rapidly year

after year,

and

some have

achieved

to

have

considerably

high voltage

and high

current rating

as

almost same

as

those of

GTOs (Gate

Turn-Off

Thyristor) for

an

alternative device to thyristors.

Hence, the IGBT has been

playing

an

important role for

various kinds of power

electronics

equipments

rather than

the

others these days.

Until

now,

the

trade-off relationship

between the on-

state voltage and the switching loss

of the IGBTs has

been improved. However,

it is

said

that such performance

improvement

is

close

to

the theoretical limit. Therefore,

technological development will advance to

the function

improvement than

the performance improvement in

the

future.

One of the

function

improvements is

that an IGBT

possesses reverse-blocking

voltage capability.

This type

of

the IGBT is

called

RB-IGBT (Reverse-Blocking

IGBT). Now, RB-IGBTs,

with

600V blocking

voltage

have been commercialized, and

by using these IGBTs

several

type of matrix converters which

is

able

to

directly

convert

to AC

voltage and frequency

without

a

DC-link

voltage cf.

Fig. 3),

have been

developed [3].

In the

future,

the blocking voltage and

the

current

rating

of RB-IGBTs

should be improved.

These RB-IGBTs enable bi-

directional switching,

and they are approaching

to

an

ideal

switch. This progress of the power device

technology

will

expand

the

possibility

of

various

converters,

such as AC-AC

direct

converters

and current

source

converters.

1--l-

Ed

N7

CC:

~

i

a)

ircuit

onfigration

V

7 1 Ed

b)Waveforms

Fig. 1.Thyristor

PAM Inverter

a) ircuit

onfigration

FflUl [I[

IJJLII

b)Wavefornis

Fig. 2. Transistor

PWM Inverter

978-1-4244-3557-9/09/ 25.00

02009

I 3 PM

2

SE

2

i K

A

V

36

IPEMC2009


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1 lectura macro-trends power devices

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