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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
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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
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