Speaker: Prof. Akshay Kumar Rathore, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Lecturer Topic: Snubberless Naturally Clamped Soft-switching Bidirectional Current-fed Converters
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 PM, June 30, 2017
Venue: Niskayuna Public Library
RSVP: xshe@ieee.org
Abstract: Current-fed power electronic systems have been demonstrated and justified for high voltage gain and high current applications. Current-fed converters offer inherent short circuit protection and voltage amplification. The major challenge in current-fed is high voltage spike/overshoot across the semiconductor devices at turn-off. It needs additional snubber circuits reducing power density, efficiency, as well as boost capacity. A new class of advanced current-fed converters is introduced with novel modulation technique to achieve soft-commutation and natural voltage clamping of the devices without external snubber circuit making it snubberless. Soft-switching of all semiconductor devices is achieved and maintained over wide variation in source voltage and power inherently. Similarly, the attributes of natural device voltage clamping and soft-commutation are also maintained. As additional measures, proposed topologies report negligible circulating current that results in higher efficiency with source variability, reduced peak current stress across the components and requires low kVA rating devices and magnetics. Major applications include interfacing low voltage dc and high voltage dc grids in a microgrid, renewable energy integration, energy storage, and electric transportation.