Characterisation of IGBTs in soft commutation mode for medium frequency transformer application in railway traction

Jérémy Martin (1, 2) , Philippe Ladoux (3) , Bertrand Chauchat (1)

1 PEARL - Power Electronics Associated Research Laboratory
2 LAPLACE - LAboratoire PLasma et Conversion d'Energie
3 LAPLACE-CS - Convertisseurs Statiques

Nowadays, the typical railway traction chain, that operates under AC catenaries, includes a bulky and heavy transformer. In order to reduce the weight and the size of the input transformer, a medium frequency topology, which involves soft commutation mode for the switches, is proposed. At this effect, for the characterization of high voltage components in soft commutation mode, a specific test bench is built in the PEARL. In this paper, experimental characterisation results are given for 6.5 kV IGBTs in Dual-Thyristor mode. The snubber capacitors provide a significant reduction in turn-off energy and a switching frequency of several kHz is then possible.

Domains: Electric power

Jérémy Martin, Philippe Ladoux, Bertrand Chauchat. Characterisation of IGBTs in soft commutation mode for medium frequency transformer application in railway traction. PCIM Europe 2009, May 2009, Nuremberg, Germany. pp.829-834. ⟨cea-03777142⟩