Design and Evaluation of an Efficient Three-Phase Four-Leg Voltage Source Inverter with Reduced IGBTs

This paper presents a new three-phase four-leg voltage source inverter (VSI), which achieves a high cost effectiveness for mega-watt level system applications. The proposed four-leg inverter adopts the integrated topology with thyristors and insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), which aims to reduce the number of IGBTs. In order to handle the zero sequence current, a neutral leg via incorporating IGBTs is artfully integrated with the regular phase legs. Furthermore, the modelling principles are elaborated and analyzed, which emphasizes switching states and voltage vectors in six segments based on the states of thyristors. Finally, by using the carrier-based pulse width modulation (PWM) method, the closed-loop current control of the proposed inverter is verified by both simulation and experimentation. Keywords: power inverter; voltage source inverter; four-leg inverter; cost-effectiveness; current control; pulse width modulatio