Space Vector Modulation for SiC and Si Hybrid ANPC Converter in Medium-Voltage High-Speed Drive System

Medium-voltage high-speed drive is promising in applications, such as the centrifugal compressors and electrified transportation. However, it raises lots of design challenges for the converters, which drive the motors. A SiC and Si hybrid ANPC converter is developed to address these challenges. In this article, the essence of this hybrid structure is investigated to clearly show the derivation process of the hybrid active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) converter and inspire future research on these hybrid topologies. A dedicated space vector modulation (SVM) scheme is proposed for the hybrid ANPC converter, which enables the three-phase hybrid ANPC converter operating with SiC mosfets in high frequency and Si IGBTs in fundamental frequency. A neutral point (NP) voltage balancing scheme is added to the SVM scheme to balance the NP voltage imbalance under low-frequency modulation index. All these efforts make the hybrid ANPC converter become a high power density and fairly low-cost solution. A 400 Hz fundamental frequency, 3.6 kHz switching frequency, medium-voltage high-speed drive system is assumed and tested by the scaled-down experimental results. The effectiveness of the proposed SVM and NP voltage balancing method have both been verified.