A Novel Commutation Method of Matrix Converter Fed Induction Motor Drive Using RB-IGBT

This paper gives an overview of a collector-emitter voltage sign-based commutation method. This method is implemented based on the output current sign and commutation voltage polarity signals of matrix converter. All these signals are acquired by a simple unit in the drive and protection boards designed for reverse blocking insulated gate bipolar transistors (RB-IGBTs) of the matrix converter in test. Therefore, no current and/or voltage sensor is required to obtain any other commutation signals. The RB-IGBT samples used are newly developed, and one important feature is that its reverse leakage current is mostly affected by nu
_ge
. Under the same temperature condition, when nuce is negative, a positively biased nu
_ge
results in a distinct decrease of the reverse leakage current. The proposed commutation method can supply the reverse-blocked RB-IGBTs with positively biased nu
_ge
. Hence, the power losses caused by the reverse leakage current can be reduced using the proposed method. Experimental results have proved the feasibility and effectivity of this method