Short circuit fault tolerant system for Matrix Converter

The paper proposes a short circuit fault tolerant system for the conventional Matrix Converter (MC) to increase the immune capability of the MC against short circuit fault. In this paper, the short circuit fault in semiconductor switching device such as IGBT is analysed. When the short circuit fault arises, it is quickly detected, then IGBTs are softly turned off to prevent the short circuit fault spreading out to relevant healthy IGBTs and damaging the whole converter. The short circuit fault is diagnosed, and the fault location of the shorted faulty IGBT is identified in the MC. In the post fault operation, the MC is reconfigured by utilizing a redundant fourth leg to mitigate the fault. The proposed fault tolerant system is verified in simulation work with realistic models. Some simulation results are shown to confirm the correctness and effectiveness of the methods used for detecting and diagnosing the short circuit faults in the conventional MC topology.