Design Considerations for an IGBT Based Point on Wave Fault Creator

Creation of short circuit faults in experimental validation of grid code compliance for grid connected resources is essential. A point on wave fault creator (PWFC) plays a vital role in such test setups. It can be used to create precise balanced and unbalanced faults of all types at the desired angle about the input voltage reference. In this paper, we introduce a thermal analysis procedure to obtain the thermal limits of the semiconductor devices used for the design of a PWFC with a single capacitor over voltage protection clamp circuit. This paper also presents a finite-state machine to control the PWFC. The proposed thermal analysis and finite state machine are experimentally validated by creating different types of faults using the prototype PWFC.