Snubber circuits and losses of voltage-source GTO inverters

The power dissipation of series and parallel snubbers in gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) inverters is investigated. New circuits using optimized snubbers are simulated and compared and solutions that allow the recovery of the energy stored in the snubbers are reported. In particular, an inverter circuit that uses a transformer for the recovery of the energy trapped in the snubbers is investigated, and solutions that avoid saturation of the transformer core are studied.<
>