Paralleling of medium-power IGBT modules in windmill converter to reduce size and cost

Flexibility, price pressure and second source are the main factors to change the design strategy for windmill converter. High power modules (1400A/1700V) are used for windmill converter (1-2 MW) since many years. Parallelling knowledge of IGBTs was not well known. Price pressure was the main driving factor to think about other solutions. Standard IGBTs (Semix3p/EconoDual) up to 600A/1700V are a very suitable solution to get the requested power but some rules in paralleling operation must be considered. The windmill converter design was mainly made by half bridge designs in the past. 12 half bridges are necessary to design a windmill converter. Trends have shown that with standard modules a GD-Version is coming (3-phase windmill converter on one heat sink) Another challange will be the construction of the windmill converter. It is better to connect GD-modules (3-phase version) in parallel or complete converter in parallel (line-side and generator side as one unit) This decision will have influence of the DC bus capacitor design and oscillation between the GD-Version.