Soft commutation of high power SCR inverters

In the process of developing a high power inverter utilizing S.C.R.'s in high voltage D.C. bridges, it became apparent that the commutator circuit would determine the inverter size and weight. Therefore, we developed a single co mutator circuit that was capable of commutating multiple bridges. Using similar reasoning we felt that the commutator should be as conservative of power as possible. These trends led us to a commutator that assumes the inverter load of the main bridge S.C.R. and returns the energy to the commutating capacitors. The losses in the circuit are restricted to I
²
R and switching losses only. The commutator consists of a single L-C network and appropriate steering S.C.R.'s. The losses are kept to a minimum by designing a high Q resonate circuit.