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Topologies, voltage ratings and state of the art high power semiconductor
devices for medium voltage wind energy conversion

Conference Paper · July 2009

DOI: 10.1109/PEMWA.2009.5208365 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 Topologies, voltage ratings and state of the art high
power semiconductor devices for medium voltage
wind energy conversion
B. Backlund, M. Rahimo, S. Klaka, J. Siefken*
ABB Switzerland Ltd, Semiconductors, Fabrikstrasse 3, CH - 5600 Lenzburg, Switzerland
* 5S Components Inc., East McKeesport PA, the US [email protected]

Abstract – Today, the main topologies for power conversion for

medium voltage applications are mainly determined by the available II. TOPOLOGIES AND VOLTAGE RATINGS
voltage ratings of the power semiconductor devices. In this paper we
shall examine the main existing topologies for medium voltage wind Due to the better availability of asymmetric and reverse conduct-
power energy conversion and determine the voltage levels that can ing turn-off power semiconductors compared to symmetrical de-
be can be achieved with the currently available high voltage semi- vices, the VSI-topology (Voltage Source Inverter) has achieved a
conductor components such as the IGCT and IGBT. The paper will dominant position in the field of frequency conversion both for
also provide an insight into development trends for future power low as well as for medium voltage applications. For low voltage
semiconductor device concepts with increased power levels and im- conversion the 2 level VSI, figure 1, is the solution of choice but
proved overall static and dynamic performance. this simple inverter topology is also used for medium voltage
circuits. However, the voltage ratings of the available power
Keywords - IGBT, IGCT, topology, voltage rating semiconductor components remains a limiting factor, since serial
connection of power devices is a complex issue with many related
technical difficulties. The 2-level inverter is mainly used in wind
I. POWER SEMICONDUCTORS FOR WIND POWER power for the rotor control in DFIG systems.
In modern wind power applications, to fulfil the requirements
from the grid operators regarding net quality, it is hardly possible
to connect a wind turbine to the grid without the inclusion of
power electronics. The purpose of the power electronics circuits
is to ensure that the generated power has the correct frequency
and voltage independently of the current state of the wind genera-
tor and also to ensure that the fault behaviour is conforming to the
grid requirements. Depending on the applied configuration, the
power electronics will directly control between 20% up to 100 %
of the generated power where the lower percentage figures are
only valid for systems using the most common wind generation
topology with a Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG). On the
other hand, by using a circuit topology allowing for the full power Figure 1. A 2-level Voltage Source Inverter with IGBTs.
conversion, an electrical decoupling from the generator side to
the line side can be achieved, which in many cases is a viable
solution although the converter itself will be much larger. Inde- To accomplish a higher output voltage without series connection
pendent of the chosen topology the only way to control high lev- of power devices other topologies are needed and the most com-
els of power flows are through the utilisation of high power elec- mon is the 3-level inverter, figure 2, which enables an output
tronic devices that have to be selected carefully to achieve the voltage that is twice as high as a 2-level inverter with the same
intended performance. Two major aspects of the selection is the power semiconductor voltage rating. This topology is the main
converter topology and the connected voltage dimensioning that solution for the Medium Voltage Drives (MVD) on the market
will be discussed in detail in this paper. since with existing devices it is possible to achieve output volt-
ages of up to 4.16 kV without series connection of devices and/or
converters
 where y is a safety factor that has to be selected based on the
switching conditions and stray inductances. For low stray in-
ductances, a safety margin of about 50 % is used and for me-
dium stray inductances, a safety margin of about 60 % is used.
The preferred device rating is then normally selected as the next
highest standard device voltage rating.
Using Eqns 1 and 2, the preferred voltage ratings for the semi-
conductor at standard line voltages, both AC and DC, are
shown in Table 1.

TABLE I. PREFERRED BLOCKING VOLTAGE RATINGS FOR HIGH POWER

SEMICONDUCTORS USED IN 2-LEVEL VSIS

Nominal line Nominal DC-link voltage Preferred repetitive block-

voltage for cosmic ray rating (V) ing voltage rating (V)
400 VRMS 620 1200
Figure 2. A 3-level Voltage Source Inverter with reverse conducting IGCTs
750 VDC 900 1700
and NPC-diodes.
690 VRMS 1070 1700
1500 VDC 1800 3300
The 3-level inverter in wind power applications is mainly em- 1700 VRMS 2800 4500
ployed in systems with full power conversion as with medium 3000 VDC 3600 6000
voltage permanent magnet synchronous generators. 3300 VDC 4000 6500

When considering what voltage levels can be achieved with

B. Voltage Source 3-LevelIinverter
available power semiconductors, there are three voltage ratings
to be considered: Due to the 3-level connection, each semiconductor will only
support half of the total DC-voltage. The required DC-voltage
1) The DC-voltage which determines the cosmic radiation as a function of the supply voltage is calculated using Eqn 3.
failure rate [1] [2] and long-term leakage current stability.
2) The repetitive overshoot voltage spikes during turn-off æ x ö
which must not exceed the rated VDRM (for GTO and VNOMRMS ´ 2 ´ ç1 + ÷
IGCT) or VCES (for IGBT) of the device. VDC = è 100 ø Eqn 3
3) The maximum voltage against which the device is sup- 2
posed to switch a specified current to guarantee its Safe
Operating Area. Using Eqns 2 and 3 and considering the same over voltage and
safety factors as for the 2-level inverter we obtain table 2 for
the 3-level inverter.
A. Voltage Source 2-Level Inverter
In this configuration, each semiconductor will support the total TABLE II. PREFERRED BLOCKING VOLTAGE RATINGS FOR HIGH POWER
SEMICONDUCTORS USED IN 3-LEVEL VSIS
DC-voltage. The required DC-voltage (VDC) as a function of the
phase-to-phase supply voltage (VNOMRMS) is calculated using Nominal line Nominal DC-link voltage Preferred repetitive block-
Eqn 1. voltage for cosmic ray rating (V) ing voltage rating (V)
2300 VRMS 1900 3300
3300 VDC 2000 3300
æ x ö 3300 VRMS 2700 4500
VDC = V NOMRMS ´ 2 ´ ç1 + ÷ Eqn 1 4160 VRMS 3400 5500
è 100 ø 6000 VRMS 4900 8000
6600 VRMS 5400 8500
For typical industrial networks, the over voltage factor, nor- 6900 VRMS 5600 9000
7200 VRMS 5900 9500
mally corresponding directly to the network tolerance; x = 10 %
for low voltage systems and x = 15 % for medium voltage sys-
tems. For traction lines, typically, x = 20 %.

To calculate the required peak repetitive voltage rating (VDR),

Eqn 2 is used,

æ y ö
VDR = VDC ´ ç1 + ÷ Eqn 2
è 100 ø
 modules have been developed for high reliability traction appli-
cations making them very suitable for harsh environments.
C. Other Topologies
Still higher output voltages can be achieved by using multi- Although the devices due to the large size and high power rat-
level inverters. The variety of possibilities using such topology ings cannot be switched as fast as IGBT-modules for lower
would expand this paper beyond the given limits, but what it all power applications, it is still possible to reach switching fre-
comes down to is to realize a converter for high voltages by quencies of 2 – 4 kHz for the 1700 V HiPaks which for most
breaking down the voltage for each device to a level that allows wind application should be sufficient.
the power semiconductor devices to operate at conditions
within their given specification to reach an acceptable perform-
ance and reliability as can be seen when comparing the 2-level
and 3-level inverter topologies.

D. Pros and Cons for the Different Topologies

A comparison between the different topologies can be summa-
rized in that every additional level is increasing the complexity
for both the converter itself as well as for the control system.
The increased complexity and the added amount of components
have a negative impact on the reliability that normally can only
be reduced by measures as de-rating of the used components.
The positive aspects of the additional levels is that the out-put
voltage gets a better shape thus reducing the need for filtering,
and this can be achieved with a lower switching speed for the Figure 3. The Standard IGBT HiPak module family.
power semiconductors thus decreasing their losses. In addition,
the higher voltage levels can be achieved without the introduc- Since higher voltage requires thicker silicon which gives higher
tion of complex series connections of power electronic devices. switching losses, the high voltage devices will have a stronger
frequency dependency of the possible output power then low
voltage devices, which can be seen in figure 4 for devices in the
II. POWER SEMICONDUCTORS FOR MVD same housing at the same conditions but with different voltage
To reach the control possibilities required in a wind turbine the ratings. Hence, this will reduce their possible usage for applica-
use of turn-off devices are almost mandatory and for medium tions requiring high switching frequencies.
voltage conversion there is the choice between two families of
turn-off devices, the IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) Inverter Output Power
3 phase, m = 1, cos f = 0.85, TA = 40 °C, Rth(S-A) =9.5 K/kW
and the IGCT (Integrated Gate-Commutated Thyristor). 3.0E+06

The Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor IGBT 2.5E+06

The IGBT is a well established device for power conversion in 2.0E+06

5SNA 2400E170100
applications as low and medium voltage drives, UPS and bat-
Pout [W]

5SNA 1200E330100
1.5E+06
tery charges and is available in many different types of pack- 5SNA 0600G650100

ages, mainly with an insulated base plate. Most of the standard 1.0E+06

packages were developed mainly for low voltage applications 5.0E+05

and when going to medium voltage systems one package family 0.0E+00
is becoming predominant and it is the HiPak-type of modules. 100 1000 10000
fsw [Hz]
The HiPak IGBT-module, figure 3, is the standard device for
high power traction applications but is also used in its various Figure 4. Output power as function of switching frequency at given
conditions.
configurations in converters for wind energy applications. The
available ratings are 1700 – 6500 V enabling inverter ratings up
to about 2400 Vrms, equations 1 and 2. With devices current
ratings up to 2400 A, 1700 V and 750 A, 6500 V it is possible
to accomplish converters with ratings beyond 500 kW even
with forced air cooling, without series or parallel connection,
making them very useful for DFIGs up to about 2.5 MW. These
devices with an insulated base plate are seldom used in 3-level
inverters due to insulation issues. The highest insulation voltage
on the market is 10.2 kV for a 6500 V module. The HiPak
The Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor IGCT
The IGCT, see figure 5, has since its introduction in 1997 [3]
established itself as the device of choice for medium voltage
drives mainly for industrial applications but it also have been
used in wind mill converters as for the ABB PCS 6000. Due to
the integration with a low inductive gate unit this GTO-based
device conducts like a thyristor and switches like a transistor.
Compared with the GTO this design allows switching of high
currents without the need of snubbers thus simplifying the cir-
cuit compared with a GTO-solution significantly. The IGCT is
available as asymmetric and reverse conducting devices where
the latter has an integrated free-wheel diode. Both devices have Figure 6. Turn-off waveforms for 1200A/3300V HiPak module at 125°C.
been optimized for VSI -applications. With ratings of 4500V, IC=5.0 kA (>4 x nominal), VDC=2.6 kV, LS = 5µH, Ls = 280 nH.
4000 A, it is possible to design water-cooled converters in a 3-
level connection with rating of about 8 MVA without the need The next step in the chip design was to improve the emitter
of series or parallel connection, making the IGCT a viable solu- design for lower losses and hence the SPT+ technology was
tion for wind turbines with full converters and also for the com- introduced for the whole voltage range utilising an Enhanced
ing wind turbine generation. Planar technology. The robustness has been kept but by de-
creasing the losses, see figure 7, the introduction of the SPT+-
platform [4] [5] has already increased the power density in the
HiPak IGBT-modules with up to 20 %. Due to the improvement
it is possible to either increase the output power of the inverter
without making any changes to the circuitry and without sacri-
ficing the robustness and controllability that has become a
trademark for the SPT-chip family. Both SPT and SPT+ mod-
ule contain low loss, soft and rugged freewheeling diodes to
match the IGBT performance.

Figure 5. 4.5kV IGCT 5SHY 55L4500.

Available voltage ratings are 4500, 5500 and 6500 V enabling

3-level inverters beyond 4.16 kV. The press-pack design is well
suited for 3-level inverters since there is no inherent insulation,
which only has to be provided for the assembled stack and the
gate unit supply voltage. The control is made through fibre op-
tics.
III. POWER DEVICE DEVELOPMENTS
Figure 7. 1200V -6500V IGBT improvements, SPT to SPT+.
Intensive development programs in the field of power semicon-
ductors continue today in order to further improve the devices The quest for improved ratings has not stopped by the introduc-
performance in terms of increased power levels and reliability. tion of the SPT+. Further possibilities to improve the IGBT
The near future will see improvements in the device technolo- performance were explored and a very promising technology is
gies for enabling the design of even more powerful inverters. in the pipeline. The Reverse Conducting IGBT (RC-IGBT) [6],
The HiPak family was introduced using the very robust (Soft- referred to as the BIGT (Bi-mode Insulated Gate Transistor) in
Punch-Through) SPT-chip high voltage technology with its its advanced design, promise another performance increase in at
planar design and typical SPT-buffer. The SPT-IGBT rugged least the same magnitude as the change from SPT to SPT+. By
performance is shown in figure 6 for a 1200 A / 3300V Hipak using the same die both as diode and as IGBT, see figure 8, the
module under extreme dynamic avalanche and Switching-Self- power density can increase significantly since the available chip
Clamping-Mode (SSCM) conditions. area within a module is more efficiently utilised.
 to the HPT-IGCT, the envisaged turn-off capability is much
higher than what could be previously expected for a turn-off
device of this voltage level. 91mm 10kV IGCT and diode tech-
nology demonstrators have been produced and show very prom-
ising results and good switching behaviour as can be seen in
figure 10 and 11.

Figure 8. The BIGT, IGBT and Diode in one die.

The BIGT concept would mean another step forward in realiz-

ing very powerful compact converters since a BIGT-module
would have a rating that is about 50 % higher than a solution
with SPT+ in the same package. Improvements in terms of de-
vice softness and reliability are also predicted with the new
concept.

Improvements are though not made for IGBTs alone. Solutions

for expansion of the operating field for IGCTs are also investi- Figure 10. Wave forms of snubberless turn-off for a 10 kV IGCT demonstrator
with area 40 cm2 at Tj = 130 °C, and VDC = 6000 V, IT=2.0 kA.
gated. The recently introduced High Power Technology HPT-
IGCT [7] gives an increase in the IGCT-SOA (Safe Operating
Area) of up to 50 % which opens new perspectives for control
and fault handling compared to the standard devices. Figure 9
shows an example of the powerful turn-off switching capability
of the new 4.5kV 91mm HPT-IGCT generation. The switching
was performed in a test circuit without a snubber and was car-
ried out to establish the safe-operating Area (SOA) limits of the
device which means that the conditions were outside the
boundaries given in the device data sheet. The IGCT was capa-
ble turning off in excess of 5000A by withstanding extreme
conditions with a large stray inductance while also supporting
the Switching-Self-Clamping-Mode of operation successfully.

Figure 11. Wave forms of reverse recovery for a 10 kV diode demonstrator

with area 40 cm2 at Tj = 130 °C, and VDC = 6000 V, IT=2.0 kA.

Figure 9. Turn-off wave forms for the HPT-IGCT 5SHY 55L4500 last pass at
25°C. IT=5.5 kA, VDC=2.8 kV, LCOMM = 5µH, Ls = 700 nH.

Further more, the technology development of the 10 kV IGCT

and diode [8], enabling voltages in a 3-level configuration of up
to 7.2 kV, without series connection see table 2, open up new
fields for the use of power semiconductors in power conver-
sion. By using the advanced corrugated p-base design, similarly
 REFERENCES
[1] N. Kaminski 5SYA2042 “Failure rates of HiPak modules due to cosmic
rays” ABB application note
[2] N. Kaminski, T. Stiasny 5SYA2046 “Failure rates of IGCTs due to
cosmic rays” ABB application note
[3] S. Klaka, M. Frecker, H. Grüning, PCIM, “The Integrated Gate-
Commutated Thyristor: A New High-Efficiency, High-Power Switch for
Series or Snubberless Operation” Nürnberg, 1997
[4] A. Kopta, M. Rahimo, U. Schlapbach, R. Schnell, D. Schneider “High
Voltage SPT+ HiPak modules rated at 4500V”, PCIM, Nürnberg, 2007
[5] A. Kopta M. Rahimo, U. Schlapbach, A. Baschnagel, J. Berner. “6500V
SPT+ HiPak Modules Rated at 750A”, PCIM, Nürnberg, 2008
[6] M. Rahimo, U. Schlapbach, A. Kopta, J. Vobecky, D. Schneider, A.
Baschnagel: “A high current 3300 V module employing Reverse
Conducting IGBTs, setting a new benchmark in output power capability”
ISPSD, Orlando, 2008
[7] T. Wikström, T. Stiasny, M. Rahimo, D. Cottet, P. Streit “The
Corrugated P-Base IGCT – a New Benchmark for Large Area SOA
Scaling”, ISPSD, Jeju-Island, 2007
[8] T. Wikström, M. Lüscher, I. Nistor, M. Scheinert: “An IGCT chip set 7.2
kV (RMS) VSI application” ISPSD, Orlando, 2008

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