摘要
Medium voltage DC(MVDC)system is considered as a promising technology to improve the efficiency and power density of electric aircraft propulsion(EAP)drives.To adapt to the MVDC voltage level and achieve high drive performance,a five-level active neutral point clamped(5L-ANPC)inverter consisting of three-level ANPC and flying capacitor circuits is investigated,which possesses higher voltage capability,lower output harmonics,as well as mitigated dv/dt and common-mode voltage.To fulfill the requirements of high-speed operation and pursue further enhanced efficiency and power density of the inverter for the next-generation EAP drives,Silicon Carbide(SiC)semiconductor devices are considered for implementing the 5L-ANPC inverter.However,the large commutation loops associated with certain switching states of the inverter lessen the benefits of configuring all the switches as SiC devices.As a result,a hybrid Si/SiC 5L-ANPC inverter is developed with a synchronous optimal pulse(SOP)width modulation strategy for controlling the switches in cell 2 and finite-control-set model predictive controller(FCS-MPC)for those in cell 3 of the inverter.Consequently,in the proposed topology,the SiC devices are merely used for the high-frequency switches in cell 3 and the rest of the low-frequency switches are configured with Si IGBTs.This Si/SiC hybrid ANPC inverter concurrently provides high efficiency and low implementation cost at high-speed operation mode.Simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid inverter.
