Soft-Switching Resonant Conversion with IGCT

In the area of medium voltage DC-DC conversion, series resonant converter is an attractive topology for implementation of the solid state DC transformer. Applying integrated gate controlled thyristor as a switch, it is possible to obtain very low conduction losses, while greatly lowering the switching losses by proper use of this converter topology. Continuous operation of the IGCT under low current turn-off and zero voltage turn-on is explored throughout this paper, with the emphasis of the proper dead-time selection, critical parameter limiting the increase of switching frequency while keeping the turn-off losses low. Theoretical assumptions and conclusions are supported by experimental results obtained from a dedicated test setup designed to emulate the operating conditions present in series resonant converter.