INVERTERS

Inverters synthesize an alternating voltage from a d.c source through appropriate

switching of rectifying devices. Inverters are now commonplace in industry; their uses
include, variable speed drives, induction heaters and uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
systems.

a.c d.c a.c

Rectifier Inverter
fi fo

Fig.1

Inverters can be classified as voltage source inverters(VSI) and current source

inverters(CSI). A voltage source inverter is fed by a stiff dc voltage, whereas a current
source inverter is fed by a stiff current source. A voltage source can be converted to a
current source by connecting a series inductance and then varying the voltage to obtain
the desired current. A VSI can also be operated in current-controlled mode,
and similarly a CSI can also be operated in the voltage control mode.

(a)
(b)

Fig.2 Block diagram of (a) VSI (b) CSI

The Voltage Source Inverter (VSI)

A single-phase bridge inverter is shown in fig.3. The devices might be MOSFETs, SCRs,
BJTs or GTOs. Firing thyristor T1 & T2 simultaneously connects the load to the battery
( a to + and b to - ). Firing T 3 & T4 together connects the battery to the load in opposite
sense ( a to – b to +). Hence an alternating voltage can be made to appear at the load.

If T1 and T2 are on and carrying lad current, then firing T 3 and T4 will automatically
transfer load current from T1 and T4 and from T2 to T3, thus turning off T1 & T2. The
thyristors are fired by a continuous train of gate pulses for 180 0 of the inverter output
voltage. Looking at the latter end of the positive half-cycle , the load current is positive
and growing exponentially; however when T3 and T4 are gated to turn off T1 and T2, the
load voltage reverses but not the load current. The only path for the load current is via
diodes D3 & D4 which connects the d.c source to the load giving a reverse voltage with
the stored inductive energy of the load being returned to the d.c source until the load
current falls to zero . Once the load current ceases, T3 and T4 can conduct so as to feed
power in to the load, the load current now growing exponentially. Because the thyristors
require refiring at the instant of the load current zero, a train of firing pulses is required at
the gates, as this instant can be at any time in the half cycle.

1
 V0 I0
+
D1 T1 T3 D3

a b
E

D4 D2
T4 T2
T1,T2 T3,T4
- D1 D3
D2 D4
Fig.3 Single-phase bridge inverter

A 3-phase bridge VSI is shown in fig.5.

D1 T1 T3 D3 T5 D5

D4 T4 T6 D6 T2
D2

Fig.4 3-phase bridge VSI

Each thyristor conducts for 1200 of the output cycle. It is assumed that at the end of the
1200 period a commutation circuit is initiated to turn off the appropriate thyristor . The
waveforms show that the load currents are quasi-square wave, each thyristor conducting
the load current for one-third of a cycle. The d.c source is switched in 6 steps to
synthesize the 3-phase output. The rate at which the thyristors are switched determines
the load frequency.

For inductive load the current in each arm of the load will be delayed to its voltage. When
T1 is fired T4 is turned off but, because the load current can not reverse the only path for
this current is through diode D1. Hence the load phase is connected to the positive end of
the d.c source but until the load current reverses at t1, T1 won’t take up conduction.

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Voltage control of the 3-phase inverter can be implemented by adding two 1-phase
inverter circuits, one phase delayed to the other, and the combined outputs of 3 such
circuits being linked via transformers to give a 3-phase output.

Fig.5 Quasi-square wave operation voltage waveforms

The VSIs are controlled either in square-wave mode or in pulse width-modulated (PWM)
mode. In square-wave mode, the frequency of the output voltage is controlled within the
inverter, the devices being used to switch the output circuit between the plus and minus
bus. Each device conducts for 180 degrees, and each of the outputs is displaced 120
degrees to generate a six-step waveform, as shown in Fig.5 The amplitude of the output
voltage is controlled by varying the dc link voltage. This is done by varying the firing
angle of the thyristors of the three-phase bridge converter at the input. The square-wave-
type VSI is not suitable if the dc source is a battery. The six-step output voltage is rich in
harmonics and thus needs heavy filtering.

In PWM inverters, the output voltage and frequency are controlled within the inverter by
varying the width of the output pulses. Hence at the front end, instead of a phase-

3
controlled thyristor converter, a diode bridge rectifier can be used. A very popular method
of controlling the voltage and frequency is by sinusoidal pulse width modulation. In this
method, a high-frequency triangle carrier wave is compared with a three-phase sinusoidal
waveform, as shown in Fig.6. The power devices in each phase are switched on at the
intersection of sine and triangle waves. The amplitude and frequency of the output
voltage are varied, respectively, by varying the amplitude and frequency of the reference
sine waves. The ratio of the amplitude of the sine wave to the amplitude of the carrier
wave is called the modulation index.

The harmonic components in a PWM wave are easily filtered because they are shifted to
a higher-frequency region. It is desirable to have a high ratio of carrier frequency to
fundamental frequency to reduce the harmonics of lower-frequency components. There
are several other PWM techniques mentioned in the literature. The most notable ones are
selected harmonic elimination, hysteresis controller, and space vector PWM technique.

In inverters, if SCRs are used as power switching devices, an external forced

commutation circuit has to be used to turn off the devices. Now, with the availability of
IGBTs above 1000A, 1000 V ratings, they are being used in applications up to 300-kW
motor drives. Above this power rating, GTOs are generally used. Power Darlington
transistors, which are available up to 800 A, 1200 V, could also be used for inverter
applications.

Fig.6 Three-phase sinusoidal PWM inverter waveforms.

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The Current Source Inverter (CSI)

In the VSI the supply voltage to be stiff, this is often achieved by the use of a large
parallel capacitor between the rectifier output and the inverter input. In the current source
inverter, it is the current and not the voltage that is assumed to be constant. In practice
this is achieved by supplying the inverter through a large inductor so that changes in the
inverter voltage are met by Ldi/dt, thus if L is large, then di/dt is small. This makes
commutation much simpler and can be done using capacitors only giving us the single
phase inverter shown below