Efficiency Assessment of an Open-End Winding Inverter Exploiting a Mixed Si/GaN Technology

This paper investigates about the efficiency of an asymmetrical Open-End Winding inverter structure, the AHMLI, when a mixed Si/GaN technology approach is adopted. The inverter proposed is formed by a main IGBT three level T-Type inverter, which processes the whole power feed to the load, and an auxiliary inverter, which plays the role of an active filter, being based on GaN devices. In terms of global efficiency, it will be demonstrated that the proposed inverter roughly achieves the same result of an IGBT T-Type inverter with step modulation, but with much better voltage and current THD. The investigation accomplished is useful to detect the best solution for applications such as electric vehicles, variable speed industrial motor drives, and wind turbine power plants, where high efficiency over an extended speed, and/or load range is required.