A Current Source GTO Inverter with Sinusoidal Inputs and Outputs

With the application of gate turn-off thyristors (GTO's) and PWM control techniques, a current source inverter capable of producing sinusoidal input/output (I/O) voltages and currents has been developed. The sinusoidally modulated current is fed to the GTO's in the rectifier and inverter sections. The overvoltage-absorption capacitors connected to the ac input and output terminals function as a filter and, consequently, the waveforms of the input/output voltages and currents become sinusoidal. Because the PWM control utilizes the high-speed switching characteristics of the GTO's, the dc link current smoothing reactor and the overvoltage absorption capacitors are greatly reduced. The dc link voltage in the rectifier section is controlled to adjust the ac motor current. This is accomplished by using the firing angle shift method in conjunction with the method involving varying the width of the bypass gate pulses, which put the rectifier section into a bypass state. The current source GTO inverter is used to drive an 11-kW induction motor. As a result, excellent acceleration and deceleration characteristics are obtained, which verifies that the new current source inverter is quite suitable for driving an ac motor at variable speeds.