Reliability Calculation of Multilevel Converters: Theory and Applications

Multilevel converters have many power devices and drivers. Thus, a direct reliability calculation based only on the first failure occurrence on one of the components clearly leads them to be devalued compared to two-level converters. However, taking into account that symmetrical multilevel converters such as the X-level active neutral point clamped (ANPC) family are based on imbricated and/or stacked switching cells on the one hand, with an additional center tap at the dc bus in three-phase operation on the other hand, several redundancies clearly appear which can be managed to increase the global reliability. For the first time, a general and theoretical methodology used to calculate reliability laws and failure rates and applied to compare two-, three-, and five-level topologies is proposed. Results show that the fault handling of three- and five-level three-phase topologies permits a great increase in reliability over a “relatively” short time duration, in addition to other benefits.

[1]  A.M.N. Lima,et al.  A strategy for improving reliability of motor drive systems using a four-leg three-phase converter , 2001, APEC 2001. Sixteenth Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (Cat. No.01CH37181).

[2]  Josep Pou,et al.  Performance Evaluation of Fault-Tolerant Neutral-Point-Clamped Converters , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[3]  R. A. Hanna,et al.  Medium voltage adjustable speed drives-users' and manufacturers' experiences , 1996, Proceedings of 1996 IAS Petroleum and Chemical Industry Technical Conference.

[4]  Franck Mosser,et al.  Complete short-circuit failure mode properties and comparison based on IGBT standard packaging. Application to new fault-tolerant inverter and interleaved chopper with reduced parts count , 2011, Proceedings of the 2011 14th European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications.

[5]  Thierry Meynard,et al.  Survey on Fault Operation on Multilevel Inverters , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[6]  T.A. Lipo,et al.  A strategy for improving reliability of field oriented controlled induction motor drives , 1991, Conference Record of the 1991 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting.

[7]  P. Jacob,et al.  SEM investigation on IGBT latch-up failure , 2001, 2001 6th International Conference on Solid-State and Integrated Circuit Technology. Proceedings (Cat. No.01EX443).

[8]  M. Chao,et al.  Survey of reliability studies of consecutive-k-out-of-n:F and related systems , 1995 .

[9]  S. Iyer.  Distribution of time to failure of consecutive k-out-of-n:F systems , 1990 .

[10]  G. Gateau,et al.  Fault-tolerant inverter for on-board aircraft EHA , 2007, 2007 European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications.

[11]  Thierry Meynard,et al.  Failures-tolerance and remedial strategies of a PWM multicell inverter , 2002 .

[12]  Dawei Xiang,et al.  An Industry-Based Survey of Reliability in Power Electronic Converters , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

[13]  Philippe Baudesson,et al.  Fault management of multicell converters , 2002, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron..