Modularized Three-Phase Semiconductor Transformer with Bidirectional Power Flow for Medium Voltage Application

This paper describes a prototype of modularized three-phase semiconductor transformer that was developed in the lab for feasibility study. The developed prototype is composed of three units of single-phase semiconductor transformer coupled in Y-connection. Each single-phase unit has multiple units of high-voltage high-frequency resonant AC–DC converter, a low-voltage hybrid-switching DC–DC converter, and a low-voltage hybrid-switching DC–AC inverter. Also, each single-phase unit has two digital signal processor (DSP) boards to control converter operation and to acquire monitoring data. The monitoring system was developed based on LabView by using controller area network (CAN) communication between the DSP board and the personal computer (PC). Through diverse experimental analyses it was verified that the prototype operates with proper performance under normal and sag conditions. The developed prototype confirms the possibility of fabricating a commercial high-voltage high-power semiconductor transformer by increasing the number of series-connected converter modules in high-voltage side and improving the system efficiency with a new switching device such as an SiC device.