Novel clamping modulation for three‐phase buck‐boost ac choppers

Abstract Three‐phase ac choppers feature output voltage amplitude controllability and enable more compact system realizations compared to autotransformers. For the practical realization advantageously standard power transistor with unipolar voltage blocking capability such as MOSFETs can be employed as a naturally resulting offset voltage between the grid and the input‐stage starpoint ensures purely positive power transistor voltages. This offset voltage is, however, not strictly defined and may drift to higher voltage values, resulting in high power transistor voltage stresses and finally a potential overvoltage breakdown. Traditionally, the offset voltage drift is prevented by introducing discharge resistors across the input‐stage capacitors which, however, results in substantial ohmic losses. This paper analyzes the offset voltage formation in ac choppers and proposes a novel clamping modulation scheme which ensures a strictly defined and minimum time‐varying offset voltage without need for discharge resistors. Theoretical analyses and circuit simulations are finally experimentally verified with a 400 V (rms, line‐to‐line) 50 Hz grid connected three‐phase buck‐boost ac chopper with 3 kW rated power.