Electrical Engineering in Japan, Vol. 126, No.

3, 1999

Translated from Denki Gakkai Ronbunshi, Vol. 117-D, No. 11, November 1997, pp. 13641374

A Simplified Method of Calculating Busbar Inductance and Its Application for

Stray Resonance Analysis in an Inverter dc Link
KATSUTAKA TSUBOI

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Nagasaki, Japan

MINEO TSUJI and EIJI YAMADA

Nagasaki University

1. Introduction

SUMMARY

Recently, high speed semiconductor switching devices have been frequently applied in power electronics
apparatus, even for large capacity converters. Therefore it
is important to obtain the inductance of busbars, used as
connecting conductors in large capacity converters, in order, for example, to minimize the loop inductance of commutation circuits, snubber circuits, and so on so as to
decrease the switching surge voltage or to increase the
turn-off capability of GTOs, and to calculate stray resonant
frequency so as to avoid hazardous resonance with the
switching frequencies of semiconductor devices in power
electronics converters.
The latter stray resonance phenomena present an
especially important issue to be solved [1, 2] as PWM
applications to large capacity converters grow. In the dc
filter circuits of larger capacity converters, the capacitance
of a unit capacitor increases and the stray inductance also
increases because of relatively long busbars. Thus, the
resonant frequency decreases. On the other hand, the PWM
switching frequency tends to be increased in order to decrease harmonic components in the input or output current.
Even if the switching frequency of a single device is not
high, the equivalent frequency may be high as a result of
multi-level or multi-phase topologies. Furthermore, in large
capacity converters, since the voltage tends to be high, oil
capacitors are frequently used rather than electrolytic capacitors and these must be connected in multiple series for
high voltage applications. Therefore the dumping factor of
the circuit is reduced. For these reasons, the potential for
coincidence between the switching frequency and resonant
frequency increases and the system has a large resonance
factor. If the stray resonant frequency of the circuit matches
the switching frequency or any of its harmonics, unexpected phenomena such as overheating of main circuit
components due to irregular large oscillating currents is the

Sinusoidal PWM control is widely applied to power

electronic converters. The carrier frequency of recent converter products is gradually being raised in order to decrease
current harmonics as much as possible. However, in the dc
filter circuits of large capacity converters, the capacitance
of a unit capacitor is relatively large, and the busbars are
relatively long. Therefore, the resonant frequency is lower
than those of small capacity converters. Consequently, there
is a concern that the carrier frequency will become close to
the resonant frequency, which will cause trouble. On the
other hand, it is often necessary to decrease the inductance
of the loop circuit consisting of a switching device and its
by-pass circuit, in order to suppress the switching surge
voltage.
In both cases described above, it is important to be
sure of the exact busbar inductance for reliable design. In
this paper, a simplified method of calculating busbar inductance is proposed. This method is based on the partial
inductance theory. In particular, the characteristics of a pair
of busbars, and the use of the method are described. Finally,
an application to stray resonance analysis in the dc filter
circuit of a three level inverter is described in comparison
with experimental data. From these results, we confirmed
that the proposed method is usable to estimate busbar
inductance quickly and accurately. 1999 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 126(3): 4963, 1999

Key words: Busbar; inductance; PWM inverter;

stray resonance.

49

CCC0424-7760/99/030049-15
1999 Scripta Technica

result. However, in most previous papers, the main goals

have been the explanation of resonance phenomena themselves and the proposal of control methods or circuit topologies to avoid them. We cannot find any reports that propose
a concrete method of estimating the stray resonant frequency from the aspect of optimum design of busbars so as
to avoid resonant oscillation.
The inductance and resistance of busbars at high
frequency can be calculated by means of general purpose
electromagnetic field analyzing software tools using the
FEM and other techniques. However, it takes a very long
time for many busbar construction plans to be investigated
by a trial-and-error method. Therefore, a simplified method
of calculating inductance that can be used effectively is
required. If the fact that most busbars are not placed in
contact with or near magnetic materials is taken into account, simplification of the calculation is possible. Previously, some simplified calculation methods were
presented [3, 4]; however, one of them is a method that uses
existing dc inductance calculating tools, another seems not
to lead to the expected result. We cannot find reports that
present consistent procedures with reproducible results.
In this paper, we offer a proposal for a new simplified
method of calculating busbar inductance, the calculated
results for some simple models, and applications to the
analysis of stray resonance phenomena. As a preliminary,
the derivation of a formula for calculating the inductance
of a fine wire element, which is the basic component of a
busbar, and an estimate of the approximation error caused
by simplifying the formula, are presented in section 2. The
calculation methods and calculated results for the example
of single busbar and two or three busbars mounted in
parallel are described in section 3. Interactions between two
busbars are selectively studied as basic characteristics that
will be applied in order to synthesize the inductance in the
actual apparatus. Finally, the calculation method and calculated results for practical busbar systems with complicated
construction are described in section 4. A stray resonance
analysis of an NPC (neutral point clamped) converter is
carried out by the proposed method, and the result is compared with experimental data. It is confirmed that the resonant frequency of the apparatus can be calculated easily and
accurately by using only construction data on the busbars.

tween the two busbars in different directions is very small

even if the finite cross sections of the busbars are taken into
account. It can therefore be neglected and interactions
between busbars need be considered only within the same
directional busbar group. For this reason, the fundamental
inductance calculations may be carried out among busbars
that are parallel to each other.
Before deriving the formula, we assume the following.
(i) All the current in a busbar flows parallel with the
center axis in the direction of its length.
(ii) In any cross section perpendicular to the center
axis, all positions are at equal potential.
In case of the connecting point of two busbars with
different widths or in case of two parallel busbars with
extremely different length, assumption (i) cannot be satisfied strictly. However, in most practical cases, this assumption will be acceptable. If it is not satisfied under the original
conditions, it will be approximately satisfied by partitioning a busbar conceptually into appropriately short lengths.
If assumption (i) is satisfied, no current component in
parallel with the cross section of the busbar can exist.
Consequently assumption (ii) can be derived secondarily.
Based on assumption (i), each busbar can be considered a set of fine wire elements, each having a square cross
section with small sides as shown in Fig. 1. The selfinductance and resistance of a fine wire element will be
calculated by assuming that the skin effect can be neglected
and hence that the density of the current can be considered
uniform. Mutual inductance between wire elements will be
calculated by assuming that all currents are concentrated on
the center axis. The inductance and resistance of busbars
under high frequency conditions will be synthesized by
aggregating the characteristics of the fine wire elements.

2. Fundamentals of Inductance Calculation

2.1 Definition of issues and some assumptions
Normally, the directions of busbars in large capacity
practical apparatuses are limited to three alternatives: (1)
vertical, (2) horizontal and parallel to the face of the cubicle,
and (3) horizontal and parallel to the side of the cubicle.
Since these directions are orthogonal, the inductance be-

Fig. 1. Division of busbar into fine wire elements.

50

If l / q >> 1, Eq. (4) can be approximated by

2.2 Self-inductance and resistance of a fine

wire element
The self-inductance L is defined by

(5)
(1)

where R is the geometrical mean distance (GMD), which

depends on the shape of the cross section of a fine wire
element, and can be expressed as

(2)

(6)

where i is the current density, I the total current in a

conductor, v the total cubic volume of a conductor, A the
vector potential caused by i, m the permeability, and rl is the
distance between the point where A is defined and an
infinitesimal volume element dv.
Since the current density is assumed to be uniform,
if a busbar is placed in a field where the permeability ratio
is 1.0, the self inductance of a fine wire element can be
expressed by means of Eqs. (1) and (2) as

For a rectangle with sides a and b, they can be calculated

as

(3)
(7)

where m0 is the permeability in vacuum, S the area of cross

section of a fine wire element, l the length of a fine wire
element, l1 and l2 are the position of an infinitesimal volume
element dv1 or dv2 in the direction of the length, and q is the
distance between two infinitesimal volume elements dv1
and dv2 in the direction perpendicular to the length. (Refer
to Fig. 2).
Performing integration with respect to l1 and l2, Eq.
(3) can be rewritten as

where x1 and x2 are variables that indicate the position of

infinitesimal area elements dS1 and dS2 in the direction of
side a, and y1 and y2 are the corresponding variables for b.
Since the cross section is assumed to be a rectangle
in this case, by substituting b = a into Eq. (7) and further
substituting Eq. (7) into Eq. (5), the self inductance of a fine
wire element can be finally expressed as
(8)
where a is the length of a side of the cross section of a fine
wire element.
We will next investigate the error caused by approximating Eq. (4) by Eq. (5). By assuming that the integrands
in Eqs. (4) and (5) are F1(l / q) and F2(l / q), and calculating
the approximation error of the integrand (F2 - F1) / F1, it is
recognized that the smaller l / q, the larger the error. To
determine the value of l / q, using l / qmax where qmax is the
maximum outer diameter of a fine wire element, equal to
``2a

` , we calculated the maximum error (F2 - F1) / F1

within a fine wire element with l / a = 20, 100, 1000, and
obtained 2.9%, 0.36%, 0.023%, respectively. From this
we infer that, even in the worst case, the error of the
inductance of a fine wire element can be kept below this
value. The actual inductance error is smaller because in
most of the integration area q < qmax, the integrand is larger
and the error ratio smaller than under the condition

(4)

Fig. 2. Details of fine wire element.

51

Assuming that two fine wire elements are placed in parallel

in a space where the relative permeability is 1.0 and that
their thicknesses are negligibly fine, Eq. (12) can be rewritten as

q = qmax. By numerical integration, it was confirmed that

the actual inductance errors of fine wire elements with l / a
of 20, 100, and 1000 are 0.74%, 0.10%, and 0.007%,
respectively. The cautions which should be observed when
calculating the inductance are described below. The synthesized loop inductance of two busbars with self inductance
L and mutual inductance M, and which are placed parallel
and close to each other is expressed by 2(L - M). Since the
value of M is nearly equal to L, the value of the synthesized
inductance is severely affected by the calculation error of L
and M. Therefore, it is important to decide how finely the
busbar should be subdivided in order to obtain proper
accuracy within a reasonable calculation time, depending
on the purpose of analysis. In ordinary systems such as are
described in this paper, a value of 100 for l / a will be
sufficient. However, under higher frequency conditions, in
addition to assuring the accuracy of the inductance of a fine
wire element, finer subdivision of a busbar is also necessary
in order to satisfy the previous assumption that no skin
effect appears in a fine wire element. In this case, the
recommended thickness a of the fine wire element is equal
to or less than the depth of the skin effect, i.e.,
````````
2r / (wm0)
(where r is the volume resistivity of busbar material). This
consideration is very important when the high frequency
resistance must be calculated exactly.
The basic resistance of a fine wire element from
which the high frequency resistance of a busbar can be
synthesized is defined by

(13)
where l1 and l2 are the lengths of fine wire elements 1 and
2, and rl is the distance between two infinitesimal length
line elements dl1 and dl2 on fine wire elements 1 and 2,
respectively.
Defining the relative position between two fine wire
elements using c, d( 0) as shown in Fig. 3, Eq. (13) can be
expressed as

(14)
where

Under the condition d = 0, c 0, l1 = l2 = 1, which frequently appears within the same busbar, Eq. (14) can be
simplified as

(9)
2.3 Mutual inductance between fine wire
elements

(15)

The mutual inductance M between two conductors is

given by

Since this formula uses only the interval c between the

center axes of fine wire elements as information on relative
position between them, the calculation can be carried out
easily. In case of large c, it will be acceptable to assume that
the currents are concentrated on the center axes, neglecting
the cross sectional shapes of the fine wire elements, and to
use the above equation. However, in case of small c, some

(10)
(11)
where i1 and i2 are the current densities of conductors 1 and
2, I1 and I2 are the total currents of conductors 1 and 2, v1
and v2 are the total cubic volumes of conductor 1 and 2,
A2 is the vector potential within conductor 1 caused by i2
distribution, and rl is the distance between two infinitesimal
volume elements dv1 and dv2.
By substituting Eq. (11) into Eq. (10), we obtain
(12)

Fig. 3. Relative position of two wire elements.

52

estimation is necessary when neglecting the shape of these

cross sections. To obtain M, there is a more precise approach
as shown below. In this method, assuming l1 = l2 and d = 0,
Eq. (12) can be modified similarly to Eq. (3). Consequently,
similarly to Eq. (6), the GMD R between the cross sections
of two fine wire elements can be obtained as

0.23. Consequently, even in case of a pair of adjacent

elements, the error of the mutual inductance is 0.23 times
smaller than 0.65% and is sufficiently small in value, at
+0.15%. Therefore, simplified Eqs. (14) and (15) can be
used effectively in most practical applications.
3. Basic Characteristics of Busbar Inductance

(16)

3.1 Process of analysis

where S1 and S2 are the cross sectional areas of fine wire
elements 1 and 2, and q is the interval between infinitesimal
area elements dS1 and dS2 contained in areas S1 and S2,
respectively.
By using R, similar to Eq. (5), the mutual inductance
between fine wire elements can be expressed as

1) One busbar system

Partitioning a busbar into n pieces of fine wire elements, the circuit equation within the busbar is given by

(17)

(18)

On the other hand, under the condition l / c >> 1, Eq. (15)

can be written as Eq. (17) whose component R is replaced
by c. Therefore it can be understood that c is used instead
of R in Eq. (17) in an approximate method and R is used
in a strict calculation. Although the latter case is more true
to the principle, time-consuming calculation of R is needed
for each arrangement of two fine wire elements, and so the
procedure becomes very complicated. The error of distance
between two wire elements caused by the approximation
(c - R) / R was calculated by the method of numerical
integration as shown in Fig. 4. In this figure, one of a pair
elements is fixed at the origin, and the other is placed at
regular positions around the origin element. Although the
error decreases quickly as the interval between the elements
increases, the maximum error of about 0.65% appears on
a pair of adjacent elements. The effect of the error of R on
the error of the mutual inductance (DM / M) / (DR / R) can
be expressed as -1 / {log(2l / c) - 1} which can be derived
by using dM / dR obtained by differentiating Eq. (17). In
case of a pair of adjacent elements at l / a = 100, the value
of l / c is 100 and the value of -1 / {log(l / c) - 1} becomes

where Vi is the voltage across the both ends of each fine

wire element, Ii is the current through each fine wire element, w is the angular frequency of Vi and Ii, L is the self
inductance of a fine wire element, Mij is the mutual inductance between i-th and j-th fine wire elements, and r is the
resistance of a fine wire element.
As a simplified expression, Eq. (18) can be expressed
as
(19)
The value of M is constant even if l1 and l2 are interchanged
with each other in Eq. (14), and therefore Mij = Mji, and Z
is a symmetric matrix. Setting Y = Z1, and assuming that
V1 through Vn are each equal to V according to Assumption
(ii) described in section 2.1, the current vector I can be
obtained as

(20)

Accordingly, the total current IT of the busbar is

(21)

Fig. 4. Error of distance between two wire elements.

53

where 1 is an m or n dimensional column vector all of whose

components are equal to one, and V1, V2 are voltages across
both ends of busbars 1 and 2.
The total currents of busbars IT1 and IT2 can be expressed as shown below in the same manner as for the
one-busbar system.

Consequently the constants of a busbar, namely, self-inductance L and resistance R, can be expressed as follows:

(22)

where Im and Re denote the imaginary and real parts of the

variable following in parenthesis.
By using the above equation, calculating V that corresponds to a given total current IT, and substituting it into
Eq. (20), the currents of all the fine wire elements can be
obtained. These currents show the current distribution
within a busbar caused by the skin effect.

(27)

From this equation, V1 and V2 can be solved as follows

2) Two-busbar system

(28)

The circuit equation of a two-busbar system can be

expressed as

where z11, z12, z21, and z22 are components of the inverse
matrix obtained from the matrix in Eq. (27).
z12 is equal to z21, because of the identical two nondiagonal components in the matrix in Eq. (27), which are
the sum of all the components in each of the two transpose
matrices. Since each z is obtained from a matrix whose
elements are comprised of information related only to
construction and material, its value is not affected by the
busbar current. On the other hand, Eqs. (1), (2), (10), and
(11) mean that the inductance of the conductor that has a
finite volume is affected by the current distribution in the
conductor. However, depending on the results described
above, it can be understood that the circuit constants are not
affected by the total currents of the busbars and that the
busbar system maintains linearity regardless of the skin
effect at high frequency if the frequency is constant.
From the given total currents IT1 and IT2, calculating
V1 and V2 by using Eq. (28) and substituting these values
into Eq. (26), the current distribution in busbars 1 and 2 can
be obtained. Furthermore, by using the z in Eq. (28), the
circuit constants of the two-busbar system can be calculated. An interesting feature in this stage is that z12 and z21
are not pure imaginary numbers, but include a real part. Due
to this real part, it is observed that the effective resistance
of a busbar may differ depending on the method of connecting two parallel busbars, i.e., connected in parallel (currents
of two busbars are in the same direction) or connected in
serial (currents of two busbars are in opposite directions).
In this paper, this real part is called the mutual resistance.
L1, L2, R1, R2, M12, M21, R12, and R21, which represent the
self inductance and resistance of busbar 1 and 2 and the
mutual inductance and mutual resistance between busbars
1 and 2, can be expressed as follows:

(23)
where it is assumed that busbars 1 and 2 are subdivided into
m and n of fine wire elements, respectively. V1 and I1, or
V2 and I2 are column vectors with components m and n that
represent the voltages and currents of all the fine wire
elements within busbar 1 or 2. Z11 and Z22 are m m and
n n symmetric matrices corresponding to Z in Eq. (19) for
busbars 1 and 2, respectively. Z12 and Z21 are m n and
n m matrices, respectively, that represent the mutual impedances between busbars 1 and 2, that is, between the
voltages of the fine wire elements within each busbar and
the currents within the other busbar as shown below:

(24)
(25)
Depending on the characteristic of each matrix above, the
combined impedance matrix in Eq. (23) and its inverse
matrix also become symmetric. Defining Y as its inverse
matrix, and applying Assumption (ii) described in section
2.1 to busbars 1 and 2, the current of each fine wire element
can be obtained as

(26)

54

a 133 MHz CPU and 32 MB of RAM about 40 seconds per

case to calculate the constants for a system that consists of
400 fine wire elements. If the cross section has symmetry
with respect to a horizontal line and/or a vertical line, the
program can be refined and the size of the matrix can be
reduced. Therefore, the scale of the applicable busbar system can be enlarged or the time for the calculation can be
shortened.
Examples of two busbar systems are shown in Fig. 5.
The calculated constants and current distributions of these
busbar systems are shown in Figs. 6 and 7 under various
conditions of the total current in each busbar. The vertical
axis shows the ratio of the actual RMS current to the RMS
current allocated uniformly from total current for each fine
wire element. The mean square of the above values over the
cross section of a busbar is equal to the ratio of the ac
resistance of a busbar with skin effect to the dc resistance
of the same busbar. In Fig. 6(b), in which two identical total
currents flow in the same direction, the skin effect appears
markedly compared with Fig. 6(a), in which busbar 1 is
open-circuited and the total current flows only through
busbar 2. On the other hand, in Fig. 6(c), in which two
identical total currents flow in opposite directions, the skin
effect is reduced compared with Fig. 6(a). From this, it is
obvious that the ratio of the resistance with skin effect to
the dc resistance, i.e., the effective resistance of the busbar,
is larger in the former case (same current direction), so that
the effect of mutual resistance previously described can
be visually understood.
By investigating the circuit constants of various kinds
of busbar pairs, it is recognized in most cases that the ac
inductance is not changed much even at higher frequencies
compared with the resistance. The reason is that the busbar
inductance is changed almost solely by the inner inductance, which is rather small compared with the outer inductance if the current is concentrated symmetrically at the
ends of a busbars cross section by the skin effect. However,
sometimes the change of the inductance due to the frequency becomes large in certain some particular arrangements of busbars. Concerning arrangements (a) and (b) in
Fig. 5, the changes of the inductances with frequency are
shown in Fig. 8. In this figure, the change of the inductance
in arrangement (b) is larger than that in (a). The reason also
can be understood by observing the current distribution at

(29)

According to the direction of the current, the effective

resistance of a busbar in the two-busbar system is expressed
by R1 + R12 (same current direction) or R1 - R12 (opposite
current directions). However, even in the latter case, the
effective resistance does not fall below the dc resistance.
Mutual resistance R12 affects only the increase R1 due to the
skin effect. Although the mutual resistance is usually positive, it also becomes negative in some particular arrangements of busbars.
3) More-than-three busbar system
Even in the case of a more-than-three busbar system,
it is similarly possible to express the circuit equations of the
system faithfully, and to obtain the circuit constants of the
busbars by solving these equations. However, the size of the
matrices becomes larger and the calculation time longer. In
order to solve this problem, the system can be treated as a
combination of pairs of busbars, and the constants can be
obtained from each pair of busbars by using the linearity of
the system. It is not a problem to assume that the total
current of the busbars other than the pair under investigation
is zero; however, in principle, it is not permissible to neglect
the existence of those busbars whose total currents are taken
to be zero. Even if its total current is zero, an eddy current
can flow within the busbar, which also affects the current
distribution within the other busbars and results in changes
of the constants of these busbars. However, the degree of
its influence on the constants varies from case to case, and
it can be neglected in most practical cases. Therefore it is
recommended that the procedure be applied for the twobusbar system in practical investigations, repeating it many
times. Estimates in some representative similar cases show
that the result given by this procedure is nearly equal to that
given by the more rigorous procedure.
3.2 Results of analysis
For a matrix calculating tool, MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) 4.2c was used. Usually in practical apparatus,
the cross sections of busbars in a group running in an
identical direction are arranged systematically; namely, all
the sides of the cross sections are placed parallel or perpendicular to each other. By using this attribute, programming
the calculation can be accomplished simply. The size of the
program is approximately 250300 lines. It takes a PC with

Fig. 5. Models of two busbar systems (cross section).

55

Fig. 6. Current distribution of two busbars arranged as Fig. 5(a).

inductance is more complicated than that in this paper, our

proposed method can be used conveniently not only in the
case when accuracy is needed but also in many other
practical cases.
An example of a system with three parallel busbars
at even intervals is shown in Fig. 9. Concerning this system,
two inductances, in each case obtained from faithful calculation among these three busbars and from approximate
calculation based on the pair of busbars, are shown in Fig.
10 as a function of the interval. In the system with thicker
busbars at narrower intervals, the results of approximate
calculation are a little different from the real values obtained from faithful calculation. However, the difference is
negligibly small in such practical systems as are described
below because of their normal thickness and proper intervals.

higher frequencies. In Fig. 7, which shows the current

distribution in arrangement (b), even when the total current
of another busbar is zero, the current distribution of a busbar
is not completely symmetric. From this it can be expected
that the influence of the frequency on the self inductance is
relatively large. When the total currents flow through each
busbar, the directions of these currents greatly affect the
position of current concentration spots. From this it can also
be expected that the influence of the frequency on the
mutual inductance is relatively large.
In case of a busbar construction with less influence
of the frequency on the inductance, and when only rough
values are required, instead of the ac inductance, the dc
inductance which has been given as a complete analytical
equation [5] may be used. However, taking into account the
fact that the change in the inductance due to frequency
cannot be easily forecast and that the equation for dc

Fig. 7. Current distribution of two busbars arranged as Fig. 5(b).

56

Fig. 8. Frequency characteristics of inductance.

4. Stray Resonance in dc Link

An experimental filter circuit was made as a model
of a dc link for a converter. Some parts of this filter consist
of many busbars with various widths and directions, even
though each part is drawn simply as a straight line in the
circuit diagram. Accordingly, at first, the general procedure
to obtain a single synthesized constant from mixed busbars
connected in series will be described. Second, using the
above procedure, the process of stray resonance analysis
and the calculated result will be shown.

Fig. 10. Inductance change due to the number of

busbars.

4.1 Inductance of multiply bent busbars

A busbar model for calculating synthesized inductance is shown in Fig. 11. Busbars in this model can be
classified into two groups based on direction, vertical or
horizontal. Since there is no electromagnetic interference
between these groups, as previously described, the total

inductance can be obtained as the sum of the inductances

calculated for each group. Accordingly the procedure will
be described only for the horizontal group.

Fig. 9. Model of three-busbar system.

Fig. 11. Model of multiply bent busbar.

57

The inductances of this system obtained from each pair of

busbars at 1 kHz are shown in Table 1.
Even for the same busbar, the self inductance varies
rarely and is little dependent on the associated busbars
selected to make a pair (about 0.6% in this example). Since
the self inductance becomes minimum when the associated
busbar is the most influential one, namely very close and
long, the minimum values are used as the representative
values in this case. The synthesized inductance of this
system obtained from Table 1 by the above procedure is 656
nH. On the other hand, 653 nH was obtained as the measured value with a HP4284A LCR meter in L-R mode at 1
kHz. For such a small inductance, the measured value is
easily affected by the circumstances. However, practical
reproducibility has been accomplished by means of proper
arrangement of the measuring system including the measured object, proper length of the leads, the compensation of
the leads, and so forth.
Although all the digits of this measured value are not
necessarily significant, the calculated value shows good
agreement with the measured value.

All the busbars in the horizontal group should be

numbered sequentially along a hypothetical loop current in
an arbitrary direction of rotation as shown in Fig. 11.
Assuming the current in each busbar in the same direction
as the loop current is positive, and the voltage against the
loop current is positive, the circuit equation of this group
can be expressed as

(30)

where n = 11 in the case of Fig. 11.

In Eq. (30), I1 to In are currents through each busbar
and V1 to Vn are the voltages across them. Each component
Zij in the impedance matrix is a self impedance or a mutual
impedance between busbars i and j. It corresponds to z11,
z12, or the like in Eq. (28) and can be obtained by using the
method proposed previously. Therefore, similarly, Zij = Zji
is established even in this system. The diagonal matrix with
components C11 to Cnn is implemented for the matching of
directions of voltage and current. The value of each component is defined as shown below based on the current
direction through the respective busbar:

4.2 Analysis of stray resonance

The experimental model prepared for studying stray
resonance in the dc link is shown in Fig. 12. This model
represents a dc link circuit for three level inverters as shown
in Fig. 13, and so consists of three buses, denoted P, C, and
N, and four banks of capacitors between P and C, and
between N and C. There are many arms of the busbars,
whose inductances cause complicated stray resonance characteristics cooperating with capacitor banks. Although this
model has the same busbar construction as Fig. 9, the
calculation procedure based on a pair of busbars can be
applied, because the intervals between busbars are sufficiently large to neglect approximation errors, as described
in section 3. Since the difference between inductances at 1
kHz and 10 kHz is below 1% in this model, the values at 1

Cii = 1 when the current flows from left to right

through the i-th busbar.
Cii = 1 when the current flows from right to left
through the i-th busbar.
Equation (30) can be expressed simply as
(31)
Considering the magnitude of the current through each
busbar to be equal to a common value I, the magnitude of
the loop current, then V can be obtained as

Table 1. Inductances in multiply bent busbar

(32)
where each component in Z equals Sg Zij.
Here, Sg equals 1 when the currents through the i-th
and j-th busbars are in the same direction, and it equals 1
when these are in the opposite directions. Finally the synthesized impedance of this group can be obtained as
(33)

58

Table 2. Circuit constants in dc link

Fig. 12. Experimental filter circuit of dc link.

the same span is equal to zero and the distances between

the centers of spans are relatively longer than the busbar
intervals, the effects from the three arms which are contained in another span almost completely cancel each other.
Consequently, if only the inductances within the same span,
which are surrounded by the thick frame in Table 2, are
considered, the resonant frequency can be obtained with
practical accuracy, as described below.
To simplify the analysis further, even the mutual
inductances within the same span should be incorporated
into the self inductances. This conversion process is as

kHz are used over the entire frequency range for all circuit
constants. The volume resistivity r is assumed to be 17.5
109 Wm. The inductance and resistance, calculated and
synthesized for every busbar arm in the model based on
above assumptions, are shown in Table 2. The negative
values in Table 2 are caused by the specific definition of the
positive current direction in this model. Mutual resistances
are neglected because these are less than 1/16 of the self
inductances, even in the critical arms. Measured values
were used for the constants of the leads in the capacitor
banks.
If all the mutual inductances in this model are taken
into account, the circuit becomes very complicated and hard
to handle, particularly when the system is simulated with
the inverter by a simulator based on the circuit diagram.
From Table 2, it is recognized that the mutual inductance
between two arms, each in a different neighboring span, is
smaller than that between two arms within the same span,
but is not small enough to be neglected. However, since the
sum of the currents through three arms P, C, and N within

Fig. 14. Equivalent circuit of a span of P, C, and N

busbars.

Fig. 13. Three level inverter.

59

follows. Fig. 14(a) shows the equivalent circuit of a span.

Its circuit equation can be expressed as
(34)

In practical analysis, let us use two line-to-line voltages and

two loop currents as shown in Fig. 14(b). The new variables
in Fig. 14(b) and the old ones in Fig. 14(a) are related as
follows:

Fig. 15. Equivalent circuit of dc link.

(35)
(40)
(36)

where Rn is the resistance of each arm, Ln is the inductance

of each arm converted from the values inside the thick frame
in Table 2 by using Eq. (39), and Cn is the capacitance of
the capacitor bank. The third term of Eq. (40) should be zero
in the arm without capacitor. The circuit equation of Fig. 15
can be expressed as

By substituting Eqs. (34) and (36) into Eq. (35), we obtain

(37)
On the other hand, the circuit equation of the equivalent
circuit without mutual impedance as shown in Fig. 14(c)
can be expressed as
(38)
By comparing Eqs. (37) and (38), and considering Zij = Zji
within the same span, we obtain
(41)
(39)

Figure 15 is the equivalent circuit for the experimental

model shown in Fig. 12. Since the frequency characteristics
of the experimental model were measured from the terminals indicated by an arrow in Fig. 12, the input of the
equivalent circuit is arranged accordingly. The arm impedances Zn in Fig. 15 are given by

By simplifying Eq. (41) as V = Z I, the loop currents in

the equivalent circuit can be expressed as

60

(42)
Since all the components except for the seventh in V are
zero, Eq. (42) can be rewritten as

(43)

Consequently the synthesized circuit impedance Z0 with

respect to the input is equal to V / I7, that is, 1/ Y77. The
frequency characteristics obtained from the calculated bus bar inductances are shown by solid lines in Fig. 16. On the
other hand, the characteristics in Fig. 17 were measured
with an LCR meter scanned from 1 kHz to 10 kHz in
impedance mode. Similarly, care was taken to ensure accu racy. The calculated resonant frequencies have good agree ment with the measured values. For the calculation of
frequency characteristics, the arm resistances are compen sated by the following formula based on the values at 1 kHz:

Fig. 17. Measured resonant characteristic of dc link.

below. After converting each 3 3 matrix which is shown

outside the thick frame in Table 2 into a 2 2 matrix by
using such converting matrices as in Eq. (37) and adding
them to the corresponding components in the impedance
matrix in Eq. (41), we can obtain the complete equation for
this model. The resultant characteristics from this equation
are shown by dotted lines in Fig. 16. These characteristics
are almost the same as those obtained by neglecting mutual
inductances between different spans.
If only the resonant frequencies are needed, frequency swept calculations are not necessary. The solution
can be obtained rapidly applying the following method to
Z, a matrix constructed from Z in Eq. (41), by removing
the 7th row and 7th column. Assuming that A is a matrix Z
whose components Zn are replaced by 1 / Cn (but Zn should
be 0 in the arms without a capacitor), that B is a matrix with
the corresponding replacement by Ln, and that all resistances can be neglected, the circuit equation of Fig. 15 with
open-circuited input can be expressed as

(44)
Equation (44) is an approximate equation obtained from the
calculated frequency characteristics of various similar busbars. By the effect of this compensation, the resonant factors in both figures also agree with each other.
Up to this point, the mutual inductances between the
different spans have been neglected. However, it is easy to
take them into account when making the analysis for only
the dc link itself by means of matrix calculation as described

(45)
Multiplying both members of Eq. (45) by jw, setting
w2 = l, and rearranging, we obtain the following equation
as a necessary and sufficient condition for I 0.
(46)
Consequently, by using the eigenvalues l of matrix B-1A,
the resonant frequencies can be expressed as

(47)

Fig. 16. Calculated resonant characteristic of dc link.

61

These frequencies are 2.102, 2.874, 3.917, 4.609, 5.201,

and 6.114 kHz when only the mutual inductances within
the same spans are considered, and 2.107, 2.880, 3.930,
4.597, 5.188, and 6.121 kHz when all the inductances are
considered.
From these analyses, the validity of this simplified
method of calculating busbar inductance and the feasibility
of accurate forecasting of resonance phenomena in dc links
are confirmed. The proposed method will also be useful for
anticipation of various problems caused by resonance and
for efforts to avoid them.

Acknowledgments
We express our sincere appreciation to Dr. M. Kawamura, Mr. M. Adachi of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation,
and Mr. K. Takahira of Mitsubishi Electric Engineering for
their kind cooperation.
REFERENCES
1. Nakamichi Y, Nozawa H, Okui A, Ikeda H. Suppression of higher harmonic resonance in power feeding
circuit containing PWM inverter. 1991 National Convention of IEE Japan.
2. Okui A, Kaga S, Ikeda H, Kinoshita K. Harmonic
resonance at dc-link of inverter with large capacity
and measure for its suppression. Papers of Tech Mtg
on Semiconductor Power Converter IEE Japan
1996;SPC96-55:1928.
3. Schanen JL, Clavel E, Roudet J. Modeling of low
inductive busbar connections. IEEE Industry Applications Mag 1996;9:3943.
4. Ruehli AE. Inductance calculations in a complex
integrated circuit environment. IBM-J Res Develop
1972;9:470481.
5. Hoer C, Love C. Exact inductance equations for
rectangular conductors with application to more
complicated geometries. J Res Natl Bureau Standards-C Engineering and Instrumentation 1965;69C:
127137.

5. Conclusions
In this paper, we showed the simplified calculating
method for busbar inductance and current distribution in
busbars at higher frequencies, which has become more
necessary in recent power electronics apparatus. From our
calculated results, we studied typical characteristics of busbar inductances at high frequencies. Furthermore, we
showed that the electrical constants obtained from pairs of
busbars have sufficient accuracy for practical applications.
Applying these procedures to stray resonant analysis in dc
links, which are widely used in recent large capacity inverters, we showed that the resonant frequencies can be
calculated with good accuracy, by a comparison with experimental results.

AUTHORS (from left to right)

Katsutaka Tsuboi (member) graduated from Waseda University and joined Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in 1967. He
has been engaged in designing, developing, and testing many kinds of power electronics products. At present, he is a member
of the Power Electronics Department of the Nagasaki Works, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; a part-time lecturer at Kumamoto
University; a doctoral student at Nagasaki University; and a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

Mineo Tsuji (member) obtained a Ph.D. in March 1981 from Kyushu University. He became a lecturer at Nagasaki
University in April 1981 and an associate professor in October 1983. His current interest is power electronics and applications
of control theory. He is a member of IEEE; the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan; the Society of Instrumentation and
Control Engineers of Japan; the Society of Systems Control and Information Processing of Japan; and the Japan Society of
Applied Electromagnetics. Dr. Tsuji received a Paper Award from the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

62

AUTHORS (from left to right)

Eiji Yamada (member) obtained his D.Eng. degree in 1964 from Kyushu University, where he was appointed a research
associate. He became an associate professor at Nagasaki University in 1968 and a professor in 1974. He has been involved in
research on power electronics and control of electric apparatus. He is a senior member of IEEE and a member of the Institute
of Electrical Engineers of Japan; the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers of Japan; the European
Power Electronics and Drives Association; the Japan Society of Applied Electromagnetics; and the Society of Instrumentation
and Control Engineers of Japan. Dr. Yamada received a Paper Award from the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

63