Three-phase inverters are used for high-power

applications such as ac motor drives, induction

heating, uninterruptive power supplies
A three-phase inverter circuit changes DC input
voltage to a three-phase variable frequency, variable
voltage output
The input DC voltage can be from a DC source or a
rectified AC voltage
A three-phase bridge inverter can be constructed by
combining three single-phase half-bridge inverters.
THREE PHASE INVERTER
THREE PHASE LOADS
It consists of six power-switches with six associated
freewheeling diodes
The switches are opened and closed periodically in the
proper sequence to produce the desired output
waveform
The rate of switching determines the output frequency
of the inverter
Basically, there are two possible schemes of gating the
devices
In one scheme each device (switch) conducts for 180
and in the other scheme, each device conducts for 120
But in both these schemes, gating signals are applied
and removed at 60 intervals of the output voltage
waveform.
180-Conduction Mode with Resistive Load
In this control scheme, each switch conducts for a period of 180
or half-cycle electrical.
Switches are triggered in sequence of their numbers with an
interval of 60.
At a time, three switches (one from each leg) conduct. Thus, two
switches of the same leg are prevented from conducting
simultaneously.
One complete cycle is divided into six modes, each of 60
intervals.
Switch pair in each leg, i.e. S1 S4, S3 S6, and S5 S2 are turned-on
with a time interval of 180
It means that switch S1 conducts for 180 and switch S4 for the
next 180 of a cycle
Switches, in the upper group, i.e. S1, S3, S5 conduct at an interval
of 120
It means that if S1 is fired at 0, then-S3 must be triggered at
120 and S5 at 240. Same is true for lower group of switches.
Operation Table
Sl.
No
Interval Incoming
SCR
Conducting
Pair
Outgoing
SCR
1 I T
1
T
5
, T
6
, T
1

T
4


2 II T
2
T
6
, T
1
, T
2
T
5

3 III T
3
T
1
, T
2
, T
3
T
6

4 IV T
4
T
2
, T
3
, T
4
T
1

5 V T
5
T
3
, T
4
, T
5
T
2

6 VI T
6
T
4
, T
5
, T
6
T
3

GATE CURRENT WAVEFORMS
VOLTAGE WAVEFORMS FOR 180 MODE
The following points can be noted from the wave forms
and the operating Table,
Each switch conducts for a period of 180
Switches are triggered in the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Phase shift between triggering the two adjacent switches
is 60.
From table, it is observed that in every step of 60
duration, only three switches are conducting-two from
upper group and one from the lower group and vice-
versa
The output voltage waveforms (E
AB
, E
BC
, E
CA
) are quasi-
square-wave with a peak-value of Edc
The three-line voltages are mutually phase-shifted by
120.
The three-phase-voltages E
AN
,E
BN
, and E
CN
are six-step
waves, with step heights Edc/3 and 2Edc/3.

Line voltage E
AB
is leading the phase-voltage E
AN
by 30.

Phase voltages E
AN
, E
BN
and E
CN
have also been drawn for
starconnected resistive load.

For a star-connected load, the line-to-neutral voltages must
be determined to find the line or phase currents.
There are three modes of operation in a half-cycle and
the equivalent circuits are shown below for a star-
connected load


During interval I for
During interval II,






During interval III,
The line voltage E
AB
= E
AN
- E
BN
is obtained by reversing E
BN

and adding it to E
AN
Similarly other line voltages are plotted
Phase voltages have six steps per cycle and line voltages have
one positive pulse and one negative pulse (each of 120
duration) per cycle
The phase as well as linevoltages are out of phase by 120
The instantaneous line-to-line voltage, E
AB
can be expressed
in a Fourier-series, recognizing that E
AB
is shifted by /6
and even harmonics are zero
E
BC
and E
CA
can be found by phase shifting E
AB
by 120
and 240 respectively






The line-to-line RMS voltage can be found from
The RMS nth component of the line voltage is


which, for n = 1, gives the fundamental line voltage



The RMS value of line-to neutral voltages can be found
from the line voltage



180 Conduction Mode with RL-Load
With resistive loads, the diodes across the switch have
no functions. If the load is inductive, then the current
in each arm of the load will be delayed to its voltage as
shown below
When switch S1 is triggered, S4 is turned-off but, because the
load current cannot reverse, the only path for this current is
through diode D1. Hence, the load phase is connected to the
positive end of the d.c. source but, until the load current
reverses at t1, switch S1 will not take up conduction
Similar arguments apply in the reverse half-cycle at instant t2
For a star-connected load, the phase voltage is E
AN
= E
AB
/3
with a delay of 30. The line current I
L
for an RL load is given by




For a delta-connected load, the phase currents can be obtained
directly from the line-to-line voltages. Once the phase currents
are known, the line currents can be determined
120 Conduction Mode with Resistive Load
In this type of conduction mode, each switch conducts for
120
At any instant of time, only two switches remain on. Gate
pulse indicates the conduction period of each switch.
In this case also, six commutations per cycle are required.
One period of inverter operation has been divided into six
intervals.
Like 180 mode, 120 mode inverter also requires six steps,
each of 60 duration, for completing one cycle of the
output a.c. Voltage.
Operation Table

Sl.
No
Interval Incoming
SCR
Conducting
Pair
Outgoing
SCR
1 I T
1
T
6
, T
1

T
5


2 II T
2
T
1
, T
2
T
6

3 III T
3
T
2
, T
3
T
1

4 IV T
4
T
3
, T
4
T
2

5 V T
5
T
4
, T
5
T
3

6 VI T
6
T
5
, T
6
T
4

GATE CURRENT WAVEFORMS

VOLTAGE WAVEFORMS FOR 120 MODE

Following points can be noted from the waveforms and the
operating Table
The base drives of two switches in the same-half-bridge have
an inherent dead band of 60. Hence, there is no possibility of
cross conduction or shoot-through fault.
Conduction period for each switch is 120.
The phase-shift between the triggering of every two adjacent
switches is 60.
Three line voltages, E
AB
E
BC
and E
CA
are six-step waves, with
step heights Edc/2 and Edc
The three-line voltages are mutually phase shifted by 120.
The three-phase voltages E
AN
, E
BN
and E
CN
are quasi-square-
waves with peak values of Edc/2. They are also mutually phase-
shifted by 120
The line-voltage E
AB
is leading the phase-voltage E
AN
by 30
From operating table two switches conduct at a time, one
from the upper group and the other from the lower group.
The equivalent circuits for a starconnected load are
During interval I, for
Switches S1 and S6 conduct


During interval II,for
Switches S1 and S2 conduct
During interval III,for

Switches S2 and S3 conduct


The line-to-neutral voltages can be expressed in
Fourier-series as

Comparison of Two Conduction Modes
In 180 mode conduction, when gate signal I
g1
is removed to
turn-off switch S1 at t = 180, gating signal I
g4
is simultaneously
applied to turn-on switch S4 inthe same leg
In practice, a commutation interval must exist between the
removal of Ig and application of Ig for proper and reliable
operation of the inverter circuit
Since enough time may not be provided for the commutation of
switch and two switches in series may simultaneously conduct,
resulting into short circuit of the source by these switches
This problem is overcome considerably in 120 mode inverter
In this inverter, there is a 60 interval between the turning-off of
S1 and turning-on of S4
During this 60 interval, switch S1 can be commutated safely.
Thus, enough time is made available for the outgoing switch to
commutate before the switch in series is turned-on
Therefore, commutation is more reliable and the possibility of
two series switches conducting simultaneously is much less.
The second important difference is in terms of utility of
devices
The comparison of the two patterns is done using a figure
of merit termed as utility factor (UF) and is defined as
UF= P
o
/ P
T
where P
o
is the rated output power of the inverter and P
T
is
the measure of total power handling capability of the
devices employed in the inverter, and is defined as
P
T
= N V
DRM
. Irms
where N= number of thyristors,
V
DRM
= repetitive peak forward-voltage
Irms = rated RMS forward current
For the purpose of comparison of the two control schemes,
it is usual to calculate the utility factor for ideal resistive
load
Inverter with 180 -Conduction
For star-connected load, if R is the resistance per
phase, then


Device rating will be chosen such that the RMS
current flowing through it will be equal to its RMS
current rating Irms
Therefore, under the rated conditions, the RMS value
of load phase current I
p
is given by,




Load power Po can also be written as




For this load, the repetitive peak forward voltage rating
of the device should be equal to Edc. Thus,
Inverter with 120 Conduction
For star-connected load, with a per phase resistance of
R, output power Po will be given by
Three-phase six-level diode-clamped inverter structure.
Eleven-level wye-configured cascaded inverter.