High Megawatt 3-level IGBT Inverter Stacks drawing Market Interest

IXYS UK, IXYS Corporation's high-power subsidiary, reported wide ranging customer interest in the recent introduction of a range of standard three-level press-pack IGBT phase leg stacks with power rating up to 16MW. The new stack designs are available for applications at three voltage levels 3.3kV, 6.6kV and 10kV and incorporate IXYS UK's market leading press-pack IGBT technology. The 3.3kV option is available as a single stack, comprising a complete phase leg of four 2400A press-pack IGBTs plus the anti-parallel and neutral point clamp diodes. The phase leg is rated at 8MW.

Both the 6.6kV and 10kV solutions comprise discrete stacks of 1600A reverse conducting press-pack IGBTs and fast diode which can be configured into the phase leg. Each phase leg would require 2 IGBT stacks and 1 diodes stack. The 6.6kV stacks are rated at up to 12MW and the 10kV units are rated up to 16MW. The 6.6kVstack comprise four series devices and the 10kV stacks six. Actual power ratings will depend on how the customers configure their control system.

Each system benefits from direct water cooling to provide highly effective heat dissipation away from the devices and pre-loaded disc spring clamping to evenly distribute the applied force across the entire surface area of the device. Stacks use an isolated clamping rod system to limit the occurrence of eddy currents within the unit. The IGBT stacks also incorporate gate trigger boards and snubber circuits.

“IXYS UK has been receiving extensive and wide ranging interest for these new introductions, with potential applications ranging from renewable energy to marine applications. Only two months after launch we have several customers close to committing to their first orders as they identify this as a fast track to very high power development,” commented Frank Wakeman, IXYS UK’s Marketing and Technical Support Manager.

Stack part numbers are: 3.3 kV unit XA1600GV45WT, 6.6kV units XA1000GV45WT/B (IGBT) and XA1000TV45WE/B (diode) and 10kV units XA1000GV45WT/A (IGBT) and XA1000TV45WE/A (diode). The stacks are targeted for both production and project development allowing quicker access to prototype completions after which IXYS UK can either continue to supply a stack customized to a particular specification or the components kits to fit a customer’s own design.

Typical applications include medium voltage drives for industrial, marine and renewable energy infrastructure applications including wind generation, plus very large drives for use in the oil, gas and steel industries. For applications such as electrical grid control switches and HVDC applications, please contact IXYS UK to discuss other circuit topology stack solutions.