Applications • Standard: – Wind/Water Force Machines (blowers, boilers, incinerators), pumps, and

general Industrial Machines. • Specific Applications: – Compact or Integrated Motor Drives – Motor
Drives for hostile environments (aircrafts, submarines) – AC/AC Power Conversions: wind energy,
variable speed

2.3.3 The protection issue Likewise any other static converter, the matrix converter needs to be
protected against the 23 overvoltages and the overcurrents that might be destructive for its
semiconductor devices. An effective and robust protection scheme plays a important role in the
implementation of a stable and reliable power converter. With respect to an AC drive application of the
matrix converters, overvoltages can originate externally, as voltage surge existing onto the AC mains , or
internally as consequence of a switch commutation error or timing inaccuracies that cause the
interruption of an output motor current. This commutation-dependent risk is peculiar to the matrix
converter which does not have, differently from traditional DC link converter, any automatic static free
wheeling path for the output motor currents. As it will be better explained in chapter 3, the
commutation strategies for bi-directional switches today available do neither require, in normal
operating conditions, free wheeling paths to safely commutate the output currents nor snubber circuit.
The only operating condition in which a free wheeling path is needed is when the motor is disconnected
due to an emergency shut-down of the converter. In this case, to prevent destructive overvoltages from
appearing onto the matrix switches a free wheeling path to the motor currents has to be provided. As
far as the overcurrents are concerned, they can rise either from a short circuit through the converter of
two input voltages or from an output line-to-line or line-to-earth short circuit. In both cases the
protection strategy usually adopted consists in turning all the switches off, using the fact that the
currents are monitored and power semiconductors can both withstand and switch considerable
overcurrent on a non-repetitive basis [29]. It is obvious that such simply protection strategy can be used
only if a free wheeling path is provided to the motor currents. Therefore, the overcurrent protection can
be considered as somehow included in the overvoltage protection scheme.

MATRIX CONVERTER Introduction

Matrix converters are AC to AC power converter topology that can generate required
amplitude and frequency AC sinusoidal wave form conventional AC source
based mainly on semiconductor switches with minimal requirement for passive
components. It consist of nine bi-directional switches arranged in matrix manner such that
any input phase can be directly connected to any output phase. In most of the cases a three
input three output converter will consist of bidirectional switches arranged in 3 row and 3
column manner resembles to a matrix of nine bi-directional switches, hence the term
‘Matrix converter ’. The process of switching on and off the bidirectional switche made the
variable frequency and amplitude signals at the output of the matrix converter.
The matrix converters are intensively researched area in the last decade. This
interest is reflected in the number of articles that are published in the field of matrix
converter. This interset is mainly due to the fact that a all-silicon converter that can
completely replace the conventional AC-DC-AC inverters. The matrix converter can
provide the amplitude and frequency conversion, bi-directional power flow and input
displacement factor control without the presence of bulky life limitted capacitors and other
passive elements.
Despite of advantage of matrix converters, they are not used commonly in most
of the industries. There are several reasons for the selection of conventional AC-DC-AC
inverter over the matrix converter. Firstly, Even though the matrix converter topology was
started in 1970 breaktrough in the field of the matrix converter happned in last decade.So
still its considered as a new technology. Secondly, the number of the semiconductor
switches in a matrix converter is greater than the number used in a DC-link converter.
Therefore, the cost of implementation of a matrix converter is larger than a conventional dc-
link converter of the same ratings.Finally, the amplitude of the output voltages generated by
a matrix converter is limited to 0.866 of the input voltage amplitude for the most popular
modulation methods. Therefore, electrical motors or any other standard device connected
as load to a matrix converter do not operate at their nominal rated voltage.
Even though Matrix converter has some disadvantages its very attractive for
some application. Firstly, there are applications where energy storage elements like
capacitors and inductors are to be avoided. For example, the large electrolytic capacitors of
a dc-link converter is one of the elements that decreases the reliability of the converter.
Secondly, the cost of power semiconductors continues to fall and there is no evidence to
suggest that this trend will change for the future. On the other hand, the real cost of energy
storage elements is not falling. For this reason, matrix converters will became increasingly
more cost competitive. Thirdly, a matrix converter is a very attractive solution when
regeneration is required. The bidirectional power flow capability and input displacement
factor control of matrix converters make them an ideal solution for same application.
Finally, there are applications where the converter size, weight and performance is of major
concern. The lack of bulky energy storage elements and the integration of semiconductors in
power modules specifically designed for matrix converters mean that large power density
factors are achievable employing matrix converters.
In this paper proposed a new multilevel modulation technique by cascading
the H-bridge inverter and rectifier. In indirect matrix converter inveter side and rectifier
side are seperated and they are connected by fictious DC link. The MMMCs are similar to
the cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter in both structure and features such as modular
design, good waveform quality, and allowing the use of low voltage power devices. Besides,
they have inherent four quadrant operation capability and can be used iregenerative
applications. Regarding modulation strategy, none of those for operating the CHB converter
or the conventional MCs can be directly borrowed for the MMMCs.
This paper is dedicated to the design of indirect space vector based modulation techniques
for the MMMCs.