Minimization of wiring inductance in high power IGBT inverter

The wiring inductance is one of main causes limiting the use of the inverter, in hard commutation mode, particularly when voltage, current and switching frequency are increased. The bus bar technology is the mean that allows to reach low wiring inductance between DC source and power switches in spite of relatively long connections. This paper deals with studies of bus bar structure applied to the high power inverters in order to improve their performances. Two structures of wiring are tested; the traditional one and bus bar technology. The experimental and simulation results show that this last technique permits to obtain very low wiring inductance so that no snubber circuits are needed.