UNIT – V

INVERTERS
Introduction to Inverters

The word ‘inverter’ in the context of power-electronics denotes a class of power conversion (or power
conditioning) circuits that operates from a dc voltage source or a dc current source and converts it into ac
voltage or current. The inverter does reverse of what ac-to-dc converter does (refer to ac to dc converters).
Even though input to an inverter circuit is a dc source, it is not uncommon to have this dc derived from an
ac source such as utility ac supply. Thus, for example, the primary source of input power may be utility ac
voltage supply that is converted to dc by an ac to dc converter and then ‘inverted’ back to ac using an
inverter. Here, the final ac output may be of a different frequency and magnitude than the input ac of the
utility supply

A single phase Half Bridge DC-AC inverter is shown in Figure below

Figure: 5.1 Single phase Half Bridge DC-AC inverter with R load

The analysis of the DC-AC inverters is done taking into accounts the following assumptions and
conventions.
1) The current entering node a is considered to be positive.
2) The switches S1 and S2 are unidirectional, i.e. they conduct current in one direction.
3) The current through S1 is denoted as i1 and the current through S2 is i2.
The switching sequence is so design is shown in Figure below. Here, switch S1 is on for the time
duration 0 ≤ t ≤ T1 and the switch S2 is on for the time duration T1 ≤ t ≤ T2. When switch S1 is turned
on, the instantaneous voltage across the load is ν o = Vin/ 2
When the switch S2 is only turned on, the voltage across the load is
ν o = Vin/ 2.

145 | P a g e
 Figure: 5.2 Single phase Half Bridge DC-AC inverter output waveforms

The r.m.s value of output voltage ν o is given by,

The instantaneous output voltage ν o is rectangular in shape. The instantaneous value of ν o can be
expressed in Fourier series as,

Due to the quarter wave symmetry along the time axis , the values of a0 and an are zero. The value of bn
is given by,

Substituting the value of bn from above equation , we get

146 | P a g e
The current through the resistor ( iL ) is given by,

Half Bridge DC-AC Inverter with L Load and R-L Load

The DC-AC converter with inductive load is shown in Figure below. For an inductive load, the load
current cannot change immediately with the output voltage.

Figure: 5.3 Single phase Half Bridge DC-AC inverter with RL load

The working of the DC-AC inverter with inductive load is as follow is:
Case 1: In the time interval 0<=t<= T1 the switch S1 is on and the current flows through the inductor
from points a to b. When the switch S1 is turned off (case 1) at t-T1, the load current would continue to
flow through the capacitor C2 and diode D2 until the current falls to zero, as shown in Figure below.

Figure: 5.4 Single phase Half Bridge DC-AC inverter with L load

147 | P a g e
Case 2: Similarly, when S2 is turned off at t = T1 , the load current flows through the diode D1 and
capacitor C1until the current falls to zero, as shown in Figure below.

Figure: 5.5 Single phase Half Bridge DC-AC inverter with L load

When the diodes D1 and D2 conduct, energy is feedback to the dc source and these diodes are known as
feedback diodes. These diodes are also known as freewheeling diodes. The current for purely inductive
load is given by,

Similarly, for the R – L load. The instantaneous load current is obtained as,

Where,

Operation of single phase full bridge inverter

A single phase bridge DC-AC inverter is shown in Figure below. The analysis of the single phase DC-AC
inverters is done taking into account following assumptions and conventions.
1) The current entering node a in Figure 8 is considered to be positive.
2) The switches S1, S2, S3 and S4 are unidirectional, i.e. they conduct current in one direction.

148 | P a g e
 Figure: 5.6 Single phase Full Bridge DC-AC inverter with R load

When the switches S1 and S2 are turned on simultaneously for a duration 0 ≤ t ≤ T1 , the the input
voltage Vin appears across the load and the current flows from point a to b.

Q1 – Q2 ON, Q3 – Q4 OFF ==> ν o = Vs

Figure: 5.7 Single phase Full Bridge DC-AC inverter with R load

If the switches S3 and S4 turned on duration T1 ≤ t ≤ T2, the voltage across the load the load is reversed
and the current through the load flows from point b to a.
Q1 – Q2 OFF, Q3 – Q4 ON ==> ν o = -Vs

149 | P a g e
 Figure: 5.8 Single phase Full Bridge DC-AC inverter with R load current directions

The voltage and current waveforms across the resistive load are shown in Figure below

Figure: 5.9 Single phase Full Bridge DC-AC inverter waveforms

Single Phase Full Bridge Inverter for R-L load:

A single-phase square wave type voltage source inverter produces square shaped output voltage for a
single-phase load. Such inverters have very simple control logic and the power switches need to operate
at much lower frequencies compared to switches in some other types of inverters. The first generation
inverters, using thyristor switches, were almost invariably square wave inverters because thyristor
switches could be switched on and off only a few hundred times in a second. In contrast, the present day
switches like IGBTs are much faster and used at switching frequencies of several kilohertz. Single-phase
inverters mostly use half bridge or full bridge topologies. Power circuits of these topologies are shown in
in Figure below.

150 | P a g e
 Figure: 5.10 Single phase Full Bridge DC-AC inverter with L load

The above topology is analyzed under the assumption of ideal circuit conditions. Accordingly, it is
assumed that the input dc voltage (Edc) is constant and the switches are lossless. In full bridge topology
has two such legs. Each leg of the inverter consists of two series connected electronic switches shown
within dotted lines in the figures. Each of these switches consists of an IGBT type controlled switch
across which an uncontrolled diode is put in anti-parallel manner. These switches are capable of
conducting bi-directional current but they need to block only one polarity of voltage. The junction point
of the switches in each leg of the inverter serves as one output point for the load.

Series inverter:

Figure: 5.11 Block diagram of series inverter

151 | P a g e
In series inverter, the commutating elements L and C are connected in series with the load. This
constitutes a series RLC resonant circuit. The Two SCRs are used to produce the halves (positive
and negative half cycle) in the output.

Figure: 5.12 Circuit diagram of series inverter

In the first half of the output currents when SCR T1 is triggered it will allow the current to flow
through L1, and load, and C2 thus charging. The capacitor C1 which is already charged at these
instant discharges through SCR1, L1 and the Load. Hence 50% of the current is drawn from the
input source and 50% from the capacitor. Similarly in the second half of the output current C1
will be charged and C2 will discharge through the load, L2 and SCR2, Again 50% of the load
current is obtained from the DC input source and rest from the capacitor. The SCRs T1 and T2
are alternatively fired to get AC voltage and current.

Operation of parallel inverter

The single phase parallel inverter circuit consists of two SCRs T1 and T2, an inductor L, an
output transformer and a commutating capacitor C. The output voltage and current are Vo and Io
respectively. The function of L is to make the source current constant. During the working of this

152 | P a g e
inverter, capacitor C comes in parallel with the load via the transformer. So it is called
a parallel inverter.

The operation of this inverter can be explained in the following modes.

Mode I

In this mode, SCR T1 is conducting and a current flow in the upper half of primary
winding. SCR T2 is OFF. As a result an emf Vs is induced across upper as well as lower half of
the primary winding.

In other words total voltage across primary winding is 2 Vs. Now the capacitor C charges to a
voltage of 2Vs with upper plate as positive.

Figure: 5.13 Circuit diagram of parallel inverter

153 | P a g e
Mode II

At time to, T2 is turned ON by applying a trigger pulse to its gate. At this time t=0, capacitor
voltage 2Vs appears as a reverse bias across T1, it is therefore turned OFF. A current Io begins
to flow through T2 and lower half of primary winding. Now the capacitor has charged (upper
plate as negative) from +2Vs to -2Vs at time t=t1. Load voltage also changes from Vs at t=0 to –
Vs at t=t1.

Mode III

When capacitor has charged to –Vs, T1 may be tuned ON at any time When T1 is triggered,
capacitor voltage 2Vs applies a reverse bias across T2, it is therefore turned OFF. After T2 is
OFF, capacitor starts discharging, and charged to the opposite direction, the upper plate as
positive.

Paralleled Commutated Inverter

Fig 1: is a schematic of the classical parallel commutated square wave inverter bridge. It is
being included here for illustrative purposes since most other circuits utilize this circuit or a
variation there of. The waveform generated and supplied to the load is basically a square wave
having a peak to peak amplitude of twice the DC supply voltage and a period that is determined
by the relate at which SCRs 1 through 4 are gated on. The SCRs are turned on in pairs by
simultaneously applying signals to the gate terminals of SCRs 1 and 4 or SCRs 2 and 3. If SCRs
1 and 4 happen to be the first two switched on a current will flow from the positive terminal of
the source through negative terminal of the source. This will establish a left to right, plus to
minus voltage relationship on the load.
Simultaneously, the left terminal of capacitor C1 will be charged positively with respect to the
right negative terminal. The steady-state load current through the various components is
determined nearly completely by the impedance of the load. Chokes 1 and 2 and SCRs 1 and 4
present very low steady-state drops and therefore nearly all the source voltage appears across the
load. Conduction of SCRs 1 and 4 will continue to the end of the half cycle, at which point the
gates are removed from SCRs 1 and 4 remain in conduction along with SCRs 2 and 3 that have
now been turned on. If it were not for chokes 1 and 2, the action of turning on the second set
of SCRs would place very low impedance and therefore momentarily prevent the source from
being short-circuited.

154 | P a g e
Capacitor C1 now discharges with a current which flows into the cathode of SCR 1
through SCR 2 in a forward direction back to the negative terminal of the capacitor. This
direction of current flow causes SCR 1 to become non-conductive provided that the reverse
current through the SCR is of sufficient duration for the SCR to again become blocking. C1
simultaneously discharges through SCR 3 in a forward direction and through SCR 4 in a reverse
direction. This will cause SCR 4 to become non-conductive just the same SCR 1. This entire
sequence is referred to as commutation and typically in a modern inverter would occur in a
period of time less than 50 microseconds. During this interval, chokes 1and 2 must have
sufficient transient impedance to prevent a significant increase in current from the DC source.

Diodes 1, 2, 3 and 4 serve two functions. The first is to return any stored energy that may be
"kicked back" from the load to the source. They also serve to prevent the choke from generating
a high transient voltage immediately after commutation.

Figure: 5.14 Circuit diagram of parallel commutated inverter

155 | P a g e