Reliability Calculation of Multilevel Converters: Theory and Applications
Abstract
Multilevel converters have many power devices and drivers. Thus, a direct reliability calculation based only on the first failure occurrence on one of the components clearly leads them to be devalued compared to two-level converters. However, taking into account that symmetrical multilevel converters such as theX-level active neutral point clamped (ANPC) family are based on imbricated and/or stacked switching cells on the one hand, with an additional center tap at the dc bus in three-phase operation on the other hand, several redundancies clearly appear which can be managed to increase the global reliability. For the first time, a general and theoretical methodology used to calculate reliability laws and failure rates and applied to compare two-, three-, and five-level topologies is proposed. Results show that the fault handling of three- and five-level three-phase topologies permits a great increase in reliability over a “relatively” short time duration, in addition to other benefits.
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Intrinsic fault tolerance in some multilevel topologies increases the reliability of these inverters.
“However, intrinsic fault tolerance in some multilevel topologies increases the reliability of these inverters [51].”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [51]
Capacitor voltage balancing, suppressing circulating currents, and reduced reliability due to higher number of devices and capacitors are challenges for multilevel inverters.
“On the other hand, the capacitor voltage balancing, suppressing circulating currents, and reduced reliability due to higher number of devices and capacitors are the challenges that need to be addressed when approaching multilevel inverters [50]-[52].”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [51]
By including one fault-tolerant capability, the gap between R(t) function of two-, three-, and five-level inverters remains below 0.2 for 0-25000 hours of operation.
“It is resulted that by including one fault-tolerant capability, the gap between R(t) function of three structures remains below 0.2 for 0-25000 hours of operation.”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [51]
By including multiple fault-tolerant capability, the reliability of multilevel topologies surpasses two-level inverter.
“Moreover, by including multiple fault-tolerant capability, the reliability of multilevel topologies surpasses two-level inverter.”
From A Review of Multilevel Inverter Topologies in Electric Vehicles: Current Status and Future Trends (2021) · cites this paper as [51]
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Transitioning to Physics-of-Failure as a Reliability Driver in Power Electronics
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“However, intrinsic fault tolerance in some multilevel topologies increases the reliability of these inverters [51].”
BackgroundOverview of Real-Time Lifetime Prediction and Extension for SiC Power Converters
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Reliability and Cost based Redundancy Design for Modular Multilevel Converter
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- Authors
- Richardeau, F., & Pham, T. T. L.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Venue
- IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
- Published
- 2013-10
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 4225-4233
- ISSN
- 0278-0046 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-9948
- OpenAlex
- W2023285254
- Cited by
- 212
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 5.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Multilevel Inverters and Converters
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality › Reliability and Maintenance Optimization
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › HVDC Systems and Fault Protection
- Keywords
- multilevel converters, reliability calculation, failure rate, active neutral point clamped converter, redundancy, fault management, three-level converter, five-level converter, two-level converter, switching cells, power electronics reliability
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