Fault detection method of electronic power switch in sequential bridge converters based on time domain methods

In this article, after reviewing the various methods available to detect the fault of the power electronic switch of the sequential bridge converter, a time domain method that uses the waveforms of voltage and current to detect the fault is presented. Time domain methods for fault detection require output waveforms of voltage and current of the sequential bridge converter. When the error occurred in the power electronic switch is of short circuit type, the best error detection method is to use advanced gate starters that quickly detect the short circuit error in less than 10 microseconds. For open circuit error, using frequency response methods, smart algorithm based method and time domain methods are common. These methods require more than 10 microseconds to detect the error. The method presented in this article is applicable to both types of short circuit and open circuit faults. Due to the flexibility of vector modulation in manipulating keying situations, the method presented for error detection in this article can be implemented using vector modulation. In the simulation of the method presented in this article in MATLAB/Simulink software, the error of the consecutive bridge converter is detected in less than 760 microseconds.