Voltage inverters - Structures. Principles. Applications

Voltage inverters are an essential power electronics function, present in a wide variety of applications, the best-known of which is undoubtedly that of variable speed AC machines. The rapid evolution of this function has been driven, on the one hand, by the development of fully controllable, powerful, robust and fast semiconductor components, and, on the other, by the widespread use of pulse-width modulation (PWM) techniques, the latter building on the switching frequency performance of the former. The "noble" nature of this function (fully reversible converters, sophisticated form of energy conversion) is matched by particularly interesting applications. The aim of this talk is to present the architecture and control modes of these inverters, and their main applications, from the most classic to the most recent.