Survey on Fault-Tolerant Techniques for Power Electronic Converters

TLDR

Power electronic converters are increasingly used in high‑power systems, driving interest in reliability and fault‑tolerance. This review surveys conventional fault‑tolerant techniques for power electronic converters when semiconductor devices fail, aiming to map the current research landscape. The review categorizes fault‑tolerant techniques into switch‑, leg‑, module‑, and system‑level hardware redundancy, evaluating them on cost, complexity, and performance.

Abstract

With wide-spread application of power electronic converters in high power systems, there has been a growing interest in system reliability analysis and fault-tolerant capabilities. This paper presents a comprehensive review of conventional fault-tolerant techniques regarding power electronic converters in case of power semiconductor device failures. These techniques can be classified into four categories based on the type of hardware redundancy unit: switch-level, leg-level, module-level, and system-level. Also, various fault-tolerant methods are assessed according to cost, complexity, performance, etc. The intent of this review is to provide a detailed picture regarding the current landscape of research in power electronic fault-handling mechanisms.