Collaboration harnesses fibre optic solutions for power switching
As part of the cooperation Avago will develop a Versatile Link solution that aims to benefit from the Amantys Power Insight’s capability to transform the way industrial fibre optics are used in power switching systems.
The collaboration has enabled Amantys to develop technology to expand the data capacity across the Avago Versatile Link. Amantys is already using Avago Versatile Link Fibre Optic transceivers on the company’s IGBT gate drivers to improve system performance, availability and operating life.
Avago and Amantys have also agreed to cooperate in driving Amantys Power Insight forward as a de-facto industry standard.
The collaboration aims to enable developers to make the IGBT driver part of the overall control system and not just a ‘black box’ solution with limited information available about the condition. Amantys Power Insight using Versatile Link transmitters and receivers will enable developers to benefit from being able to access more detailed information about the condition of the switch during operation.
The collaboration also allows the system to be adapted during operation using the industry standard fibre optical interface and creates the ability to react to the information harvested from the switch to support development, commissioning and operation.
The development of Power Insight is being driven to bring more intelligence into the power switching process. Armed with information harvested from the heart of the power switching system via Insight developers have the ability to make use of the solution in their control plane to adapt their system during operation to achieve improved performance, availability and product life.
"Our aim is to use communications techniques in high power electronics," suggested Steven Evans, VP Marketing for Amantys. "To turn what is very much a ‘black box’ in systems today into something capable of providing detailed information available on what is going on inside that box. We have done that by implementing a protocol over the standard fiber optics being used in that type of system. We worked with Avago’s fiber optics initially on their 5 Mbaud link but following the collaboration we are now running that same protocol over their 50 Mbaud fiber optics."
"We are looking how we make the IGBT driver part of the overall control system. In systems today the IGBT and the IGBT driver are controlled through two signals. One is a firing pulse which is a PWM input that switches the IGBT ‘on’ and ‘off’ via the driver and there is also an acknowledge signal back to the control system which simply says whether the switch has worked correctly or not. There is no more information available than that basic data."
"At the high voltage level, which is 1.7 kV and above, most companies are now using fiber optics for those two signals. What we have done is effectively overlaid bi-directional data onto those two fiber optic interfaces so that instead of just being ‘on’ and ‘off’ and ‘acknowledge’ we now have the ability to send data to the gate drive so we can configure it to a particular IGBT module. We also have the ability to receive data back from the gate driver about how things are going in the switching process. So it can be simple data like temperature or we can provide information about how many switch cycles have been implemented. Alternatively, we can send back data about voltages or short circuits or other error conditions. So instead of being a simple ‘black box’ interface we are really now opening up that part of the system to try to provide more useful information."
"The 50 Mbaud rate initiative opens up the potential to provide higher resolution data at a higher bit rate and enables the integration with the latest generations of Avago transmitter and receiver devices which will benefit from lower power consumtption and longer life," explained Evans.
Martin Weigert, Vice President and General Manager for Industrial Fibre Products at Avago, commented: “We are delighted with the rapid progress we’ve made since Avago engaged with Amantys last year and this announcement marks the first results of our partnership.”
Amantys Power Insight is designed to monitor key system parameters at the IGBT switch during system operation. Insight is able to report back detailed fault codes which help the system operator understand the nature of problems in the switch. The switching characteristics of the IGBT module can be configured remotely by Power Insight to match operational demands.
At the upcoming PCIM 2014 in Nuremberg, Germany both companies will be demonstrating how Amantys Power Insight has been deployed to optimize the transceiver transmit power, a critical factor in the lifetime of fibre optic products.
Related articles and links:
www.amantys.com
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