Power electronics equipment serves an active role in diverse areas of society. Both the usage and capacity of such equipment extend to wide-ranging areas, such as the power supplies for information equipment, uninterruptible power supplies, inverters for rolling mills, and rectifiers for aluminum smelting plants. This paper outlines the design methods and tools used for the efficient development of various types of power electronics equipment which is not applied common parts easily, using a minimum amount of operational resouces. And also it describes the market trends relating to the plants and components in which power electronics equipment is used, as well as how Fuji Electric addresses such matters.

Generally speaking, urgent requests are being made for the downsizing, greater efficiency, higher performance, and increased reliability of power electronics products such as uninterruptible power systems and inverters used for variable-speed driving. Moreover, since product cycles are being shortened, it has also become necessary to market the products more quickly. Consequently, the development of these products requires speedy and highly accurate design technologies. Of the design technologies mentioned above, this paper introduces the tools that support the thermal design of IGBT modules and design of control software in the field of power electronics equipment.

Recent years have seen the development higher-voltage-proof IGBTs and some with rated voltages similar to those of thyristors have been commercialized. These IGBTs provide certain advantages for the simplification of circuits, but cause large switching loss, restrict the carrier cycle to 1 kHz or lower, and require larger filters. In order to significantly reduce such switching loss, Fuji Electric has developed technology for applying an IGBT with 1kV-class rated voltage that is multi-series-connected as a substitute for high-voltage-proof IGBTs. This paper describes the trial manufacture and evaluation results of a railway compartment and industrial inverter that we have implemented utilizing this technology.

Many types of variable-speed driving systems for electric motors are used in industrial plants such as in the iron-making, papermaking, and petrochemical industries. In recent years, the combination of an alternate current electric motor and an inverter as the variable-speed driving system for electric motors has been adopted. There are two types of variable-speed driving systems: the multi-purpose inverter used exclusively for fan, pump and other single-body units of equipment, and the variable-speed driving system used in combination with many units for industrial plants such as in the iron-making and papermaking industries. This paper introduces the progress being made in variable-speed driving systems and Fuji Electric's representative models of variable-speed driving systems for industrial plants.

The high-voltage inverter is a relatively new product among power electronics-applied products, and it is less than ten years since the product was first marketed anywhere in the world. Fuji Electric initially marketed this product in 1999, has delivered more than 300 units to its customers to date, and will proceed with further sales promotion both in Japan and overseas. We have two types of products in this category: the sensor-less stable V/f control and vector control types, each in 3.3kV (280 to 3,750kVA) and 6.6kV (560 to 7,500kVA) lines. In addition, these products offer many functions (synchronizing/parallel off, measures against momentary outages, and synchronized electric motor driving), and are used for many different types of devices including fans, pumps, mixers, and compressors.

The global demand for aluminum has been growing by an annual average of 5% in recent years. This growth is largely being driven by the demand for lightweight solutions in the transportation equipment industry. As is well known, aluminum is produced by smelting alumina through electrolysis, which consumes a large amount of DC power. Fuji Electric has manufactured AC to DC power conversion systems or transformer-rectifier equipment that we call S-Formers since 1960 based on technical research development and refinement. Our S-Formers enjoy an outstanding worldwide reputation for high efficiency and high reliability. Since we have supplied S-Formers to a state-of-the-art smelter built by Alcoa in Iceland, this paper introduces the features of the equipment.

Given the stricter requirements for “Quality of electricity" in power supplies these days, the role of static flicker compensator (SFC) is becoming more important increasingly. There are different types of flicker compensators which freely utilize power electronics, such as a thyristor controlled reactor (TCR) type and self-commutated type SFC using self-turn-off devices (e.g., IGBT). This paper describes the leading-edge technologies used to control the static flicker compensators (of both TCR type and self-commutated types).

Induction heating and melting offer various features and have been widely used in industrial fields. This paper describes the features, specifications, and other aspects of newly developed products such as an induction furnace power supply (750 to 6,000kW, 50 to 500Hz) that can drive multiple furnaces simultaneously, and a tube welder (50 to 500kW, 200 to 500kHz). It also reports an overview of a newly developed, large-power, high frequency power supply.

In addition to the highly advanced integration of information and networking of computer systems in recent years, the efficiency and security of systems are now considered increasingly important. Against such a background, the requirements for the “high efficiency and reliability" of uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system are also increasing. Moreover, in the building construction market including IDCs (Internet Data Centers), 400V systems are now becoming the major distribution systems being used. We have commercialized the highly efficient, highly reliable "7000D Series" of 400V series of highly efficient online UPS devices in response to these requirements. This paper introduces the features and specifications of these products.

The demand for stable electric power supplies has increased in line with the rapid development of computer systems. There has also been a growing demand for higher reliability regarding the Mini-UPS used as such power supplies. Moreover, the demand for high-efficiency and large-capacity UPS has increased as servers have achieved larger capacity and users are becoming more interested in the environment. Fuji Electric has commercialized a new UPS applied to Dualconversion for high-efficiency and high-performance. This paper introduces the specifications and features of this new series UPS.

A power supply that can accommodate an operation voltage of 1V or less is demanded by speed-up, the low voltage and large current drive of various LSIs (e.g., memory, FPGA-field programmable gate array, CPU) used for telecommunication devices, and changes in the power supply composition from AC input to these LSIs. This paper introduces an example of a decentralized power supply system that can accommodate these demands, and cites Fuji Electric's front-end power supply, middle bus converter, and POL (point of load) converter products as examples.

The Kyoto Protocol became effective in February 2005 and was adopted as an international law. Railways offer the highest energy efficiency among all means of transportation and provide an economical and environment-friendly system of mass transport that is continuously evolving. From now on, railway transport will be required to have, in addition to streamlining, energy-saving, and maintenance-free features, more amenities including a noiseless coach environment and measures to meet the needs of elderly passengers. This paper introduces our approach to developing technology for the main circuit system of Shinkansen passenger compartments and auxiliary power supply units for the compartments of conventional lines. We have realized innovative technology in response to the requirements for safety, reliability, and economy, and more recently the requirements for higher speed, energy saving, and measures for addressing environmental issues. Moreover we introduce related advanced technologies and the future trends of such technologies.

Grid connections to the electric power systems of decentralized power supplies utilizing natural energy have recently increased. However, since the output power of decentralized power supplies varies depending on natural conditions, such problems as fluctuating power frequency and voltage may occur. To address such problems, power smoothing devices utilizing rechargeable batteries, flywheels, capacitors, or micro grids composed of multiple decentralized power supplies and loads to control supply and demand are effective. This paper introduces the leading-edge technologies relating to these power smoothing equipment.

The activities to address the prevention of global warming that began with adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997 have expanded to cover preservation for the entire global environment with the suppression of such hazardous substances as environmental hormones in addition to CO₂. With regard to water supply and sewerage systems, under the circumstances requiring a deliberate reduction in the basic consumption units of electric power and thermal energy since the revised Law Concerning the Rational Use of Energy was enacted, operating businesses and projects are being required to further reduce environmental impact even more. This paper introduces the energysaving evaluation simulator used as an engineering tool, as well as matrix converters, PM motors, and high-voltage VVVFs used as energysaving- related equipment.