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The Solid-State Shift: Reinventing the Transformer for Modern Grids

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58 points JumpCrisscross | 1 comments | 12 Apr 25 18:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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hristov ◴[12 Apr 25 19:50 UTC] No.43667429[source]▶
This is very interesting and cannot happen fast enough, considering the current worldwide transformer shortage.

I have a question for people more familiar with these. What exactly happens at the isolation stage. They say it includes a high frequency transformer (HFT). But its input and out put is DC. And classic transformers operate on AC. So in order to get the transformer working, one would have to chop up the incoming dc power into a square wave or a sine wave. But what transistors can you use to do this, considering you are dealing both with very high power and very high frequencies?

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1. Gibbon1 ◴[12 Apr 25 22:43 UTC] No.43668505[source]▶
Power transistors can be had that can switch up to maybe 3000V at the most. But maybe 1200-1500V is more common.

You can stack power transistors to switch higher voltages on the primary side. On the secondary side you just need an H-bridge. Which can be made up of transistors in parallel.

We've had high power high voltage transistors for about 40 years now. A lot of this isn't technical but rather economic. As the price falls the applications where they are cheaper increases. It's notable for instance Toyota started work on their hybrid drive in the mid nineties when inverters for 10-100 HP motors became cheap enough.