Multilevel intelligent universal auto-transformer

• US 20070230226A1
• Filed: 02/08/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electric Power Research Institute Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Electric Power Research Institute Incorporated
• Inventors: Lai, Jih-Sheng, Maitra, Arindam, Goodman, Frank
• Application Number:
  US11/705,077
• Publication Number:
  US 20070230226A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 363/65
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 5/4585 having a rectifier with controlled elements
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/487 Neutral point clamped inverters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/797 using semiconductor devices only

Abstract

A power conversion device includes a first switched converter circuit coupled to a device input and a second switched converter circuit coupled to the first switched converter circuit and a device output. The first switched converter circuit and the second switched converter circuit may be configurable for multi-level step-up and/or step-down conversion.

Claims

1. A power conversion device, comprising:

a first switched converter circuit coupled to a device input; and

a second switched converter circuit coupled to the first switched converter circuit and a device output,

wherein the first switched converter circuit and the second switched converter circuit are configurable for multi-level step-up or step-down conversion.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit is a full-bridge converter.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit is a half-bridge converter.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the second switched converter circuit is a full-bridge converter.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the second switched converter circuit is a half-bridge converter.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit and the second switched converter circuit comprise a symmetric half-bridge converter pair.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit and the second switched converter circuit comprise a symmetric full-bridge converter pair.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit and the second switched converter circuit are configured to utilize duty-cycle modulation to implement the multi-level step-up or step-down conversion.

9. The device of claim 1, further comprising an energy storage device coupled between the first switched converter circuit and the second switched converter circuit to mitigate voltage disturbances.

10. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

a first filter coupled to an input of the first switched converter circuit; and

a second filter coupled to an output of the second switched converter circuit,

wherein the first filter and the second filter are configured to provide substantially sinusoidal signals.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit implements 3-level conversion and the second switched converter circuit implements 3-level conversion.

12. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit implements 5-level conversion and the second switched converter circuit implements 5-level conversion.

13. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit may be configured to adjust a first number of conversion levels of signals at the device input and the second switched converter circuit may be configured to adjust a second number of conversion levels of signals at the device output.

14. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit includes a first plurality of configurable semiconductor switches and second switched converter circuit includes a second plurality of configurable semiconductor switches.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein a first number of configurable semiconductor switches in the first plurality of configurable semiconductor switches is selected based on a voltage level of signals at the device input and a voltage limit of the first plurality configurable semiconductor switches, and a second number of configurable semiconductor switches in the second plurality of configurable semiconductor switches is selected based on a voltage level of signals at the device output and a voltage limit of the second plurality configurable semiconductor switches.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein a first number of configurable semiconductor switches in the first plurality of configurable semiconductor switches is selected from a group consisting of 2(N₁−

1), 3(N₁−

1), 4(N₁−

1), and 6(N₁−

1), where N₁ is a number of conversion levels of the signals at the device input, and wherein a second number of configurable semiconductor switches in the second plurality of configurable semiconductor switches is selected from a group consisting of 2(N_O−

1), 3(N_O−

1), 4(N_O−

1), and 6(N_O−

1), where N_O is a number of conversion levels of the signals at the device output.

17. The device of claim 1, wherein the device is configurable for bidirectional power flow.

18. The device of claim 1, wherein a frequency of signals at the device output is configurable.

19. The device of claim 1, wherein the first switched converter circuit is configured to receive signals at the device input having 3-phases separated by substantially 120°

.

20. The device of claim 1, wherein the second switched converter circuit is configured to output signals at the device output having 3-phases separated by substantially 120°

.