PARALLEL POWER INVERTER MOTOR DRIVE SYSTEM
First Claim
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1. An electric motor drive system comprising:
- a plurality of drive modules each comprising a converter for converting incoming AC power to DC power and an inverter coupled to the converter for converting the DC power to controlled frequency AC power;
a shared line-side bus coupled to the converters of the drive modules for providing the incoming AC power;
a shared load-side bus coupled to the inverters for combining the controlled frequency AC power from all of the drive modules into a common AC output; and
a common controller coupled to all of the inverters and configured to provide signals to the inverters to permit each inverter to generate gate drive signals for power electronic switches of the respective inverter separately and in parallel with one another.
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Abstract
Multiple inverter motor drives are interconnected in parallel to provide a common output to a motor. Common control circuitry is coupled to all parallel drives via optical cables and provides signals to power layer circuitry of each inverter for generation, at the power layer, of timing for gate drive signals for the respective inverter power electronic switches. The resulting timing exhibits a high degree of synchronicity such that very little imbalance occurs in the outputs of the paralleled drives, resulting in very low circulating currents.
11 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An electric motor drive system comprising:
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a plurality of drive modules each comprising a converter for converting incoming AC power to DC power and an inverter coupled to the converter for converting the DC power to controlled frequency AC power; a shared line-side bus coupled to the converters of the drive modules for providing the incoming AC power; a shared load-side bus coupled to the inverters for combining the controlled frequency AC power from all of the drive modules into a common AC output; and a common controller coupled to all of the inverters and configured to provide signals to the inverters to permit each inverter to generate gate drive signals for power electronic switches of the respective inverter separately and in parallel with one another. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An electric motor drive system comprising:
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a plurality of drive modules each comprising a converter for converting incoming AC power to DC power and an inverter coupled to the converter for converting the DC power to controlled frequency AC power; a common controller coupled to all of the inverters and configured to provide signals to the inverters to permit each inverter to generate gate drive signals for power electronic switches of the respective inverter separately and in parallel with one another; a shared line-side bus coupled to the converters of the drive modules for providing the incoming AC power; and a shared load-side bus coupled to the inverters for combining the controlled frequency AC power from all of the drive modules into a common AC output without interposition of inductive components therebetween; wherein each inverter comprises power layer processing circuitry that, during operation, receives the signals from the common controller and generates timing for the gate drive signals based upon the received signals. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An electric motor drive system comprising:
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a plurality of drive modules each comprising a converter for converting incoming AC power to DC power and an inverter coupled to the converter for converting the DC power to controlled frequency AC power; a common controller coupled to all of the inverters and configured to provide signals to the inverters to permit each inverter to generate gate drive signals for power electronic switches of the respective inverter separately and in parallel with one another; a shared line-side bus coupled to the converters of the drive modules for providing the incoming AC power; and a shared load-side bus coupled to the inverters for combining the controlled frequency AC power from all of the drive modules into a common AC output without interposition of inductive components therebetween; wherein each inverter is coupled to the common control circuitry via a respective optical cable and comprises power layer processing circuitry that, during operation, receives the signals from the common controller via the respective optical cable and generates timing for the gate drive signals based upon the received signals, the timing of the gate drive signals of any two of the inverters differing from one another by not more than 40 ns. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification