POWER CONVERTER BASED ON H-BRIDGES

• US 20130121041A1
• Filed: 11/15/2011
• Published: 05/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Schroeder, Stefan, Wijekoon, Piniwan Thiwanka Bandara
• Granted Patent: US 9,036,379 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 363/37
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/007 Physical arrangements or structures of drive train converters specially adapted for the propulsion motors of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0095 Hybrid converter topologies, e.g. NPC mixed with flying capacitor, thyristor converter mixed with MMC or charge pump mixed with buck
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/12 Arrangements for reducing harmonics from ac input or output
• 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 7/49 Combination of the output voltage waveforms of a plurality of converters
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 Electric machine technologies in electromobility

Abstract

A power converter includes an active front end (AFE) that is coupled by a dc link stage to a plurality of H-bridge inverters. One or more multi-phase electro-magnetic energy conversion devices, such as transformers or electric machines, with open windings that are connected to only the AFE or only the H-bridge inverters or to both the AFE and H-bridge inverters, provide a regenerative or partial regenerative power converter.

Claims

1. A power converter comprising:

a first section comprising an active front end (AFE);

a second section comprising a plurality of H-bridge inverters, wherein the plurality of H-bridge inverters is coupled via a dc link stage to the AFE; and

a first multi-phase electro-magnetic energy conversion device (EMECD) comprising open windings that are connected to only the AFE or only the H-bridge inverters to provide a regenerative power converter.

2. The power converter according to claim 1, wherein the first multi-phase EMECD is a transformer with open secondary windings.

3. The power converter according to claim 1, wherein the AFE comprises a plurality of H-bridge converters.

4. The power converter according to claim 3, wherein at least one H-bridge converter comprises a three-level neutral point clamped H-bridge.

5. The power converter according to claim 1, wherein the dc link stage comprises a plurality of dc link capacitor sections, each dc link capacitor section isolated from every other dc link capacitor section.

6. The power converter according to claim 1, wherein the dc link stage consists of a single dc link capacitor section common to both the AFE and the plurality of H-bridge inverters.

7. The power converter according to claim 1, wherein the AFE consists of a single multi-phase, input conversion stage.

8. The power converter according to claim 1, wherein the AFE comprises a plurality of multi-phase input conversion stages.

9. The power converter according to claim 1, wherein the AFE comprises at least one multi-phase, input converter stage and one or more multi-phase, diode rectifier converter stages.

10. The power converter according to claim 1, further comprising a second multi-phase EMECD comprising open windings, wherein the second multi-phase EMECD open windings are connected to only the AFE when the first multi-phase EMECD open windings are connected to the H-bridge inverters, and further wherein the second multi-phase EMECD open windings are connected to only the H-bridge inverters when the first multi-phase EMECD open windings are connected to the AFE to provide a regenerative power converter.

11. The power converter according to claim 10, wherein the dc link stage consists of a single dc link capacitor section common to both the AFE and the plurality of H-bridge inverters.

12. The power converter according to claim 10, wherein at least one multi-phase EMECD is a transformer with open secondary windings.

13. The power converter according to claim 10, wherein the AFE comprises a plurality of H-bridge converters.

14. The power converter according to claim 13, wherein at least one H-bridge converter comprises a three-level neutral point clamped H-bridge.

15. A power converter comprising:

a first section comprising a plurality of H-bridge converters;

a second section comprising a plurality of H-bridge inverters, wherein each H-bridge inverter is coupled by a corresponding dc link stage to a corresponding H-bridge converter such that each dc link stage is isolated from every other dc link stage; and

a multi-phase electro-magnetic energy conversion device (EMECD) comprising open windings that are connected to the power converters to provide a regenerative power converter.

16. The power converter according to claim 15, wherein the multi-phase EMECD is a transformer with open secondary windings that are connected to only the H-bridge converters.

17. The power converter according to claim 15, wherein the multi-phase EMECD is a machine with open windings that are connected to only the H-bridge inverters.

18. The power converter according to claim 15, wherein at least one H-bridge converter comprises a three-level neutral point clamped H-bridge.

19. The power converter according to claim 15, wherein a degree of freedom in the common mode voltages or currents within the EMECD is utilized to control power flow between the dc-links.

20. A power converter comprising:

a first section comprising at least one multi-phase input conversion stage;

a second section comprising a plurality of H-bridge inverters coupled to the first section by a single common dc link; and

a multi-phase electro-magnetic energy conversion device (EMECD) comprising open windings that are connected to only the H-bridge inverters to provide a regenerative power converter.

21. A power converter comprising:

a first section comprising a plurality of H-bridge converters;

a second section comprising a plurality of H-bridge inverters, wherein first section is coupled by a single common dc link stage to the second section;

a first multi-phase electro-magnetic conversion device (EMECD) comprising open windings that are connected to only the H-bridge converters; and

a second multi-phase EMECD comprising open windings that are connected to only the H-bridge inverters to provide a regenerative power converter.