ADAPTIVE POWER CONVERSION SYSTEM

• US 20130176752A1
• Filed: 01/06/2012
• Published: 07/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Grid Solutions LLC (GE Aerospace)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Schelenz, Owen Jannis Samuel, Smith, David
• Granted Patent: US 9,178,410 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 363/17
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/24 of photovoltaic origin
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/088 for the simultaneous control of series or parallel connected semiconductor devices
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/32 Means for protecting converters other than automatic disconnection
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/325 with means for allowing continuous operation despite a fault, i.e. fault tolerant converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/1584 with a plurality of power processing stages connected in parallel
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/539 with automatic control of output wave form or frequency H02M7/5375 - H02M7/5387 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1432 specially adapted for power drive units or power converters
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/56 Power conversion systems, e.g. maximum power point trackers

Abstract

A power converter includes a plurality of switches electrically coupled to each other for converting input power to output power. Each of the switches is sufficiently isolated to protect adjacent switches upon failure of one or more switches. The power converter also includes a controller for reconfiguring operation of the switches to provide at least a partial operating mode upon a switch failure.

Claims

1. A power converter comprising:

a plurality of switches electrically coupled to each other for converting input power to output power, wherein each of the plurality of switches is sufficiently isolated to protect adjacent switches upon failure of one or more of the plurality of switches; and

a controller for reconfiguring operation of the plurality of switches to provide at least a partial operating mode upon failure of the one or more switches.

2. The power converter of claim 1, wherein the plurality of switches are electrically coupled to form a two stage power converter.

3. The power converter of claim 2, wherein the two stages comprise a first stage comprising an AC-DC conversion stage or a DC-DC conversion stage and a second stage comprising a DC-AC conversion stage.

4. The power converter of claim 2, wherein each stage of the power converter comprises three legs.

5. The power converter of claim 1, wherein the plurality of switches comprises insulated gate bipolar transistors.

6. The power converter of claim 1, wherein the plurality of switches are sufficiently isolated by enclosing each of the plurality of switches in a blast shield.

7. The power converter of claim 6, wherein the blast shield comprises a fiber material, a composite material, or combinations thereof.

8. A power conversion system comprising:

a DC-DC power converter comprising at least two legs coupled in parallel, each leg comprising at least two switches couplable at a midpoint to a DC power source and sufficiently isolated to protect adjacent switches upon failure of one or more of the switches; and

a controller for controlling operating time of the switches of the at least two legs to provide a combined DC output power and, upon failure of at least one of the switches in one of the at least two legs, adjusting the operating time of at least the switches of the remainder of the at least two legs to provide a reduced combined DC output power.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein each leg of the power converter comprises exactly two switches, and wherein, upon failure of at least one of the switches in at least one leg, the controller is configured to adjust the operating time of the remaining legs to provide the reduced combined DC power.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein each leg of the DC-DC power converter comprises a first set of switches coupled in parallel on one side of the midpoint and a second set of switches coupled in parallel on the other side of the midpoint.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the controller is further configured for operating each of the remaining switches to provide a reduced level of DC output power ripple.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the DC-DC power converter is coupled to a solar power source.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein each of the at least two switches are sufficiently isolated by enclosing each of the switches in a blast shield.

14. A power conversion system comprising:

a DC-AC power converter comprising at least two phase legs coupled in parallel, each leg comprising at least two sets of switches coupled in series, wherein each of the at least two sets comprises a plurality of switches electrically coupled in parallel to each other and sufficiently isolated to protect adjacent switches upon failure of one or more of the switches; and

a controller for controlling a combined AC output power by adjusting AC output power generated from each phase leg upon failure of at least one of the switches in at least one of the two sets of switches.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the controller is configured to operate the leg comprising at least one of the failed switches to provide reduced AC output power.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the controller is further configured to operate remaining switches of the at least one set of each leg to provide a balanced AC output power to provide a reduced combined AC power.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the controller is configured to shut down the operation of the DC-AC power converter when each of the plurality of switches of at least one set among the two sets have failed.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the DC-AC power converter is coupled to a renewable power generation source.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising blast shields for isolating each of the switches.