HIGH VOLTAGE HIGH POWER MULTI-LEVEL DRIVE STRUCTURE

• US 20130314957A1
• Filed: 05/25/2012
• Published: 11/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Energy Power Conversion Technology Limited (GE Vernova, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Gupta, Ranjan Kumar, Datta, Rajib, Zhang, Di
• Granted Patent: US 9,148,069 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 363/71
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/007 Plural converter units in cascade push-pull DC/DC converters with pre-regulator H02M3/3374; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC stage including a high frequency transformer H02M7/4807; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC conversion stage generating periodically varying voltages H02M7/4826
• 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 7/483 Converters with outputs that each can have more than two voltages levels
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/4837 Flying capacitor converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/487 Neutral point clamped inverters

Abstract

A high voltage, high power multi-level drive structure includes a plurality of neutral-point-piloted (NPP) converter cells stacked together. At least one clamping diode is connected to one or many NPP converter cell to provide a neutral-point-pilot-clamped (NPPC) converter structure. Flying capacitors connected to the NPPC converter structure yield a neutral-point-clamped-flying-capacitor converter cell structure.

Claims

1. A high voltage, high power (HVHP) multi-level drive with plurality of input and output phases comprising:

a plurality of multi-level neutral-point-piloted (NPP) converter cells stacked together; and

a plurality of clamping diodes, wherein each multi-level NPP converter cell is connected to a common neutral point by at least one corresponding clamping diode to provide a multi-level neutral-point-pilot-clamped (NPPC) converter.

2. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of multi-level NPP converter cells comprise medium voltage multi-level NPP converter cells.

3. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 1, wherein each multi-level NPP converter cell comprises a three-level NPP converter cell.

4. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 3, wherein the HVHP multi-level drive comprises a five-level NPPC converter.

5. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 4, wherein the five-level NPPC converter comprises per-unit output voltage levels consisting of −

2V, −

1V, 0V, +1V and +2V.

6. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 1, wherein the multi-level NPPC converter comprises per-unit output voltage levels consisting of −

2V, −

1V, 0V, +1V and +2V.

7. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of flying capacitors, wherein each multi-level NPPC converter comprises at least one flying capacitor selected from the plurality of flying capacitors, and further wherein the plurality of flying capacitors, the plurality of multi-level NPPC converters and the plurality of clamping diodes together provide a neutral-point-clamped-flying-capacitor (NPCFC) converter cell structure.

8. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 7, wherein the NPCFC converter cell comprises a seven-level output cell.

9. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 7, wherein the NPCFC converter cell comprises an N-level output cell, wherein N is the number of output voltage levels.

10. A high voltage, high power (HVHP) multi-level drive comprising:

a plurality of multi-level neutral-point-piloted (NPP) converter cells stacked together; and

a plurality of clamping diodes, wherein each multi-level NPP converter cell is connected to a common neutral point by at least one corresponding clamping diode selected from the plurality of clamping diodes to provide a zero output voltage level node for the HVHP multi-level drive.

11. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of multi-level NPP converter cells comprise medium voltage multi-level NPP converter cells.

12. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 10, wherein each multi-level NPP converter cell comprises a three-level NPP converter cell.

13. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 12, wherein the HVHP multi-level drive comprises a five-level NPPC converter.

14. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 13, wherein the five-level NPPC converter comprises per-unit output voltage levels consisting of −

2V, −

1V, 0V, +1V and +2V.

15. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 10, wherein the multi-level NPPC converter comprises per-unit output voltage levels consisting of −

2V, −

1V, 0V, +1V and +2V.

16. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 10, further comprising a plurality of flying capacitors, wherein each multi-level NPPC converter comprises at least one flying capacitor selected from the plurality of flying capacitors, and further wherein the plurality of flying capacitors, the plurality of multi-level NPPC converters and the plurality of clamping diodes together provide a neutral-point-clamped-flying-capacitor (NPCFC) converter cell structure.

17. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 16, wherein the NPCFC converter cell comprises a seven-level output cell.

18. The HVHP multi-level drive according to claim 16, wherein the NPCFC converter cell comprises an N-level output cell, wherein N is the number of output voltage levels in one output phase.