NESTABLE SINGLE CELL STRUCTURE FOR USE IN A POWER CONVERSION SYSTEM

• US 20150214828A1
• Filed: 11/19/2014
• Published: 07/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Energy Power Conversion Technology Limited (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: GE Energy Power Conversion Technology Limited (General Electric Company)
• Inventors: Zhang, Fan, Zhang, Richard S., Schroeder, Stefan, Yuan, Zhihui, Shen, Jie, Chen, Kunlun
• Granted Patent: US 10,644,609 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0003 Details of control, feedback or regulation circuits
• 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 1/08 Circuits specially adapted for the generation of control voltages for semiconductor devices incorporated in static converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/325 with means for allowing continuous operation despite a fault, i.e. fault tolerant converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/4837 Flying capacitor converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/487 Neutral point clamped inverters

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus, including a capacitor module having a plurality of connecting terminals and a plurality of switch elements. Each switch element has at least one switch terminal coupled to a corresponding connecting terminal, wherein the switch elements are configured for mutually exclusive operation via a control device.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a capacitor module having a plurality of connecting terminals; and

a plurality of switch elements, each having at least one switch terminal coupled to a corresponding one of the connecting terminals;

wherein the switch elements are configured for mutually exclusive operation via a control device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the capacitor module forms flying capacitors.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the capacitor module forms DC link capacitors.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein operation of the plurality of switch elements is substantially non-overlapping.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus forms a first cell structure, the first cell structure being configured to embed with a second cell structure.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein components within the second cell structure are substantially identical to components within the first cell structure.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the first and second cells form a nested structure.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the first and second cell structures are configured to cooperatively produce a multi-level output.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the multi-level output includes three or more levels.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of switch elements are formed of two or more power switches that are coupled together in series.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the series connected power switches provide fault tolerant operation.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the switch elements is a bi-directional switch.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of switch elements is configured for conducting bi-directional current.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one or more switch elements (i) is formed of one or more power switches;

and (ii) becomes active only when all of the one or more power switches are active.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein (i) before a particular one of the switch elements becomes inactive, one of the one or more power switches of another switch element becomes active;

and (ii) after the particular one of the switch elements becomes inactive, another one of the one or more power switches of the other switch element becomes active.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the other switch element becomes active when all of the power switches are active.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus forms a first cell structure configured for nesting with a second cell structure;

and

wherein the first cell structure is different from the second cell structure.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control device is configured for sequentially controlling the plurality of switch elements via control signals, and

wherein the control device controls voltage across the capacitor module.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of connecting terminals includes at least three connecting terminals.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the plurality of switch elements includes at least three switch elements.