MODULAR, MULTI-CHANNEL, INTERLEAVED POWER CONVERTERS

• US 20160329832A1
• Filed: 07/15/2016
• Published: 11/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABB Schweiz AG (ABB Limited)
• Original Assignee: ABB Incorporated (ABB Limited)
• Inventors: Aeloiza, Eddy, Burgos, Rolando, Du, Yu
• Granted Patent: US 10,727,762 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0043 Converters switched with a phase shift, i.e. interleaved non-isolated DC/DC converters H02M3/1586
• 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 1/12 Arrangements for reducing harmonics from ac input or output
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/14 Arrangements for reducing ripples from dc input or output
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/42 Circuits or arrangements for compensating for or adjusting power factor in converters or inverters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/487 Neutral point clamped inverters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/493 the static converters being arranged for operation in parallel
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/68 by static converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/81 arranged for operation in parallel

Abstract

A multi-phase power converter includes two or more multi-phase, bi-directional, multi-level, switching power converter subcircuits, connected in parallel at respective AC and DC sides, so as to provide a multi-channel, bi-directional, multi-level configuration. The AC sides of the switching converter subcircuits are directly coupled to one another and to a multi-phase AC input via series interface reactors, and the DC sides of the switching converter subcircuits are directly connected to one another and to a common split-capacitor bank at each level of the multi-level outputs of the switching converter subcircuits. A control circuit is configured to selectively control one or more switching semiconductor devices in each of the switching converter subcircuits. In some embodiments, the control circuit includes a closed-loop zero-sequence controller and a zero-sequence generator configured to eliminate circulating current among the switching converter subcircuits and to balance voltages across levels of the common split-capacitor bank.

Claims

1. A multi-phase power converter, comprising:

two or more multi-phase, bi-directional, multi-level, switching power converter subcircuits, connected in parallel at respective AC and DC sides, so as to provide a multi-channel, bi-directional, multi-level configuration; and

a control circuit configured to selectively control one or more switching semiconductor devices in each of the switching converter subcircuits;

wherein the AC sides of the switching converter subcircuits are directly coupled to one another and to a multi-phase AC input via series interface reactors, and wherein the DC sides of the switching converter subcircuits are directly connected to one another and to a common split-capacitor bank at each level of multi-level outputs of the switching converter subcircuits.

2. The power converter of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is configured to control the switching semiconductor devices so that corresponding switching semiconductors in each of the switching converter subcircuits are switched in an interleaved manner.

3. The power converter of claim 1, wherein the series interface reactors comprise multi-phase-coupled inductors.

4. The power converter of claim 1, wherein each of the switching converter subcircuits comprises a neutral-point-clamped, multi-level, power converter circuit.

5. The power converter of claim 1, wherein each of the switching converter subcircuits comprises a multi-level, flying capacitor, power converter circuit.

6. The power converter of claim 1, wherein the control circuit comprises controller circuits configured to control the active and reactive power flow of each of the switching converter subcircuits using d-axis and q-axis reference voltages, respectively, of a synchronous reference frame of a reference frequency, and wherein the control circuit further comprises a closed-loop zero-sequence component controller configured to substantially eliminate circulating current among the switching converter subcircuits and a zero-sequence generator or common-mode injection block to realize Space Vector Modulation equivalence and to balance voltages across levels of the common split-capacitor bank.

7. The power converter of claim 1, wherein each of the switching converter subcircuits is included in a separate, self-contained module.