PROJECT TITLE :

A Transformerless PCB-Based Medium-Voltage Multilevel Power Converter With a DC Capacitor Balancing Circuit

ABSTRACT:

This paper presents a brand new method of constructing a transformerless voltage-sourced medium-voltage multilevel converter using existing discrete power semiconductor devices and printed circuit board technology. While the approach is general, it's significantly well fitted to medium-voltage converters and motor drives within the 4.16 kV 500–1000 kW range. A completely unique way of visualizing the facility stage topology is developed, which allows simplified mechanical layouts, whereas managing the commutation paths. Using thus several discrete devices usually drives cost and complexity of the gate-drive system including its management and isolation; a gate-drive circuit is presented to deal with this downside. As with most multilevel topologies, the dc-link voltages should be balanced throughout operation. This is accomplished using an auxiliary circuit created up of the same power stage and an associated management algorithm. Experimental results are presented for a 4.16-kV 746-kW 5-level power converter prototype.