Multilevel converter and method of converting a supply voltage

• Main Authors: ZUEGER HARRY, STEFANUTTI PHILIPPE, HUGO NICOLAS, DORMIA GEORGES, DESCOLLAZ BERNARD
• Format: Patent
• Language: Chinese; English
• Published: 20.04.2011
• Subjects: APPARATUS FOR CONVERSION BETWEEN AC AND AC, BETWEEN AC AND DC,OR BETWEEN DC AND DC, AND FOR USE WITH MAINS OR SIMILAR POWERSUPPLY SYSTEMS; BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TOTRANSPORTATION; CONTROL OR REGULATION THEREOF; CONVERSION OF DC OR AC INPUT POWER INTO SURGE OUTPUTPOWER; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT OR PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLEDVEHICLES; ELECTRICITY; ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES, IN GENERAL; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERATION; INDUCTANCES; MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; MAGNETS; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SELECTION OF MATERIALS FOR THEIR MAGNETIC PROPERTIES; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; TRANSFORMERS; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL

The present invention is concerned with a multilevel converter including a transformer arrangement comprising at least two transformer units, each with primary and secondary windings and a transformer core structure. The latter are merged into one shared transformer core comprising at least one return limb that is part of the closed magnetic flux paths of the at least two transformer units. Sharing return limbs among individual transformer units, in particular when fed with primary voltage signals that have a certain phase shift between each other, helps to reduce the volume and weight as compared to an individual transformer core structure for each of the transformer units. The multilevel converter is beneficially used in railway traction applications.