DC chopper for MMC cell with integrated chopper resistor

• Main Authors: Doan, Duy Duc, Biris, Ciprian, Gerçek, Cem Özgür, Helle, Lars, Pedersen, Tune
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.12.2021
• 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; BLASTING; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CONTROL OR REGULATION THEREOF; CONVERSION OF DC OR AC INPUT POWER INTO SURGE OUTPUTPOWER; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRICITY; GENERATION; HEATING; LIGHTING; MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY; WEAPONS; WIND MOTORS; WIND, SPRING WEIGHT AND MISCELLANEOUS MOTORS

A Direct Current (DC) chopper may be integrated into the Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) cells of a power converter. The integrated DC chopper may include chopper resistors that may also be advantageously integrated into a heat sink for a power module including at least the power transistors of the MMC cell. The safe discharge of both cell capacitors and DC-link capacitors in different operating conditions is performed using Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs) and chopper resistors of an MMC cell.