Patent · US Expired

Method for controlling a power converter using an auxiliary resonant commutation circuit

US5047913A · kind A · utility

59Cited by
7References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 17, 1990
Grant dateSep 10, 1991
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 17, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH02M7/4811
  • WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method for controlling a power converter and an associated auxiliary commutation circuit ensures soft-switching of all switching devices employed therein. Such a power converter includes an inverter with at least two main switching devices per phase. Across each main switching device are connected an antiparallel diode and a relatively large snubber capacitor. The auxiliary resonant commutation circuit comprises two antiparallel-coupled auxiliary switching devices coupled in series with a resonant circuit including an inductor and the snubber capacitors. The gating and conduction times of the main and auxiliary switching devices are controlled so as to add boosting energy to the resonant operation, thus ensuring that the inverter output voltage at least reaches the positive and negative inverter rail voltages during each resonant commutation cycle. As a result, the control achieves commutation of the converter pole with substantially no switching losses.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.