General Electric Company
Compact design of multilevel power converter systems

Abstract:

In an embodiment, a three-level active neutral-point clamped (ANPC) converter system is provided. The system includes first and second Direct Current (DC)-bus structures that include at least one of a number of DC-bus capacitors on printed circuit boards (PCBs). The PCBs are laminated together with an air gap (e.g., one or more millimeters) in between for a thermal dissipation and an insulation creepage. The three DC-bus terminals include PCBs, and are electrically connected to the three-level power converter, which are typically mounted on a heatsink or a cold plate.