Nine-switch converter application on electric ship propulsion — A redundancy approach

Currently used inverter solutions for ship propulsion applications are based in classic voltage source inverter (VSI) topologies, mostly two-level voltages source inverters (2L-VSI) and cascaded H-Bridge voltage source inverters (CHB-VSI) which have became a standard as from the industrial point of view. Nevertheless, modern ship propulsion applications are required to operate under faulty conditions, demanding power electronics to ensure redundancy capability. This work presents a redundant converter topology based on a nine-switch inverter, for its application in electric-propelled ships.