A converter topology for high current density drive applications

In the area of marine industry, there is a large interest in converters for high power density. Increasing power above 8MW; pf 0.8; 3, 3kV in Medium Voltage Drive leds to either increase voltage or associate drives in parallel. Both solutions consist in doubling the number of components to reach the same power density that means drives with higher footprints and expensive solutions. This paper presents how a 3-level converter structure which was developed to double switching frequency is able to switch 50% more current, offering a very power dense medium voltage drive to industry.