A novel multi-level topology based on current source power cells for high performance applications

Progress and developments in technology have meant that every year an increasing number of industrial applications require more careful handling of higher levels of power in the electrical motors, without ignoring the possibility of improved power quality. These developments, together with the cost of medium voltage semiconductors, have given rise to the multilevel converters with power cells conveniently connected in cascade. These converters have expectations that do not have conventional converters, such as high voltage level applications using standard low-voltage semiconductors, low load dv/dt and high quality in the input feed currents, helping fulfill the recommendations and standards currently in force. However, it is still necessary to use large energy accumulators in the DC-link of the power cells. This paper proposes a new multilevel topology - based on current source power cells - that has improved features as compared to their counterpart voltage sources, among which are the possibility of using conventional low-voltage semiconductors, low load dv/dt, reduced size in DC components and the possibility of regeneration without the hassle of an additional control scheme.