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Modular multilevel converter (MMC) is one of the most potential converter structures for medium/high power/voltage applications. Since the electrical energy is stored in the capacitances of its sub-modules during the operation of the MMC, the output power quality is directly related to the capacitor voltage. Therefore, capacitor voltage balance is of great importance. In this paper, a capacitor voltage balancing strategy for the carrier phase-shifted modulation strategy is presented for MMC by rotating the carriers, which not only solves the problem of capacitor voltage balance, but also avoids complex closed-loop modulation and voltage sequencing. Considering the potential additional switching process during carrier rotation, the algorithm is further improved to find the best rotation period. The experiment verifies the propositions.

This paper proposes a fast multiple semiconductor open-circuit fault diagnosis method for a T-type three-level inverter. In this method, appropriate Boolean operations are selected to represent the relationship between voltages across the upper half-bridge switches and switching signals. Based on this, the current path in the circuit can be tracked under normal and abnormal conditions. Logical relationships are linked to corresponding switch states, so this method is applicable even under multiple open circuit faults. Diagnosis results can be obtained rapidly, with simple hardware. Misdiagnosis caused by delays in power devices and sampling circuits can be avoided if switching signal dead time is longer than the total delay. This diagnostic scheme is immune to load disturbances and dead times. Experimental results obtained under various conditions demonstrate the applicability and performance of the approach.

This paper designs an LLC converter with super-wide output voltage. A variable-mode control strategy with three operating modes is adopted for the converter, and a novel optimal parameters design method based on this strategy is proposed. The designed converter can achieve a super-wide output voltage range at various load without increasing circuit’s complexity, expanding the operating frequency and phase-shifted range. The magnetizing inductance is maximized to decrease magnetizing and conduction losses on condition that the requirements of wide gain and primary MOSFETs’ soft-switching are met, so the converter can maintain a high efficiency within the entire output voltage range. Finally, a 2.5kW experimental prototype with output voltage ranging from 25V to 150V is set up, by which the effectiveness of the strategy and the design method are proved.

Modular multilevel converters (MMC) can be used in many applications such as medium voltage multimegawatt drives and HVDC power transmission. Modulation strategy plays an important role for the good performance of MMC. In this paper, a submodule (SM) regrouping method of MMC is presented and based on this, a sampling time staggered space vector pulse width modulation (STS-SVM) technique is proposed for MMC. Each group has three SMs, which is irrespectively from three phases. Thus, the SVM scheme for the two-level converter can be applied in each group. For an MMC with n-SMs per arm, the two-level SVM for each group is staggered evenly over the sampling time, so as to achieve an equivalent switching frequency at the output. Therefore, the STS-SVM can be very easily expanded with the increasing of the SMs number, and also, the off-line or on-line effort/tasks about generating the SVM switching sequences are simplified significantly. Besides, the capacitor voltages of SMs can be balanced by rotating the gate signals of different SMs even without any capacitor voltage detecting or sorting because the even power distribution among SMs is realized. A three-phase MMC is simulated at both steady and dynamic states in MATLAB/Simulink and validate the performance of the proposition.