Zhang Jinshui, Tian Xiaoyang, Wang Boshuo, Peterchev Angel V, Goetz Stefan
Duke Univ., Durham, NC 27708-0187, USA.
IEEE Trans Power Electron. 2024 Mar;39(3):3289-3299. doi: 10.1109/tpel.2023.3338109. Epub 2023 Nov 30.
Multilevel converters have enabled various applications that are not possible with conventional two-level converters. Many of these applications, however, need a high output bandwidth, often approaching the switching rate limit of the transistors, with high quality, e.g., to actively stabilize and dampen a DC grid or specifically excite certain molecules or neural circuits in medical applications. A high bandwidth approaching the switching rate challenges existing modulation methods: carrier-based switching modulation is fine at low frequencies but experiences interaction between the carrier and the signal at the upper end of the spectrum; fundamental-frequency switching, such as nearest-level modulation (NLM), perform well at high frequencies but cause intolerable distortion for low frequency contents. We propose a hybrid modulation concept that can combine any methods from these two classes. It passes the error of a fundamental frequency method through a filtered switching modulator to combine the high output quality of the latter with the high bandwidth of the former. We optimize the filter to avoid under-modulation of the signal with the carrier of the modulator and to achieve the minimum overall distortion throughout a wide output bandwidth. We demonstrate the performance experimentally with a cascaded-bridge converter and compare it with the best prior arts. This technique ensures a usable output bandwidth up to 100% of the switching rate and maintains a total distortion level below 3%.
多电平变换器实现了传统两电平变换器无法实现的各种应用。然而,其中许多应用需要高输出带宽,通常接近晶体管的开关速率极限,并且要求高质量,例如,在医疗应用中积极稳定和抑制直流电网,或专门激发某些分子或神经回路。接近开关速率的高带宽对现有调制方法提出了挑战:基于载波的开关调制在低频时效果良好,但在频谱上限处载波与信号之间会产生相互作用;基频开关,如最近电平调制(NLM),在高频时性能良好,但会对低频成分造成无法容忍的失真。我们提出了一种混合调制概念,它可以结合这两类方法中的任何一种。它将基频方法的误差通过一个滤波后的开关调制器传递出去,以便将后者的高输出质量与前者的高带宽结合起来。我们对滤波器进行了优化,以避免信号被调制器载波欠调制,并在较宽的输出带宽内实现总体失真最小。我们通过级联桥变换器对该性能进行了实验验证,并将其与最佳现有技术进行了比较。该技术可确保高达开关速率100%的可用输出带宽,并将总失真水平保持在3%以下。