Sensorless current sharing for power converters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12549015-B2
Application number	US-202218090855-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2022
Priority date	Dec 29, 2022
Publication date	Feb 10, 2026
Grant date	Feb 10, 2026

Abstract

Disclosed are embodiments for sensorless multi-stage power converters. The multi-stage power converters include a first stage that regulates a current of an input to the first stage and a second stage that regulates a voltage obtained from the first stage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A multi-stage power converter, comprising:
a first stage including a first controller with an outer control loop and an inner control loop, wherein the outer control loop regulates a load by at least applying a first gain value to an input and the inner control loop regulates a current of the input to the first stage; and a second stage including a control loop that regulates a voltage between the first stage and the second stage by at least applying a second gain value to an output obtained from the first stage.

2 . The multi-stage power converter of claim 1 , wherein a second multi-stage power converter is arranged in parallel with the multi-stage power converter; and
wherein the first gain value causes a portion of the load to be distributed to the multi-stage power converter.

3 . The multi-stage power converter of claim 1 , wherein the first gain value and the second gain value are equal.

4 . The multi-stage power converter of claim 1 , wherein the first gain value is determined based at least in part on an amount of energy provided by the multi-stage power converter.

5 . The multi-stage power converter of claim 1 , wherein the first stage further comprises an AC/DC power converter.

6 . The multi-stage power converter of claim 1 , wherein the second stage further comprises a DC/DC power converter.

7 . The multi-stage power converter of claim 1 , wherein the input is obtained from a power grid.

8 . The multi-stage power converter of claim 1 , wherein the multi-stage power converter is included in an electric vehicle.

9 . The multi-stage power converter of claim 1 , wherein the second stage provides an output voltage to a battery.

10 . A method comprising:
obtaining information associated with a multi-stage power converter; and modifying a first gain value or a second gain value associated with the multi-stage power converter, the multi-stage power converter comprising:
a first stage that regulates a load provided by the multi-stage power converter by at least applying the first gain value to an input; and
a second stage that regulates a voltage between the first stage and the second stage by at least applying the second gain value to an output obtained from the first stage.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the multi-stage power converter further comprises:
an outer control loop of the first stage that is responsible for applying the first gain value to the input.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the multi-stage power converter further comprises:
an inner control loop of the first stage that regulates a current associated with the input.

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the information associated with a multi-stage power converter includes at least one of: an age of the multi-stage power converter, an amount of energy provided by the multi-stage power converter, a health of the multi-stage power converter, an efficiency associated with the multi-stage power converter, a temperature associated with the multi-stage power converter, an internal operation condition associated with the multi-stage power converter, a number of other multi-stage power converters organized in parallel with the multi-stage power converter, or current associated with the load.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein modifying the first gain value or a second gain value further comprises assigning a first value to the first gain value and a second value to the second gain value.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the first value and the second value are different.

16 . The method of claim 10 , the method further comprising modifying a gain value associated with another multi-stage power converter.

17 . A system, comprising:
a plurality of multi-stage power converters in a parallel, a first multi-stage power converter of the plurality of multi-stage power converters comprising:
a first stage including an outer control loop, the outer control loop regulating a load by at least applying a first gain value to an input; and
a second stage regulating a voltage across a bus between the first stage and the second stage.

18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the first stage further comprises an inner control loop that regulates current associated with the input.

19 . The system of claim 17 , wherein regulating the voltage across the bus further comprises applying a second gain value to an output obtained from the first stage.

20 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the system further comprises:
one or more processors; and memory storing executable instructions that, as a result of being executed by the one or more processors, causes the processors to:
obtain information associated with at least one multi-stage power converter of the plurality of multi-stage power converters; and
determine the first gain value based at least in on the information.

Assignees

• Rivian Ip Holdings Llc

Inventors

• Shi Yanjun
• Mohajerani Zahra
• Marwali Mohammad Nanda Rahmana

Classifications

• Y02T10/70

  Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries · CPC title

• H02M1/0009

  Devices or circuits for detecting current in a converter · CPC title

• B60L2210/30

  AC to DC converters · CPC title

• H02J2207/20

  Charging or discharging characterised by the power electronics converter · CPC title

• B60L2210/10

  DC to DC converters · CPC title