Systems and methods for controlling an electrical power supply

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9722511-B2
Application number	US-201213711483-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 11, 2012
Priority date	Dec 7, 2012
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods for controlling an electrical power supply are provided. One system includes an input configured for receiving voltage measurement signals for the power supply and a controller for one or more electrical phases of the power supply. The controller includes an integrator configured to integrate the received voltage measurement signals and to generate integrated control signals or integrated error signals. The controller is configured to generate an output signal using the integrated control signals or the integrated error signals. The system also includes an output configured to output the output signal to control switching of the power supply.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A control system for a power supply, the control system comprising:
an input configured for receiving voltage measurement signals for the power supply;
a controller for one or more electrical phases of the power supply, the controller having an integrator configured to integrate the voltage measurement signals and to generate integrated control signals or integrated error signals, the controller configured to generate an output signal using the integrated control signals or the integrated error signals; and
an output configured to output the output signal to control switching of the power supply.

2. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the integrator comprises a scaled integrator for integrating the voltage measurement signals and further comprising a comparator connected to the output of the scaled integrator, the comparator configured to compare a command signal and an output of the scaled integrator to generate the integrated error signals, as volt-seconds error signals.

3. The control system of claim 2 , wherein the scaled integrator comprises a unity gain integrator.

4. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the controller further comprises a comparator with hysteresis control, the comparator configured to generate the integrated control signals or integrated error signals.

5. The control system of claim 4 , wherein the controller further comprises a hysteresis control device coupled to the comparator with hysteresis control and configured to change a band of the hysteresis to maintain a constant output frequency of the comparator.

6. The control system of claim 5 , wherein the hysteresis control device is configured to generate a floating absolute value of an integrated command signal to change the band of the hysteresis.

7. The control system of claim 1 , further comprising a resonance damping circuit connected to the controller to generate a virtual resistance for active damping to generate the output signal, as a sinusoidal signal.

8. The control system of claim 1 , further comprising a dead-zone module configured to limit a current input to the controller using a floating absolute value of the received voltage measurement signals.

9. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the voltage measurement signals are square wave signals.

10. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and wherein the integrator is formed from one or more counters.

11. The control system of claim 1 , wherein the power supply comprises a multi-phase power supply connected to a load with a neutral line and the voltage measurement signals are acquired from a center tap of a DC link capacitor connected to a converter controlling switching of the power supply and to the neutral line of the load.

12. A power supply, comprising:
a power source;
a switching device configured to control switching of the power source; and
a controller connected to the switching device and configured to receive voltage measurement signals for the power source and integrate a voltage of the voltage measurement signals or integrate a voltage error of the voltage measurement signals to generate a control signal to control operation of the switching device.

13. The power supply of claim 12 , wherein the switching device is a Silicon Carbide (SiC) pulse width modulated (PWM) converter including a plurality of switching transistors, wherein the voltage measurement signals comprise volt-seconds output measured at an output of the SiC PWM converter and wherein the controller is configured to provide hysteresis control of the volt-seconds output.

14. The power supply of claim 13 , wherein the controller is configured to generate a floating absolute value of an integrated command signal to change a band of hysteresis for the hysteresis control.

15. The power supply of claim 12 , wherein the power source comprises a three-phase power supply with a fourth wire generating a neutral of a load and connected to a center of a converter capacitor.

16. The power supply of claim 15 , wherein the voltage measurement signals are acquired from a center tap of a DC link capacitor connected to a PWM converter.

17. The power supply of claim 12 , further comprising a resonance damping circuit connected to the controller to generate a virtual resistance.

18. A method for controlling switching of a power supply, the method comprising:
obtaining voltage measurements for the power supply, the voltage measurements comprising square wave signals;
integrating the voltage measurements; and
controlling switching of the power supply using integrated voltage measurements.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein controlling the switching comprises performing hysteresis control using a floating absolute value of a command signal to modify a hysteresis band.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein integrating the voltage measurements comprises one of integrating a corresponding voltage or a corresponding voltage error.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Garces Luis Jose
• Sabate Juan Antonio
• Zhang Di

Classifications

• H02M7/53871

  with automatic control of output voltage or current · CPC title

• H02M7/5395 Primary

  by pulse-width modulation · CPC title