Design and test of a variable topology converter for electric motor drive applications

Abstract

The design considerations for a high power variable topology converter, which has been built and tested as part of an electric drive test bed project are presented. The main features of the power converter is its ready re-configurability to drive a wide variety of electric machines with minimum hardware changes. The switch topology, power electronic device selection, gate drive design, and details of the switch control and protection circuit are explained. An experimental setup used to evaluate the new topology is also described.