A review of developments in the family of modular multilevel cascade converters

作者：Akagi Hirofumi^*

来源：IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2018, 13(9): 1222-1235.

DOI：10.1002/tee.22731

• circulating currents
• grid-tied applications
• hierarchical control
• modular multilevel cascade converters
• pulse width modulation (PWM)

This paper starts with a historical review of the family of modular multilevel cascade converters, and the topology and terminology of the family. Then, it answers the following question: What motivated the author to apply phase-shifted-carrier pulse-width modulation (PSC PWM) to the family?' The success in academic research on this application owes to integrating inter-cluster balancing or inter-arm balancing control into the middle layer of a hierarchical control system consisting of three layers. This integration makes it easy to expand the PSC PWM to any bridge-cell or chopper-cell count per cluster or arm. Finally, this paper ends with future scenarios of a few promising family members and their practical applications, from the personal experience and view of the author.

• 出版日期2018-9