Granted Patent B2

US 8,120,306 · App. 12/348,422 · Granted Feb 21, 2012

Abstract

Claims (46)

1. A method of operating a voltage source inverter having an output with multiple voltage phases having a DC voltage level, the method comprising:

sensing a low output frequency condition;

determining a DC voltage offset responsive to the low output frequency condition; and

applying the DC voltage offset when operating the voltage source inverter resulting in a change to the DC voltage level of the multiple voltage phases.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the voltage source inverter has a power switch comprising a first component and a second component, and wherein determining the DC voltage offset responsive to the low output frequency condition comprises:

determining an electrical current requirement for the voltage source inverter;

obtaining a first temperature profile related to the electrical current requirement for the first component;

obtaining a second temperature profile related to the electrical current requirement for the second component that corresponds to the first temperature profile for the first component;

correlating the first temperature profile and the second temperature profile to determine the DC voltage offset.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first temperature profile correlates a temperature rise for the first component to the electrical current requirement, and the second temperature profile correlates a temperature rise for the second component to the electrical current requirement.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first temperature profile correlates a temperature rise for the first component to the DC voltage offset, and the second temperature profile correlates a temperature rise for the second component to the DC voltage offset.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the first temperature profile is represented with a first data set and the second temperature profile is represented with a second data set, wherein correlating the first temperature profile and the second temperature profile comprises comparing the first data set to the second data set.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the first temperature profile is represented with a first equation related to electrical characteristics of the first component, and the second temperature profile is represented with a second equation related to electrical characteristics of the second component, wherein correlating the first temperature profile and the second temperature profile comprises solving the first equation and the second equation.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the first component is an insulated gate bipolar transistor, and wherein the second component is a high temperature diode.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the DC voltage offset is applied by changing digital values representing voltage levels that are applied using a pulse width modulation technique.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

driving output voltages using pulse width modulation with a switching frequency;

determining the switching frequency based on the DC voltage offset to reduce current ripple in the output voltages.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein determining the switching frequency comprises:

determining a first switching frequency using the pulse width modulation;

determining a first current ripple magnitude for the first switching frequency without the DC voltage offset applied;

determining a second current ripple magnitude for the first switching frequency with the DC voltage offset applied; and

calculating a second switching frequency based on the first switching frequency, the first current ripple magnitude, and the second current ripple magnitude.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein calculating the second switching frequency further comprises

determining an inverse ratio between the second current ripple magnitude and the first current ripple magnitude, and multiplying the inverse ratio by the first switching frequency.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the voltage source inverter is configured to drive a three-phase motor.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the three-phase motor is used in a vehicle.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the voltage source inverter is operated using a space vector modulation technique with a zero vector, and the DC voltage offset is determined as an offset to the zero vector.

15. A method of thermal management in a voltage source inverter with an output current wherein the voltage source inverter comprises multiple components comprising switches having a first thermal limit, and diodes having a second thermal limit, the method comprising:

detecting a low output frequency condition corresponding to one of the multiple components operating at a temperature that limits the output current;

determining a zero voltage vector offset responsive to the low output frequency condition; and

applying the zero voltage vector offset to balance a switch temperature relative to the first thermal limit with a diode temperature relative to the second thermal limit.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein determining the zero voltage vector offset comprises:

determining an output current requirement for the voltage source inverter;

obtaining a first temperature profile for the multiple switches relative to the output current requirement;

obtaining a second temperature profile for the multiple diodes relative to the output current requirement;

correlating the first temperature profile and the second temperature profile to the zero voltage vector offset.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising: regulating output voltages using pulse width modulation with a switching frequency; determining a switching frequency offset based on the zero voltage vector offset; and applying the switching frequency offset to reduce current ripple in the output voltages.

18. A voltage source inverter comprising:

a set of inverter branches, each branch comprising a set of switches and a set of diodes and each branch configured to provide a phase of a modulated output voltage with a DC voltage level;

a voltage source inverter control comprising:

a system controller configured to determine a low output frequency condition, to determine a DC voltage offset responsive to the low output frequency condition, and to apply the DC voltage offset resulting in a change to the DC voltage level of the modulated output voltages during the low output frequency condition;

switch controllers communicatively coupled to the system controller and configured to operate the set of switches in the set of inverter branches using a pulse width modulation technique; and

a data source communicatively coupled to the system controller.

19. The voltage source inverter of claim 18 wherein the modulated output voltages each have a high peak and a low peak and wherein the DC voltage level of the modulated output voltages is approximately equal to an average of the high peaks and the low peaks.

20. The voltage source inverter of claim 18 wherein the set of switches are insulated gate bipolar switches, and wherein the set of diodes are high temperature diodes.

Assignments (8)