4460 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO.

10, OCTOBER 2013

Letters
The Multilevel Modular DC Converter
Jan A. Ferreira

Abstract—The modular multilevel converter (M2C) has become

an increasingly important topology in medium- and high-voltage
applications. A limitation is that it relies on positive and negative
half-cycles of the ac output voltage waveform to achieve charge bal-
ance on the submodule capacitors. To overcome this constraint a
secondary power loop is introduced that exchanges power with the
primary power loops at the input and output. Power is exchanged
between the primary and secondary loops by using the principle of
orthogonality of power flow at different frequencies. Two modular
multilevel topologies are proposed to step up or step down dc in
medium- and high-voltage dc applications: the tuned filter modu-
lar multilevel dc converter and the push–pull modular multilevel
dc converter. An analytical simulation of the latter converter is
presented to explain the operation.
Index Terms—DC-DC power converters, HVDC transmission, Fig. 1. Generation of low frequency currents in a M2C.
modular converters.

mechanism whereby energy is exchanged between the capaci-

I. INTRODUCTION tors of the submodules groups that are connected to the positive-
HE modular multilevel converter (M2C) offers various and negative-voltage rails. In this letter, a family of topologies
T advantages compared to other topologies in medium- and
high-voltage applications. As a result it is displacing the conven-
is introduced that uses this mechanism of energy exchange and
two M2C topologies are proposed for dc/dc applications.
tional current fed converter topology in HVDC applications [1].
The branches of the three phase arms contain several series con- II. CONVERSION USING ORTHOGOLITY OF POWER FLOW
nected submodules. Each comprises a capacitor, an IGBT half AT DIFFERENT FREQUENCIES
bridge and the necessary gates drives, and control and commu-
nication electronics. The voltage levels can easily be adjusted by A. Principle of Orthogonal Power Flow
changing the number of series submodules and failed units can According to the Fourier analysis, nonsinusoidal voltage and
be bridged out while keeping the converter operational. Since current can be expressed as the sum of sinusoidal functions at
the voltage of each cell is clamped, the submodules need not different frequencies
be switched simultaneously making timing synchronization less
∞

critical compared to other multilevel topologies. √
Medium-voltage drives are another attractive application but v (t) = V0 + 2Vn cos(nωt + θn )
n =1
the drawback of the M2C topology is that the required capaci-
∞

tance of the submodules for a given voltage ripple is inversely √
proportional to the output frequency of the inverter. This prob- i (t) = I0 + 2In cos(nωt + ϕn ). (1)
n =1
lem can be addressed by circulating currents between the phase
arms and about 40% of the rated torque can be made available The active power resulting from this nonsinusoidal voltage
at startup [2], [3] using this method. As a result a common mode and current is defined as the mean value of the product of the
voltage is superimposed on the output voltage. The waveform instantaneous values of voltage and current. Since the integrals
in combination with the topology is illustrated in Fig. 1. This of all the cross product of terms with different frequencies are
additional ac voltage at a higher frequency is inherent to the zero, the average active power can be expressed by
∞

Manuscript received October 31, 2012; accepted December 19, 2012. Date
of current version March 15, 2013. Recommended for publication by Associate P = V0 I0 + Vn In cos(θn − ϕn ). (2)
Editor M. Molinas. n =1
The author is with the Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2628 CN, The
Netherlands (e-mail: J.A.Ferreira@TUDelft.nl). Therefore, when applying power theory to nonsinusoidal pe-
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. riodic waveforms, the power produced by different frequency
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2012.2237413 components is orthogonal to each other.

0885-8993/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE

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 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013 4461

Fig. 2. Submodules with capacitors converting power between frequencies.

Fig. 4. Primary and secondary loop controllers.

In the time domain the power at the primary and secondary

frequencies create two current components on the dc side of the
Fig. 3. Charge balance control. converter
iprim .cap (t)
B. Shifting Power Between Frequencies 2Vprim cos (ωprim t + θprim ) Iprim cos (ωprim t + ϕprim )
=
The decoupling of active power at different frequencies cre- vcap (t)
ates the possibility that a converter without a power source can isec.cap (t)
generate active power at one frequency while absorbing the
same amount of power at a different frequency. In Fig. 2 three 2Vsec cos (ωsec t + θsec ) Isec cos (ωsec t + ϕsec )
= (5)
possible variations of the power cells with capacitor energy stor- vcap (t)
age are shown: half-bridge, full-bridge, and a full-bridge with
where vcap (t) is the voltage on the energy storage capacitor.
a transformer. A number of the power cells or submodules are
Equation (3) implies that for a given quasi steady period,
connected in series and collectively they are controlled to con-
T , the average power flowing into the capacitor must be zero,
vert power between two frequencies. Dc, or zero frequency, is
and can be expressed in terms of the aforementioned current
also a valid frequency. Such a group of submodules effectively
components as
function as a “power shifter module” in the frequency domain,
 (m +1)T
as the symbol on the far right indicates.
Pcap = vcap (t) [iprim .cap (t) + isec.cap (t)] dt = 0.
mT
C. Capacitor Charge Balancing (6)
If the capacitor voltage is steady Vcap (t) ≈ vcap , and it fol-
By means of pulse width modulation two power frequencies lows that average values of the primary and secondary currents
are superimposed in the converter module. The duty cycle func- on the dc side of the converter needs to be equal but opposite in
tions of the voltage waveforms are added up before converted sign
to a pulse width modulation pattern, as indicated in Fig. 3. The
first power frequency is the primary frequency which would Pcap = Vcap [Iprim .cap + Isec.cap ] = 0. (7)
typically be dc, the grid frequency (50 and 60 Hz), or a variable
frequency applied to an electric machine. Another frequency, D. Primary and Secondary Power Loops
called the secondary frequency, introduced which would typi- The submodules generate two voltage components vprim +
cally be a few kilohertz, or in some cases could be the switching vsec , that cause currents to flow in a circuit network. A number
frequency of the converter. of modules are connected in series forming a common branch
Since the average power into the capacitor of the submodule for the primary and secondary frequencies in a network where
needs to zero and assuming a 100% conversion efficiency the impedances respond differently to these frequencies. As a
result the primary and secondary currents will follow different
Pcap = Pprim + Psec = 0 (3)
paths creating distinct loops as sketched in Fig. 4. The power
where Pprim and Psec are the average power converted at the in the two loops is controlled by separate controllers of which
primary and secondary frequencies that are passing through the the duty cycle commands are superimposed. They function as
converter. In terms of the rms values and phase angles, the follows:
equation can be rewritten as 1) A voltage loop controls the output voltage at the primary
frequency. The current iprim is the current flowing in the
Vprim Iprim cos(θprim −ϕprim )+Vsec Isec cos(θsec − ϕsec ) = 0. external source or load and may also be controlled in
(4) an inner loop to improve the dynamics of the converter.

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 4462 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013

Fig. 6. Distributed Power-flow controller [6].

Fig. 5. Secondary power loops in modular converter topologies. (a) Voltage

divider converter with different input and output frequencies. (b) Single-source
multiple load power flow controller.

Fig. 7. Tuned filter modular multilevel dc converter.

The primary loop controller could be an existing M2C
controller.
2) The main function of the secondary controller is to control filtered, but applied to the motor load as a common mode ac
the voltage on the capacitor. As the power demand in the voltage.)
primary loop fluctuates the secondary loop voltage and In Fig. 5(b), a second generic topology is shown involving one
current (vsec , isec ) are adjusted dynamically to keep the voltage source and two passive loads. In this system, only one
capacitor voltage (vcap ) within a desired range of values. primary frequency is present and the primary power loops con-
For a given loop current (isec ) the amplitude and phase of nect Vsource to Load1 and Load2 . Three groups of submodules
the secondary voltage (vsec ) of individual submodules are provide, by means of secondary power loops, full control of the
adjusted to charge or discharge the capacitor. Coordinated power to the passive loads. In the case of a fixed voltage source,
control between the submodules is necessary to control as for example in the utility grid, the power flow to the load can
the amplitude of the secondary loop current (isec ). be controlled individually and the balance can be adjusted. We
have further developed this single-source multiple-load power
III. TOPOLOGIES WITH SECONDARY POWER LOOPS flow controller and presented it as the distributed power flow
controller [6], [7], and [8], a new concept for application in
A secondary power loop requires at least two groups of sub-
ac power transmission systems. The basic system is shown in
modules that can exchange power with each other. By creating
Fig. 6. The principle of operation was demonstrated in a scaled
a voltage divider network, it becomes possible for two volt-
laboratory system and the feasibility of realizing a controller
age sources/loads to exchange power with each other. Possible
that transfers power between 50 and 150 Hz was demonstrated.
combinations are: a dc and an ac element, two ac elements
The third harmonic was chosen for the secondary loops as power
at different frequencies, or two dc elements. Fig. 5(a) shows
carrier because existing Y-Δ transformers can be used to inject
the generic circuit of this topology which can in principle be
the third harmonic current into the grid. A single-phase con-
applied to the assortment of M2C topologies reported in the
verter is connected between the transformer’s neutral point and
literature [4], [5]. A bandpass filter provides a selective path for
ground, and injects a third harmonic current into the neutral
the ac frequency of the secondary loop. Since the submodules
point of the transformer.
voltages add up reaching a maximum value at the node between
the series and shunt module groups a band stop filter is needed to
block the secondary voltage from interacting with V1 (f1 ). The IV. DC/DC CONVERTER TOPOLOGIES
primary currents, iprim (f1 ) and iprim (f2 ), flow in the outside Two topologies are proposed as a dc/dc version of the voltage
loop formed by V1 (f1 ) and V2 (f2 ). (The same principle was divider converter in Fig. 5(a). In the first version, tuned reso-
applied to the operation of the M2C, as described at the hand of nant circuits are used as the bandpass and band stop filters. As
Fig. 1. In this instance the other phase arms provided the return is illustrated in Fig. 7 the secondary power loop that connects
paths for the secondary current. The secondary voltage was not the two submodule groups is closed by inserting a series LC

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 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013 4463

Fig. 8. Push–pull modular multilevel dc converter.

Fig. 9. Circuit of a unidirectional push–pull M2DC.

filter. A parallel LC filter prevents a current to flow to the source
Vlow from the node between the serie and shunt modules where
the secondary voltage reaches it maximum amplitude. The sec- The series LC circuit can be eliminated by replacing it with
ondary frequency needs to be actively controlled to track the a second voltage divider network comprising two groups of
resonant frequency of the parallel LC because any current that submodules. Since the dc current will be shared between two
leaks to the source Vlow will impact the effectiveness of the voltage divider strings the power rating of the modules can be
power transfer between the serie and shunt modules. Similar to halved. Instead of simply duplicating the tuned filter modular
the conventional dc/ac M2C converter, input and filter inductors topology, using the same controls and connecting them in paral-
Lin and Lout are included in the circuit. lel, we choose to operate the two strings 180◦ out of phase with
The current and voltage waveforms of the submodules can be respect to each other. This leads to the push–pull version shown
derived from the power balance. The system is assumed to be in Fig. 8. A center tap inductor Llow is included which has a
lossless so that the input power coming from Vlow is equal to conveniently large reactance at the secondary loop frequency.
the output power The dc source is connected at the center tap and, therefore, the
winding polarities oppose each other when the dc current splits
Ptotal = Plow = Phigh (8) in two flowing to the nodes that connect the serie and shunt
where modules. In a similar fashion a coupled inductor Lhigh is used
at the input but the winding polarities are the opposite. The mu-
Plow = Vlow Ilow and Phigh = Vhigh Ihigh . (9) tual inductance of inductor Lhigh fulfills the same input filter
Since the Vlow Ihigh portion of the input power is transferred function that Lout does in the tuned filter topology, while the
directly to the output, the power that the secondary loop handles leakage inductance smoothes out the ripple of the circulating
becomes current of the secondary power loop. A useful feature of the
  push–pull topology is that it is not sensitive to the shape and fre-
Vlow
Psec = Ptotal 1 − . (10) quency of the voltage waveforms in the secondary loop, which
Vhigh is an advantage compared to the tuned filter topology. Since the
The value of the phase angle between voltage and current in number of submodules in the secondary loop of the push–pull
the secondary power loop is set to be either 0◦ or 180◦ to achieve topology is twice the number of the tuned filter topology, the cir-
the best power factor for delivering and absorbing power. The culating current can be halved resulting in the following power
shunt submodules absorb power from the source Vlow and each equations of the submodules
module delivers Vsec Isec
Vsec PSM shunt =
PSM shunt = Isec . (11) M 2
M Vsec Isec
PSM serie = . (13)
Each of the top submodules each absorbs the following power N 2
Vsec
PSM serie = Isec (12)
N
V. EXAMPLE WAVEFORMS OF THE PUSH–PULL M2DC
converts it to dc and pass it on to the load. Note that the same
current flows through all the submodules but that the voltage An example based on analytical calculation is presented
per submodule depends on the number of modules in the group. based on a push–pull modular dc converter that has one bottom

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 4464 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013

Fig. 10. Waveforms on submodules (time scale in ms). (a) Serie left submodules. (b) Serie right submodules. (c) Shunt left submodule. (d) Shunt right submodule.

submodule and three top modules. It operates as a step-up con- TABLE I

SIMULATION PARAMETERS
verter from 380 V to 3 kV. The envisaged application is a 760-V
dc double polarity bus that is fed from 400-V three phase ac de-
livering 500-kW power to a 6-kV medium-voltage distribution
system. The circuit diagram for the unidirectional converter is
shown in Fig. 9.
Perfect filtering of the switching ripple by frequency inductor
Lhigh is assumed and that the reactance inductor Llow is assumed
to be large enough that the second power loop current loss can
be ignored. The parameters are summarized in Table I and the
calculated voltage current and power waveforms as a function modules is 1.2 kV allowing for a 100-V voltage ripple on the
of time are shown in Fig. 10. The peak output voltage of the capacitors. Given the 1-kHz secondary frequency, the required

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 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 28, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2013 4465

VI. CONCLUSION
The introduction of a secondary power loop combined with
a controllers that exploit the orthogonality of power flow at
different frequencies creates new possibilities of constructing
topologies of modular multilevel converters. Two generic fam-
ilies and two dc/dc converter topologies are described in this
contribution. The M2DC may find numerous applications in
medium-voltage dc grid systems and offers the possibility to
transfer power between HVDC and UHVDC transmission sys-
tems. Further research is needed to better understand the oper-
ation of M2DC.
Fig. 11. Comparison of number of IGBT-diode chips needed per bidirectional REFERENCES
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