Protective circuit and method for multi-level converter

摘要

A protective circuit (10) for a multi-level converter (12) including a DC link (16) capacitor bank (14) includes: an energy absorbing element (18, 20); switches (22, 24), wherein at least two of the switches each couple the energy absorbing element to the capacitor bank; and a controller (26) configured to provide control signals to the switches to selectively actuate the switches to enable control of energy dissipation and to enable control of voltage balance on the capacitor bank of the multi-level converter.