Patent ID: 11923784
Assignee: THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 8:
9. An integrated circuit for generating an Alternating Current (AC) voltage waveform, comprising:
a symmetric selector stage;
a converter stage; and
at least one intermediate stage connected between said symmetric selector stage and said converter stage,
wherein:
said symmetric selector stage and said at least one intermediate stage are made of a plurality of modular building blocks;
said converter stage comprises at least four multilevel converter circuits to output phase voltage references,
wherein each of said at least four multilevel converter circuits comprise at least four switches grouped into at least two pairs of switches,
where a pair mid-point of a pair of said at least two pairs of switches is electrically connected to a pair mid-point of a neighboring pair of said at least two pairs of switches using at least one clamping diode; and
said symmetric selector stage, said converter stage, and said at least one intermediate stage are electrically connected in a pyramid formation having a base of said converter stage and an apex of said symmetric selector stage,
wherein said at least four switches of each of said at least four multilevel converter circuits are electrically connected to said at least one intermediate stage via a converter mid-point of said at least four switches which is distinct from said pair mid-point,
wherein each respective modular building block in said plurality of modular building blocks of said at least one intermediate stage comprises:
an upper switch;
a lower switch; and
a modular midpoint, wherein said modular midpoint is directly connected to one of 1) a terminal of said symmetric selector stage, or 2) an additional modular building block in said plurality of modular building blocks of said at least one intermediate stage, wherein:

said upper switch has a first connection terminal directly connected to one of: 1) said modular midpoint of a first upper modular building block in an adjacent layer within said at least one intermediate stage, or 2) said converter mid-point of said at least four switches of a first upper converter of said at least four multilevel converter circuits, and a second connection terminal connected to said respective modular midpoint; and
said lower switch has a third connection terminal directly connected to one of: 1) said modular midpoint of a second lower modular building block in said adjacent layer within said at least one intermediate stage, or 2) said converter mid-point of said at least four switches of a second lower converter of said at least four multilevel converter circuits, and a fourth connection terminal connected to said respective modular midpoint.