Patent ID: 9571004
Date: 2017-02-14
CPC Classifications: H02M,H02P

Claim:
1. A multi-level converter comprising: at least one arm formed of several stages of rank one to n, n being an integer greater than one, mounted in cascade, a stage of rank one being connected to a current source and a stage of rank n being connected to a voltage source, wherein the stage of rank one comprises a single switching structure with four voltage levels and a stage of rank i, i lying between two and n, comprises i identical switching structures, each switching structure including four voltage levels mounted in series, wherein each of these switching structures comprises a cell of floating capacitor type with three voltage levels comprising a quadruplet of elementary switches in series possessing a middle node, and two basic cells, wherein each basic cell is formed of a pair of elementary switches in series exhibiting two extreme terminals and a midpoint and a capacitive divider bridge having two ends and formed of a triplet of energy storage devices mounted in series, of which two energy storage devices are in the extreme position, wherein each energy storage device in the extreme position is connected to the extreme terminals of a different basic switching cell, a midpoint of each basic switching cell being connected to a different end of the quadruplet of elementary switches, and wherein the middle node of each cell of floating capacitor type of the stage of rank i is connected to an end of the capacitive divider bridge of a switching structure with four voltage levels of the stage of rank i-1.