Patent ID: 7443698

Claim:
A converter circuit for switching of a multiplicity of switching voltage levels, having n first switching groups ( 1 . 1 , . . . , 1 .n) provided for each phase (R, Y, B), with the n-th first switching group ( 1 .n) being formed by a first drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch and a second drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch, and with the first first switching group ( 1 . 1 ) to the (n−1)-th switching group ( 1 .(n−1)) each being formed by a first drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch and a second drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch, and by a capacitor which is connected to the first and second drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switches ( 2 , 3 ) with each of the n first switching groups ( 1 . 1 , . . . , 1 .n) being connected in a linked form to the respectively adjacent first switching group ( 1 . 1 , . . . , 1 .n), and with the first and the second drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switches ( 2 , 3 ) in the first first switching group ( 1 . 1 ) being connected to one another, wherein n≧1, and p second switching groups ( 5 . 1 , . . . , 5 .p) and p third switching groups ( 6 . 1 , . . . , 6 .p) are provided, which each have a first drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch, a second drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch and a capacitor, with p≧1 and each of the p second switching groups ( 5 . 1 , . . . , 5 .p) being connected in a linked form to the respectively adjacent second switching group ( 5 . 1 , . . . , 5 .p), and with each of the p third switching groups ( 6 . 1 , . . . , 6 .p) being connected in a linked form to the respectively adjacent third switching group ( 6 . 1 , . . . , 6 .p), in that the first second and the first third switching group ( 5 . 1 , 6 . 1 ) each have a third drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch which is connected back-to-back in series with the respective second drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch, with the first second switching group ( 5 . 1 ) being connected to the first drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch in the n-th first switching group ( 1 .n), and with the first third switching group ( 6 . 1 ) being connected to the second drivable bidirectional power semiconductor switch in the n-th first switching group ( 1 .n), and in that the capacitor in the p-th second switching group ( 5 .p) is connected in series with the capacitor in the p-th third switching group ( 6 .p).