Patent ID: 8547041

Claim:
A power conversion device, comprising: an inverter circuit that includes a plurality of switching devices each operating as an upper arm or a lower arm, and that receives DC power from a battery and generates AC power for driving a motor; a control circuit that receives a torque command for driving the motor and generates a control signal for controlling the switching devices; and a driver circuit that drives the switching devices based upon the control signal from the control circuit, wherein: the inverter circuit comprises upper arm and lower arm series circuits that include the switching devices in correspondence to U phase, V phase and W phase and that are connected to a U phase AC power line, a V phase AC power line and a W phase AC power line for supplying the AC power to the motor, respectively; the control circuit generates the control signal for setting each of the switching devices to a continuous state in correspondence to an electrical angle of AC voltage for driving the motor, based upon the received torque command for the motor; the driver circuit controls switching operations of the switching devices; and by controlling the switching operations of the switching devices, any one of the U phase AC power line, the V phase AC power line and the W phase AC power line is electrically connected to the positive electrode side of the battery and also either of the others of the U phase AC power line, the V phase AC power line and the W phase AC power line is electrically connected to the negative electrode side of the battery a plurality of times a half period of the AC voltage, in correspondence to the electrical angle of the AC voltage for driving the motor, and, by this connection, current is supplied from the battery to the motor that is connected as a load.