Patent ID: 8339089

Claim:
A power converter for a multiphase rotating electric machine, which includes two sets of windings, each set being constituted by windings corresponding to each phase of the electric machine, the power converter comprising: two inverter circuits, each having switching elements corresponding to each phase of the sets of windings; a capacitor connected to the inverter circuits; and a control circuit, which controls switching-on/off of the switching elements based on voltage command signals related to voltages applied to the sets of windings and a PWM reference signal, wherein the control circuit includes: an amplitude calculating part for calculating amplitudes of the voltage command signals; and a shift amount calculating part for calculating a first shift amount and a second shift amount, the first shift amount indicating a shift amount of a center value of the voltage command signal related to a voltage applied to one of the sets of windings from an output center value of a possible duty range to allow the center value of the voltage command signal to be shifted downwards than the output center value, and the second shift amount indicating a shift amount of a center value of the voltage command signal related to a voltage applied to the other of the sets of windings from the output center value to allow the center value of the voltage command signal to be shifted upwards from the output center value, and wherein the first shift amount and the second shift amount are varied depending on the amplitudes calculated by the amplitude calculating part.