Patent ID: 8773870

Claim:
A power converter, comprising: a converter section which includes three pairs of switching elements, each pair having two switching elements connected in series between two output lines, and in which phases of an input three-phase alternating current are connected to nodes between the series-connected switching elements one by one; and a control unit which controls on/off operations of the switching elements such that line voltages between a reference phase, which is one of the phases of the input three-phase alternating current, and each of the other phases are output to the two output lines on a time division basis, wherein each of the switching elements is made of a transistor having a bipolar structure, and in the on/off control, a reverse bias is selectively applied to one or more of the switching elements, and the control unit applies a non-zero predetermined gate voltage to each of the one or more of the switching elements while the reverse bias is applied thereto.