Development of a Modular Educational Kit for Research and Teaching on Power Electronics and Multilevel Converters

• Main Authors: Wilson C. Sant'Ana, Bruno R. Gama, Germano Lambert-Torres, Erik L. Bonaldi, Levy E. L. Oliveira, Frederico O. Assuncao, Daniel A. Arantes, Isac A. S. Areias, Luiz E. Borges-Da-Silva, Fabio M. Steiner
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2021-01-01
• Series: IEEE Access
• Subjects: Education; modular multilevel converters; power electronics
• Online Access: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9536753/

This paper presents the detailed project of a modular educational kit to be used in research and teaching activities in the area of power electronics - with emphasis on applications in medium voltage multilevel converters. The half bridge topology has been chosen for the submodules, as they can be arranged together in a multitude of other topologies. A system composed by a mother board and daughter cards is presented. A DSP control card and a FPGA System-On-Module are inserted in the mother board in order to control the half bridge submodules. The targets of this project are applications in medium voltage - hence, the communication between the submodules and the FPGA/DSP is performed through optical fibers. Also a self power system is presented for the submodules, in order for them to operate at floating potentials. Experimental results have been presented for the most usual topologies of converters, including a Modular Multilevel Converter operating at 2000V.