Electronic apparatus and system and method for controlling series connected switch modules
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsZhihui Yuan, Richard S. Zhang, Stefan Schroeder, Yingqi Zhang, Jie Shen, Fan Zhang
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Abstract
A method for controlling a plurality of series connected switch modules each including at least two parallel connected electronic switches, the method includes the step of, in response to failure of any electronic switch of one or more switch modules, turning on any non-faulty electronic switch of one or more faulty switch modules when the electronic switches of other non-faculty switch modules are controlled to be turned on.
Claims17
An apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of switch units each comprising a plurality of series connected switch modules, each of the series connected switch modules comprising at least two parallel connected electronic switches;
- a detection module configured to detect whether any electronic switch of the respective series connected switch modules has a failure, and generate one or more fault signals for identifying one or more faulty switch modules which have a failure;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- in response to failure of any electronic switch of one or more switch modules, turn on any non-faulty electronic switch of one or more faulty switch modules when the electronic switches of other non-faulty switch modules are controlled to be turned on;
- and
- turn off the electronic switches of the non-faulty switch modules if the total number of the fault signals is greater than the total number of redundant switch modules.
A method for controlling a plurality of series connected switch modules each comprising at least two parallel connected electronic switches, the method comprising:
- detecting a switch failure via a detection module which is (i) coupled with the plurality of series connected switch modules and (ii) configured to detect whether any electronic switch of the respective series connected switch modules has a failure;
- in response to a detection of a failure of any electronic switch of one or more switch modules:
- turning on any non-faulty electronic switch of one or more faulty switch modules when the electronic switches of other non-faulty switch modules are controlled to be turned on;
- and
- turning off the electronic switches of the non-faulty switch modules if the total number of the fault signals is greater than the total number of redundant switch modules.
A system for controlling a plurality of series connected switch modules each comprising at least two parallel connected electronic switches, the system comprising:
- a detection module configured to detect whether any electronic switch of the respective series connected switch modules has a failure, and generate one or more fault signals for identifying one or more faulty switch modules which have a failure;
- and
- a controller configured to, in response to failure of any electronic switch of one or more switch modules:
- turn on any non-faulty electronic switch of one or more faulty switch modules when the electronic switches of other non-faulty switch modules are controlled to be turned on;
- and
- turn off the electronic switches of the non-faulty switch modules if the total number of the fault signals is greater than the total number of redundant switch modules.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.