Parallel power inverter motor drive system

An electric motor drive system comprising:

• a plurality of drive modules each comprising an inverter for converting DC power to controlled frequency AC power;
• a shared load-side bus coupled to the inverters for combining the controlled frequency AC power from all of the drive modules into a common AC output;
• and
• control circuitry coupled to all of the inverters and configured to provide signals to the inverters to permit each inverter to generate gate drive signals for power electronic switches of the respective inverter separately and in parallel with one another, the same gate drive signals being applied to the power electronic switches of all of the inverters.

An electric motor drive system comprising:

• a plurality of drive modules each comprising an inverter for converting DC power to controlled frequency AC power;
• control circuitry coupled to all of the inverters and configured to provide signals to the inverters to permit each inverter to generate gate drive signals for power electronic switches of the respective inverter separately and in parallel with one another;
• parallel optical cables coupling the control circuitry is coupled to the inverters;
• and
• a shared load-side bus coupled to the inverters for combining the controlled frequency AC power from all of the drive modules into a common AC output without interposition of inductive components therebetween;
• wherein each inverter comprises power layer processing circuitry that, during operation, receives the signals from the control circuitry and generates timing for the gate drive signals based upon the received signals, the same gate drive signals being applied to the power electronic switches of all of the inverters.

An electric motor drive system comprising:

• a plurality of drive modules each comprising an inverter coupled to the converter for converting DC power to controlled frequency AC power;
• control circuitry coupled to all of the inverters and configured to provide signals to the inverters to permit each inverter to generate gate drive signals for power electronic switches of the respective inverter separately and in parallel with one another;
• and
• a shared load-side bus coupled to the inverters for combining the controlled frequency AC power from all of the drive modules into a common AC output without interposition of inductive components therebetween;
• wherein each inverter is coupled to the control circuitry via a respective optical cable and comprises power layer processing circuitry that, during operation, receives the signals from the control circuitry via the respective optical cable and generates timing for the gate drive signals based upon the received signals, the timing of the gate drive signals of any two of the inverters differing from one another by not more than 40 ns, the same gate drive signals being applied to the power electronic switches of all of the inverters.