PowerModule™ Power Converters for Today's OEMs and Integrators

AMSC's PowerModule™ power converters rapidly switch, control, and modulate power.  The PowerModule power converter family redefines the traditional use of power converters by combining high performance, advanced Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT), power structure design, programmability, flexibility and simplicity in a single product.

PowerModule power converters are based on a proprietary, printed circuit board design, which allows the use of standard electronic manufacturing techniques for consistent, automated product assembly.

PowerModule power converters are designed for flexibility. They can be operated in parallel for higher power ratings and can be easily reconfigured to obtain a variety of ratings, pole numbers, and sizes from common hardware. Fiber optic communication provides high speed, noise-immune communication between PowerModule power converters or to system controllers, which are often used to coordinate the operation of many separate power converters.

AMSC developer kits for the PowerModule™ power converter enable OEMs, VARs, system integrators and end-users to quickly develop power conversion systems to address a wide range of applications. Using the graphical user interface (GUI) you can quickly program and modify parameters of the four standard software modules of one or more converters to meet your specific application needs.

Software and control hardware is modular and programmable to allow rapid development of new applications or to be reconfigured for customer specific features. Thus, a single PowerModule power converter design can be used to implement a wide variety of power conversion methods and end-user applications as shown in the following diagram:

The expandable configuration, combined with bi-directional functionality, gives this PowerModule power converter family a distinct design flexibility.  An AMSC power converter with one embedded controller and one application specific board can include up to eight power poles.  Several power converters can be configured in series and/or parallel to build higher voltage and power rated converters.  The PM1000 can be configured to support any of the following power conversion types:  AC-AC, AC-DC, DC-DC, or DC-AC.

All the communications between the power converter and the remote devices or controllers are handled through a fiber optic link that provides high noise immunity.  A hardware interface board is available to convert fiber optic signals to a serial format.  The standard communication protocols for the converter include asynchronous serial and CAN.  Other protocols are supported via a PC-104 option.