Fault-Tolerant Decoupled Control of a Modular Multilevel Matrix Converter

The Modular Multilevel Matrix Converter (M3C) is an attractive option for high-power applications due to its significant advantages in power quality, efficiency, controllability, and fault tolerance. It is especially well-suited for direct Alternating Current (AC) applications such as motor drives, wind power, and low-frequency AC transmission. Despite being described as a fault-tolerant converter, there is limited literature available on this topic. Therefore, this paper introduces a basic control system for the M3C to ensure fault tolerance in the event of power-cell failures. The proposed control system is based on reordering the balancing control of a cluster in the event of power cell faults, with the aim of maintaining proper operation and preserving power transfer capability. The paper includes simulation results obtained using PLECS software. © 2024 IEEE.