US Patent 11063527 Converter

An electrical converter (203) having an active diode-clamped multilevel topology is shown. Each clamping diode is connected in antiparallel with a switch (S5A, S5B). The converter comprises polyphase supply phases (A, B, C) each of which are connected via a respective phase leg (401, 402, 403) to dc rails (301, 302) and a dc-link capacitor. The dc-link capacitor includes a plurality of series-connected capacitors (404, 405). A controller is configured to, in response to an event signal, for each phase leg, activate a combination of switches therein to form a pair of parallel conduction paths to a midpoint (406) between two capacitors in the dc-link capacitor, thereby connecting each phase to the same node.