• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.451-462
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• 2016

Photovoltaic energy conversion becomes main focus of many researches due to its promising potential as source for future electricity and has many advantages than the other alternative energy sources like wind, solar, ocean, biomass, geothermal etc. In Photovoltaic power generation multilevel inverters play a vital role in power conversion. The three different topologies, diode-clamped (neutral-point clamped) inverter, capacitor-clamped (flying capacitor) inverter and cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter are widely used in these multilevel inverters. Among the three topologies, cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter is more suitable for photovoltaic applications since each pv array can act as a separate dc source for each h-bridge module. This paper presents a single phase Cascaded H-bridge five level inverter for grid-connected photovoltaic application using sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique. This inverter output voltage waveform reduces the harmonics in the generated current and the filtering effort at the input. The control strategy allows the independent control of each dc-link voltages and tracks the maximum power point of PV strings. This topology can inject to the grid sinusoidal input currents with unity power factor and achieves low harmonic distortion. A PID control algorithm is implemented in Arm Processor LPC2148. The validity of the proposed inverter is verified through simulation and is implemented in a single phase 100W prototype. The results of hardware are compared with simulation results. The proposed system offers improved performance over conventional three level inverter in terms of THD.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.304-315
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• 2013

In this paper, analysis of cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter in DTC-SVM (Direct Torque Control-Space Vector Modulation) based induction motor drive for FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle) is presented. Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter uses multiple series units of H-bridge power cells to achieve medium-voltage operation and low harmonic distortion. In FCEV, a fuel cell stack is used as the major source of electric power moreover the battery and/or ultra-capacitor is used to assist the fuel cell. These sources are suitable for utilizing in cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter. The drive control strategy is based on DTC-SVM technique. In this scheme, first, stator voltage vector is calculated and then realized by SVM method. Contribution of multilevel inverter to the DTC-SVM scheme is led to achieve high performance motor drive. Simulations are carried out in Matlab-Simulink. Five-level and nine-level inverters are applied in 3hp FCEV induction motor drive for analysis the multilevel inverter. Each H-bridge is implemented using one fuel cell and battery. Good dynamic control and low ripple in the torque and the flux as well as distortion decrease in voltage and current profiles, demonstrate the great performance of multilevel inverter in DTC-SVM induction motor drive for vehicle application.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.95-101
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• 2005

In this paper, we proposed the electric circuit using one common arm of H-Bridge Inverters to reduce the number of switching component in multi-level PWM inverter combined with H-Bridge Inverters and Transformers. and we proposed the switching method that can be same rate of usage at each transformer. Also, we tested the proposed prototype inverter to clarify the proposed electric circuit and reasonableness of control signal.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.578-586
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• 2012

In this paper a single-phase Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) inverter for photovoltaic (PV) applications is presented. Based on the presented mathematical analysis, a novel controller is introduced which adjusts the inverter power factor (PF) and manipulates the distribution of the reactive power between the cells to enhance the operating range of the CHB inverter. The adopted control strategy enables tracking of the maximum power point (MPP) of distinct PV strings and allows independent control of the dc-link voltages. The proposed controller also enables the inverter to operate under heavily unbalanced PV conditions. The performance of the CHB inverter and the proposed controllers are evaluated in the PSCAD/EMTDC environment. A seven-level CHB-based grid connected laboratory prototype is also utilized to verify the system performance.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.574-585
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• 2015

This paper aims to improve the performance of conventional direct torque control (DTC) drives proposed by Takahashi by extending the idea for 5-level inverter. Hybrid cascaded H-bridge topology is used to achieve inverter voltage vector composed of 5-level of voltage. Although DTC is very popular for its simplicity but it suffers from some disadvantages like- high torque ripple and uncontrollable switching frequency. To compensate these shortcomings conventional DTC strategy is modified for five levels voltage source inverter (VSI). Multilevel hysteresis controller for both flux and torque is used. Optimal voltage vector selection from precise lookup table utilizing 12 sector, 9 torque level and 4 flux level is proposed to improve DTC performance. These voltage references are produced utilizing a hybrid cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter, where inverter each phase can be realized using multiple dc source. Fuel cells, car batteries or ultra-capacitor are normally the choice of required dc source. Simulation results shows that the DTC drive performance is considerably improved in terms of lower torque and flux ripple and less THD. These have been experimentally evaluated and compared with the basic DTC developed by Takahashi.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.448-455
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• 2015

A model predictive control (MPC) method without individual PWM has been recently researched to simplify and improve the control flexibility of a multilevel inverter. However, the input power of each H-bridge cell and the switching frequency of switching devices are unbalanced because of the use of a restricted switching state in the MPC method. This paper proposes a control method for balancing the switching patterns and cell power supplied from each isolated dc source of a cascaded H-bridge inverter. The supplied dc power from isolated dc sources of each H-bridge cells is balanced with the proposed cell balancing method. In addition, the switching frequency of each switching device of the CHB inverter becomes equal. A simulation and experimental results are presented with nine-level and five-level three-phase CHB inverter to validate the proposed balancing method.

• Journal of international Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.197-201
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• 2013

Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter requires independent DC voltage sources to produce multi output voltage levels. When it needs to generate more levels in the output voltage wave, the number of independent DC voltage sources usually limits its extension. To solve this problem, we propose a cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter employing a front-end flyback converter for unifying input DC voltage sources. After theoretical analysis of the proposed circuit, we verify the validity of the proposed inverter using computer-aided simulations and experiments.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.56-69
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• 2018

In this paper, an improved Space Vector Modulation (SVM) based fault tolerant operation on a nine-level Cascaded H-Bridge (CHB) inverter with an additional backup circuit is proposed. Any type of fault in a power converter may result in a power interruption and productivity loss. Three different faults on H-bridge modules in all three phases based on the SVM approach are investigated with diagrams. Any fault in an inverter phase creates an unbalanced output voltage, which can lead to instability in the system. An additional auxiliary unit is connected in series to the three phase cascaded H-bridge circuit. With the help of this and the redundant switching states in SVM, the CHB inverter produces a balanced output with low harmonic distortion. This ensures high DC bus utilization under numerous fault conditions in three phases, which improves the system reliability. Simulation results are presented on three phase nine-level inverter with the automatic fault detection algorithm in the MATLAB/SIMULINK software tool, and experimental results are presented with DSP on five-level inverter to validate the practicality of the proposed SVM fault tolerance strategy on a CHB inverter with an auxiliary circuit.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1458-1466
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• 2019

Multilevel inverters have appeared as a successful and utilitarian solution in many power applications. The prime objective of an inverter is to keep the fundamental component of the output voltage of a multilevel inverter at a preferred value. Equally important is the need to keep the harmonic components in the output voltage within stated harmonic limits. Therefore, the basis of this research is to develop a harmonic minimization function that optimizes the switching angles of cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter. Due to benefits of the Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithm, it is applied to determine the switching angles, which are further used to generate the switching pattern for firing the H-bridges of multilevel inverter. Simulation results are compared with SPWM based firing scheme. The switching frequency for SPWM firing scheme is taken as 200 Hz since the switching losses are increased when switching frequency is high. To validate the ability of Cuckoo Search optimized firing scheme in minimization of harmonics, experimental results obtained from hardware prototype of Five Level Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter equipped with a FPGA controller are presented to verify the simulation results.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.16-26
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• 2014

This paper proposes new 13-level inverter topology and DC/DC converter buck-boost structure topology for multilevel, compounding uni-directional and bi-directional switches, and proposes high-efficient multilevel inverter system in which the proposed two PCS(Power Conditioning System) was connected in series. In proposed multilevel inverter of forming a output 13-level phase voltage by using total 18 switching parts, Then bi-directional switch has a characteristic of reducing conduction loss and controlling the reactive power effectively by separating electrically from the neutral point. DC/DC converter for supplying in dependent 3 DC voltage to the proposed multi-level inverter generates 180-degree phase shifted PWM by the symmetrically combined structure of 2 buck-boost converter and twice switching frequency efficiency can be obtained, meanwhile, the converter can step up/down the output voltage and 20% output can be generated comparing the input voltage. This proposed system is verified with the simulation and laboratory test.