• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.490-497
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• 2016

The analysis of the switch status of each unit module of a cascaded multi-level inverter reveals that the working condition of the switch of a chopper arm causes unnecessary switching under the conventional unipolar sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM). With an increase in the number of cascaded multilevel inverters, the superposition of unnecessary switching gradually occurs. In this work, we propose an improved SPWM strategy to reduce switching in cascaded multilevel inverters. Specifically, we analyze the switch state of the switch tube of a chopper arm of an H-bridge unit. The redundant switch is then removed, thereby reducing the switching frequency. Unlike the conventional unipolar SPWM technique, the improved SPWM method greatly reduces switching without altering the output quality of inverters. The conventional unipolar SPWM technique and the proposed method are applied to a five-level inverter. Simulation results show the superiority of the proposed strategy. Finally, a prototype is built in the laboratory. Experimental results verify the correctness of the proposed modulation strategy.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.502-509
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• 2013

It presents an efficient switching pattern, which expects a reduction of switching losses in a cascaded H-bridge PWM multilevel inverter. By the proposed switching scheme, the lower H-bridge module operates at low frequency of 60[Hz] because it assigns to transfer most load power. The upper H-bridge module operates at high frequency of PWM switching to improve THD of output voltage. The proposed switching pattern applies to cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter with PD, APOD, bipolar, and unipolar switching methods. By computer-aided simulations, we verify the validity of the proposed switching scheme. Finally, we prove that the proposed PD and APOD switching patterns are better than those of the conventional one in efficiency.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2099-2108
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• 2016

The cascaded multilevel converter is widely adopted to medium/high voltage and high power electronic applications due to the small harmonic components of the output voltage and the facilitation of modularity. In this paper, the operation principle of a T-type H-bridge topology is investigated in detail, and a carrier phase shifted pulse width modulation (CPS-PWM) based control method is proposed for this topology. Taking a virtual five-level waveform achieved by a unipolar double frequency CPS-PWM as the output object, PWM signals of the T-type H-bridge can be obtained by reverse derivation according to its switching modes. In addition, a control method for the T-type H-bridge based cascaded multilevel converter is introduced. Then a single-phase T-type H-bridge cascaded multilevel static var generator (SVG) prototype is built, and a repetitive controller based compound current control strategy is designed with the DC-link voltage balancing control scheme analyzed. Finally, simulation and experimental results validate the correctness and feasibility of the proposed modulation method and control strategy for T-type H-bridge based cascaded multilevel converters.