• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1109-1118
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• 2014

A Fundamental Frequency Sorting Algorithm (FFSA) is proposed in this paper to balance the voltages of floating dc capacitors for Modular Multilevel Converters (MMCs). The main idea is to change the sequences of the CPS-PWM carriers according to the capacitor voltage increments during the previous fundamental period. Excessive frequent sorting is avoided and many calculating resources are saved for the controller. As a result, more sub-modules can be dealt with. Furthermore, it does not need to measure the arm currents. Therefore, the communication between the controllers can be simplified and the number of current sensors can be reduced. Moreover, the proposed balancing method guarantees that all of the switching frequencies of the sub-modules are equal to each other. This is quite beneficial for the thermal design of the sub-modules and the lifetime of the power switches. Simulation and experimental results acquired from a 9-level prototype verify the viability of the proposed balancing method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.334-345
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• 2017

In order to meet the increasing needs of the hybrid energy source system for electric vehicles, which demand bidirectional power flow capability with a wide-voltage-conversion range, a bidirectional three-level DC-DC converter and some control strategies for hybrid energy source electric vehicles are proposed. The proposed topology is synthesized from Buck and Boost three-level DC-DC topologies with a high voltage-gain and non-extreme duty cycles, and the bidirectional operation principle is analyzed. In addition, the inductor current ripple can be effectively reduced within the permitted duty cycle range by the coordinated control between the current fluctuation reduction and the non-extreme duty cycles. Furthermore, benefitting from duty cycle disturbance control, series-connected capacitor voltages can also be well balanced, even with the discrepant rise and fall time of power switches and the somewhat unequal capacitances of series-connected capacitors. Finally, experiment results of the bidirectional operations are given to verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed converter and control strategies. It is shown to be suitable for hybrid energy source electric vehicles.

• Journal of international Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.246-253
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• 2013

The Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC) with full bridge cells is available for utility interactive inverter in high voltage line. When it is interconnected with power line, it is possible to control the active power flow in order to supply or charge the power in the line. This research applied the MMC to grid connection system of distributed generator and a power flow control for the MMC is investigated. Theory of power flow between the MMC and the power line is described and control method of power flow and capacitor voltages on arm cells for the MMC are proposed. And effectiveness of the proposed control method is presented by simulation.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.134-145
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• 2019

A single-phase step-up five-level inverter topology with a new phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PS-PWM) strategy is proposed in this paper. When compared with conventional single-phase five-level inverter topologies, the proposed topology can realize multilevel inversion with a double step-up ratio, a reduced number of switching devices and self-balanced capacitor voltages. When compared with the conventional PS-PWM strategy, the new PS-PWM strategy can be implemented with one carrier reduced, which makes it much easier to implement in a digital signal processor (DSP) system. Experimental results have been presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed inverter and the PS-PWM strategy.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2000.07e
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• pp.136-141
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• 2000

This paper proposes the novel control of a static synchronous compensator (STATCOM). This STATCOM system consists of cascade multilevel inverter which employs H-bridge inverter(HBI) The STATCOM system is modeled in the d-q transform matrix. This model is used to design a controller. The selective harmonic elimination method(SHEM) allows to keep the total harmonic distortion (THD) low in the output voltage. The switching method produces the staircase type waveform in cascade multilevel inverter. To balance the DC voltages in HBIs capacitor, the rotated switching scheme is newly proposed in this paper. The proposed control scheme is verified in the simulated results.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.576-588
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• 2014

The superiority of CMI (Cascaded Multilevel Inverter) is unparalleled in high power and high voltage STATCOM (Static Synchronous Compensator). However, the parameters and operating conditions of each individual power unit composing the cascaded STATCOM differ from unit to unit, causing unit voltage disequilibrium on the DC side. This phenomenon seriously impairs the operation performance of STATCOM, and thus maintaining the DC voltage balance and stability becomes critical for cascaded STATCOM. This paper analyzes the case of voltage disequilibrium, combines the operation characteristics of the cascaded STATCOM, and proposes a new DC voltage control scheme with the advantages of good control performance and stability. This hierarchical control method uses software to achieve the total active power control and also uses chopper controllers to enable that the imbalance power can flow among the capacitors in order to keep DC capacitor voltages balance. The operating principle of the chopper controllers is analyzed and the implementation is presented. The major advantages of the proposed control strategy are that the number of PI regulators has been decreased remarkably and accordingly the blindness of system design and debugging also reduces obviously. The simulation reveals that the proposed control scheme can achieve the satisfactory control goals.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1190-1199
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• 2015

This paper presents a new resonant converter to achieve the soft switching of power devices. Two full-bridge converters are connected in series to clamp the voltage stress of power switches at V_in/2. Thus, power MOSFETs with a 500V voltage rating can be used for 800V input voltage applications. Two flying capacitors are connected on the AC side of the two full-bridge converters to automatically balance the two split input capacitor voltages in every switching cycle. Two resonant tanks are used in the proposed converter to share the load current and to reduce the current stress of the passive and active components. If the switching frequency is less than the series resonant frequency of the resonant tanks, the power MOSFETs can be turned on under zero voltage switching, and the rectifier diodes can be turned off under zero current switching. The switching losses on the power MOSFETs are reduced and the reverse recovery loss is improved. Experiments with a 1.5kW prototype are provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 2013

For high power high step-down dc-dc conversion applications, conventional three-level dc-dc converters are subject to extreme duty cycles or increased volume and cost due to the use of transformers. In this paper, a transformerless three-level dc-dc buck converter with a high step-down conversion ratio is proposed. The converter comprises two asymmetrical half bridges, which are of the neutral point clamped structures. Therefore, the output pulse voltage of the converter can be obtained in terms of the voltage difference between the two half bridges. In order to realize harmonious switching of the converter, a modulation strategy with capacitor voltages self balance is presented. According to the deduced output dc voltage function, transformerless operation without extreme duty cycles can be implemented. Experimental results from a 1kW prototype verify the validity of the proposed converter. It is suitable for ship electric power distribution systems.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1088-1096
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• 2017

Load variations on a distribution line result in voltage fluctuations at the point of common coupling (PCC). In order to keep the magnitude of the PCC voltage constant at its rated value and obtain zero voltage regulation (ZVR), a D-STATCOM is installed for voltage correction. Moreover, the ZVR mode of a D-STATCOM can also be used to balance the source current during unbalanced loading. For medium voltage and high power applications, a D-STATCOM is realized by the cascaded H-bridge topology. In the ZVR mode, the D-STATCOM may draw unbalanced current and in this process is required to handle different phase powers leading to deviations in the cluster voltages. Zero sequence voltage needs to be injected for ZVR mode, which creates circulating power among the phases of the D-STATCOM. The computed zero sequence voltage and the individual DC capacitor balancing controller help the DC cluster voltage follow the reference voltage. The effectiveness of the control scheme is verified by modeling the system in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The obtained simulations are further validated by the experimental results using a dSPACE DS1106 and five-level D-STATCOM experimental set up.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1037-1047
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• 2017

The Differential Power Processing (DPP) converter is a promising multi-module photovoltaic inverter architecture recently proposed for photovoltaic systems. In this paper, a DPP converter architecture, in which each PV-panel has its own DPP converter in shunt, performs distributed maximum power point tracking (DMPPT) control. It maintains a high energy conversion efficiency, even under partial shading conditions. The system architecture only deals with the power differences among the PV panels, which reduces the power capacity of the converters. Therefore, the DPP systems can easily overcome the conventional disadvantages of PCS such as centralized, string, and module integrated converter (MIC) topologies. Among the various types of the DPP systems, the feed-forward method has been selected for both its voltage balancing and power transfer to a modified H-bridge inverter that needs charge balancing of the input capacitors. The modified H-bridge multi-level inverter had some advantages such as a low part count and cost competitiveness when compared to conventional multi-level inverters. Therefore, it is frequently used in photovoltaic (PV) power conditioning system (PCS). However, its simplified switching network draws input current asymmetrically. Therefore, input capacitors in series suffer from a problem due to a charge imbalance. This paper validates the operating principle and feasibility of the proposed topology through the simulation and experimental results. They show that the input-capacitor voltages maintain the voltage balance with the PV MPPT control operating with a 140-W hardware prototype.