A New Cascaded Multilevel H-Bridge Drive

In this paper, a general structure for cascaded power converters is presented in which any number of H-bridge cells having any number of voltage levels are series connected to form an inverter phase leg. Equations are introduced for determining an optimal voltage ratio of DC voltages for the H-bridge cells which will maximize the number of voltage levels obtainable resulting in high power quality. Special cases of the generalized inverter are presented including novel 11-level and 15-level inverters. Laboratory measurements demonstrate the proposed inverter performanc

Full Binary Combination Schema for Floating Voltage Source Multi-Level Inverters

This paper presents schema of operation for floating voltage source multi-level inverters. The primary advantage of the proposed schema is that the number of voltage levels (and thus power quality) can be increased for a given number of semiconductor devices when compared to the conventional flying capacitor topology. However, the new schema requires fixed floating sources instead of capacitors and therefore is more suitable for battery power applications such as electric vehicles, flexible AC transmission systems and submarine propulsion. Alternatively transformer/rectifier circuits may be used to supply the floating sources in a similar way to cascaded H-bridge inverters. Computer simulation results are presented for 4-, 8- and 16-level inverter topologies. A 4-level laboratory test verifies the proposed method

A Unique Fault-Tolerant Design for Flying Capacitor Multilevel Inverter

This paper presents a unique design for flying capacitor type multilevel inverters with fault-tolerant features. When a single-switch fault per phase occurs, the new design can still provide the same number of converting levels by shorting the fault power semiconductors and reconfiguring the gate controls. The most attractive point of the proposed design is that it can undertake the single-switch fault per phase without sacrificing power converting quality. Future more, if multiple faults occur in different phases and each phase have only one fault switch, the proposed design can still conditionally provide consistent voltage converting levels. This paper will also discuss the capacitor balancing approach under fault-conditions, which is an essential part of controlling flying capacitor type multilevel inverters. Suggested fault diagnosing methods are also discussed in this paper. Computer simulation and lab results validate the proposed controls

A Unique Fault-tolerant Design for Flying Capacitor Multilevel Inverters

This paper presents a unique design for flying capacitor type multilevel inverters with fault-tolerant features. When a single-switch fault per phase occurs, the new design can still provide the same number of converting levels by shorting the fault power semiconductors and reconfiguring the gate controls. The most attractive point of the proposed design is that it can undertake the single-switch fault per phase without scarifying power converting quality. This paper also discusses the capacitor balancing approach under fault-conditions, which is an essential part of controlling flying capacitor type multilevel inverters. Suggested fault diagnosing methods are also discussed in this paper. Computer simulation and lab results validate the proposed controls

AC Impedance Measurement Techniques

Naval ship as well as aerospace power systems are incorporating a greater degree of power electronic switching sources and loads. Although these power electronics based components provide exceptional performance, they are prone to instability due to their high efficiency and constant power characteristics which lead to negative impedance. When designing these systems, integrators must consider the impedance versus frequency at a system interface (which designates source and load). Stability criterions have been developed in terms of source and load impedance for both dc and ac systems and it is often helpful to have techniques for impedance measurement. For dc systems, the measurement techniques have been well established. This paper suggests several methods for measuring ac impedance including utilization of power converters, induction machines and chopper circuits. Simulation results on an example ac system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method

Time-Domain Minimization of Voltage and Current Total Harmonic Distortion for a Single-Phase Multilevel Inverter with a Staircase Modulation

This paper presents the optimization technique for minimizing the voltage and current total harmonic distortion (THD) in a single-phase multilevel inverter controlled by staircase modulation. The previously reported research generally considered the optimal THD problem in the frequency domain, taking into account a limited harmonic number. The novelty of the suggested approach is that voltage and current minimal THD problems are being formulated in the time domain as constrained optimization ones, making it possible to determine the optimal switching angles. In this way, all switching harmonics can be considered. The target function expression becomes very compact and existing efficient solvers for this kind of optimization problems can find a solution in negligible processor time. Current THD is understood as voltage frequency weighted THD that assumes pure inductive load—this approximation is practically accurate for inductively dominant RL-loads. In this study, the optimal switching angles and respective minimal THD values were obtained for different inverter level counts and overall fundamental voltage magnitude (modulation index) dynamic range. Developments are easily modified to cover multilevel inverter grid-connected applications. The results have been verified by experimental tests

Multilevel Inverters with Equal or Unequal Sources for Dual-Frequency Induction Heating

Most existing power supplies for induction heating equipment produce voltage at a single (adjustable) frequency. Recently, however, induction heating power supplies that produce voltage at two (adjustable) frequencies have been researched and even commercialized. Dual-frequency power supplies are a significant development for heat-treating workpieces with uneven geometries, such as gears, since different portions of such workpieces are heated dissimilarly at a single frequency and so require a two step process using a single-frequency power supply. On the other hand, a dual-frequency power supply can achieve the desired result for such workpieces in a one step process. This paper proposes the use of multilevel converters for providing induction heating power at two frequencies simultaneously, which may achieve higher efficiency, improved control, reduced electromagnetic interference and greater reliability than existing dual-frequency power supplies. It also describes how the stepping angles for the desired output from such converters can be determined for both the equal and unequal source cases. Furthermore, experimental results are presented as a verification of the analysis

Simple Time Averaging Current Quality Evaluation of a Single-Phase Multilevel PWM Inverter

This paper addresses theoretical calculation of a single-phase multilevel pulsewidth modulation (PWM) inverter current total harmonic distortion (THD). Analytical approach introduced in late 1980s for a two-level inverter is generalized for an arbitrary level count for a single-phase inverter. Although the obtained closed-form piecewise analytical solutions assume (infinitely) large ratio of switching and fundamental frequencies and pure inductive load, they are practically very accurate for the ratios of (apparent) switching and fundamental frequencies larger than 25-30 and inductance-dominated loads. Along with strict mathematical solutions, simple accurate Bessel function approximation and hyperbolic average trend one are suggested. The formulas clearly reveal a single-phase PWM inverter current THD dependence on modulation index for an arbitrary voltage level count and are easily modified to cover grid-connected cases

Asymptotic time domain evaluation of a single-phase multilevel PWM inverter current quality

This paper addresses theoretical calculation of a single-phase multilevel PWM inverter current Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). Analytical approach introduced in late 1980s for a 2-level inverter is generalized for an arbitrary level count for a single-phase inverter. Though the obtained closed-form piece-wise analytical solutions assume (infinitely) large ratio of switching and fundamental frequencies and pure inductive load, they are practically very accurate for the ratios of (apparent) switching and fundamental frequencies larger than 25-30 and inductance dominated loads. Along with strict mathematical solutions suggested are simple accurate Bessel function approximation and hyperbolic average trend one. The formulas clearly reveal a single-phase PWM inverter current THD dependence on modulation index for an arbitrary voltage level count and are easily modified to cover grid-connected cases