A Multi-Cell 21-Level Hybrid Multilevel Inverter Synthesizes a Reduced Number of Components With Voltage Boosting Property

Abstract

A multi-cell hybrid 21-Level multilevel inverter is proposed in this paper. The proposed topology includes two-unit; an H-bridge is cascaded with a modified K-type unit to generate an output voltage waveform with 21 levels based only on two unequal DC suppliers. The proposed topology's advantage lies in the fine and clear output voltage waveforms with high output efficiency. Meanwhile, the high number of output voltage waveform levels generates a low level of distortion and reduces the level of an electromagnetic interface (EMI). Moreover, it reduces the voltage stress on the switching devices and gives it a long lifetime. Also, the reduction in the number of components has a noticeable role in saving size and cost. Regarding the capacitors charging, the proposed topology presents an online method for charging and balancing the capacitor's voltage without any auxiliary circuits. The proposed topology can upgrade to a high number of output steps through the cascading connection. Undoubtedly this cascading will increase the power level to medium and high levels and reduce the harmonics content to a neglectable rate. The proposed system has been tested through the simulation results, and an experimental prototype based on the controller dSPACE (DS-1103) hardware unit used to support the simulation results.

Keywords

• 21-Level Multilevel Inverter (MLI)
• hybridization
• modified K-type inverter
• online charging
• self-balancing
• voltage boosting inverter