IJSS

Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59

Serials Publications, (India)

49

Simulation of Z-Source Inverter Using Maximum Boost
Control PWM Technique

Suresh L., G.R.S. Naga Kumar, M.V. Sudarsan & K.Rajesh
Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
Vignans Lara Institute of Technology & Science, Vadlamudi - 52213, INDIA
Email: suresh.201@gmail.com

Abstract:- Z source inverters have been recently proposed as an alternative power conversion concept as
they have both voltage buck and boost capabilities. These inverters use a unique impedance network,
coupled between the power source and converter circuit, to provide both voltage buck and boost properties,
which cannot be achieved with conventional voltage source and current source inverters. To facilitate
understanding of Z source inverter, this paper presents a detailed analysis, showing design of impedance
network, implementation of Maximum Boost control (MBC) PWM technique and simulation of Z source
inverter.

Key words:- PWM Technique, MBC, Z source inverter

I. INTRODUCTION
There exists two traditional converters, voltage-source (or voltage-fed) and current-source (or
current-fed) converters, either rectifier or inverter depending on power flow directions. There are some
limitations in those two inverters.

A. Voltage Source Inverter (Vsi)
VSI is a 3- bridge inverter fed from DC voltage source (or) AC voltage source with diode
rectifier as shown in fig 1. A large capacitor is connected at the input terminals tends make the input DC
voltage constant. Six switches are used in the main circuit; each composed of power transistor and an
anti parallel diode to provide bidirectional current flow and unidirectional voltage blocking capability. It
has eight switching states. In those eight states, six are active states and two are zero states. VSI can be
operated as a stepped wave inverter or pulse width modulated (PWM) inverter.


Fig .1: Voltage Source Inverter

It has the following conceptual and theoretical barriers.
The AC output voltage is limited below and cannot exceed the DC input voltage.
External equipment is needed to boost up the voltage, which increases the cost and lowers the
overall system efficiency.
There is a possibility for the occurrence of short through which destroys the devices.
An output LC filter is needed, which causes additional losses and control complexity.
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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
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50

B. Current Inverter (Csi) Source
CSI is 3- bridge inverter fed from current source i.e. a voltage source in series with large
inductor as shown in fig 2. Six switches are used; each composed of Insulate Gate Bipolar Transistor
(IGBT) or Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) with series diode to provide
unidirectional current flow and bidirectional voltage blocking. Unlike VSI, CSI has nine switching states
in those six are active states and three are zero states. The AC output voltage is greater than DC input
voltage.


Fig 2: Current Source Inverter

However, the current-source inverter has the following conceptual and theoretical limitations:
It is a boost inverter
The cost of CSI is high.
The operating power factor is poor on line side.
CSI is vulnerable to EMI noise in terms of reliability.

2. Z SOURCE INVERTER
The main objective of static power converters is to produce an AC output waveform from a dc
power supply. Impedance source inverter is an inverter which employs a unique impedance network
coupled with the inverter main circuit to the power source. This inverter has unique features in terms of
voltage (both buck & boost) compared with the traditional inverters. A two-port network that consists of
a split-inductor and capacitors that are connected in X shape is employed to provide an impedance
source (Z-source) coupling the inverter to the dc source, or another converter. The DC source/load can
be either a voltage or a current source/load. Therefore, the DC source can be a battery, diode rectifier,
thyristor converter, fuel cell, PV cell, an inductor, a capacitor, or a combination of those [1]. Switches
used in the converter can be a combination of switching devices and anti-parallel diode as shown in Fig.
3


Fig. 3: ZSI Using the Anti parallel Combination of Switch and Diode

Six switches are used in the circuit; each is traditionally composed of a power transistor and an
anti parallel (or freewheeling) diode to provide bidirectional current flow and unidirectional voltage
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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
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51

blocking capability. The commonly used switches are Metal Oxide Semi-Conductor Field Effect
Transistor (MOSFET), Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT),
Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR), and Gate Turn off Thyristor (GTO) etc. Here we employed IGBT as
the switch as it combines the advantages of both BJT and MOSFET.

A. Impedance Network
The Z-source concept can be applied to all DC-to-AC, AC-to-DC, and AC-to-AC and DC-to-DC
power conversion. It consists of voltage source from the DC supply, Impedance network, and three phase
inverter and with AC motor load. AC voltage is rectified to DC voltage by the three phase rectifier. In
the rectifier unit consist of six diodes, which are connected in bridge way. This rectified output DC
voltage fed to the Impedance source network which consists of two equal inductors (L
1
, L
2
) and two
equal capacitors (C
1
, C
2
).The network inductors are connected in series arms and capacitors are
connected in diagonal arms .The impedance network is used to buck or boost the input voltage depends
upon the boosting factor .This network also act as a second order filter .This network should require less
inductance and smaller in size. Similarly capacitors required less capacitance and smaller in size. This
impedance network, constant impedance output voltage is fed to the three phase inverter main circuit.
Depending upon the Gating signal, the inverter operates and this output is fed to the 3-phase AC load or
AC motor.

B. Equivalent Circuit and Operating Principle
The Z-source inverter is analyzed using voltage source inverter. The unique feature of the Z-
source inverter is that the output ac voltage can be any value between zero and infinity regardless of the
input DC voltage. That is, the Z-source inverter is a buckboost inverter that has a wide range of
obtainable voltage. The traditional V- and I-source inverters cannot provide such feature.
The main feature of the Z-source is implemented by providing gate pulses including the shoot-
through pulses. Here how to insert this shoot-through state becomes the key point of the control methods.
It is obvious that during the shoot-through state, the output terminals of the inverter are shorted and the
output voltage to the load is zero. The output voltage of the shoot-through state is zero, which is the
same as the traditional zero states, therefore the duty ratio of the active states has to be maintained to
output a sinusoidal voltage, which means shoot-through only replaces some or all of the traditional zero
states.
Let us briefly examine the Z-source inverter structure. In Fig. 3, the three-phase Z-source inverter
bridge has nine permissible switching states (vectors) unlike the traditional three-phase V-source inverter
that has eight. The traditional three-phase V-source inverter has six active vectors when the DC voltage
is impressed across the load and two zero vectors when the load terminals are shorted through either the
lower or upper three devices, respectively. However, three-phase Z-source inverter bridge has one extra
zero state (or vector) when the load terminals are shorted through both the upper and lower devices of
any one phase leg (i.e., both devices are gated on), any two phase legs, or all three phase legs. This
shoot-through zero state (or vector) is forbidden in the traditional V-source inverter, because it would
cause a shoot-through. We call this third zero state (vector) the shoot-through zero state (or vector),
which can be generated by seven different ways: shoot-through via any one phase leg, combinations of
any two phase legs, and all three phase legs.
The Z-source network makes the shoot-through zero state possible. This shoot-through zero state
provides the unique buck-boost feature to the inverter. The Z-source inverter can be operated in three
modes which are explained in below.

Mode I:
In this mode, the inverter bridge is operating in one of the six traditional active vectors; the
equivalent circuit is as shown in figure 4.
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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
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52


Fig.4: Equivalent Circuit of the ZSI in one of the Six Active States

The inverter bridge acts as a current source viewed from the DC link. Both the inductors have an
identical current value because of the circuit symmetry. This unique feature widens the line current
conducting intervals, thus reducing harmonic current.

Mode II:
The equivalent circuit of the bridge in this mode is as shown in the fig. 5


Fig. 5: Equivalent Circuit of the ZSI in one of the Two Traditional Zero States

The inverter bridge is operating in one of the two traditional zero vectors and shorting through
either the upper or lower three device, thus acting as an open circuit viewed from the Z-source circuit.
Again, under this mode, the inductor carry current, which contributes to the line currents harmonic
reduction as shown in below fig 6.


Fig. 6: Equivalent Circuit of the ZSI in the Non Shoot-Through States.

Mode III:
The inverter bridge is operating in one of the seven shoot-through states. The equivalent circuit of
the inverter bridge in this mode is as shown in the below figure 7. In this mode, separating the dc link
from the ac line. This shoot-through mode to be used in every switching cycle during the traditional zero
vector period generated by the PWM control. Depending on how much a voltage boost is needed, the
shoot-through interval (T
0
) or its duty cycle (T
0
/T) is determined. It can be seen that the shoot-through
interval is only a fraction of the switching cycle.

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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
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53


Fig. 7: Equivalent Circuit of the ZSI in the Shoot-Through State.

C. Analysis Of Impedance Network
The equivalent circuit of the impedance network [3] is shown in fig. 8


Fig. 8: Equivalent Circuit of Impedance Network

For simplicity, assuming that the inductors L
1
and L
2
and capacitorsC
1
and C
2
have the same
inductance and capacitance respectively, the Z-source network become symmetrical.

From the symmetry and the equivalent circuits, we have

I
c1
= I
c2
= I
c
(1)

I
L1
= I
L2
= I
L
(2)

Given that the inverter bridge is in the shoot-through zero state for an interval ofT
0
, during a
switching cycle, T and from the equivalent circuit, Fig. 8, one has

I
L
= I
C

I
d
= 2I
c
, I

= u;

Now consider that the inverter bridge is in one of the eight non shoot-through states for an
interval of T1, during the switching cycle. From the equivalent circuit, Fig. 8, one has

I
L
= I
0
-I
c
(S)
I
d
= I
0


I

= I
c
- I
L
= I
c
-(I
0
-I
c
)
I

= 2I
c
-I
0
(4)

Where V
o
is the DC source voltage and
I = I
0
+I
1
(S)

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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
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54

The average voltage of the inductor over one switching period should be zero in steady state,
thus,
We have
I
L
=
I
0
I
c
+ I
1
(I
0
- I
c
)
I
= u

I
L
=
(I
0
I
C
+I
0
I
1
-I
C
I
1
)
I
= u

I
L
= (I
0
- I
1
)I
C
I +(I
1
I
0
) I


v
C
v
0
=
1
1
1
1
-1
(6)

Similarly the average DC link voltage across the inverter bridge can be found as follows.

From equation 4:
I

= (I
0
- u + I
1
(2I
C
-I
0
)) I

I

= (2I
C
. I
1
I ) -(I
1
I
0
I )

2I
C
= I
0
(7)
From equation 6:

I
1
. I
0
(I
1
- I
0
) = 2I
C
. I
1
(I
1
-I
0
)
I
C
= I
0
. I
1
(I
1
- I
0
)

The peak DC-link voltage across the inverter bridge is I

=
I
C
-I
L
= 2I
C
-I
0

= I (I
1
- I
0
). I
0
= B. I
0
(8)
Where
B = I (I
1
- I
0
) 1

B is a boost factor
The output peak phase voltage from the inverter

I
out
= H. I
0
2 (9)

Where M is the modulation index

In this source
I
out
= H. B. I
0
2 (1u)

The output voltage can be stepped up and down by choosing an appropriate buck - boost factor B*

B*= B.M (it varies from 0 to ) (11)

The capacitor voltage can be expressed as
I
C1
= I
C2
= I
C
= (1 -I
0
I ). I
0
(1 - 2I
0
I )
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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
Serials Publications, (India)

55

The boost factor B is determined by the modulation index M. The boost factor B can be
controlled by duty cycle of the shoot-through zero state over the non-shoot through states of the PWM
inverter. The shoot-through zero state does not affect PWM control of the inverter. Because, it
equivalently produces the same zero voltage to the load terminal, the available shoot- through period is
limited by the modulation index.

D. Advantages Of Z-Source Inverter
The following are the advantages of Z-source inverter when compared to the two traditional
inverters i.e. voltage source inverter and current source inverter.
Secures the function of increasing and decreasing of the voltage in the one step energy
processing.
Improve resistant to failure switching and EMI distortions.
Relatively simple start-up.
Provide ride-through during voltage sags without any additional circuits.
Improve power factor reduce harmonic current and common-mode voltage.
Provides a low-cost, reliable and highly efficient single stage for buck and boost conversions.

3. PWM TECHNIQUES
The number of control methods to control Z-source inverter, that include the sinusoidal PWM
techniques, three types of PWM control algorithms: simple boost control (SBC), maximum boost control
(MBC), constant boost control (CBC).
The modulation index also called as amplitude modulation ratio (M) which is the main control
factor is defined as the ratio of amplitude of reference wave to the amplitude of carrier wave

H =
I
c]
I
cu


The linearity between the modulation index and the output voltage is achieved by under
modulation index (M < 1).

Maximum Boost Control [5, 8]
Maximum Boost Control (MBC) turns all traditional zero states into shoot-through zero state.
The PWM signals with the use of the MBC control is shown in Fig 10. MBC maintains the six active
states unchanged and turns all zero states into shoot-through zero states.
The implementation of maximum boost control method [7] is illustrated in Fig. 9. Two straight
envelopes are employed to realize the shoot through duty ratio (Do). The first one is equal to the peak
value of the three-phase sinusoidal reference voltages while the other one is the negative of the first one.
When the triangular carrier waveforms is greater than the upper envelope, V
p
, or lower than the bottom
envelope, V
n
, the circuit turns into shoot-through state. Otherwise it operates just as traditional carrier-
based PWM.

Fig 9: Implementation Diagram of MBC
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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
Serials Publications, (India)

56

Shoot-through pulses are inserted into the switching waveforms by logical OR gate. To produce
switching pulses, three phase reference wave forms having peak value with modulation index (M) are
compared with the same high frequency triangular signal. Comparator compares these two signals and
produces pulses (when V
sin
>V
tri
, on and V
sin
<V
tri
, off). These pulses are then sent to gates of the power
IGBTs through isolation and gate drive circuit. Figure 10 shows the pulse generation of the three phase
leg switches (S
1
, S
3
and S
5
-positive group/upper switches and S
2
, S
4
and S
6
-negative group/lower
switches).This method is much uncomplicated; however, the resulting voltage stress across the device is
relatively low because all traditional zero states are utilized fully. This characteristic will restrict the
obtainable voltage gain because of the limitation of device voltage rating. For a complete switching
period, T is total switching period, T
0
is the zero state time period and Do is the shoot-through duty ratio.
In this paper, the control of ZSI is done by this control technique (MBC).


Fig 10: PWM Signals from Maximum Boost Control

Important mathematical expressions are:

D
o
=
2n-33M
2n
(12)
0 = HB =
M
1-2
0
(13)


Where
G is inverter voltage gain;
M is modulation index;
B is boost factor.

Iout =
MBv
0
2
(15)

The voltage stress across the inverter devices is given by

Iin: = BI
0


B = 20 - 1

Iin: = (20 -1)I
0
=
I
0
2H-1
(16)

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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
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57

4. SIMULATION & RESULTS
The Z-source inverter can be operated in both boosts and buck operations depending on values of
M. If M is greater than 0.5 it acts as boost inverter, if M is less than 0.5 then it acts as buck inverter.
The following block diagram figure 11 shows the SIMULINK implementation of Z Source inverter.


Fig. 11: Implementation Diagram of Z source inverter

Boost Operation Results
By considering inverter output voltage we can say boost or buck operation.
The corresponding input to inverter circuit is output of diode bridge rectifier is fig 12.


Fig 12: Diode Bridge Rectifier Output Voltage for M=0.8

The voltage across the capacitor is shown in fig 13. Initially the capacitor voltage rises to
maximum value after it reaches to constant value.


Fig 13: Voltage across Capacitor for M=0.8.
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
Time (secs)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
o

(
V
o
l
t
s
)
Rectifier output voltage Vo for Ma =0.8
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Time (secs)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V

(
V
o
l
t
s
)
Voltage across Capacitor for Ma =0.8
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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
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58


Fig 14: Current flowing through the inductor

The inverter output voltage is shown in fig 15, for M=0.8.

Fig 15: Inverter Output Voltage for M=0.8


Fig 16: Line Line voltage after filter for M = 0.8

Here a 3-phase RL series load is connected to ZSI. The 3-phase output voltage across load is
shown in fig 17.
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Time (secs)
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

(
A
)
Inductor current for Ma =0.8
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-250
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
Time (secs)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e


(
V
o
l
t
s
)
Inverter output voltage for Ma =0.8
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
100
Time (secs)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V

(
V
o
l
t
s
)
Line - Line Load Voltage after filter for Ma =0.8
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Vol.7 No.2 July-December 2013, pp.49-59
Serials Publications, (India)

59


Fig 17: Three Phase Load Voltage across Load for M=0.8.

5. CONCLUSION
This paper presents, the theoretical analysis and design of Z-source inverter is studied. The Z-
source inverter employs a unique impedance network to couple the inverter main circuit to the power
source and thus providing unique feature. The control methods with the insertion of shoot-through states
of Z-source inverter have been studied. The proposed scheme under maximum boost control is simulated
with the help of MATLAB/SIMULINK and the simulation results are obtained. The simulation results
shows that boost operation can be obtained with Z-source inverter.

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0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
Time (secs)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V

(
V
o
l
t
s
)
Three phase Load Voltage for Ma =0.8