A Voltage source inverter (VSI) is commonly used to supply a variable
frequency variable voltage (VFVV) to adjustable speed drives (ASD). Pulse width modulation (!") is an operation performed on #ra$# voltage and current $aveforms to s%ape t%eir spectra in a $ay beneficial to t%eir applications. Spectra s%aping involves creation of #dead band# bet$een $anted and un$anted components. A suitable !" met%od $ill be c%osen from variety of met%ods available depending upon t%e application suitability. It is desirable for a !" inverter application to employ !" s$itc%ing strategy t%at not only address primary issues vi&.' less ()D' effective dc bus utili&ation etc.' but also ta*e cares of secondary issues li*e +"I reduction' s$itc%ing loss ' better spreading of %armonic over t%e spectrum etc. ,eal-time met%ods for !" generation can be broadly classified into natural sampled PWM (.S!")' regular sampled PWM (,S!") and Programmed PWM (!"). .S!" is triangle comparison based met%od $%ic% relies on analog circuits and t%e deficiency being t%ermal drift and non-reprogrammable nature' $%ere as ,S!" is digital platform based relying on loo*-up-table (/0() and t%e advantage being easy reprogrammability. !" is equation based used for specific tas* suc% as Selective harmonic elimination (S)+) etc.' (%e main objective of most modern !" met%ods suc% as Third Harmonic Injection PWM (()I!")' Triplen Harmonic Injection PWM ((,I!") etc.' is en%ancement of fundamental output voltage. All t%ese met%ods' t%ey do differ $idely in concept and implementation' $%ile t%eir performance difference remains undiscussed. Space Vector PWM (SV!") and Discontinuous PWM (D!") met%ods occupy major portion of ,S!" family. (%e e1tra effort $%ic% is spent in understanding and implementing t%e modern !" tec%niques may not be gained in t%eir performance $%ile comparing $it% simple-effortless sc%emes. 2pting SV!" for an application' $%ic% %as t%e main demand of de1terous utili&ation of dc bus voltage' may suffer due to implementation difficulties $%ile comparing $it% ot%er competitive met%ods vi&. ()I!" etc. At t%e same time' if t%e application demands t%e en%anced fundamental at reduced ()D' it is $ort%y opting for t%e SV!" sc%eme. 0nderstanding and ii implementing in a specific processor' t%e basic SV!" tec%nique $ill enable to ma*e variations very easily. (%e fundamental contributions of t%is project $or* are first grouping and c%aracteri&ation of modern modulators. An attempt is made to unify and branc% out t%e modern modulation met%ods $%ic% successfully group t%em in application specific3implementation easiness clusters. Simulation study is carried out for all modern !" met%ods in a common platform so as to establis% simple-accurate performance indices. First time' an effective attempt %as been made in listing of all t%e available performance indices for po$er converter and 4D grap%ical illustrations are employed for comparing modern !" met%ods. iii