Optimization Opportunities in Carrier-Based Multilevel PWM Using Degrees of Freedom of Modulation

Ahmad Radan Zahra Daneshi Far K. N Toosi University of Technology Power Electronics Laboratory P.O.Box: 16315-1355, Tehran - IRAN Phone:+98 21 8469084, Fax:+98 21 8462066 Radan@eed.kntu.ac.ir daneshifarm@yahoo.fr ABSTRACT
Among the different proposed modulation strategies for switching of multilevel converters, the Carrier Based PWM is commonly used because of its simplicity and unnecessary computations. A M-levels carrier-based PWM has M-1 carriers which can be selected differently from several aspects. A the specifications and allocation of carriers will affect strongly the converter performances, the paper discusses the influences of different degrees of freedom of modulation on the output harmonics content and switching losses of converter and how these degrees of freedom can be utilized to optimize the converter and modulation performances as well. PWM methods are simpler and more flexible than SVM methods. So, this paper focuses on CB-PWM freedom degrees for optimising this method.

1.

INTRODUCTION

Working on optimisation of switching strategy in multilevel inverters has found special importance among the Researchers, since multilevel inverters have been increasingly used in high power applications recently. Compared to conventional two level inverters, multilevel inverters have advantages such as: Improved output voltage waveform, Reduced output voltage harmonic contents by using several voltage levels without increasing the switching frequency, Reduced voltage stress on the semiconductors switches, Decrease of EMI problems. Several topologies have been already introduced for multilevel inverters. The most important ones are known as diode-clamped, capacitor-clamped, and cascaded multilevel inverters. Some new topologies such as, Generalized Multilevel Cells, Soft-Switched Multilevel Inverters, MixedLevel Hybrid Multilevel Cells, and so on are also introduced in [6]. But, this paper discusses the CB-PWM methods basically without paying attention to the inverter topology. Among the different modulation strategies used for switching of multilevel inverters, the Space Vector Modulation (SVM) and Carrier-Based Pulse Width Modulation (CB-PWM) are the most popular ones. CB-

Figure 1:The carriers and reference waveforms for a m-level inverter. Carrier-based PWM is based on the comparison of a reference input, which is usually a sinusoidal waveform, with some triangular waveforms. For application of this method in a m level inverter, m-1 triangular carrier waveforms and a reference waveform as shown in figure 1 are needed. Comparison among the m-1 carriers and reference waveforms by some special rules, determine the switching of the voltage level to be attained. Present carrierbased PWM methods are widely discussed in [1]. Carrier based PWM methods can be classified in two main categories as follows based on the disposition of carrier waveforms. A. Phase-shifted CB-PWM B. Carrier disposition CB-PWM The dc offset of all carriers in group A are the same while the carriers of group B have different dc offset. The former

method has well found its application in cascade multilevel inverters, while the latter is usually used in diode clamped multilevel inverters.

by its degrees of freedom. For example, the k-th carrier is specified by its frequency (fk), its amplitude (ak), its phase (pk), and finally its DC offset (dk). When all carriers are specified by their degrees of freedom, 5(m-1) parameters will be available for valuating and also introducing different modulation strategies. It can be shown that all well-known carrier-based multilevel PWM strategies such as PD, APOD and so on are the different versions of this general strategy, which uses one of the introduced degrees of freedom. There exist lots of new CB-PWM methods that can be proposed using these degrees of freedom. A few of them will be introduced later. Since optimisation of CB-PWM for different converter topologies is the matter of importance, the proposed general carrier based PWM helps us to optimise the switching of the converter for different applications. For this purpose the effect of each degree of freedom on the converter performances should be investigated for evaluation of different modulation methods from this viewpoint. Some of the most important criteria for evaluation of different Carrier based modulation methods are introduced in the following section.

Figure 2: One phase leg of five-level inverter (a) Diode-clamped (b) cascade inverter Since the time of introduction of multilevel inverters for high power applications, several research works and papers about modulation strategies in these converters have been published. One of the most important strategies for switching of the multilevel inverters is known as Carrier-Based PWM. Optimisation of this method for different converter topologies is important. Knowledge about the existing degrees of freedom in CB-PWM and their effects on converter performance can help the researchers to easily evaluate and optimize the CB-PWM methods for different applications. This paper investigates the degrees of freedom in CBPWM in the following, and then discusses their effect on the converter output performance as well. At the end different combination of freedom degrees leading to new methods will be introduced.

3.

EVALUATING CRITERIA

In order to investigate the influence of different degrees of freedom of modulation on the converter performance, it is important to have some criteria describing the converter and its output performances. Some of the most important ones are listed as below: Converter switching losses Output harmonic distortion DC bus utilization Homogeneous semiconductor utilization

2.

DEGREES OF FREEDOM IN CB-PWM

Multiple degrees of freedom are available in carrier based multilevel PWM. The principle of the CB-PWM method is to use m-1 different carriers with a reference signal for a mlevel inverter. Differences of carriers as well as starconnected loads to inverters introduce a lot of degrees of freedom in CB-PWM listed as follows: Carriers' Frequency Carriers' Amplitude Carriers Phases Carriers' DC offset Multiple third harmonics content of reference signal

To have a general carrier based PWM strategy for a mlevel inverter, each one of m-1 carriers should be specified

Some of these criteria such as switching losses depend also on the inverter topology. For example in diode-clamped converters the switches producing higher voltage levels have usually more transitions than the middle switches resulting more switching losses and therefore higher thermal stress on them. In addition, switching losses change as modulation index changes. Generally speaking, the switching losses would increase as modulation index increase in the linear modulation area but they become less when arriving in the over modulation area. By carefully investigating the effect of different degrees of freedom on the switching losses of each single switch of the converter, one can not only reduce the overall switching losses of the converter but also make the thermal stress on the switches homogeneous to achieve higher chip utilization in these converters easily by using different frequencies for the carriers. Among the already presented methods PS-PWM is known to result in lower switching losses under different modulation indices.

Another important criterion for evaluating the modulation method used is the harmonic distortion at converter output. In high power applications it is also important to have a voltage waveform with lower harmonic contents. In three phase applications with star connected loads it is sometimes preferred to have multiple third harmonics in phase voltages, because they are cancelled in line voltages. As it is shown by [1] PD technique puts the harmonic energy directly into a common mode carrier component so that they are cancelled in a line voltages. In high voltage application it is important to utilize the DC bus voltage as much as it is possible. Injecting zero sequence voltages to reference voltage increases the DC bus usage, it also decreases harmonic distortion under low modulation indices. Switch utilization is important from the different viewpoints such as switching losses. In order to balance switch utilization, [7] introduced a new CB-PWM method using variable-frequency carrier bands PWM which will discuss later in this paper.

Figure 3: Phase-shifted CB-PWM modulation options using a triangular carrier wave 4.2.
CARRIER DISPOSITION CB-PWM

4.

COMBINATION OF FREEDOM DEGREES OF PWM IN CB-PWM METHODS

As aforementioned, different combinations of degrees of freedom of proposed general strategy can result in several CB-PWM methods. Some of these well-known methods will be discussed here. These methods are classified into two categories based on the disposition of carrier waveforms. The first group, called as Phase Shifted CB-PWM, has the same dc offset for its carriers and the second one, called as Carrier Disposition CB-PWM, in has different DC offsets for its carriers to occupy the contiguous band. 4.1.
PHASE-SHIFTED CB-PWM

In this category m-1 carriers are arranged so that they fully occupy contiguous bands. Three alternative PWM strategies have been developed in the [1-2] and some new methods have been introduced in the [3],[4].

As it discussed in [1-2] the essential principle of this method is to retain sinusoidal reference waveforms for two phase legs of each H-bridge inverter that are phase shifted by 180 and to then phase shift the carriers of each bridge to achieve additional harmonic sideband cancellation. Optimum harmonic cancellation is achieved by phase shifting each carrier by (i-1)/N, where i is the i converter, N is the number of series-connected single phase inverters per phase leg ,and N=(M-1)/2 where M is the number switched DC level that can be achieved in each phase leg. This strategy leads to cancellation of all carrier and associated sideband harmonics up to the nth carrier group. Fig. 3 illustrates the carrier and reference waveforms for a single phase leg of a five-level cascaded inverter. As it is shown in this figure the carriers have the same amplitude and frequency, but they have different phases, so this method uses only one of the degrees of freedom of modulation.

Figure 4: Alternative phase opposition disposition CBPWM of a five-level inverter. 4.2.1. ALTERNATIVE (APOD)
PHASE OPPOSITION DISPOSITION

In this method carriers have the same frequency and the same amplitude but they are different in their DC offset and phases as shown in Fig. 4. In this method carriers are phase shifted by180, so this method uses two degrees of freedom of carriers namely their DC-offset and phases.

4.2.2.

PHASE OPPOSITION DISPOSITION(POD)

Carriers in this method are the same in frequency and amplitude but they are again different in phase and DC offset as the case of APOD. But in this method carriers above the reference zero point are out of phase with those below that by180 as shown in Fig. 5.

Figure 7 shows the relation between carrier and reference waveform on these four methods.

Figure 5: Phase Opposition Disposition CB-PWM of a five-level inverter. 4.2.3. PHASE DISPOSITION (PD)

In this method carriers are the same in frequency, amplitude and phases, but they are just different in DC offset to occupy contiguous bands as shown in Fig. 6. Among the discussed techniques, PD technique has less harmonic distortion on line voltages. As it is shown by [1] PD technique puts the harmonic energy directly into a common mode carrier component so that the harmonics are cancelled in line voltages. Figure 7: Carriers waveform for a five-level inverter on different CB-PWM methods. Figure 8 shows the harmonic characteristic of the discussed CB-PWM techniques versus the modulation index in the sinusoidal PWM of a 5 level inverter [5].

Figure 6: Phase Disposition CB-PWM of a fivelevel inverter.

Figure 8: comparison of harmonic characteristic of the CB-PWM techniques versus the modulation index

Two new methods are also introduced in [3] by using different DC offset for carriers in CB-PWM, that we can put them on carrier disposition CB-PWM category.

4.2.4.

CARRIER-OVERLAPPING (COPWM)

PWM

METHOD

For a m-level inverter, m-1 carriers with the same frequency, fC, and same amplitude, AC, are disposed such that the bands they occupy overlap each other, the overlapping vertical distance between each carrier is AC/2, as shown in Fig. 9. The reference waveform has the amplitude, Ar, and frequency, f r, centered in the middle of the carrier signals. Figure 10:. Principle of the SFO PWM method

Figure 9:. Principle of the carrier-overlapping PWM method 4.2.5. SFO PWM METHOD

Figure 11:. Carriers waveform for a five-level inverter on two new CB-PWM methods. Zero sequence signals can be also injected to the reference signal of all these methods to increase the DC bus usage of method and also to achieve a better harmonic characteristic for the output voltage under the low modulation indices.

The degree of freedom of carriers with different frequency could be use to balance the number of switching for each switch. [4] introduced a method by using this freedom degree. This method has been named as Switching Frequency Optimal-PWM (SFO-PWM). SFO-PWM is a PWM method with optimal utilization of the switches' frequency. Frequency of the PWM carrier signal may be chosen to be two times the switches mean frequency permitted. Figure 11 illustrates also the carriers of these two methods.

5.

SOME NEW CB-PWM METHODS

There is no limitation for combinations of the degrees of freedom of CB-PWM. There are still numerous other combinations resulting in new methods which have not been discussed till now. Having carriers with different phases in the proposed SFO method, as shown in Fig. 12, is an example. Another new method can be proposed by overlapping the two inner carriers, while the upper and bottom carriers remain as usual, as shown in Fig. 13.

CB-PWM methods could be obtain. To optimize CB-PWM method, the paper explains the effect of each degree of freedom on the converter performances and evaluates different modulation methods from this viewpoint. Some important criteria for evaluation of different Carrier based modulation methods are also introduced on this paper.

8.

REFERENCES

[l] D.Grahame Holmes and Thomas A.Lipo , Pulse Width Modulation For Power Converters, IEEE Press series on Power Engineering, Wiley Interscience,2004. [2] B.P McGrath,D.Grahame Holmes," Multicarrier PWM strategies for Multilevel Inverters", IEEE Transactions on industrial electronics, VOL. 49, NO. 4, August 2002. Figure 12: Principle of the New version of SFO PWM method [3] H Wang, R Zhao, Y Deng, X He, " Novel CarrierBased PWM Methods for Multilevel Inverter", 0-78037906-3/03,2003 IEEE.

[4] Jurgen K. Steinke, Switching Frequency Optimal PWM Control of a Three-Level Inverter, IEEE Trans. Power Electron, Vo1.7, pp. 487496, July 1996 [5] J.S Kim,T.J kim, D.W Kang, D.S Hyun,"A Novel Method of the harmonic Analysis by the Multi-Carrier PWM Techniques in the Multi-level Inverter",0-78037474-6/02,2002 IEEE. [6] J Rodrguez, Jih-Sheng Lai, F Zheng Peng," Multilevel Inverters: A Survey of Topologies,Controls, and Applications ",IEEE Trans. On industrial electronics, Vol. 49, No. 4, August 2002. [7] Leon M. Talben et al. Novel Multilevel Inverter Carrier-Based PWM Method, lEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., Vo1.35, pp. 1098.1 107, Sept.-Oct. 1999.

Figure 13: Principle of a New CB-PWM method

6.

FUTURE WORK

Carrier Based multilevel PWM has several degrees of freedom and is one of the most important modulation strategies for high power applications. Therefore an optimized method on CB-PWM is needed for these applications. As a future work this method could be optimize with an intelligent algorithm by using these degrees of freedom and developing an effective cost function. There are still some new methods in CB-PWM which is not evaluated and compared with the other well-known methods from the viewpoints discussed in section 3.

7.

CONCLUSION

Optimizing CB-PWM for different applications is the matter of importance. To discuss this issue the paper introduced a general CB-PWM method from which all the