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INTRODUCTION
A multilevel converter has several advantages over a conventional two-level converter and can be briefly
summarized as follows.
Staircase waveform quality: Generates output voltages with very low distortion and reduce dv/dt
stresses; therefore electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems can be reduced.
Common-mode (CM) voltage: Multilevel converters produce smaller CM voltage; therefore, the
stress in the bearings of a motor connected to a multilevel motor drive can be reduced.
Input current: Multilevel converters can draw input current with low distortion.
Switching frequency: Multilevel converters can operate at both fundamental switching frequency
and high switching frequency PWM. It should be noted that lower switching frequency usually
means lower switching loss and higher efficiency.
Disadvantages:
Although lower voltage rated switches can be utilized in a multilevel converter, each switch requires
a related gate drive circuit. This may cause the overall system to be more expensive and complex.
Industrial Medium-Voltage Motor Drives, Utility Interface for Renewable Energy Systems,
Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) and Traction Drive Systems, etc,.
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MULTILEVEL INVERTERS
2)
3)
1)
The main concept of this inverter is to use diodes to limit the power devices voltage stress.
b)
c)
An m level inverter needs (m-1) voltage sources, 2(m-1) switching devices and (m-1) (m-2)
diodes.
e.g.: In a 3-level Diode Clamped Multilevel: m=3, Therefore:
Number of switches per leg =2(3-1) =4
Number of diodes per leg = (3-1) (3-2) =2
Number of DC capacitors = (3-1) =2
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Sw2a
Sw3a
Sw1b
Sw2b
Sw1c
Sw2c
Sw3c
Sw1d
Sw2d
Sw3d
Sw3b
Contd
Table 1: Switching States Three Level DCMLI For Output Voltages
Switching States
Power Device
Index
Sw1a
Sw1b
Sw1c
Sw1d
Vdc/2
-Vdc/2
200
V o lt a g e (V o lt s )
150
100
50
0
-50
-100
-150
-200
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Time (sec)
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Fig 2: Single Leg Output Voltage of Three Level Diode Clamped Inverter
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300 V
Contd
Table 1: Switching States Five Level DCMLI For Output Voltages
Switching States
Voltage
Va
Vdc/2
Vdc/4
0
-Vdc/4
-Vdc/2
Sw1a
Sw1b
Sw1c
Sw1d
S1w1a
S1w1b
S1w1c
S1w1d
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
Voltage (volts)
50
0
-50
-100
-150
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Time (sec)
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Fig 2: Single Leg Output Voltage of Three Level Diode Clamped Inverter
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Contd
Applications of Diode-clamped Inverter:
1.
2.
In variable speed drives for high-power medium-voltage (2.4 kV to 13.8 kV) motors.
3.
Advantages:
1)
All of the phases share a common dc bus, which minimizes the capacitance requirements of the
converter. For this reason, a back-to-back topology is possible such as in a high-voltage back-toback inter-connection or an adjustable speed drive.
2)
3)
Disadvantages:
1)
Real power flow is difficult for a single inverter because the intermediate dc levels will tend to
overcharge or discharge without precise monitoring and control.
2)
The number of clamping diodes required is quadratically related to the number of levels, which can
be cumbersome for units with a high number of levels.
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Contd
2) CAPACITOR CLAMPED MULTILEVEL INVERTER:
1)
2)
The structure of this inverter is similar to that of the diode-clamped inverter except that instead of
using clamping diodes, the inverter uses capacitors in their place.
3)
Unlike the diode-clamped inverter, the flying-capacitor inverter does not require all of the switches
that are on (conducting) be in a consecutive series.
4)
The flying-capacitor inverter has phase redundancies, whereas the diode-clamped inverter has only
line-line redundancies. These redundancies allow a choice of charging/discharging specific
capacitors and can be incorporated in the control system for balancing the voltages across the
various levels.
5)
An m level inverter needs (m-1) voltage sources, 2(m-1) switching devices and (m-1) (m-2)/2
auxiliary capacitors.
e.g.: In a 3-level Capacitor Clamped Multilevel: m=3, Therefore:
Number of switches per leg =2(3-1) =4
Number of auxiliary capacitor per leg = (3-1) (3-2)/2 =1
Number of DC Capacitors = (3-1) =2
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Sw2a
Sw3a
Sw2c
E
C
3
g
[L3c]
Sw3c
m
Sw1c
1
2
[L2c]
C4
Sw3b
m
C7
Sw2b
E
C5
Sw1b
C1
C2
[L2d]
Sw2d
E
Sw3d
m
Sw1d
[L3d]
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Contd
Table 2: switching states of Three Level FCMLI for output voltages
Switching states
Power
Device Index
Sw1a
Sw1b
Sw1c
Sw1d
VDC/2
0
0
-V DC/2
1
0
1
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
0
1
200
V o lt a g e (V o lt s )
150
100
50
0
-50
-100
-150
-200
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Time (sec)
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Fig 2: Single Leg Output Voltage of Three Level Capacitor Clamped Inverter
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Contd
Table 1: Switching States Five Level DCMLI For Output Voltages
Switching States
Voltage
Va
Vdc/2
Vdc/4
0
-Vdc/4
-Vdc/2
Sw1a
Sw1b
Sw1c
Sw1d
S1w1a
S1w1b
S1w1c
S1w1d
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
200
150
100
Voltage (volts)
50
0
-50
-100
-150
-200
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Time (sec)
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Fig 2: Single Leg Output Voltage of Five Level Capacitor Clamped Inverter
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Contd
Applications of Flying Capacitor Multilevel Inverter:
Static Var Generation
Advantages :
1)
Phase redundancies are available for balancing the voltage levels of the capacitors.
2)
3)
The large number of capacitors enables the inverter to ride through short duration outages and deep
voltage sags.
Disadvantages:
1)
Control is complicated to track the voltage levels for all of the capacitors. Also, precharging all of the
capacitors to the same voltage level and start up are complex.
2)
Switching utilization and efficiency are poor for real power transmission.
3)
The large numbers of capacitors are both more expensive and bulky than clamping diodes in multilevel
diode-clamped converters.
4)
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Contd
3) CASCADED H-BRIDGE MULTILEVEL INVERTER :
Each separate dc source (SDCS) is connected to a single-phase full-bridge, or H-bridge, inverter.
Each inverter level can generate three different voltage outputs, +V dc, 0, and Vdc by connecting the
dc source to the ac output by different combinations of the four switches, S w1, Sw2, Sw3, and Sw4.
The ac outputs of each of the different full-bridge inverter levels are connected in series such that the
synthesized voltage waveform is the sum of the inverter outputs.
The number of output phase voltage levels m in a cascade inverter is defined by m = 2s+1, where s is
the number of separate dc sources.
Applications of Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverter:
static var generation,
Cascaded inverters are ideal for connecting renewable energy sources with an ac grid, because of the
need for separate dc sources, which is the case in applications such as photo voltaic or fuel cells.
Main traction drive in electric vehicles, where several batteries or ultra capacitors are well suited to
serve as SDCSs.
The cascaded inverter could also serve as a rectifier/charger for the batteries of an electric vehicle
while the vehicle was connected to an ac supply. Additionally, the cascade inverter can act as a
rectifier in a vehicle that uses regenerative braking.
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SW5
SW6
SW9
SW12
E
Iabc
Scope
SW11
m
SW8
m
SW7
SW4
Vabc
SW3
V3
V2
V1
SW10
SW2
SW1
A
B
V
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Contd
Table 2: switching states of Three Level FCMLI for output voltages
Switching States
Power Device
Index
Sw1
Sw2
Sw3
Sw4
+VDC
0
-VDC
V o lt a g e ( v o lt s )
200
100
0
-100
-200
-300
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Time (sec)
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Fig 2: Single Leg Output Voltage of Three Level Capacitor Clamped Inverter
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Contd
Table 2: switching states of Three Level FCMLI for output voltages
Van
Van1
0
V
V
V
0
-V
0
-V
-V
V
2V
-V
-2V
Van2
V
0
V
-V
0
V
-V
0
-V
300
200
Voltage (volts)
100
0
-100
-200
-300
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
Time(sec)
0.06
0.07
0.08
0.09
0.1
Fig 2: Single Leg Output Voltage of Three Level Capacitor Clamped Inverter
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19
Contd
Advantages of CHB:
The number of possible output voltage levels is more than twice the number of dc sources
(m = 2s + 1).
The series of H-bridges makes for modularized layout and packaging. This will enable the
manufacturing process to be done more quickly and cheaply.
Disadvantages of CHB:
Separate dc sources are required for each of the H-bridges. This will limit its application to products
that already have multiple SDCSs readily available.
Table 1: Comparison of the components of conventional topologies
Converter type
Cascaded
H-Bridge
(m-1) x 2
(m-1) x 2
(m-1) x 2
Main diodes
(m-1) x 2
(m-1) x 2
(m-1) x 2
Clamping diodes
(m-1) x (m-2)
Dc bus capacitors
(m-1)
(m-1)
(m-1)/2
(m-1) x (m-2) / 2
Balancing capacitors
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20
CONTROL STRATEGIES
Abundant modulation techniques and control paradigms have been developed for multilevel converters such as
1)
2)
3)
The main aim of the modulation strategy of multilevel inverters is to synthesize the output voltage as close as
possible to the sinusoidal waveform.
The natural extensions of carrier based sinusoidal PWM for multilevel converter topologies are
1)
b)
Phase Opposition Disposition (POD), where the carriers above the reference zero point are out of
phase with those below the zero point by 180 0.
c)
Alternate Phase Opposition Disposition (APOD), where each carrier is phase shifted by 180' from
its adjacent carriers.
2)
The level-shifted multicarrier modulation technique produces the best harmonic performance, however this
technique produces uneven power distribution among the cells when applied to CHB Multilevel Inverter.
The Phase Shifted Carrier PWM (PSCPWM) is the standard modulation strategy for CHB Multilevel Inverter.
JNTUK- KAKINADA
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-2
-4
-6
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
Time
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
Time (sec)
0.012
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-2
-4
-6
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
Time (sec)
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
Time (sec)
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
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-2
-4
-6
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
Time (sec)
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
Time (sec)
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
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-2
-4
-6
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
Time (sec)
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02
0.002
0.004
0.006
0.008
0.01
Time (sec)
0.012
0.014
0.016
0.018
0.02