Multilevel inverter

Introduction of Power Electronics

It is primarily concerned with application of
solid state devices for conversion and control of
electrical power.
With the development of power semiconductor
technology, power handling capabilities and
switching speed of the power devices increases
tremendously.
And with the development of digital signal
processor, we can easily achieved smooth
control over power semiconductor switches .

Introduction of Power
Electronics
Inverter fed AC motor drives is the
major application of power electronics
circuits known as adjustable speed
drives (ASD).
PWM based inverter reduces the
amplitudes of lower order harmonics in
the terminal voltage by shifting the
dominating harmonics towards higher
frequencies.

Introduction of Two-level
inverter

Waveform of two-level
inverter
Produce pulsed output
voltage waveform,
which contain a
fundamental
component and other
harmonics centre on
the switching frequency
and its multiples.
Higher switching
frequency leads to
better output voltage
and current waveform,
reduced harmonics
currents and faster
control of drive.

Disadvantage of Two-level
inverter
Switching losses
High dV/dt due to high switching frequency
Electromagnetic interference (EMI)
Stress on the insulation of the machine windings
Each devices has to be rated to block entire DC
link voltage during its off time
So application of two-level inverter is restricted to
low and medium power application.

Definition of Multi-level
inverter
Reduction of disadvantage of two-level
inverter has been made possible by the use
of different class of PWM inverters, termed
as Multi-level Inverter.
Multi-level inverter are power converters
composed by an array of semiconductor and
capacitor voltage sources, that when properly
controlled, can generate stepped waveform
output voltage with adjustable frequency and
amplitude

Advantage of Multi-level inverter

with respect to two-level inverter
It is possible to use power semiconductor devices of
lower voltage ratings to realize high voltage levels
at inverter output.
It is possible to obtained refined output voltage
waveform and reduced total harmonic distortion
(THD) in voltage with increased number of voltage
levels (stepped output voltage waveform).
Inverter can be operated with the lower switching
frequency and hence the switching losses are
reduced.
They can operate with a lower switching frequency.

Advantage of Multi-level inverter

with respect to two-level inverter
It is possible to obtain
semiconductor devices.

lower

dV/dt

across

power

It is possible to reduce the EMI problems.

Less stress on the insulation of machine phase windings.
It is possible to obtain machine current with reduced
harmonics, resulting into reduced torque pulsations in the
drive system.
Unfortunately,
multilevel
converters
do
have
some
disadvantages.
One particular disadvantage is the greater
number of power semiconductor switches needed. 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.

FFT Analysis

THD Comparision

Applications
High power drives like
Laminators
Mills
Conveyors
Pumps
Fans
Blowers
Compressors etc.

Concepts of Multi-level
inverter
Considering that m is the number of
steps of the phase voltage with respect
to the negative terminal of the inverter,
Then the number of steps in the voltage
between two phases of the load is k = 2m
+ 1.
And the number of steps in the phase
voltage of a three-phase load in wye
connection is p = 2k - 1

Concepts of Multi-level
inverter
The term multilevel starts with the threelevel inverter introduced by Nabae et al.
By increasing the number of levels in the
inverter, the output voltages have more
steps generating a staircase waveform,
which has a reduced harmonic distortion.
However, a high number of levels
increases the control complexity and
introduces voltage imbalance problems.

Basic Operating Principle

Multilevel Inverter
Topologies
Three different major multilevel
converter structures have been
applied in industrial applications:
1. Multilevel Diode Clamped/Neutral Point
Inverter, NPCMLI
2. Multilevel Capacitor Clamped/Flying
Capacitor Inverter, CCMLI
3. Cascaded Multicell Inverter, CMCI

Multilevel Diode Clamped /

Neutral Point Inverter, NPCMLI

Comparison of three-level inverter

with two-level inverter
Voltage stress on the switches of a three-level
inverter is equal to half to that of a conventional
two-level inverter or equal to voltage across one
capacitor which is Vdc/2.
Two switches of a pole is always open for any
voltage level and thus share the voltage stress
equally.
Thus voltage rating of the switches is half the DC
link voltage and the blocking voltage rating of the
clamping diode is also half the DC link voltage.

 Diode in the five level configuration has to be

rated for different voltages, which can be higher
than the blocking voltage of the switching devices.
Blocking voltage of each clamping diode depends
on its position in the structure.
For n level inverter, voltage across clamping diode
is
Vdiode = Vdc (n-1-k) , k = 1,2,,n-2
(n-1)
If the blocking rating of each diode is same, than
the number of diode required for each phase is
ND=(n-1)*(n-2)
When n is sufficiently high, the number of diodes
makes the system impractical and implement,
which in effect limits the number of levels.

Switching states of one five-level

phase leg

Explanation
Diode clamped multi-level inverter is also known as
neutral point clamped because of mid voltage level
is formed by clamping the switching devices to the
neutral point of the DC bus.
Therefore , the maximum voltage stress on the
switch is limited to the voltage across each
capacitor Vdc/(m-1) which is equal to voltage across
each capacitor.
Half number of switches of a pole is always open for
any voltage level and thus share the voltage stress
equally, thus voltage rating of the switches is equal
to voltage across one capacitor and the blocking
voltage rating of the clamping diode is also equal to
voltage across one capacitor.

 For an N level (between the phase and the

negative rail) Diode clamped inverter,
The number of levels in the line-to-line voltage
waveform will be k = 2N-1
The number of levels in the line to load neutral
of a star or wye load will be p = 2k-1
The
number
of
capacitors
required,
independent of the number of phase, is Ncap =
N-1
While the number of clamping diodes of
uneqaul voltage rating per phase is Dclamp =
2(N-1) and clamping diode of equal voltage
rating per phase is Dclamp = (N-1)(N-2)
The number of switches in each leg is Sn = 2(N1)

Features
1. High voltage rating for blocking diodes
2. Unequal switching device rating

S1 conducts only during Van = Vdc/2, whereas switch S4 conducts

over the entire cycle except Van = -Vdc/2.
Such an unequal conduction duty requires different current rating
for devices.
Therefore we have to use switches with different current rating.

3. Capacitor voltage unbalance

Because the voltage levels at the capacitor terminals are

different, the current supplied by the capacitors are also different.
When inverter operates at unity power factor, the discharge time
for inverter operation for each capacitor is different.
Such a capacitor charging profile repeats every half cycle, and the
result is unbalanced capacitor voltage between different levels.
It can be resolved by using controlled constant DC voltage source,
PWM voltage regulators or batteries.

Advantages
When the number of levels is high ,
the harmonics content is low enough
to avoid the need for filters.
Inverter efficiency is high because all
devices
are
switched
at
the
fundamental frequency.
The control method is simple.

Disadvantage
Increase in the number of clamping diodes
leads to a complex bus structure and
make the NPC inverter system impractical
to implement when the number of levels
is sufficiently high.
Capacitor voltage can fluctuate over a
fundamental cycle (depending on the load
current drawn from the DC link) and this
means that devices are subjected block
higher voltages than the ideal condition.

Multilevel Capacitor Clamped/

Flying Capacitor Inverter, CCMLI

Switching Table for 3 level FC

inverter
State if the
Switch

Pole
Voltage
Vao

Volta
ge
Level

S1

S2

S3

S4

Vdc/2

No Effect

Charging

Discharging

Effect on flying capacitor

voltage

0
0
1
1
NO Effect
-Vdc/2
S1 and S4, as well as S2 and S3 are
two different complementary pairs of
the switch.

Five Level Flying Capacitor

Inverter

One leg of Flying Capacitor

Inverter

Switching state for 5 level FC Inverter

Pole
volta
ge
Vdc/
2
Vdc/4

Vdc/4

State of the switch

S1

S2

S3

S4

S5

S6

S7

S8

Advantage of Redundancy

As before with the NPCMLI only one switch need

to be opened and one to be closed to change
one state to another. This leads to that the
inverter can be modulated at low (fundamental)
switching frequency since a stepped sinusoidal
waveform can be created when every switch is

Explanation
This circuit is called the flying
capacitor inverter, as independent
capacitors clamp the device voltage
to one capacitor voltage level.
The switches in the pair always be in
complementary states.

Features
1. Large number of capacitor
Large number of storage capacitor is
required
Assuming that voltage across each
capacitor is same as that of a switching
device.
If capacitor with equal voltage rating
Vdc/(n-1) as the main switches are
used, and n level inverter will need ((n1)(n-2))/2 capacitors per pole as
floating sources in addition to (n-1)

Features
2. Balancing capacitor voltage
As we already known that, the switching combination for voltage
level except upper and lower one is greater than one.
Such redundancy of the multi-level configuration is a unique
feature and it is an advantage to maintain the capacitor voltage
balance.
But redundant switching states, vital to capacitor voltage
balancing, are sacrificed to achieve a higher number of output
voltage levels.
To produce same output voltage, the inverter has to switched
different combination so that it easier to manipulate the
capacitor voltage and keep them at their proper value.
Since the same current flows through all the active capacitors in
a state, energy can be transferred from more charged to less
charged capacitors, balancing the capacitors voltages between
the capacitors that are conducting.
Thus by proper selection of switching combination , the FC multilevel inverter may be used in real power conversion.

Advantage
Large amount of storage capacitors
can provide capabilities during power
outages.
Provides switch combination
redundancy for balancing different
capacitor voltage levels.
Harmonic content is low enough to
avoid the need of filters.
Both real and reactive power flow
can controlled.

Disadvantage
An excessive number of storage
capacitor is required when the
number of levels is high. So cost of
the converter becomes high.
The inverter control can be very
complicated.
Switching frequency and switching
losses are high for real power
transmission.

Cascaded Multi cell Inverter,

CMCI

Cascaded Multi cell Inverter, CMCI

Introduction
It is a relatively new converter structure, cascadedinverters with separate dc sources.
This new converter can avoid extra clamping diodes
or voltage balancing capacitors.
To comply with the definition of the previously
mentioned
diode-clamp
and
flying-capacitor
multilevel converters, the level in a cascadedinverters based converter is defined by m=2s+1,
where m is the output phase voltage level, and s is
the number of dc sources. For example, a 9-level
cascaded-inverters based converter will have four
SDCs and four full bridges.

Advantage
Requires the least number of components among all
multilevel converters to achieve the same number of
voltage levels.
Modularized circuit layout and packaging is possible
because each level has the same structure, and there are
no extra clamping diodes or voltage balancing capacitors.
Soft-switching can be used in this structure to avoid bulky
and lossy resistor-capacitor-diode snubbers.
For real power conversions, (ac to dc and dc to ac), the
cascaded-inverter needs separate dc sources. The
structure of separate dc sources is well suited for various
renewable energy sources such as fuel cell, photovoltaic
and biomass etc.

Disadvantage
Needs separate dc sources for real
power conversions, and thus its
applications are somewhat limited.