IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. IA-17, NO. 5.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1981

51 8

A New Neutral-Point-Clamped PWM Inverter

AKIRA NABAE,

MEMBER, IEEE,

ISAO TAKAHASHI, MEMBER,

IEEE, AND

HIROFUMI AKAGI, MEMBER, IFEE

Abstract-A new neutral-point-clamped pulsewidth modulation

(PWM) inverter composed of main switching devices which operate as
switches for PWM and auxiliary switching devices to clamp the output
terminal potential to the neutral point potential has been developed.
This inverter output contains less harmonic content as compared with
that of a conventional type. Two inverters are compared analytically
and experimentally. In addition, a new PWM technique suitable for
an ac drive system is applied to this inverter. The neutral-pointclamped PWM inverter adopting the new PWM technique shows an
excellent drive system efficiency, including motor efficiency, and is
appropriate for a wide-range variable-speed drive system.

INTRODUCTION
UTHEN AN INVERTER is applied to an ac motor drive
*Ysystem, harmonics cause losses and pulsating torques
in the motor. From the energy saving viewpoint, it is necessary to develop a high efficiency motor drive system.
Pulsewidth modulation (PWM) techniques have been developed for inverter circuits to reduce the magnitude of the
harmonics and to allow control of the fundamental component of output voltage. Many papers have been issued on
this problem (for example, [1] , [2]), but these treat mainly
the PWM techniques themselves.
In this paper, the authors propose a new neutral-pointclamped PWM inverter (NPC-PWM inverter), which is suitable
for a high efficiency motor drive system. Its output voltage
contains less harmonics than that of a conventional inverter.
The principles of the NPC-PWM inverter, harmonic analysis
of the output voltage, experimental results, and some considerations on the ac motor drive system are described.

Fig. 1.

The NPC-PWM inverter.

ib(SI I)

'b(S'

ib (S34)

ib(' S ,

Fig. 2.

Base-drive input for NPC-PWM inverter.

51 2) are driven complementary to the main transistors (S1 ,

PRINCIPLES OF THE NPC-PWM INVERTER
S14), respectively. With such control, each output terminal
Fig. 1 shows the main circuit of the NPC-PWM inverter. potential is clamped to the neutral potential in the off-periods
In Fig. 1 (0) indicates the neutral point with respect to the of the PWM control, as shown in Fig. 3(a). Fig. 3(b) shows
dc source; (SII, S14), (S21, S24), (S31 S34) are main tran- the voltage waveform between output terminals U and V. The
sistors operating as switches for PWM; and (S1 2, S1 3), (S22, corresponding waveforms for a conventional inverter are
S23), (S32, S33) are auxiliary transistors to clamp the output shown in Fig. 4. Comparing Fig. 3 with Fig. 4, we can easily
terminal potentials to the neutral point potential, together recognize the following.
with (D1 1-D32). To this inverter, all conventional PWM
1) Output terminal potentials of the conventional PWM
techniques can be applied. However, the authors will only
inverter vary between (EdI2) and (-Edl2), but those
PWM
the
in
which
the
following,
consider one example in
of the NPC-PWM inverter vary between (+Ed12) and (0)
technique to eliminate the fifth and seventh harmonics is
or (-EdI2) and (0).
applied to the NPC-PWM inverter. Fig. 2 shows the base2) The terminal voltage waveform of the NPC-PWM inverter
drive inputs for (S 1 -S4). Auxiliary transistors (S1 3,
Paper IPCSD 81-17, approved by the Static Power Converter Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society for presentation at
the 1980 Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, Cincinnati,
OH, September 28-October 3. Manuscript released for publication May
20, 1981.
The authors are with the Faculty of Engineering, Technological
University of Nagaoka, Nagaoka 949-54, Japan.

shows less harmonic content than that of the conventional inverter.

HARMONIC ANALYSIS
Fig. 5 shows the output voltage waveform between the
output terminal and the neutral point of the NPC-PWM inverter, where the fifth and seventh harmonics are eliminated.

0093-0094/81/0900-05 18$00.75 1981 IEEE

519

NABAE et al.: PWM INVERTER

olr

v. A_

DD

to satisfy the following equations:

Vv-o

(a)

to eliminate the fifth and seventh harmonics it is necessary

4E
IT

IJLI
-

t'h)
vJ

Vw-o

710

Vu-v

Fig. 3.

sin 5CI1-sin 5a2 + sin 53 = 0

0l-0III

IIII

sin 7a1 - sin 7a2 + sin 7a3 = 0

1X
11

Il

(sin t1 -sin ai2 + sin ai3 ) -Em

Output voltage waveform of NPC-PWM inverter.

-Vuu-o

(3)

From (3), a1, 0P2, and a3 are determined for the corresponding
Em, and the maximum Em which will satisfy (3) is 1.19 E.
When a PWM technique to eliminate the fifth and seventh
harmonics is applied to the NPC-PWM inverter, the relations
between the fundamental amplitude and the eleventh and
thirteenth harmonic amplitudes have been calculated, and are
shown in Fig. 6. When the same PWM technique is applied to
a conventional inverter, the relations corresponding to Fig. 6
are shown in Fig. 7. Comparing Fig. 6 with Fig. 7, the eleventh
and thirteenth harmonics in the former are far less than
those in the latter.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

11-l 1n n n f

(a)

--*D** fL*sas

IIJLLJJIA

VwJUI WJIm
(b)

vu-

I I IIf

11I

i li

UL

EU

110

JUL

Fig. 4. Output voltage waveform of conventional inverter.

Xt

'' --'
v

The authors have carried out some experiments, driving a

34 200-V 2.2-kW 60-Hz squirrel-cage induction motor with the
NPC-PWM inverter. The PWM technique to eliminate the fifth
and seventh harmonics was adopted. Control circuits were all
digital and were simplified by means of writing the calculated
a patterns into programmable read only memory (PROM).
The output voltage between output terminals U and V was
measured by spectrum analyzer, as shown in Fig. 8. Measured
results agree well with the calculated values shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 9 shows photographs of the output voltage waveform between U and V and those of the output current waveform.
The output current waveform shows that it contains relatively
small low-order harmonics, which cause harmonic current
losses in the induction motor. Experimental results showed
approximately 93 percent inverter system efficiency and a
97 percent ac input power factor at the rated motor output.
Here the inverter system efficiency is defined by the following
expression:

1 0~~~~~~~
f-

Fig. 5.

Phase voltage (fifth and seventh harnonics eliminated).

Expanding the waveform into a Fourier series, the sine components are zero, and the nth harmonic Fourier coefficient
of the cosine components is expressed as follows:
3
4E /Ofal
3

*linv.sy

inverter output kW
(ac input kW) + (control circuit input kW)

CONSIDERATIONS OF SOME PROBLEMS

Another feature of this inverter will be discussed here.
The
imposed voltages across the main switching devices are
nO
cos
nO
cos
dO
dO,)
+
Cn-- t |
(112)-Ed, i.e., half of those in a conventional inverter. Fig. 10
shows another type of neutral-point-clamped inverter, but here
4E
the imposed voltages across the main switching devices are Ed,
=-(sin nal -sin na2+sinna3)
(1)
n7r
just the same as in the case of a conventional inverter.
While a conventional inverter is composed of six switching
where E
1/2-Ed. Expressing the fundamental component
the NPC-PWM is composed of twelve switching
devices,
as
devices. However, the output kilovoltamperes of the latter
is capable of achieving double the kilovoltamperes, comel Em cos ct,
=

520

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY

APPLICATIONS, VOL. IA-17, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1981

0-,

O.

O0I .

-z

Fundamental

-0.
a

.~ 0.:

13th

c/ ,
0.

,,V
\,vVV.

(a)

2
0.4
0.6
0.8
fundamental amplitude
(max. amplitude 1.19E )

1.0

Fig. 6. Relation between fundamental amplitude and eleventh and

thirteenth harmonic amplitudes in constant V/f control (NPCPWM inverter).

1.19E
0.8.

Fundamental

I-~~~~~~~~~It

(b)

0. 2

0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
fundamental amplitude

l.0

(max. amplitude 1.9E

Fig. 7. Relation between fundamental amplitude and eleventh and

thirteenth harmonic amplitudes in constant V/f control (conventional inverter).

pared with that of the former, by suitable design. Table I

shows a general comparison of the three inverters: the NPC
type (Fig. 1), the second NPC type (Fig. 10), and a conventional type. Table I shows that the NPC inverter is the best.

A NEW PWM TECHNIQUE

In the preceding description, only the PWM technique
for eliminating the fifth and seventh harmonics was applied
to the NPC-PWM inverter. However, in order to retain a good
efficiency in the lower speed range for a wide-range variablespeed drive system, it is necessary to eliminate higher harmonics than the fifth and seventh, corresponding to the output
frequency ranges. The authors propose a new PWM technique
to solve this problem in a relatively simple way.
To eliminate not only the fifth and seventh but also the
eleventh and thirteenth harmonics, it is necessary to solve the
following equations and determine a1 -a5 for the corre-

lc)

Fig. 8. Harmonic spectra. (a) V = 199 V, f = 60 Hz, 25 V (rms)/div,

250 Hz/div. (b) V = 143 V, f = 40 Hz, 25 V (rms)/div, 100 Hz/div.
(c) V = 108 V,f= 25 Hz, 25 V (rms)/div, 100 Hz/div.

sponding Em:
4E
-

(sin al -sin a2 + sina3 -sin a4 + sin as)=Em

sin Sra -sin 5a2 + sin 5a3 -sin 5a4 + sin 5ca5

=0

sin 7a1 -sin 7a2 + sin 7a

=0

la,-sin 1

sin 7a4 + sin 7a5

+ sin l la3-sin 1la4 + sin l la5

=0

sin 13a1 -sin 13a2 +sin 13a3 -sin 13a4 +sin 13as5

=0.

sin

la2

521

NABAE et al.: PWM INVERTER

Substituting (5) for (2), five values of ax are obtained from

(4): al, a4, a5, a8, and a9. Next, a2, a3, a6, a7, a,0, and
a1 1, corresponding to (6) are obtained from the following
relations:
7r

a2 = -al,

18

7r

a3

C+a1 ,

18

ir

18

18

a6

Tr

=- + 4

18

7T

+a9.
-+a5, a10 =- +as8 a11a 18

a7

Two unit PWM waveforms are superposed, as shown in

Fig. 11. The fundamental component el is expressed as follows:
el =el I+-e12
=Em Cos (t=

1r
_

36

36
36

cos -

0.996 Em cos (wtt--)

The seventeenth and nineteenth harmonics are expressed

as follows:
Fig. 9. Output voltage and current. (a) f = 50 Hz; upper 200 V/div,
5 ms/div; lower 20 A/div. (b) f = 25 Hz; upper 200 V/div, 10 ms/
div; lower 20 A/div.

cos17 wt+ Cos (17 cot -if)

-O1s(l

DCL

0.1734 cos (17

h18 )

Xt-177r )
19
1
18 /

cos 19 cot + cos (19 cot --if

Ed

F X
}

12

2D2

144S

= 07c(t19 \
if /
=-O.1734 cos 19 cot

32

From (8), both harmonic amplitudes are reduced to 17

s3

percent as compared with those of the unit PWM waveform.

Fig. 10. Second type of NPC-PWM inverter.

The PWM techniques using a, -a5 is able to eliminate

the harmonics lower than the thirteenth. In the same way,
it is possible, theoretically, to eliminate the harmonics lower
than the nineteenth, but practically, it is difficult to solve
these equations in seven variables (at1 -a7) accurately.
The authors propose a new PWM technique to reduce the
seventeenth and nineteenth harmonics and eliminate the
harmonics lower than the thirteenth. It is founded on the
principle that the lower order harmonics can be eliminated
by adequate phase shifting in multiple unit inverters connected
in series. The same principle will be applied to the NPC-PWM
inverter in the following. Let us consider two different fundamental waves:

(5)

e1=iEm cos cot

e2=-2 Em cos

(t

(8)

(6)

Fig. 12 shows the new PWM pattern, which is applicable to a

squirrel-cage induction motor drive system with constant V/f
control. In the output frequency range from a few hertz to
25 Hz, the harmonics lower than the thirteenth are eliminated
and the seventeenth and nineteenth harmonics are reduced.
From 25 Hz to 50 Hz, the harmonics lower than the thirteenth
are eliminated, and over 50 Hz the fifth and seventh harmonics
are eliminated. The PWM pattern shown in Fig. 12 is written
into a 2-kbyte PROM (2716).

CONCLUSION
A new neutral-point-clamped PWM inverter was developed
and investigated analytically and experimentally. The features
of three inverter types are compared, and some problems are
discussed. In addition, a new PWM technique suitable for an
ac motor drive system is introduced. The neutral-pointclamped PWM inverter adopting this new PWM technique
shows excellent drive system efficiency, including motor
efficiency, and is appropriate for a wide-range variable-speed
drive system.

522

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY

APPLICATIONS, VOL. IA-17, NO. 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER

TABLE I
GENERAL COMPARISON OF THREE KINDS OF INVERTERS

.~~~~oqe

NPC-PWM type
(Fig. 1)
Second NPC-PWM type
(Fig. 10)
Conventional PWM type

ytmOtu

Output Voltage
Harmonics

Torque

Pulsation

Drive System

Efficiency

Number of
Switching
Device

Output

less

less

higher

12

unit X 2

less

less

higher

12

unit

ordinary

ordinary

ordinary

unit

U2 06468O l

Fig. 11. Phase voltage (fifth, seventh, eleventh and thirteenth eliminated
and seventeenth and nineteenth reduced).

fundamental amplitude

( max. amplitude

Fig. 12. PWM control pattern.

1.19E )

(kVA)

1981

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NABAE et aL: PWM INVERTER

REFERENCES
[1] A. Schdnung and D. Stemmler, "Static frequency changer with
subharmonic control in conjunction with reversible variable
drives,' Brown Boveri Rev., Aug./Sept. 1964.
[2] J. B. Casteel and R. G. Hoft, "Optimum PWM waveforms of a
microprocessor controlled inverter," in Conf. Rec. IEEE 1978
Power Electronics Specialists Conf., Syracuse, NY, 78CH 1337-5
AES.

~~ ~

Akira Nabae (M'79) was born in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, on September 13, 1924. He
received the B.E. degree from Tokyo University,
> ~~Tokyo, Japan, in 1947, and the Ph.D. degree
from Waseda University, Japan.

He joined Toshiba Corporation in 1951. From

1951 to 1970 he engaged in the research and
development of rectifier and inverter application
techniques at Tsurumi Works Engineering Department. From 1970 to 1978 he was involved in
the research and development of power electronics, especially ac drive systems, at the Heavy Apparatus Engineering
Laboratory. Also, from 1972 to 1978, he was a non-occupied Lecturer of
Waseda University, Japan. Since 1978, he has been a Professor at the
Technological University of Nagaoka, Nagaoka, Japan. He is now interested in the energy conversion and control systems.
Dr. Nabae is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

Isao Takahashi (M'81) was born in Niigata

Prefecture, Japan, in 1942. He received the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
He was an Assistant Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology from 1971 to 1975 and an
Associate Professor at Utsunomiya University,
Japan, from 1975 to 1978. He is currently an
Associate Professor at the Technological University of Nagaoka, Nagaoka, Japan. His research interests are in the application of the
digital control for the energy control system such as frequency changers,
reactive power compensators, and power sources of the nuclear fusion
reactor.
Dr. Takahashi is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of
Japan.
_
8

Hirofumi Akagi (M'81) was born in Okayama

Prefecture, Japan, on August 19, 1951. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering
from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya,
Japan, in 1974 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical engineering from Tokyo Institute of
Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 1976 and 1979,

.|
li

respectively.

Since 1979, he has been an Assistant Professor

at the Technological University of Nagaoka,
Nagaoka, Japan. He is engaged in research on
power electronics, especially cycloconverter, inverter, and ac drive
systems.
Dr. Akagi is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

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