19

The NPC topology is somewhat similar to the 2-level VSI, as can be seen from the figure
2-11, but has double the switches and two additional power diodes per leg. The additional
level does however provide major benefits. Firstly, the output voltage waveform is much
more sinusoidal than in case of 2-level. Secondly, with the same voltage rated switches, the
NPC topology can produce higher output voltage than the 2-level, or the same output
voltage can be achieved with lower voltage rated devices.

In figure 2-11, the switching states of one leg of the NPC inverter is shown. The produced
voltages are +UDC/2, 0 and -UDC/2. The line-to-line voltage between legs can therefore
be +UDC, +UDC/2, 0, -UDC/2, -UDC, creating far more sinusoidal waveform than in 2-
level inverter. The switching frequency can also be reduced to produce same current THD
value as 2-level inverter, which would also reduce switching power losses. This might also
be necessary, because more switches mean more heat dissipation in the module. In
addition, the extra switches increase on state losses and require gate drivers, which raises
the auxiliary power consumption. (Semikron, 2015 pp. 2-3)

Figure 2-11 Topology of NPC leg with switching states and corresponding output voltages (Rodriguez, et al., 2009 p.
1789)

The control is also quite similar to the 2-level VSI, but slightly more complicated. This is
because the number of available switch combinations are increased to 27, which can
produce 18 different active and three zero vectors (Pyrhönen, et al., 2016 p. 171) . The