Part 4

DC – AC Converters

(d) Multilevel converter

 Multi-Level Converters

• The output voltage of a conventional converter configuration (quite often called 2-level
converters) is limited by the device voltage rating.
• Power semiconductors may be series connected but this is difficult (as equal voltage
sharing among the series connected devices is challenging) and may result in inefficient
solutions.
• Multi-level converters split the DC supply voltage into a number of levels each of which
may be supported by a single power semiconductor switch.
• Multi-level converters can give better waveform quality for a given switching frequency
(better approximation of sinusoidal voltage).
• There are many multi-level converter solutions and none provide a perfect solution.

2
Multi-Level Voltage Concept

Multi-level converters produce better quality AC output voltage

3
 Diode Clamped Converter

Three-phase 3-level diode-clamped converter – also called as neutral

point clamped (NPC) converter

A
Vd B
C

E
 Diode Clamped Converter
Three-Level Diode-Clamped Converter – operation principle
1
+E
E 0
E

-1
vAN N vAN g1 -E
g2
E vAN
E

Two-level converter
0 2E

• Three output voltage levels -- +E, 0, -E

• Each switch rated at half of the total DC voltage, i.e., E
5
 Flying Capacitor Converter

Three-Level flying capacitor converter

• The Flying capacitor

inverter uses an array of
E
pre-charged capacitors
A • The inverter switches
Vd B control current flow via
E E E C different combinations in
order to achieve the
E required voltage level.

6
 Flying Capacitor Converter
Three-Level flying capacitor converter

+E

E
a
- dc
Vdcf
eout
For the waveform shown:
Vdcf = E
E eout = E - Vdcf = 0
eout = - E + Vdcf = 0

• Three output voltage levels -- +E, 0, -E

• Each switch rated at half of the DC voltage
• Same voltage waveform as 3-level diode clamped converter
 Modular Multilevel Converter (MMC)

Submodule (SM)
• Each phase has two arms, one upper arm
SM1 SM1 SM1
and one lower arm.
SM2 SM2 SM2
arm • Each arm is also connected to an arm
vSM Vc reactor.
SMN SMN SMN
• Each arm uses modular structure with
L0 L0 L0
A series connected sub-modules (SM) (also
Vd B called cell), typically rated at a few kVs.

L0 L0 L0
C • Series connection of IGBTs is avoided.

SM1 SM1 SM1

• Low switching frequency and near
sinusoidal voltage output (large number of
N SM SM2 SM2 SM2 SMs)
phase unit
SMN SMN SMN
 MMC Sub-module (SM)

iSM S2
Switching states of one SM/cell
VSM S1 D2 Vc
D1
S1 S2 VSM
1 0 0
0 1 Vc

• Each SM can produce two possible output voltage levels, 0 or Vc.

• If a converter arm has N number of SMs, the arm voltage range is from 0 to NVc.
 MMC Arm Voltage

Vdc • By selecting the number of SMs to produce Vc output at any

particular period, the total voltage formed by each arm can be
controlled.
• As each SM can only generate 0 or Vc, there will always be
DC offset in the generated arm voltage.
• The total voltage produced by the two arms in each phase
thus equals to the DC voltage.
• DC offset does not appear in the output AC line-to-line voltage