Simulation of Three-Phase Cascaded H-Bridge

Multilevel Inverter with THIPWM

Muhamad Faizal Yaakub1, Syahrul Hisham Faridah Hanim Mohd Noh2, Noor Azida Azlan6
Mohamad3, Suziana Ahmad4, Aiman Zakwan Jidin5, 2
Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
1,3,4,5
Faculty of Engineering Technology 2
Universiti Tun Hussien Onn Malaysia, MALAYSIA
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, MALAYSIA 6
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
1
muhamadfaizal@utem.edu.my Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, MALAYSIA
2
hanim@uthm.edu.my

Abstract— This paper presents the simulation of a Three Flying Capacitor (FC) structure [3]. The topology proposed a
Phase Five Level Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverter. Third concept with a uses of separate dc source connected for each
Harmonics Injection Pulse Width Modulation (THIPWM) H-bridge to generate an AC voltage waveform. The final AC
technique was employed through s-function approach in output waveform is produced by cascading the individual H-
SIMULINK environment to minimize the complexity of circuit
design. The advantages of THIPWM are revealed in term of
bridge output waveform. Fig. 1 illustrates an m-level
voltage and current THD reduction compared to Sinusoidal cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter. Three different output
Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) in three phase system. waveforms will be generated for each inverter level with an
Simulation results reveal that voltage and current THD of appropriate control scheme for the switches: +Vdc, 0 and -Vdc.
THIPWM improved as much as 36% and 28% respectively With S1 and S4 turned on, +Vdc will be produced, while –Vdc
compared to SPWM’s. can be realize with by switched on S2 and S3. The 0 output
voltage will be generated by switching on all S1, S2, S3 and S4
Keywords—THIPWM; Cascased H-Bridge; Multilevel switches. The sum of different individual h-bridge inverter
Inverter; Total Harmonic Distortion; s-function; rms.
outputs connected in series synthesized the final ac output
I. INTRODUCTION voltage of the multilevel inverter. An equation of m=2s+1
determine the number of voltage levels m in cascaded H-
In the new millennium era of technology, modern bridge multilevel inverters where s is the number of
industrial devices are mostly based on electronic devices that
independent dc source connected to the individual H-bridge
are very sensitive to harmonics. The needs for a free-
harmonics and high rating power source is extremely multilevel inverter. For instance, an 11 level cascaded h-
increased in the past few years to meet the requirement from bridge multilevel inverter with independent dc source is
the industries [1]. An inverter which converts DC power to illustrated in Fig. 2. The final output for a single phase van is a
AC power is one of the power electronic devices that have sum of va1, va2, va3, va4 and va5.
been in the researchers’ radar for further improvement to
generate a clean power source especially in renewable energy
area. An inverter can be broadly classified into single level
inverter and multilevel inverter. A multilevel inverter as
compared to a single level inverter has advantages like
minimum harmonics distortion and higher power output [2].
An implementation of cascaded h-bridge topology and a
sinusoidal pulse-width modulation, synthesize a higher quality
output power especially with multilevel configuration. This
paper presents the simulation of three phase five level
cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter with an introduction of
third harmonic element in its switching modulation technique.
The overall results compared with normal pulse width
modulation will be discussed further in the following section.
II. CASCADED H-BRIDGE MULTILEVEL INVERTER
As the name suggest, a cascaded H-bridge multilevel
inverter is constructed by a series of h-bridge inverter cell in Fig. 1. m-level Single phase Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverter
cascade configuration. Basically, a three-phase inverter has a
same structure as single H-bridge inverter which use Pulse The advantages of cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter are
Width Modulation (PWM). This type of topology is relatively proven as it has been adopted in several applications across
a new configuration after the Natural Point Clamp (NPC) and an engineering field. The modularized circuit layout due to

484

978-1-5090-2547-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

the same structure for each bridge allows the scalable
structure of the inverter itself. This type of topology also
required less number of components for its construction
compare to NPC and FC as no extra clamping diode and
voltage balancing capacitors are required. Furthermore, in-
term of safety, potential to have an electric shock is lessen
due the implementation of separate dc source [4][7].
Nevertheless, there is still a drawback coming from this kind
of inverter topology as it only restricted to certain
applications wherever the independent dc source is applicable
and available [6].
Fig. 2. Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverter Generalize Output
Waveform
III. THIRD HARMONIC INJECTION PULSE
WIDTH MODULATION
An injection of triplen harmonic signal to a sinusoidal
reference signal yields another type of PWM modulation
known as Third Harmonic Injection Pulse Width Modulation
(THIPWM). THIPWM is preferred in three phase inverter
application as the third harmonic will disappear in the three
phase system. Basically THIPWM is better in utilization of
DC source [3][4]. Amazingly, THIPWM modulation
technique provides tremendous advantage compared to normal
sinusoidal PWM type, which gives 15% more extension in
linear modulation range compared to normal sinusoidal PWM
type. Therefore, THIPWM is considered as excellent as Space
Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) but offers direct
and simplicity in the implementation compared to SVPWM
[9]. High frequency switching THIPWM makes it suitable for
harmonic distortion elimination [4][8].
As previously mentioned, the generation of THIPWM is
by injecting the third harmonic component to the 50 Hz
reference sinusoidal signal as given in (1).
ܸ௥௔ ൌ ͳǤͳͷ‫ ݐ߱݊݅ݏ‬൅ ͲǤͳͻ‫ݐ߱͵݊݅ݏ‬ሺͳሻ
ʹ illustrates the THIPWM generation where the third harmonic
ܸ௥௕ ൌ ͳǤͳͷ‫ ݊݅ݏ‬൬߱‫ ݐ‬െ ߨ൰
͵ triangular signals as a carrier signal. As a result, a THIPWM
൅ ͲǤͳͻ‫ݐ߱͵݊݅ݏ‬
Ͷ
ܸ௥௖ ൌ ͳǤͳͷ‫ ݊݅ݏ‬൬߱‫ ݐ‬െ ߨ൰
͵
൅ ͲǤͳͻ‫ݐ߱͵݊݅ݏ‬
An adoption of s-function approach in Simulink to
generates THIPWM eliminates complexity of circuit design in
Simulink workspace by means of coding-based control. The s-
function block in Fig.3 consist of an algorithm to generates
waveform shown in Fig. 4. Further, with a similar logical as in
(2) and (3), switching pulses are generated.
ܸௗ
‫ݒ‬௥ ൐  ‫ݒ‬௖  ܵଵଵ ݅‫݊݋ݏ‬ǡ ܸ௢௨௧ ൌ  ሺʹሻ
ʹ
and
ܸௗ
‫ݒ‬௥ ൏  ‫ݒ‬௖ ܵଵଶ ݅‫݊݋ݏ‬ǡ ܸ௢௨௧ ൌ  െ ሺ͵ሻ
ʹ
Fig. 3. S-Function Block
Fig. 4. Sinusoidal with third harmonic component and level shifted
carrier waveform
. Fig. 5 shows the algorithm flow chart of switching pulse
generation via s-function approach
IV. SIMULATION RESULT
The SIMULINK simulation result is provided in order to
verify the tremendous advantages of THIPWM in three phase
system compared to the usual SPWM. The proposed Cascaded
H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter was designed with RDSon = 0.14
Ohm to get as close as possible FCP22N60N MOSFET
behavior and supplied with 120V DC for each cell. Fig. 6
waveform signal acting as reference while the shifted level
modulation switching pulses are generated as illustrated in
485
Fig. 7. Similarly, Fig. 8 illustrates the pure SPWM generation
and its corresponding switching pulses in Fig. 9.

START

Reference Signal = Sinusoidal +

3rd Harmonic Component.
Carrier Signal = Triangular
Level shifted.
Fig. 8. Sinusoidal PWM Waveform Generation

Reference-carriers computation

Computation
decision

Switching level = 1
OR Fig. 9. Switching Pulse of SPWM
Switching level = 0

The three phase multilevel inverter parameter that been

used to obtain the results are shown in Table 1.
STOP
TABLE I. THREE-PHASE CHB MULTILEVEL INVERTER

Fig. 5. Flow of Switching Pulse Generation Parameter Value Unit

RDSon (Mosfets) 0.14 Ohm
DC input voltage 120 V
L 3m H
C 0.0001 F
Switching Frequency 2000 Hz

Fig. 10 shows the unfiltered phase voltage Va of the

multilevel inverter associated with it corresponds harmonic
spectrum by THIPWM switching method implementation.
After the implementation of lowpass filter to the output of the
cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter, Fig. 11 and Fig. 12
shows the phase current and phase voltage together with their
corresponds harmonic spectrum, respectively. The simulation
Fig. 6. THIPWM Waveform Generation
revealed that the THD is 1.06% for the current and 1.10% for
the voltage. Obviously this is better compared to the usual
Sinusoidal PWM which yields 1.48% for the current and
1.73% for the voltage THD. Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 present the
phase current and phase voltage of the SPWM CHB-MLI and
its harmonic spectrum.

Fig. 7. Switching Pulse of THIPWM

486
 3KDVH9ROWDJH9D
3KDVH&XUUHQW 63:0
200
2

150
1.5

100
1

50
0.5
Va (V)

Ia (A)
0

-50 -0.5

-100 -1

-150 -1.5

-2
-200

0.05 0.055 0.06 0.065 0.07 0.075 0.08 0.085

0.05 0.055 0.06 0.065 0.07 0.075 0.08 0.085 Time (s)
Time (s)

(a)
)XQGDPHQWDO +]  7+' 
1

0.9
)XQGDPHQWDO +]  7+' 
18 0.8

Mag (% of Fundamental)
16 0.7

0.6
14
0.5
Mag (% of Fundamental)

12
0.4

10
0.3

8 0.2

6 0.1

0
4 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
Frequency (Hz)
2

Fig. 13. Phase Current of SPWM CHB-MLI

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
Frequency (Hz)

(b)
Fig. 10. (a) Unfiltered Phase Voltage, Va (b) Harmonic Spectrum of Va
3KDVH9ROWDJH9D 63:0

200

150

100

3KDVH&XUUHQW 50

2.5

Va (V)
0

2
-50

1.5
-100

-150
0.5

-200
Ia (A)

0.05 0.055 0.06 0.065 0.07 0.075 0.08 0.085

-0.5 Time (s)

-1

-1.5

-2

-2.5

0.05 0.055 0.06 0.065 0.07 0.075 0.08 0.085

Time (s)

)XQGDPHQWDO +]  7+' 

1.2

)XQGDPHQWDO +]  7+' 

Mag (% of Fundamental)

0.8
0.7

0.6
0.6
Mag (% of Fundamental)

0.5 0.4

0.4
0.2

0.3
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
Frequency (Hz)
0.2

0.1

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
Fig. 14. Phase Voltage of SPWM CHB-MLI
Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 11. Phase Current of THIPWM CHB-MLI Further, the analysis looked into the differences of THD
result between two modulation techniques by changing the
modulation index. Table II presents the THD comparison of
250
3KDVH9ROWDJH9D 7+,3:0
THIPWM and SPWM with different modulation index
200

150 values.
100

50
Va (V)

-50
TABLE II. COMPARISON OF VOLTAGE AND CURRENT THD BETWEEN
THIPWM AND SPWM
-100

-150

-200

-250

0.05 0.055 0.06 0.065 0.07

Time (s)
0.075 0.08 0.085

Mod Voltage Current

Index THIPWM SPWM THIPWM SPWM
)XQGDPHQWDO +]  7+' 

0.7
1 1.10% 1.73% 1.06% 1.48%
0.9 1.93% 2.11% 1.82% 1.89%
0.6
Mag (% of Fundamental)

0.5

0.8 3.01% 3.32% 2.86% 2.97%

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
Frequency (Hz)
3000 3500 4000 4500 5000
From TABLE II, it can be seen clearly that THIPWM
THIPWM Phase Voltage Va

provides a better THD compared to SPWM modulation

Fig. 12. Phase Voltage of THIPWM CHB-MLI technique. The differences are graphically illustrated in Fig.
15 and Fig. 16 below.

487

remarkable comments, which helped to improve this paper.
Special thanks to University Teknikal Malaysia Melaka for
their technical support and Ministry of Higher Education for
financial support via FRGS/1/2015/TK04/FTK/03/F00285.
Fig. 15. Voltage THD Comparison
Fig. 16. Current THD Comparison
V. CONCLUSION
5 levels Cascaded H-bridge Third Harmonic Injection
PWM multilevel inverter has been developed and simulated
in SIMULINK environment. With the similar simulation
parameter, SPWM modulation was also been simulated as a
comparison with THIPWM. The developed multilevel
inverter’s performance is satisfactory in term of THD values.
From the simulation, it shows that CHB-MLI with THIPWM
modulation technique is better compared to SPWM technique
where there is an improvement up to 36% and 28% for
voltage and current THD, respectively. S-function approach
has been used to minimize the complexity of the simulation
circuit design. Thus, further work expansion especially
involving hardware experiment will be easier with this
approach via xPC-Target module and DSP development
board.
488
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thanks to all panels for their
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