Multi Level Inverter

Dr. A. Ravi
Professor/EEE
FRANCIS XAVIER ENGINEERING COLLEGE
TIRUNELVELI- India
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MULTILEVEL INVERTERS - INTRODUCTION

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 MULTILEVEL INVERTERS -
INTRODUCTION

Drawbacks of two-level VSIs for MV Drives

 High dv/dt in the inverter output voltage – as high
10,000V/µs
as
 Motor harmonic losses

This can be solved by adding properly tuned LC filter.

It has some disadvantages

 Increased manufacturing cost

 Fundamental voltage drop
 Circulating current between the filter and DC circuit

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MULTILEVEL INVERTERS -
INTRODUCTION

Multilevel inverter output voltage: (a) two-level and (b) nine-level.

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MULTILEVEL VOLTAGE SOURCE
INVERTER

One phase leg of general n-level inverter

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MULTILEVEL VOLTAGE SOURCE
INVERTER

Three phase multi level inverter

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MULTILEVEL VOLTAGE SOURCE
INVERTER
Each capacitor
has the same voltage Em, which is given by

m level inverter need (m-1)

capacitors

Schematic of single pole of multilevel inverter by a switch

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MULTILEVEL VOLTAGE SOURCE
INVERTER

The actual realization of the switch requires

bidirectional switching devices
for each node. The topological structure of
multilevel inverter must

(1) have less switching devices as far as possible,

(2) be capable of withstanding very high input
voltage for high-power applications,
(3) have lower switching frequency for each
switching device.

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MULTILEVEL VOLTAGE SOURCE
INVERTER

Typical output voltage of a five-level multilevel inverter.

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 MULTILEVEL VOLTAGE SOURCE
INVERTER

The general structure of the multilevel converter is to synthesize a

near sinusoidal voltage from several levels of dc voltages, typically
obtained from capacitor voltage sources.

As the number of levels increases, the synthesized output waveform

has
more steps, which produce a staircase wave that approaches a
desired waveform.

Also, as more steps are added to the waveform, the harmonic

distortion of the output wave decreases, approaching zero as the
number of levels increases.

As the number of levels increases, the voltage that can be spanned

by summing multiple voltage levels also increases.

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MULTILEVEL VOLTAGE SOURCE INVERTER
The output voltage during the positive half-cycle can found from

where SFn is the switching or control function of nth node and it takes a value of 0
or 1. Generally, the capacitor terminal voltages E1, E2, call have the same value Em.

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TYPES MULTILEVEL INVERTER

🞆 Diode-clamped multilevel inverter;

🞆 Flying-capacitors multilevel inverter;
🞆 Cascade multilevel inverter.

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MULTILEVEL VOLTAGE SOURCE INVERTER

Multi-level inverters are the preferred choice in

industry for the application in High voltage and
High power application

Advantages of Multi-level inverters

 Higher voltage can be generated using the devices of

lower rating.
 Increased number of voltage levels produce better
voltage waveforms and reduced THD.
 Switching frequency can be reduced for the PWM
operation.

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MULTILEVEL CONVERTER
TOPOLOGIES

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 DIODE CLAMPED (NPC) 3-LEVEL
INVERTER

Three-phase three-level diode-clamped converter also called NPC converter

DIODE CLAMPED MULTILEVEL INVERTER

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DIODE CLAMPED MULTILEVEL INVERTER -1
PHASE
1. For an output voltage level vao = Vdc, turn on all
upper-half switches Sa1 through Sa4.

2. For an output voltage level vao = 3Vdc/4, turn on

three upper switches Sa2 through Sa4 and one lower
switch Sa1 ‘

3. For an output voltage level v ao = Vdc/2, turn on

two upper switches Sa3 through Sa4 and two lower
switches Sa1 ‘ and Sa2’

4. For an output voltage level vao = Vdc/4, turn on

one upper switch Sa4 and three lower switches Sa1
through Sa3

5. For an output voltage level vao = 0, turn on all

lower half switches S ‘a1 , through Sa4’

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DIODE CLAMPED MULTILEVEL INVERTER -1
PHASE

Diode-Clamped Voltage Levels and Their Switch States

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FEATURES OF DIODE CLAMPED MULTILEVEL INVERTER

🞆 High-voltage rating for blocking diodes:

In an m-level leg, there can be two diodes, each seeing
a blocking voltage of

where m is the number of levels;

k goes from 1 to 1m - 22;
Vdc is the total dc-link voltage.

the number of diodes required for each phase is

ND as (m-1)(m-2)
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FEATURES OF DIODE CLAMPED MULTILEVEL INVERTER

🞆 High-voltage rating for blocking diodes:

🞆 Capacitor voltage unbalance:

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 Major advantages of the diode-clamped inverter

• When the number of levels is high enough, the

harmonic 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.

 Major Disadvantages of the diode-clamped inverter

• Excessive clamping diodes are required when

the number of levels is high.

• It is difficult to control the real power flow of the

individual converter in multi converter systems.
DIODE CLAMPED (NPC) 4-LEVEL AND 5- LEVEL
INVERTERS

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DIODE CLAMPED (NPC) 4-LEVEL AND 5-
level Inverters
SWITCH STATUS
FOUR-LEVEL INVERTER VAN
S1 S2 S3 S1 ’ S2 ’ S 3’

1 1 1 0 0 0 3E
0 1 1 1 0 0 2E
0 0 1 1 1 0 E
0 0 0 1 1 1 0
FIVE-LEVEL INVERTER
S1 S2 S3 S4 S1 ’ S2 ’ S 3’ S4’ VAN

1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 4E
0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 3E
0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 2E
0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 E
0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0
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 DIODE CLAMPED (NPC) MULTILEVEL
INVERTERS

Component Count of Diode-Clamped Multilevel Inverters

Voltage Level Active Switches Clamping Diodesa DC Capacitors
m 6(m-1) 3(m-1)(m-2) (m-1)

3 12 6 2
4 18 18 3
5 24 36 4
6 30 60 5
7 36 90 6
a All diodes and active switches have the same voltage rating.

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 DIODE CLAMPED (NPC) MULTILEVEL
INVERTERS
Disadvantages
 Uneven loss distribution in the devices
In a fundamental cycle, the conduction period of the
inner devices is more than the outer devices. This
causes unequal losses in devices in a leg.
 The fluctuation of the dc bus
midpoint voltage
 Additional clamping diodes.
 Complicated PWM switching pattern design

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FLYING CAPACITOR 3-LEVEL
INVERTER

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INVERTER

Sa1 Sa2 Sa3 Sa4 Pole voltage, VaO

1 1 0 0 Vdc/2
1 0 1 0 0
0 1 0 1 0
0 0 1 1 -Vdc/2

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FLYING CAPACITOR 5-LEVEL
INVERTER

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FLYING CAPACITOR 5-LEVEL
INVERTER
Switching State Pole voltage,
S1 S2 S3 S4 VAN

1 1 1 1 4E
1 1 1 0
0 1 1 1
3E
1 0 1 1
1 1 0 1
1 1 0 0
0 0 1 1
1 0 0 1
2E
0 1 1 0
1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
E
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 0
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FLYING CAPACITOR MULTILEVEL
INVERTERS

Component Count of Flying Capacitor Multilevel Inverters

Voltage Level Active Switches DC Capacitors

m 6(m-1) Clamping Diodes m2

(m  1)  3 *
(  k)
k1

3 12
4 18
5 24
6 30
7 36
0 5
0 12
0 22
0 35
0 51
FEATURES OF FLYING-CAPACITORS INVERTER

Large number of capacitors:

Balancing capacitor voltages:

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THE MAJOR ADVANTAGES OF THE FLYING-CAPACITORS
INVERTER CAN BE SUMMARIZED AS FOLLOWS

🞆 Large amounts of storage capacitors can provide capabilities

during power outages.
🞆 These inverters provide switch combination redundancy for
balancing different voltage levels.
🞆 Like the diode-clamp inverter with more levels, the harmonic
content is low enough to avoid the need for filters.
🞆 Both real and reactive power flow can be controlled.

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THE MAJOR DISADVANTAGES OF THE FLYING-CAPACITORS
INVERTER CAN BE SUMMARIZED AS FOLLOWS:

🞆 An excessive number of storage capacitors is required when

the number of levels is high. High-level inverters are more
difficult to package with the bulky power capacitors and are
more expensive too.

🞆 The inverter control can be very complicated, and the

switching frequency and switching losses are high for real
power transmission.

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 MULTILEVEL (3-LEVEL) CASCADED
H- BRIDGE INVERTERS - WITH EQUAL
VOLTAGES

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 MULTILEVEL (3-LEVEL) CASCADED H-
BRIDGE INVERTERS - WITH EQUAL
VOLTAGES

Switching State Pole voltage,

S1A S2A S3A S4A VAN

1 0 0 1 E
1 0 1 0
0
0 1 0 1
0 1 1 0 -E

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MULTILEVEL (5-LEVEL) CASCADED H-BRIDGE
INVERTERS - WITH EQUAL VOLTAGES
MULTILEVEL (5-LEVEL) CASCADED H-BRIDGE
INVERTERS - WITH EQUAL VOLTAGES
Switching State Pole voltage,
S11 S31 S12 S32 VH1 VH2 VAN

1 0 1 0 E E 2E
1 0 1 1 E 0
1 0 0 0 E 0
E
1 1 1 0 0 E
0 0 1 0 0 E
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 1 0 0
1 1 1 1 0 0
0
1 1 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 1 E -E
0 1 1 0 -E E
0 1 1 1 -E 0
0 1 0 0 -E 0
-E
1 1 0 1 0 -E
0 0 0 1 0 -E
0 1 0 1
PEGCRES -E -E -2E
2015
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 MULTILEVEL CASCADED H-BRIDGE
INVERTERS – WITH EQUAL VOLTAGES
The number of voltage levels in a CHB inverter can
be found from
m = (2H + 1)
where H is the number of H-bridge cells per phase leg.
The voltage level m is always an odd number for the CHB
inverter while in other multilevel topologies such as
diode-clamped inverters, it can be either an even or odd
number.
The total number of active switches (IGBTs) used in
the CHB inverters can be calculated by
Nsw = 6(m – 1)

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MULTILEVEL CASCADED H-BRIDGE
INVERTERS (7 AND 9-LEVEL) –
PER PHASE DIAGRAM

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MULTILEVEL CASCADED H-BRIDGE
INVERTERS - WITH UNEQUAL
VOLTAGES

Per phase diagram

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MULTILEVEL CASCADED H-BRIDGE INVERTERS
- WITH UNEQUAL VOLTAGES
Voltage Level and Switching State of the Two-Cell Seven-Level CHB
Inverter with Unequal dc Voltages

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 CASCADED H-BRIDGE MULTILEVEL INVERTERS

Component Count of Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverters

Voltage Level Active Switches

m 6(m-1) Clamping Diodes DC Sources

3 12 0 3
5 24 0 6
7 36 0 9
9 48 0 12

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FEATURES OF CASCADED INVERTER

🞆 For real power conversions from ac to dc and then dc to ac,

the cascaded inverters need separate dc sources. The structure
of separate dc sources is well suited for various renewable
energy sources such as fuel cell, photovoltaic, and biomass.

🞆 Connecting dc sources between two converters in a back-to-

back fashion is not possible because a short circuit can be
introduced when two back-to-back converters are not
switching synchronously.

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The major advantages of the cascaded inverter
can be summarized as follows:

• Compared with the diode-clamped and flying-

capacitors inverters, it requires the least number
of components to achieve the same number of
voltage levels.
• Optimized circuit layout and packaging are
possible because each level has the same
structure and there are no extra clamping diodes
or voltage-balancing capacitors.
• Soft-switching techniques can be used to
reduce switching losses and device stresses. 45
The major disadvantage of the
cascaded inverter is as follows:

• It needs separate dc sources for

real power conversions, thereby
limiting its applications.

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 KEY FEATURES OF A MULTILEVEL STRUCTURE

🞆 The output voltage and power increase with number of levels.

Adding a voltage level involves adding a main switching device
to each phase.
🞆 The harmonic content decreases as the number of levels increases
and filtering requirements are reduced.
🞆 With additional voltage levels, the voltage waveform has more
free-switching angles, which can be preselected for harmonic
elimination.
🞆 In the absence of any PWM techniques, the switching losses can
be avoided.
🞆 Increasing output voltage and power does not require an increase
in rating of individual device.
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COMPARISONS OF COMPONENT REQUIREMENTS
PER LEG OF THREE MULTILEVEL CONVERTERS

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 REFERENCES
 B. Wu, High-Power Converters and AC Drives, Wiley-IEEE
Press, Piscataway, NJ, 2006.
 J. Rodriguez, J. S. Lai, and F. Z. Peng, Multilevel inverters: A
survey of topologies, controls, and applications, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 49(4), 724–738, August
2002.
 N. Mohan, T. M. Undeland, and W. P. Robbins,
Electronics: Power Converters, Applications, and
Wiley, Hoboken, Design,
NJ, October3 10,edn,
2002.
 Rodriguez, S. Bernet, B. Wu, J. O. Pontt, and S. Kouro,
Multilevel voltage-source-converter topologies for industrial
medium-voltage drives, IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, 54(6), 2930–2945, December 2007.

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THANK
YOU 50