A comparison of seven-level inverter topologies for multilevel DC-AC power conversion

Multilevel inverter (MLI) performance is high compared to the conventional two level inverters since they offer high power capability, associated with lower output harmonics and lower commutation losses. However the main drawback of MLI is their increased number of power devices, passive components, complex pulse width modulation control and balancing of capacitor voltages. In this paper the most popular topologies like diode-clamped inverter (neutral-point clamped), cascaded multicell with separate dc sources, and transistor clamped H-Bridge inverter are discussed. A simplified multilevel inverter (Switched Transistor MLI) is proposed and its performance is compared with the above said topologies. Component count and the % total harmonic distortion (THD) of the output voltage are considered as the indexes of the comparative performance. The operating principle of each topology, the most relevant modulation method of all the topologies and the detailed analysis of the proposed Switched Transistor MLI is included. The selection of topology and control techniques depends and varies according to power demands of inverter. Simulation study of all the topologies considered is carried out on MATLAB/SIMULINK platform and the performance of the proposed topology is verified experimentally by the tests performed on a scaled laboratory prototype.