A new three-phase five-level current-source inverter

A new type of split-control three-phase 5-level current-source inverter (CSI) is proposed in this paper. The inverter is decoupled by the neutral line of the loads. Each phase of the inverter operates separately so that multilevel PWM technique can be applied to reduce output current harmonics. The digital multicarrier phase opposition disposition (POD) PWM signal generating technique is developed. The operation principle of the three-phase 5-level CSI using the new topology is analyzed by the simulations. An experimental prototype of a three-phase 5-level CSI has been built to practise the proposition in the paper.