A Reduced Switch Count 7-Level Boost ANPC Inverter Topology for Photovoltaic Application

Abstract

A Hybrid active-neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) multilevel inverter topology with voltage boosting feature is most suitable for renewable energy applications, which needs lower dc-link voltage for the same output. The boosted ANPC with minimum number of switches is desirable to achieve higher efficiency. A new seven-level boosted ANPC (7L-BANPC) topology with minimum number of switches is proposed in this paper. It uses 8(eight) number of switches and one self-voltage balancing floating capacitor. The proposed topology is capable to produce 1.5 times voltage boosting. The efficiency is improved significantly due to minimum number of conducting switches. The unipolar level-shifted sine pulse width modulation is considered for controlling the proposed inverter. The theoretical analysis of the proposed topology is verified through simulation followed by experiments. A good agreement between the theoretical analysis and experimental results is realized. The proposed topology performed satisfactorily under the steady state as well as dynamic loading and operating conditions. This is a promising topology for photovoltaic application.