New Cascaded Multilevel Inverter Configuration with Reduced Number of Components

Abstract

This paper proposes a new multilevel module for the cascaded multilevel inverter configurations. The proposed basic module consists of $n$ number of the conventional two-level inverter connected by series-connection (called a multilevel module MLM) and one power switch with one power diode and are parallel together that generate positive and negative voltage levels. The proposed cascaded multilevel inverter analyzed in both states of symmetric and asymmetric. In order to generate all voltage levels (even and odd) at the output, three new algorithms to determine the magnitude of dc voltage sources proposed. The main advantages of proposed topology are increasing the number of voltage levels at the output with a lower number of power semiconductor switches, driver circuits, and dc voltage sources. Therefore, the proposed topology needs to smaller installation area and lower weight and reduces the total cost of the inverter. Experimental results from a laboratory-scale prototype presented to verify the performance of the proposed multilevel inverter.