Optimal design of a cascaded rectangular‐type and circle‐type multilevel inverters with a new switching technique

Abstract

Multilevel inverters (MLIs) are extensively used in industrial and renewable energy applications. They are a promising solution for the effective transformation of dc to ac. Researchers are developing auspicious topologies to mitigate the use of an output filter, which reduces cost and complexity. Hence, it is necessary to develop a topology that is capable of increasing output voltage levels with an optimum number of power electronic components. However, in developed topologies, a large number of switches, gate driver circuits, and dc sources are used. To solve this problem, a new MLI structure is introduced. The proposed structure is cascaded to form cascaded rectangular-type and circle-type topologies capable of engendering maximum output voltage levels and incorporating an optimum number of switches, gate driver circuits, and dc-sources. Moreover, conventional switching techniques have become more complex, while generating a staircase output contains a large number of levels. Therefore, this study proposes a novel switching technique that is easy to implement in MLIs with large output voltage levels. To show the competency of the proposed topology, a comprehensive comparison is performed with various structures. At the end of this study, validation of the proposed switching technique and topology is verified by simulations and experimentations.