Stacked Multicell Converter (SMC): Topology and Control

Abstract

A new topology of multilevel converter is presented in this paper. This new topology called SMC (Stacked Multicell Converter) is represented on Fig. 1 and allow to increase input voltage level compared with the imbricated cells converter, while decreasing the stored energy in the converter. The topology consists of a hybrid association of commutation cell making possible to share the voltage constraint on several switches, and also to improve the output waveforms of the converter in terms of number of levels and switching frequency. Following the introduction, we make a presentation of the topology and we will explain in detail how it works. We will give in the third part some explanation about the control of the SMC converter. Before some conclusions about this work, some simulations and experimental results obtain on a 50 kVA experimental set-up will be presented.