• Journal of international Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.197-201
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• 2013

Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter requires independent DC voltage sources to produce multi output voltage levels. When it needs to generate more levels in the output voltage wave, the number of independent DC voltage sources usually limits its extension. To solve this problem, we propose a cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter employing a front-end flyback converter for unifying input DC voltage sources. After theoretical analysis of the proposed circuit, we verify the validity of the proposed inverter using computer-aided simulations and experiments.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.316-325
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• 2013

Multilevel inverters produce a staircase output voltage from DC voltage sources. Requiring great number of semiconductor switches is main disadvantage of multilevel inverters. The multilevel inverters can be divided in two groups: symmetric and asymmetric converters. The asymmetric multilevel inverters provide a large number of output steps without increasing the number of DC voltage sources and components. In this paper, a novel topology for multilevel converters is proposed using cascaded sub-multilevel Cells. This sub-multilevel converters can produce five levels of voltage. Four algorithms for determining the DC voltage sources magnitudes have been presented. Finally, in order to verify the theoretical issues, simulation is presented.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1458-1466
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• 2019

Multilevel inverters have appeared as a successful and utilitarian solution in many power applications. The prime objective of an inverter is to keep the fundamental component of the output voltage of a multilevel inverter at a preferred value. Equally important is the need to keep the harmonic components in the output voltage within stated harmonic limits. Therefore, the basis of this research is to develop a harmonic minimization function that optimizes the switching angles of cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter. Due to benefits of the Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithm, it is applied to determine the switching angles, which are further used to generate the switching pattern for firing the H-bridges of multilevel inverter. Simulation results are compared with SPWM based firing scheme. The switching frequency for SPWM firing scheme is taken as 200 Hz since the switching losses are increased when switching frequency is high. To validate the ability of Cuckoo Search optimized firing scheme in minimization of harmonics, experimental results obtained from hardware prototype of Five Level Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter equipped with a FPGA controller are presented to verify the simulation results.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.502-509
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• 2013

It presents an efficient switching pattern, which expects a reduction of switching losses in a cascaded H-bridge PWM multilevel inverter. By the proposed switching scheme, the lower H-bridge module operates at low frequency of 60[Hz] because it assigns to transfer most load power. The upper H-bridge module operates at high frequency of PWM switching to improve THD of output voltage. The proposed switching pattern applies to cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter with PD, APOD, bipolar, and unipolar switching methods. By computer-aided simulations, we verify the validity of the proposed switching scheme. Finally, we prove that the proposed PD and APOD switching patterns are better than those of the conventional one in efficiency.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2013.07a
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• pp.128-129
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• 2013

본 논문에서는 전기로 부하에서 발생하는 무효전력 성분과 역상분 전류를 보상하기 위한 STATCOM(STATic synchronous COMpensator)을 Cascaded Multilevel Converter(CMC)로 구성하는 경우 역상분 전류 보상시에 발생하는 직류전압의 불평형을 보상하기 위한 방법을 제안하고, 이를 시뮬레이터를 통해 검증하였다.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.270-279
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• 2018

This paper elucidates a hysteresis current controller for enhancing the performance of static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) using cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter. Due to the rising power demand and growing conventional generation costs a new alternative in renewable energy source is gaining popularity and recognition. A five level single phase cascaded multilevel inverter with two separated dc sources, which is energized by photovoltaic - wind hybrid energy source. The voltages across the each dc source is balanced and standardized by the proposed hysteresis current controller. The performance of STATCOM is analyzed by connecting with grid connected system, under the steady state & dynamic state. To reduce the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) and to improve the output voltage, closed loop hysteresis current control is achieved using PLL and PI controller. The performance of the proposed system is scrutinized through various simulation results using matlab/simulink and hardware results are also verified with simulation results.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.261-270
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• 2015

In this paper, the Optimal Harmonic Stepped Waveform (OHSW) method is proposed in order to eliminate the selective harmonic orders available at the output of cascaded multilevel inverter (CMLI) fed by solar photovoltaic (SPV). This technique is used to solve the harmonic elimination equations based on stepped waveform analysis in order to obtain the optimal switching angles which in turn reduce the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). The OHSW method considers the output voltage waveform as four equal symmetries in each half cycle. In the proposed method, a solar fed fifteen level cascaded multilevel is considered where the magnitude of six numbers of harmonic orders is reduced. A programmable pulse generator is developed to carry the switching angles directly to the semiconductor switches obtained as a result of OHSW analysis. Simulations are carried out in MATLAB/Simulink in which a separate model is developed for solar photovoltaic which serves as the input for cascaded multilevel inverter. A 3kWp solar plant with multilevel inverter system is implemented in hardware to show the effectiveness of the proposed system. Based on the observation the OHSW method provides the reduced THD thereby improving power quality in renewable energy applications.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1504-1512
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• 2016

This paper presents a new single-phase asymmetrical cascaded multilevel DC-link inverter. The proposed inverter comprises two stages. The main stage of the inverter consists of multiple similar cells, each of which is a half-bridge inverter consisting of two switches and a single DC source. All cells are connected in a cascaded manner with a fixed neutral point. The DC source values are not made equal to increase the performance of the inverter. The second circuit is a folded cascaded H-bridge circuit operating at a line frequency. One of the main advantages of this proposed topology is that it is a modular type and can thus be extended to high stages without changing the configuration of the main stage circuit. Two control schemes, namely, low switching with selective harmonic elimination and sinusoidal pulse width modulation, are employed to validate the proposed topology. The detailed approach of each control scheme and switching pulses are discussed in detail. A 150W prototype of the proposed system is implemented in the laboratory to verify the validity of the proposed topology.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.1328-1336
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• 2013

Nowadays multilevel inverters are developing generally due to reduced voltage stress on power switches and low total harmonic distortion (THD) in output voltage. However, for increasing the output voltage levels the number of circuit devices are increased and it results in increasing the cost of converter. In this paper, a novel multilevel inverter is proposed. The suggested topology uses less number of power switches and related gate drive circuits to generate the same level in output voltage with comparison to traditional cascaded multilevel inverter. With the proposed topology all levels in output voltage can be realized. As an illustration, a symmetric 13-level and asymmetric 29-level proposed inverters have been simulated and implemented. The total peak inverse (PIV) and power losses of presented inverter are calculated and compared with conventional cascaded multilevel inverter. The presented analyses show that the power losses in the suggested multilevel inverter are less than the traditional inverters. Presented simulation and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and applicability of the proposed inverter to obtain the maximum number of levels with less number of switches.

• Journal of international Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.190-196
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• 2013

It presents a unification of buck-boost and flyback converter for driving a cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter with a single independent DC voltage source. Cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter is useful to make many output voltage levels for sinusoidal waveform by combining two or more H-bridge modules. However, each H-bridge module needs an independent DC voltage source to generate multi levels in an output voltage. This topological characteristic brings a demerit of increasing the number of independent DC voltage sources when it needs to increase the number of output voltage levels. To solve this problem, we propose a converter combining a buck-boost converter with a flyback converter. The proposed converter provides independent DC voltage sources at back-end two H-bridge modules. After analyzing theoretical operation of the circuit topology, the validity of the proposed approach is verified by computer-aided simulations using PSIM and experiments.