• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.653-663
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• 2017

Multilevel active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) converter combines the advantages of three-level ANPC converter and multilevel flying capacitor (FC) converter. However, multilevel ANPC converter often suffers from capacitor voltage balancing problems. In order to solve the capacitor voltage balancing problems for five-level ANPC converter, phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PS-PWM) is used, which generally provides natural voltage balancing ability. However, the natural voltage balancing ability depends on the load conditions and converter parameters. In order to eliminate voltage deviations under steady-state and dynamic conditions, the active voltage-balancing control (AVBC) methods of floating capacitors and dc-link capacitors based on PS-PWM are proposed. First, the neutral-point current is regulated to balance the neutral-point voltage by injecting zero-sequence voltage. After that, the duty cycles of the redundant switch combinations are adjusted to balance the floating-capacitor voltages by introducing moderating variables for each of the phases. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed AVBC methods is verified by experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.48 no.10
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• pp.544-554
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• 1999

Multi-level inverters are now receiving widespread interest form the industrial drives for high power variable speed applications. Especially, for the high power variable speed applications, a diode clamped multi-level inverter has been widely used. However, it has the inherent problem that the voltage of the link capacitors fluctuates. This paper describes a voltage control scheme effectively to suppress the DC-link potential fluctuation for a diode clamped four-level inverter. The current to flow from/into the each link capacitor is analyzed and the operation limit is obtained when a conventional SVPWM is used. To overcome the operation limit, a modified carrier-based SVPWM is proposed. Various simulation and experiment results are presented to verify the proposed voltage control scheme for DC-link voltage balancing.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.739-747
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• 2012

This paper applies carrier phase shifted pulse-width modulation (CPS-PWM) to transformerless modular multilevel converters (MMC) to improve the output spectrum. Because the MMC topology is characterized by the double-star connection of six legs consisting of cascaded modular chopper cells with floating capacitors, the balance control of the DC-link capacitor voltage is essential for safe operation. This paper presents a leg-balancing control strategy to achieve DC-link voltage balance under all operating conditions. This strategy based on circulating current decoupling control focused on DC-link balancing between the upper and lower legs in each phase pair by considering the six legs as three independent phase-pairs. Experiments are implemented on a 100-V 3-kVA downscaled prototype. The experimental results show that the proposed leg-balancing control is both effective and practical.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2018.07a
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• pp.316-317
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• 2018

This paper propse the DC link capacitor voltage balancing control for three level neutral point clamped converter with harmonic component injection method. The injcetion voltage consists of harmonic component and DC link capacitor voltage difference. Theoretical analysis is provided to balance the DC link voltage, and it shows that harmonic component compensates the unbalanced condition between the capacitors. Both simulations and experiments are carried out to show that the voltage unbalance have been decreased by the proposed method.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.2227-2236
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• 2017

In order to solve the neutral-point voltage fluctuation problem of three-phase three-level T-type inverters (TPTLTIs), the unbalance characteristics of capacitor voltages under different switching states and the mechanism of neutral-point voltage fluctuation are revealed. Based on the mathematical model of a TPTLTI, a feed-forward voltage balancing control strategy of DC-link capacitor voltages error is proposed. The strategy generates a DC bias voltage using a capacitor voltage loop with a proportional integral (PI) controller. The proposed strategy can suppress the neutral-point voltage fluctuation effectively and improve the quality of output currents. The correctness of the theoretical analysis is verified through simulations. An experimental prototype of a TPTLTI based on Digital Signal Processor (DSP) is built. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified through experiment. The results from simulations and experiment match very well.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1178-1188
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• 2014

This study proposes a finite-state model predictive controller to regulate the load current and balance the DC-link capacitor voltages of a four-leg neutral-point-clamped converter. The discrete-time model of the converter, DC-link, inductive filter, and load is used to predict the future behavior of the load currents and the DC-link capacitor voltages for all possible switching states. The switching state that minimizes the cost function is selected and directly applied to the converter. The cost function is defined to minimize the error between the predicted load currents and their references, as well as to balance the DC-link capacitor voltages. Moreover, the current regulation performance is improved by using a two-step prediction horizon. The feasibility of the proposed predictive control scheme for different references and loads is verified through real-time implementation on the basis of dSPACEDS1103.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2020.08a
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• pp.316-317
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• 2020

In this paper, a novel six-level inverter is proposed. Voltage regulation is applied at DC-link and flying capacitors through the implementation of phase-shifted carrier-based modulation with zero-sequence voltage injection. The performance of the proposed structure has been verified under various modulation indices, where low voltage ripple is achieved at each capacitor and total harmonic distortions (THD) of line voltage at unity modulation index is about 15.95%.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1119-1129
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• 2014

This study proposes a novel five-level three-phase hybrid-clamped converter composed of only six switches and one flying capacitor (FC) per phase. The capacitor-voltage-drift phenomenon of the converter under the classical sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) strategy is comprehensively analyzed. The average current, which flows into the FC, is a function of power factor and modulation index and does not remain at zero. Thus, a specific modulation strategy based on space vector modulation (SVM) is developed to balance the voltage of DC-link and FCs by injecting a common-mode voltage. This strategy applies the five-segment method to synthesize the voltage vector, such that switching losses are reduced while optional vector sequences are increased. The best vector sequence is then selected on the basis of the minimized cost function to suppress the divergence of the capacitor voltage. This study further proposes a startup method that charges the DC-link and FCs without any additional circuits. Simulation and experimental results verify the validity of the proposed converter, modulation strategy, and precharge method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1235-1243
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• 2015

This paper presents a modified Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation Technique (SVPWM), which solves the well-known problem of voltage imbalance in the capacitors of a single-phase multilevel inverter. The proposed solution is based on the measurement of DC voltage levels at each capacitor of the inverter DC bus. The measurements are then used to adjust the size of the active vectors within the SVPWM algorithm to keep the voltage waveform sinusoidal regardless of any voltage imbalance on the DC link capacitors. When a voltage deviation exceeds a predetermined hysteresis band, the correspondent voltage vector is restricted to restore the voltage level to an acceptable threshold. Hence, the need for external voltage regulators for the voltage capacitors is eliminated. The functionality of the proposed algorithm is successfully demonstrated through simulations and experiments on a grid tied application.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.319-328
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• 2020

The recent use of distributed power generation systems constructed with DC-DC converters has become extremely popular owing to the rising need for environment friendly energy generation power systems. In this study, a new single-phase five-level inverter for off-grid applications constructed with a multilevel DC-DC step-up converter is proposed to boost a low-level DC voltage (36 V-64 V) to a high-level DC bus (380 V) and invert and connect them with a single-phase 230 V rms AC load. Compared with other traditional multilevel inverters, the proposed five-level inverter has a reduced number of switching devices, can generate high-quality power with lower THD values, and has balanced voltage stress for DC capacitors. Moreover, the proposed topology does not require multiple DC sources. Finally, the performance of the proposed topology is presented through the simulation and experimental results of a 400 W hardware prototype.