• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• 제12권6호
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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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• 제3권4호
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• pp.205-214
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• 2003

This paper proposes a simple control strategy based on the discontinuous PWM (DPWM) to balance the DC-link voltage of three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter at low modulation index. It introduces new DPWM methods in multi-level inverter and one of them is used for balancing the DC-link voltage. The current flowing in the neutral point of the DC-link causes the fluctuation of the DC-link voltage of the NPC inverter. The proposed DPWM method changes the path and duration time of the neutral point current, which makes the overall fluctuation of the DC-link voltage zero during a sampling time of the reference voltage vector. Therefore, by using the proposed strategy, the voltage of the DC-link can be balanced fairly well and the voltage ripple of the DC-link is also reduced significantly. Moreover, comparing with conventional methods which have to perform the complicated calculation, the proposed strategy is very simple. The validity of the proposed DPWM method is verified by the experiment.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 1998년도 연구회 합동 학술발표회 논문집
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• pp.33-37
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• 1998

For the high power variable speed applications, the DCTLI(diode clamped three-level inverter) have been widely used. This paper describes the analysis of the neutral point current of the DCTLI and the improved space vector-based PWM strategy considering the switching frequency of power devices, that minimizes the fluctuation of the neutral point current in spite of high modulation index region and low power factor. It contributes to decrease the capacitance of dc-link capacitor bank and to increase the neutral point voltage controllable region. Especially, even if second (or even) order harmonic is induced in load current (at this situation, is was investigated that the general control method can not suppress the neutral point voltage variation), this PWM can provide effective control method to suppress the neutral point voltage variation. Various simulation results by means of Matlab/Simulation are presented to verify the proposed PWM.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.72-77
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• 2015

Three-level diode clamped multilevel inverter, generally known as neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter, has an inherent problem causing neutral point (NP) potential variation. Until now, the NP potential problem of variation has been investigated and lots of solutions have also been proposed. This paper presents a neutral point voltage control technology using the anti-windup PI controller and offset technology of PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to control the variation of NPC 3-phase three-level inverter neutral point voltage. And the proposed algorithm is tested and verified using a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) in order to synchronize the phase voltage from the line voltage of grid. It significantly improves the voltage balancing under a solar fluctuation conditions of the inverter. Experimental results show the good performance and effectiveness of the proposed method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.344-356
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• 2012

In recent years, multilevel technology has become an effective and practical solution in the field of moderate and high voltage applications. This paper discusses an APF with a three-level NPC inverter. Obviously, the application of such converter to APFs is hindered by the problem of the voltage unbalance of DC capacitors, which leads to system instability. This paper comprehensively analyzes the theoretical limitations of the neutral-point voltage balancing problem for tracking different harmonic currents utilizing current switching functions from the space vector PWM (SVPWM) point of view. The fluctuation of the neutral point caused by the load currents of certain order harmonic frequency is reported and quantified. Furthermore, this paper presents a close-loop digital control algorithm of the DC voltage for this APF. A PI controller regulates the DC voltage in the outer-loop controller. In the current-loop controller, this paper proposes a simple neutral-point voltage control method. The neutral-point voltage imbalance is restrained by selecting small vectors that will move the neutral-point voltage in the direction opposite the direction of the unbalance. The experiment results illustrate that the performance of the proposed approach is satisfactory.

• 전력전자학회논문지
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• 제19권5호
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• pp.407-414
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• 2014

This study proposes a control design for the grid output current and for reducing the neutral-point voltage oscillation through the small-signal modeling of the three-phase grid connected with a three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter with LCL filter. The three-level NPC inverter presents an inherent problem: the neutral-point voltage fluctuation caused by the neutral-point current flowing in or out from the neutral point. The small signal modeling consists of averaging, dq0 transformation, perturbing, and linearizing steps performed on a three-phase grid connected to a three-level NPC inverter with LCL filter. The proposed method controls both the grid output and neutral-point currents at every switching period and reduces the neutral-point voltage oscillation. The validity of the proposed method is verified through simulation and experiment.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2003년도 춘계전력전자학술대회 논문집(2)
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• pp.560-564
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• 2003

This paper proposes a simple control strategy based on the discontinuous PWM(DPWM) to balance the DC-link voltage of three-level Neutral-Point-Clamped(WPC) inverters at low modulation index. New DPWM methods in multi-level inverter are also introduced. The proposed DPWM method changes the path and duration to flow the neutral point current out of or into neutral point of the DC-link and it makes the overall fluctuation of the DC-link voltage zero during a sampling time of reference voltage vector. Therefore, the voltage of the DC-link can be balanced fairly well and also the voltage ripple of the DC-link is reduced significantly. Moreover, comparing with conventional methods, the proposed strategy is very simple. The validity of the proposed DPWM method is verified by experiment

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제19권1호
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• pp.119-133
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• 2019

Although the dual modulation wave method can solve the low-frequency neutral point potential (NPP) fluctuation problem for three-level neutral point clamped converters, it also increases the switching frequency and limits the zero-sequence voltage. That makes it harmful when dealing with the NPP drift problem if the converter suffers from a long dead time or asymmetric loads. By introducing two degrees of freedom (2-DOF), an NPP control based on a search optimization method can demonstrate its ability to cope with the above mentioned two types of NPP problems. However, the amount of calculations for obtaining an optimal 2-DOF is so large that the method cannot be applied to certain industrial applications with an inexpensive digital signal processor. In this paper, a novel optimal 2-DOF-based NPP control is proposed. The relationships between the NPP and the 2-DOF are analyzed and a method for directly determining the optimal 2-DOF is also discussed. Using a direct calculation method, the amount of calculations is significantly reduced. In addition, the proposed method is able to maintain the strongest control ability for the two types of NPP problems. Finally, some experimental results are given to confirm the validity and feasibility of the proposed method.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• 제19권3호
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• pp.702-713
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• 2019

Multilevel Inverters (MLIs) are widely used in medium voltage applications due to their various advantages. In addition, there are numerous types of MLIs for such applications. However, the diode-less 3-level (3L) T-type Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) MLI is the most advantageous due to its low conduction losses and high potential efficiency. The power circuit of a 3L T-type NPC is derived by the conventional two level inverter by a slight modification. In order to explore the MLI performance for various Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) schemes, this paper examines the operation of a 3L (five level line to line) T-type NPC MLI for various types of Multi-Carriers Pulse Width Modulation (MCPWM) schemes. These PWM schemes are compared in terms of their voltage profile, total harmonic distortion (THD) and conduction losses. In addition, a 3L T-type NPC MLI is also compared with the conventional NPC in terms of number of switches, clamping diodes, main diodes and capacitors. Moreover, the capacitor-balancing problem is also investigated using the Neutral Point Fluctuation (NPF) method with all of the MCPWM schemes. A 1kW 3L T-type NPC MLI is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink and implemented experimentally and its performance is tested with a 1HP induction motor. The results indicate that the 3L T-type NPC MLI has better performance than conventional NPC MLIs.

• 전기학회논문지
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• 제67권2호
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• pp.233-238
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• 2018

This paper proposes a seamless MPPT operation mode transfer method of photovoltaic system. The photovoltaic system consists of a DC-DC boost converter, a DC-Link, and a 3-level neutral point clamp (NPC) type inverter. The PV voltage fluctuates due to the output characteristics of the solar pane1 depending on the irradiation amount and the temperature. The photovoltaic system requires seamless MPPT mode transfer method that the discontinuity does not occur in order to supply the stable power to system without affecting the fluctuation of the PV voltage. MPPT operation is divided into two modes by the voltage reference. Under the condition that the PV voltage is below 650V, the DC-DC boost converter performs MPPT through duty control based on perturb & observe (P&O) method, and the inverter conducts DC-link voltage and grid current controls in synchronous reference frame. On the other hand, when the PV voltage exceeds above 650V, inverter performs MPPT in accordance with the variation of DC-link voltage control while the converter stops operating. Two MPPT operation modes is smoothly transferred through the proposed method that DC-link voltage or grid current commands are appropriately adjusted from the certain criteria. The feasibility of the MPPT operation mode transfer method is verified using a 10kW solar photovoltaic system, experimental results have good performances that the fluctuation of PV current is reduced to 100%.