A New Single-Phase Cascade Multilevel Inverter Topology Using Four-Level Cells

A New Single-Phase Cascade Multilevel Inverter Topology Using Four-Level Cells

This paper proposes a new multilevel inverter with a fewer number of power electronic switching devices and gate drive circuits. In comparison with other classical topologies suchas cascade H-bridge and neutral-point-clamped multilevel inverters, the proposed topology can generate more numbers ofvoltage levels at the output. The proposed inverter consists of cascade connected four-level basic cell inverters and a conventional H-bridge. Less number of the switches leads to thereduction of size and weight, simple gate drive and controlstrategy, high efficiency, low power consumption and alsoincreases the total reliability of the inverter. The simulation results obtained from PSCAD/EMTDC software confirm the validation of the proposed configuration advantages and itstheoretical operation and control method