Active neutral point clamped converter for equal loss distribution

Active neutral point is the most attractive inverter topology in many applications such as a photovoltaic system because of the equal loss distribution among switches. This study presents a new single-phase five-level active neutral-point clamped converter topology. It can be applied to achieve optimal total harmonic distortion. In addition, this topology helps to obtain voltage balancing among the capacitors. An analysis of the switching state and commutation of the converter are also presented here in order to balance the power losses among the semiconductor devices. The simulation has been carried out in MATLAB SIMULINK to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed topology. Experimental results are presented to validate the proposed topology. Moreover, a comparative study has been made to show the cost-effectiveness of the proposed topology.