Active DC voltage balancing PWM technique for high-power cascaded multilevel converters

Tarisciotti, Luca; Zanchetta, Pericle; Watson, Alan James; Bifaretti, Stefano; Clare, Jon C.; Wheeler, Patrick

Abstract

In this paper a dedicated PWM technique specifically designed for single-phase (or four wire three-phase) multilevel Cascaded H-Bridge Converters is presented. The aim of the proposed technique is to minimize the DC-Link voltage unbalance, independently from the amplitude of the DC-Link voltage reference, and compensate the switching device voltage drops and on-state resistances. Such compensation can be used to achieve an increase in the waveform quality of the converter. This is particularly useful in high-power, low supply voltage applications where a low switching frequency is used. The DC-Link voltage balancing capability of the method removes the requirement for additional control loops to actively balance the DC-Link voltage on each H-Bridge, simplifying the control structure. The proposed modulation technique has been validated through the use of simulation and extensive experimental testing to confirm its effectiveness.

Citation

Tarisciotti, L., Zanchetta, P., Watson, A. J., Bifaretti, S., Clare, J. C., & Wheeler, P. (2014). Active DC voltage balancing PWM technique for high-power cascaded multilevel converters. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 61(11), https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2014.2308139

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 26, 2014
• Publication Date: Feb 25, 2014
• Deposit Date: Jul 7, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 7, 2016
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
• Print ISSN: 0278-0046
• Electronic ISSN: 1557-9948
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 11
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2014.2308139
• Keywords: Multilevel converters; Predictive control; Smart grid
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/722875
• Publisher URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6748051
• Additional Information: c2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works