An Impedance Network-Based Three Level Quasi Neutral Point Clamped Inverter with High Voltage Gain

Abstract

Due to the impediments of voltage source inverter and current source inverter, Z-Source Inverter (ZSI) has become notorious for better power quality in low and medium power applications. Several modifications are proposed for impedance source in the form of Quasi Z-Source Inverter (QZSI) and Neutral Point Clamped Z-Source Inverter (NPCZSI). However, due to the discontinuity of the source current, NPCZSI is not suitable for some applications, i.e., fuel cell, UPS, and hybrid electric vehicles. Although in later advancements, source current becomes continuous in multilevel QZSI, low voltage gain, higher shoot-through duty ratio, lesser availability of modulation index, and higher voltage stress across switches are still an obstacle in NPCZSI. In this research work, a three-level high voltage gain Neutral Point Clamped Inverter (NPCI) that gives three-level AC output in a single stage, is proposed to boost up the DC voltage at the desired level. At the same time, it detains all the merits of previous topologies of three-level NPCZSI/QZSI. Simulations have been done in the MATLAB/Simulink environment to show the effectiveness of the proposed inverter topology.