A Segmented Ladder-Structured Multilevel Inverter for Switch Count Remission and Dual-Mode Savvy

Abstract

The multilevel inverter (MLI) has ascertained its gravity in high-power applications for the past three decades through perennial topological modifications from the pristine structure and development of apposite modulation strategies. The benefits, including subtle switch voltage stress, reduced output voltage total harmonic distortion (THD), tolerable electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), minimal switching losses and [Formula: see text]/[Formula: see text] stress, have prepared it as a very promising candidate in high-power drives and electric utility applications. Meanwhile, MLI has few drawbacks such as higher number of switches with associated peripherals (gate driver circuits, protection circuits and heat sinks) which makes the overall system complex, bulky and costly. There have been many attempts to curb the component count in MLI structure. In this paper, a new topology is developed with a perspective to wane the switch count, which also has the ability of working in both symmetrical and asymmetrical modes. The performance of the proposed segmented ladder-structured MLI (SLSMLI) topology is substantiated with simulation study and experimentation.