A space vector modulation scheme to reduce common mode voltage for cascaded multilevel inverters

Multilevel inverters can reduce the common mode voltage generated. Schemes have been reported for multilevel inverters that reduce the common mode voltage. However, most of the schemes result in reduced modulation depth, high switching losses, and high harmonic distortion. This paper proposes a space-vector modulation scheme to reduce common mode voltage for cascaded multilevel inverters. The proposed scheme can increase the voltage range of operation by about 17% and can produce lower total harmonic distortion than the previously proposed schemes. The scheme is explained for five-level inverter. The scheme can be easily extended to a n-level inverter. Both experimental and simulation results are provided.