A Low Switch Count 13-Level Switched-Capacitor Inverter With Hexad Voltage-Boosting for Renewable Energy Integration

Switched-Capacitor multilevel inverters (SCMLI) are being explored for renewable power applications like solar-PV integration because of their benefits of low component count and low-cost factors. This work presents and explores a new multilevel inverter with a hexad voltage-boosting capability. It employs a single source and produces a 13-level waveform by utilizing only fourteen switches, two diodes, and four capacitors. The voltage across the capacitors is maintained at the desired magnitudes during the switching of the inverter by connecting the DC source and capacitors in parallel at several time locations in one operating cycle. The topology proposed in this work is compared with the recent 13-level topologies in terms of switches, diodes, capacitors, and cost factors (CF). A level-shifted PWM-based algorithm generates the circuit switches' PWM pulses. The CF of the proposed SCMLI is found to be 2.461, which is the lowest among the compared hexad-boosted MLIs. Experimental validation is performed on a hardware prototype to validate various operational conditions of load change, modulation index change, and reference frequency change.

Automated summary

Switched-Capacitor multilevel inverters (SCMLI) can generate a 13-level waveform with only fourteen switches, two diodes, and four capacitors, using a single source. The voltage across the capacitors is maintained by connecting the DC source and capacitors in parallel at different time locations. This new topology is compared with other 13-level topologies in terms of switches, diodes, capacitors, and cost factors. Experimental validation on a hardware prototype confirms its performance under various operational conditions.