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Performance improvement of cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters with modified modulation scheme

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Abstract

This study proposes a modified modulation scheme based on the phase-shifted pulse-width modulation (PS-PWM) method to improve the output performance and reduce the switching loss in cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters. The PS-PWM method is one of the most popular modulation schemes. However, it generates significant switching loss, which can lead to the failure of power semiconductor switches. Various studies have proposed modulation schemes to reduce switching loss. The clamped discontinuous PWM (DPWM) method achieves the best switching loss reduction performance in comparison with other modulation schemes. However, the clamped DPWM method has low output characteristics, such as total harmonic distortion. The proposed modulation scheme achieves the same switching loss reduction and improved output performance by modifying the dwell time order. The proposed evenly clamped DPWM method was compared with the conventional clamped DPWM method through simulations and experiments.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (No. 2020691010060), and Korea Electric Power Research Institute(KEPRI) grant funded by the KEPCO(R19DA09, Development of power control technologies on DER to increase DER hosting capacity in distribution system).

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  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea

    Eui-Jae Lee & Kyo-Beum Lee

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  1. Eui-Jae Lee
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  2. Kyo-Beum Lee
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Correspondence to Kyo-Beum Lee.

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Lee, EJ., Lee, KB. Performance improvement of cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverters with modified modulation scheme. J. Power Electron. 21, 541–552 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43236-020-00200-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43236-020-00200-w

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