A Novel HK-Type Multi-level Inverter for Reduced Power Electronic Devices

Multilevel converters are acclaimed technology in the area of energy conversion for various applications like AC motor controls, renewable energy systems and various power system applications with reduced harmonics. The basic feature of the multilevel converter is to produce any desired output voltage from several low-voltage sources using low-power semiconductor switches. The research work carried out in focusing novel multilevel inverter designed for single-phase configuration by means of the lesser component count. The recommended MLI setup, also known as a HK-Type MLI, ensures that the output AC voltage has the most voltage levels possible. The performance of the low-power seven-level inverter that modulated based on the sinusoidal PWM technique is also analyzed. The whole PWM and control algorithm are implemented using the dSPACE-1103-based digital controller at a very low sampling time of 20 μ-sec. The power and control circuit along with the necessary PCB is designed at the Power Electronics Laboratory. A 15-level inverter is executed; both the MATLAB/SIMULINK as well as the experimental results have confirmed the accurate voltage-step creation for the proposed MLI for different values of Modulation index. The experimental results of inverter voltages, currents at different modulation index of the inverter are measured and presented in the paper. It is seen that the experimental results match the outcomes of the simulation.