A Comparative Analysis of PWM Method for Si/SiC Hybrid Five-Level ANPC Inverter

A comparative analysis of the hybrid silicon (Si) and silicon carbide (SiC) five-level active neutral point clamp (5L-ANPC) inverter topology with different discontinuous pulse width modulation (DPWM) techniques combined with phase-shifted PWM is presented to attain the best performance while minimizing the inverter cost. The emphasis is on various performance parameters to obtain the best operating DPWM technique and cost-effective topology for a 5L-ANPC inverter. Performance parameters include power losses, efficiency, output voltage, total harmonic distortion (THD), the temperature of various switches, and the cost of the 5L-ANPC topology. Sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) and various conventional discontinuous PWM are used as modulation signals for three different topologies of 5L-ANPC which include all SiC, two SiC, and all Si topologies. The primary benefit of DPWM is its ability to lower switching losses, which enhances efficiency. However, it may also result in additional harmonics in the output voltage when operated at the same carrier frequency. Among all the different proposed combinations of DPWMs and phase-shifted PWM, DPWM1 has the best operating performance. It had minimal power loss and the least THD with the highest efficiency. The DC link voltage balancing was observed with all DPWM, excluding the DPWM MAX and DPWM MIN. A thorough comparative analysis is presented for different DPWM techniques in hybrid inverter topologies using PLECS simulations.