Design and Implementation of Seven-Level Reduced Switch Count Multilevel Inverter for Electric Vehicle Applications

This article introduces a novel workup of a multilevel inverter which can be used for electric vehicles. This multilevel inverter is implemented with seven number of power switches and two asymmetrical sources. The most common modulation technique used in multilevel inverters is pulse width modulation and sinusoidal pulse width modulation is used in this multilevel inverter to eliminate harmful low-order harmonics. In this multilevel inverter, seven switches are used to get the desired output voltage and current waveforms at seven levels. In conventional multi-level inverters, more number of power components are used to obtain seven-level output waveform, which increases harmonic distortion as well as switching losses and cost. This usage of seven switches in the proposed inverter significantly minimizes switching costs, low-order harmonics, and switching losses, thereby reducing total harmonic distortions.