Abstract

This paper proposes an improved symmetrical 4-level submodule as a basic cell for generating multiple DC voltage levels. A hybrid cascaded multilevel inverter (HCMLI) topology is formed by the combination of n submodules and a full-bridge. A comparative analysis against the recent multilevel inverters reveals that the proposed topology requires less number of switches and DC sources.

In addition, the proposed submodule reduces the number of conducting switch and gate driver requirements compared to the widely used half-bridge submodule. To validate the operation of the proposed HCMLI topology, experimental results of a 9-level single-phase inverter controlled by selective harmonic elimination pulse-width-modulation is presented.