An I-Network Switched Capacitor Multilevel Inverter (INSC-MLI) Topology with Reduced Switch Count and its SV-PWM based control algorithm

A new multilevel inverter topology which can synthesize seven levels in the voltage waveform with a voltage boost of 150% is presented in this paper. The topology is named as I- network switched capacitor multilevel inverter (INSC-MLI), since the switched capacitor network employed in the topology resembles the alphabet “I”. The topology has two dc link capacitors, two floating capacitors and nine IGBT switches. The maximum blocking voltage across each of the switch employed in the inverter is less than or equal to the input dc voltage. Further the reduced switch count aids in reducing the total blocking voltage of the circuit. The voltage across the floating capacitors is self-balancing in nature and is accomplished through symmetric charging and discharging cycle. The inverter is controlled using a modified space vector modulation scheme. The performance of the topology is analysed using simulation and experimental prototypes and the results are presented