Multilevel inverter technology has emerged recently as a very important alternative in the area of high-power medium-voltage energy control. This paper presents the most important topologies like diode-clamped inverter (neutral-point clamped), capacitor-clamped (flying capacitor), and cascaded multicell with separate DC sources. Emerging topologies like asymmetric hybrid cells and soft-switched multilevel inverters are also discussed. This paper also presents the most relevant control and modulation methods developed for this family of converters: multilevel sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation, multilevel selective harmonic elimination, and space-vector modulation. Special attention is dedicated to the latest and more relevant applications of these converters such as laminators, conveyor belts, and unified power-flow controllers. The need of an active front end at the input side for those inverters supplying regenerative loads is also discussed, and the circuit topology options are also presented. Finally, the peripherally developing areas such as high-voltage high-power devices and optical sensors and other opportunities for future development are addressed.

Multilevel inverters: a survey of topologies, controls, and applications

A review on the key issues for lithium-ion battery management in electric vehicles

Multilevel voltage source converters are emerging as a new breed of power converter options for high-power applications. The multilevel voltage source converters typically synthesize the staircase voltage wave from several levels of DC capacitor voltages. One of the major limitations of the multilevel converters is the voltage unbalance between different levels. The techniques to balance the voltage between different levels normally involve voltage clamping or capacitor charge control. There are several ways of implementing voltage balance in multilevel converters. Without considering the traditional magnetic coupled converters, this paper presents three recently developed multilevel voltage source converters: (1) diode-clamp, (2) flying-capacitors, and (3) cascaded-inverters with separate DC sources. The operating principle, features, constraints, and potential applications of these converters are discussed.

/pdf/multilevel-converters-a-new-breed-of-power-converters-wavnnh62ti.pdf

Multilevel converters-a new breed of power converters

This paper reviews the current status and implementation of battery chargers, charging power levels, and infrastructure for plug-in electric vehicles and hybrids. Charger systems are categorized into off-board and on-board types with unidirectional or bidirectional power flow. Unidirectional charging limits hardware requirements and simplifies interconnection issues. Bidirectional charging supports battery energy injection back to the grid. Typical on-board chargers restrict power because of weight, space, and cost constraints. They can be integrated with the electric drive to avoid these problems. The availability of charging infrastructure reduces on-board energy storage requirements and costs. On-board charger systems can be conductive or inductive. An off-board charger can be designed for high charging rates and is less constrained by size and weight. Level 1 (convenience), Level 2 (primary), and Level 3 (fast) power levels are discussed. Future aspects such as roadbed charging are presented. Various power level chargers and infrastructure configurations are presented, compared, and evaluated based on amount of power, charging time and location, cost, equipment, and other factors.

/pdf/review-of-battery-charger-topologies-charging-power-levels-85yy2igx2w.pdf

Review of Battery Charger Topologies, Charging Power Levels, and Infrastructure for Plug-In Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

Active filtering of electric power has now become a mature technology for harmonic and reactive power compensation in two-wire (single phase), three-wire (three phase without neutral), and four-wire (three phase with neutral) AC power networks with nonlinear loads. This paper presents a comprehensive review of active filter (AF) configurations, control strategies, selection of components, other related economic and technical considerations, and their selection for specific applications. It is aimed at providing a broad perspective on the status of AF technology to researchers and application engineers dealing with power quality issues. A list of more than 200 research publications on the subject is also appended for a quick reference.

A review of active filters for power quality improvement

The performance of a high-power, high-power-density DC-to-DC converter based on the single-phase dual active bridge (DAB) topology is described. The dual active bridge converter has been shown to have very attractive features in terms of low device and component stresses, small filter components, low switching losses, high power density and high efficiency, bidirectional power flow, buck-boost operation, and low sensitivity to system parasitics. For high output voltages, on the order of kilovolts, a cascaded output structure is considered. The effects of snubber capacitance and magnetizing inductance on the soft switching region of control are discussed. Various control schemes are outlined. Coaxial transformer design techniques have been utilized to carefully control leakage inductance. The layout and experimental performance of a prototype 50 kW 50 kHz unit operating with an input voltage of 200 V DC and an output voltage of 1600 V DC are presented. >

Performance characterization of a high-power dual active bridge DC-to-DC converter

The development of zero switching loss inverters has attracted much interest for industrial applications. Two topologies for realizing zero switching losses in high-power converters are proposed. The actively clamped resonant DC link inverter uses the concept of a lossless active clamp to restrict voltage stresses to only 1.3-1.5 supply voltage. For applications demanding substantially better spectral performance, the resonant pole inverter (RPI), also called the quasi-resonant current mode inverter, is proposed as a viable topology. Using only six devices rated at supply voltage, this circuit transfers the resonant components to the AC side of each phase and thus requires additional inductor and capacitor (LC) components. On the other hand, the RPI is capable of true pulsewidth modulation (PWM) operation at high frequency as opposed to discrete pulse modulation operation found in resonant DC link invertors. >

Zero-switching-loss inverters for high-power applications

Inverter-based static VAr compensators (SVCs) can benefit from the use of a multilevel invertor structure which allows the elimination of the step-up transformer. The inherent high quality of the multistep waveform allows operation without PWM, thus high switching losses are avoided. This paper discusses the issues affecting the application of multilevel invertor structures as reactive power compensators and compares the device MVA and reactive component MVA requirements of two topologies that have been presented in prior literature. The modulation strategy strongly affects the voltage balancing in the DC bus capacitors as well as their ripple current rating and capacitance value. >

Comparison of multilevel inverters for static VAr compensation

This paper proposes a synchronous reference frame based controller for a hybrid series active filter system. A hybrid series active filter system has been designed, built and installed at Beverly Pump Station in New England Electric utility for 765 kVA adjustable speed drive load to meet IEEE 519 recommended harmonic standards. The series active filter is rated 35 kVA-4% of the load kVA, and is controlled by a synchronous reference frame based controller to act as a harmonic isolator between the supply and load. This paper discusses the basic synchronous reference frame controller structure and addresses its operation under nonunity controller loop gain conditions. Design trade-offs and implementation issues of the synchronous reference frame controller are discussed. Operation of the hybrid series active filter system under off-tuned passive filter conditions and its impact on the performance of the synchronous reference frame based controller is experimentally evaluated. Effectiveness of the series active filter to provide harmonic damping and the use of simpler and low cost power factor correction capacitors as passive filters, is demonstrated by laboratory experimental results. Field installation and laboratory experimental results demonstrate the practical viability of the synchronous reference frame based controller for hybrid series active filter to provide harmonic isolation of nonlinear loads and to comply with IEEE 519 recommended harmonic standards.

Synchronous frame based controller implementation for a hybrid series active filter system

Acoustic noise in an inverter-driven AC electric machine can be reduced by avoiding the concentration of harmonic energy in distinct tones. One method to spread out the harmonic spectrum without the use of programmed PWM (pulse-width modulation) is to cause the switching pattern to be random. It is proposed that the switching pattern can be randomized by modulating the triangle carrier in sinusoidal PWM (pulse-width modulation) with bandlimited white noise. All the advantages of sinusoidal PWM are preserved with this technique. These include real-time control, linear operation, good transient response, and a constant average switching frequency. By controlling the bandwidth and RMS value of the pink noise modulation, it is shown that the instantaneous variation in switching frequency as well as the bandwidth of the energy spectrum in the machine can be specified within predetermined limits. Experimental results show the absence of acoustic noise concentrated at specific tones which is present with conventional sinusoidal modulation. >

Deepakraj M. Divan

Papers

Performance characterization of a high-power dual active bridge DC-to-DC converter

Zero-switching-loss inverters for high-power applications

Comparison of multilevel inverters for static VAr compensation

Synchronous frame based controller implementation for a hybrid series active filter system

Acoustic noise reduction in sinusoidal PWM drives using a randomly modulated carrier