Multilevel converters have been under research and development for more than three decades and have found successful industrial application. However, this is still a technology under development, and many new contributions and new commercial topologies have been reported in the last few years. The aim of this paper is to group and review these recent contributions, in order to establish the current state of the art and trends of the technology, to provide readers with a comprehensive and insightful review of where multilevel converter technology stands and is heading. This paper first presents a brief overview of well-established multilevel converters strongly oriented to their current state in industrial applications to then center the discussion on the new converters that have made their way into the industry. In addition, new promising topologies are discussed. Recent advances made in modulation and control of multilevel converters are also addressed. A great part of this paper is devoted to show nontraditional applications powered by multilevel converters and how multilevel converters are becoming an enabling technology in many industrial sectors. Finally, some future trends and challenges in the further development of this technology are discussed to motivate future contributions that address open problems and explore new possibilities.

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Recent Advances and Industrial Applications of Multilevel Converters

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques applied to photovoltaic (PV) power system available until January, 2012. A good number of publications report on different MPPT techniques for a PV system together with implementation. But, confusion lies while selecting a MPPT as every technique has its own merits and demerits. Hence, a proper review of these techniques is essential. Unfortunately, very few attempts have been made in this regard, excepting two latest reviews on MPPT [Salas, 2006], [Esram and Chapman, 2007]. Since, MPPT is an essential part of a PV system, extensive research has been revealed in recent years in this field and many new techniques have been reported to the list since then. In this paper, a detailed description and then classification of the MPPT techniques have made based on features, such as number of control variables involved, types of control strategies employed, types of circuitry used suitably for PV system and practical/commercial applications. This paper is intended to serve as a convenient reference for future MPPT users in PV systems.

A Comparative Study on Maximum Power Point Tracking Techniques for Photovoltaic Power Systems

DC–DC converters with voltage boost capability are widely used in a large number of power conversion applications, from fraction-of-volt to tens of thousands of volts at power levels from milliwatts to megawatts. The literature has reported on various voltage-boosting techniques, in which fundamental energy storing elements (inductors and capacitors) and/or transformers in conjunction with switch(es) and diode(s) are utilized in the circuit. These techniques include switched capacitor (charge pump), voltage multiplier, switched inductor/voltage lift, magnetic coupling, and multistage/-level, and each has its own merits and demerits depending on application, in terms of cost, complexity, power density, reliability, and efficiency. To meet the growing demand for such applications, new power converter topologies that use the above voltage-boosting techniques, as well as some active and passive components, are continuously being proposed. The permutations and combinations of the various voltage-boosting techniques with additional components in a circuit allow for numerous new topologies and configurations, which are often confusing and difficult to follow. Therefore, to present a clear picture on the general law and framework of the development of next-generation step-up dc–dc converters, this paper aims to comprehensively review and classify various step-up dc–dc converters based on their characteristics and voltage-boosting techniques. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of these voltage-boosting techniques and associated converters are discussed in detail. Finally, broad applications of dc–dc converters are presented and summarized with comparative study of different voltage-boosting techniques.

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Step-Up DC–DC Converters: A Comprehensive Review of Voltage-Boosting Techniques, Topologies, and Applications

The issues of global warming and depletion of fossil fuels have paved opportunities to electric vehicle (EV). Moreover, the rapid development of power electronics technologies has even realized high energy-efficient vehicles. EV could be the alternative to decrease the global green house gases emission as the energy consumption in the world transportation is high. However, EV faces huge challenges in battery cost since one-third of the EV cost lies on battery. This paper reviews state-of-the-art of the energy sources, storage devices, power converters, low-level control energy management strategies and high supervisor control algorithms used in EV. The comparison on advantages and disadvantages of vehicle technology is highlighted. In addition, the standards and patterns of drive cycles for EV are also outlined. The advancement of power electronics and power processors has enabled sophisticated controls (low-level and high supervisory algorithms) to be implemented in EV to achieve optimum performance as well as the realization of fast-charging stations. The rapid growth of EV has led to the integration of alternative resources to the utility grid and hence smart grid control plays an important role in managing the demand. The awareness of environmental issue and fuel crisis has brought up the sales of EV worldwide.

A review of energy sources and energy management system in electric vehicles

Today, conventional power systems are evolving to modern smart grids, where interconnected microgrids may dominate the distribution system with high penetration of renewable energy and energy storage systems. The hybrid ac/dc systems with dc and ac sources/loads are considered to be the most possible future distribution or even transmission structures. For such hybrid ac/dc microgrids, power management strategies are one of the most critical operation aspects. This paper presents an overview of power management strategies for a hybrid ac/dc microgrid system, which includes different system structures (ac-coupled, dc-coupled, and ac–dc-coupled hybrid microgrids), different operation modes, a thorough study of various power management and control schemes in both steady state and transient conditions, and examples of power management and control strategies. Finally, discussion and recommendations of power management strategies for the further research are presented.

Overview of Power Management Strategies of Hybrid AC/DC Microgrid

On the basis of the classical Z-source inverter, this paper presents a developed impedance-type power inverter that is termed the switched inductor (SL) Z-source inverter. To enlarge voltage adjustability, the proposed inverter employs a unique SL impedance network to couple the main circuit and the power source. Compared with the classical Z-source inverter, the proposed inverter increases the voltage boost inversion ability significantly. Only a very short shoot-through zero state is required to obtain high voltage conversion ratios, which is beneficial for improving the output power quality of the main circuit. In addition, the voltage buck inversion ability is also provided in the proposed inverter for those applications that need low ac voltages. Similar to the classical Z-source inverter, the proposed concepts of SL Z-source inverter can be applied to various applications of dc-ac, ac-ac, dc-dc, and ac-dc power conversion. A detailed topology analysis and a generalized discussion are given. Both simulation and experimental results verify the analytical results.

Switched Inductor Z-Source Inverter

The voltage lift technique has been successfully employed in design of DC/DC converters, e.g., four series Luo converters. However, the output voltage increases in arithmetic progression. This paper introduces a novel approach-super-lift technique that implements the output voltage increasing in geometric progression. It effectively enhances the voltage transfer gain in power law.

Positive output super-lift converters

The Z-source inverter has gained popularity as a single-stage buck-boost inverter topology among many researchers. However, its boosting capability could be limited, and therefore, it may not be suitable for some applications requiring very high boost demand of cascading other dc-dc boost converters. This could lose the efficiency and demand more sensing for controlling the added new stages. This paper is proposing a new family of extended-boost quasi Z -source inverter (ZSI) to fill the research gap left in the development of ZSI. These new topologies can be operated with same modulation methods that were developed for original ZSI. Also, they have the same number of active switches as original ZSI preserving the single-stage nature of ZSI. Proposed topologies are analyzed in the steady state and their performances are validated using simulated results obtained in MATLAB/Simulink. Furthermore, they are experimentally validated with results obtained from a prototype developed in the laboratory.

Extended-Boost $Z$ -Source Inverters

The voltage lift technique has been successfully employed in the design of DC/DC converters, eg three-series Luo-converters, in which the output voltage increases stage-by-stage in arithmetic progression The super-lift technique considerably increases the voltage transfer stage-by-stage gain in geometric progression However, their circuits are complex An approach, positive output cascade boost converters, that implements the output voltage increasing in geometric progression with a simple structure is introduced These converters also effectively enhance the voltage transfer gain in power-law terms

Positive output cascade boost converters

The voltage lift technique is a popular method that is widely applied in electronic circuit design. Because of the effect of parasitic elements, the output voltage and power transfer efficiency of DC-DC power converters are limited. The voltage lift technique opens a good way to improve circuit characteristics. After long-term research, this technique has been successfully applied for DC-DC power converters. Positive output Luo converters are a series of new DC-DC step-up (boost) converters, which were developed from prototypes using the voltage lift technique. These converters perform positive to positive DC-DC voltage increasing conversion with high power density, high efficiency and cheap topology in simple structure. They are different from other existing DC-DC step-up power converters and possess many advantages including a high output voltage with small ripples. Therefore, these converters will be widely used in computer peripheral equipment and industrial applications, especially for high output voltage projects.

Fang Lin Luo

Papers

Switched Inductor Z-Source Inverter

Positive output super-lift converters

Extended-Boost $Z$ -Source Inverters

Positive output cascade boost converters

Positive output Luo converters: voltage lift technique