A Carrier-Based Discontinuous PWM Scheme With Optimal PWM Sequences for a Five-Level Flying Capacitor Rectifier

Five-level flying capacitor (5L-FC) rectifier is advantageous in unidirectional power applications due to its less power devices, higher power density, better reliability, etc. To further improve the efficiency, discontinuous PWM (DPWM) methods are preferred. This article investigates a carrier-based implementation of DPWM for the 5L-FC rectifier to reduce the switching losses. Since there is always a pair of redundant switching modes that have opposite effects on the neutral point (NP) in each region of the space-vector diagram, the NP voltage regulation can be easily realized by selecting suitable clamping modes in each control period, even with unbalanced dc loads. The generated PWM sequences based on the phase disposition PWM are also optimally redistributed to realize minimal switching loss with FC voltage balancing in two consecutive carrier periods. In addition, the permissible range of unbalanced dc loads is theoretically deduced. Finally, simulations and experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed carrier-based DPWM scheme.