Capacitive idling techniques improve inverter performance

In this paper the authors present two new and closely related inverter topologies intended for use in photovoltaic (PV) systems. The topologies improve inverter performance by allowing true DC-AC inversion with very little distortion in both the DC and AC currents whilst minimising switching noise. The two topologies are based upon a novel form of Cuk converter, called the capacitive idling converter (R. Mahadevan, et al., 1983), which utilises an extra switch to improve its bandwidth, allow soft switching and independent control of input and output currents. In addition, to further improve the robustness, hysteresis control has been utilised.