Low-Voltage Cascade Multilevel Inverter with GaN Devices for Energy Storage System

A cascade multilevel inverter is designed and implemented with low-voltage transistors using gallium nitride technology. Experimental comparison against silicon technology is performed, in terms of total harmonic distortion and efficiency. This topology avoids direct series interconnection of batteries, allowing the use of lithium-ion technology without battery management system. The input of the converter consists of four 48 V Li-ion batteries and the output is single-phase 120 V
_RMS
, 60 Hz.