Self-Balancing 3-phase 5-Level Flying E-Type Inverter for Photovoltaic Applications

This paper proposes a 3-phase 5-Level Flying E-Type Topology for photovoltaic applications, the converter is able to balance the voltage across the flying capacitors thanks to the modulation technique. The flying capacitor voltages are self-balanced without using any additional balancing circuits or closed-loop controls. Operation modes and characteristics of the proposed converter are presented, as well the voltage balancing approach based on the sinusoidal pulse width modulation scheme is explained. The analysis of the proposed converter has been validated through the digital-switching model realized in Matlab/Simulink environment. Preliminary results show the effectiveness of the proposed converter to balance the DC-bus voltage. Experimental tests on the converter prototype are illustrated.