Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter for Electric Vehicles: Configuration and Performance Investigation

This paper presents a derivative design for a seven-level cascaded H-bridge inverter that achieves high-quality voltage output with reduced harmonic distortion through the effective implementation of an advanced pulse generation method, designed using MATLAB Simulink. The proposed design employs a pulse width modulation technique, which is crucial in achieving low total harmonic distortion while maintaining a simplified and cost-effective inverter structure compared to traditional inverters. The proposed topology introduces a streamlined architecture that not only simplifies the power circuit but also enhances the performance of the inverter. The effectiveness of the proposed cascaded H-bridge seven-level inverter design has been confirmed through comprehensive simulation analysis. The results demonstrate a significant improvement in the quality of the output voltage waveform, providing lower total harmonic distortion compared to conventional multilevel inverters, while also reducing design complexity. The total harmonic distortion of the output voltage is approximately 11.37% with a 100Ω resistive load, where the fundamental frequency is 50 Hz, and the amplitude of the fundamental component is around 333 V. Due to its advanced operating principle, the proposed inverter shows significant potential for use in electric vehicles.