Carrier-Based Space-Vector Coordinate-Shifted DPWM Strategy for Three-Level T-type NPC Inverters in Electric Aircraft Propulsion Applications

In this paper, a new carrier-based space-vector coordinate-shifted discontinuous PWM (DPWM) strategy is proposed for three-level T-type neutral-point-clamped (3L-TNPC) inverters in integrated electric propulsion applications. For a commercial aircraft, the cruising stage usually dominates the longest in the typical mission profile, which delivers lower-rated power and therefore requires high-efficiency electric propulsion. In addition, the performance of the 3L propulsion drives highly depends on the premise of neutral-point (NP) voltage balance. Meanwhile, the computational efficiency is highly required when executing advanced modulation algorithms, particularly for adopting multilevel topologies. To leverage the aforesaid advantages at the same time, in this work, by adopting coordinate-derived modulation signals in shifted hexagons, not only can the NP voltage deviation be restored, but also reduced switching losses are achieved attributed to discontinuous pulse patterns.