Novel Reduced Source Switched-Capacitor Boost Multilevel Inverter for Photovoltaic Application

Power converters such as switched-capacitor (SC), switched diode, and switched dc source multilevel inverters (MLIs) are extensively tested nowadays in photovoltaic (PV) power conversion system, electric vehicles and high-frequency ac power distribution. Among these topologies, SC based structures features boosting ability to enhance the low-input voltage without the need of additional components and auxiliary balancing control circuit. This paper presents a novel switched-capacitor level boost (SCB) MLI using reduced number of switches and only two dc sources. At first, a 17-level structure of the proposed MLI is analyzed in detail and afterward the generalized structure is developed to increase the voltage levels. Two capacitors used in the 17-level structure possess self-balancing ability and the proposed topology works competently under highly inductive loading condition. Performance comparison with prior-art MLI structures manifest merits of the proposed MLI. Various simulation of the 17-level SCB MLI is carried out which is further validated experimentally applying the selective harmonic elimination (SHE) control implemented on a DSP controller.