A Comprehensive Review on Space Vector Modulation Techniques for Neutral Point Clamped Multi-Level Inverters

The Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) Multi-Level Inverters (MLI) have been ruling the power electronics industries for the past two decades. The Multi-Carrier Pulse Width Modulation (MCPWM) is common PWM techniques which are widely used in NPC-MLI applications. However, MCPWM is not having a good impact on the balancing of DC-link voltages, Common Mode Voltage (CMV) and limiting the Total Harmonics Distortion (THD). The Selective Harmonic Elimination (SHE) technique is introduced for reducing the THD, however all the switching angles should be maintained less than π/2 to keep the eliminated harmonics at constant level which narrows down the modulation index range. Hence, in recent days Space Vector Modulation (SVM) technique is widely used in NPC-MLI, which gives better DC-link voltage balancing, self-neutral point balancing, near-zero CMV reduction, better-quality harmonics profile and switching loss minimization. Hence, it is a preferred solution for the majority of electrical conversion applications such as electric traction, high power industrial drives, renewable power generation, and grid-connected inverters, etc. The paper gives a comprehensive review of the SVM for NPC-MLI. First, this paper deliberates the state of art for two-level SVM and extends it to three-level (3L) SVM. Also compares the 3L SVM performance with other MCPWM techniques. Followed by the various modified MLI SVM techniques in terms of their implementations, DC-link capacitor balancing, and reduction of CMV. Further, the review of MLI SVM is widened to open-end winding Inverters and multiphase MLIs. The final part of this paper discussed the future trends and research directions on MLI SVM techniques and its applications.