Analytical Loss Calculation for ANPC Converters in Electric Drive Applications Using Different Modulation Strategies to Determine Efficiency and Overall Cost

The growing spread of electric vehicles in any performance class is leading to stricter safety requirements for the electric powertrain and increasing DC-link voltages for high-powered vehicles. Thus, fault-tolerant topologies such as the ANPC converter are coming into focus. Nevertheless, especially in the automotive industry, an ideal electric powertrain must combine high reliability, high efficiency and low cost to be competitive. Therefore, this paper presents an analytical approach to determine the efficiency and overall cost of an ANPC converter for different modulation strategies and a comparison with a state of the art two-level B6 converter.