EE3011 MULTILEVEL POWER CONVERTERS

UNIT-II
CASCADED H-BRIDGE MULTILEVEL INVERTERS
Introduction -H-Bridge Inverter, Bipolar Pulse Width Modulation, Unipolar Pulse
Width Modulation. Multilevel Inverter Topologies, CHB Inverter with Equal DC
Voltage, H-Bridges with Unequal DC Voltages – PWM, Carrier-Based PWM
Schemes, Phase-Shifted Multicarrier Modulation, Level Shifted Multicarrier
Modulation, Comparison Between Phase- and Level-Shifted PWM Schemes
Staircase Modulation
Two Marks
1. What is an H-Bridge Inverter?
 An H-Bridge Inverter is a circuit consisting of four switches that convert DC
voltage into AC by controlling the direction of current flow.
 It produces an AC waveform by switching between positive and negative DC
voltage levels.
 It provides bidirectional current flow, enabling applications such as motor drives,
UPS, and renewable energy systems.
2. What is the main disadvantage of an H-Bridge Inverter?
It generates harmonics, which require filtering for improved waveform quality.
3. What is Unipolar and Bipolar PWM?
In Unipolar PWM, the output voltage switches between zero and either positive or
negative DC [Link] Bipolar PWM, the output voltage switches between positive
and negative DC voltages.
4. What are the advantages of PWM technique?
Unipolar PWM has lower switching losses compared to Bipolar PWM. Unipolar
PWM reduces THD due to reduced voltage stress and lower ripple.
5. Why is PWM used in inverters?
PWM is used to control the inverter output voltage, improve efficiency, and reduce
harmonics.
6. What is cascaded MLI?
 It is composed of multiple units of single-phase H-bridge power cells.
 The H-bridge cells are normally connected in cascade on their ac side to achieve
medium voltage operation and low harmonic distortion.
 The CHB multilevel inverter requires a number of isolated dc supplies, each of
which feeds an H-bridge power cell.
7. What is the advantage of Multilevel Inverters over conventional inverters?
MLI reduce harmonics, improve efficiency and enable high-power applications.
8. What is the main disadvantage of a Multilevel Inverter?
It Increases complexity and requires higher number of components.
9. What is Carrier-Based PWM?
A modulation scheme where a reference signal is compared with high-frequency carrier
signals to generate PWM pulses.
10. What are the types of Carrier-Based PWM techniques?
Phase-Shifted Multicarrier Modulation and Level-Shifted Multicarrier Modulation.
11. What is Phase-Shifted Multicarrier Modulation?
A method where multiple carrier signals are phase-shifted to distribute switching losses.
12. What is Level-Shifted Multicarrier Modulation?
A method where multiple carrier signals are vertically shifted to generate a stepped
waveform.
13. Which Level-Shifted PWM techniques are commonly used?
In-Phase Disposition (IPD), Phase Opposition Disposition (POD), and Alternative
Phase Opposition Disposition (APOD).
14. Which PWM scheme is better for Cascaded H-Bridge Inverters?
Phase-Shifted Multicarrier Modulation provides better harmonic performance.
15. What is Staircase Modulation?
A low-frequency modulation technique that approximates a sinusoidal waveform using
predefined voltage steps.
16. What are the main advantages of Staircase Modulation?
 It reduces switching losses, making it suitable for high-power applications.
 Staircase Modulation provides a near-sinusoidal waveform with minimal
harmonics.
17. Compare Phase shifted PWM and Level Shifted PWM.
 13 Marks

1. Write short note on Bipolar Pulse Width Modulation

 A simplified circuit diagram of a single-phase H-bridge inverter is shown in the

Figure.
 It is composed of two inverter legs with two IGBT devices in each leg.
 The inverter dc bus voltage Vd is usually fixed while its ac output voltage VAB can
be adjusted by either bipolar or unipolar modulation schemes.
 A set of typical waveforms of the H-bridge inverter with bipolar modulation is
shown in Figure, where Vm is the sinusoidal modulating wave, Vcr is the triangular
carrier wave, and Vg1 and Vg3 are the gate signals for the upper switches S1 and S3,
respectively.
 The upper and the lower switches in the same inverter leg operate in a
complementary manner with one switch turned on and the other turned off.
 Thus, we only need to consider two independent gate signals, vg1 and vg3, which
are generated by comparing Vm with Vcr.
 The waveforms of the inverter terminal voltages VAN and VBN can be derived, from
which the inverter output voltage can be found from VAB = VAN − VBN . Since the
waveform of VAB switches between the positive and negative dc voltages ±Vd , this
scheme is known as bipolar modulation.
2. Write short note on Unipolar Pulse Width Modulation

 The unipolar modulation normally requires two sinusoidal modulating waves, Vm

and Vm−, which are of the same magnitude and frequency but 180◦ out of phase.

 The two modulating waves are compared with a common triangular carrier wave
Vcr , generating two gating signals, Vg1 and Vg3, for the upper switches, S1 and S3,
respectively.

 It can be observed that the two upper switches do not commutated simultaneously,
which is distinguished from the bipolar PWM where all four devices are
commutated at the same time.

 The inverter output voltage VAB switches either between zero and +Vd during the
positive half cycle or between zero and −Vd during the negative half cycle of the
fundamental frequency. Thus, this scheme is known as unipolar modulation.

 The unipolar modulation can also be implemented by using only one modulating
wave Vm but two phase-shifted carrier waves, Vcr and Vcr−, as shown in Figure.

 The two carrier waves are of same amplitude and frequency, but 180◦ out of phase.
 Switch S1 is turned on by Vg1 when Vm > Vcr whereas S3 is on when Vm < Vcr−.
This modulation technique is often used in the CHB multilevel inverters.

3. Explain the operation of CHB Inverter with Equal DC Voltage.

 The CHB multilevel inverter uses multiple units of H-bridge power cells
connected in a series chain to produce high ac voltages.
 A typical configuration of a five-level CHB inverter is shown in Figure, where
each phase leg consists of two H-bridge cells powered by two isolated dc
supplies of equal voltage E.
 The dc supplies are normally obtained by multi pulse diode rectifiers.
 The CHB inverter can produce a phase voltage with five voltage levels.
 When switches S11, S21, S12, and S22 conduct, the output voltage of the H-
bridge cells H1 and H2 is VH1 = VH2 = E, and the resultant inverter phase voltage
is VAN = VH1 + VH2 = 2E, which is the voltage at the inverter terminal A with
respect to the inverter neutral N.
 Similarly, with S31, S41, S32, and S42 switched on, VAN = −2E. The other three
voltage levels are E, 0, and –E, which correspond to various switching states.
 It is worth noting that the inverter phase voltage VAN may not necessarily equal
the load phase voltage VAO, which is the voltage at node A with respect to the
load neutral O.
 It can be observed that some voltage levels can be obtained by more than one
switching state.
 The voltage level E, for instance, can be produced by four sets of different
(redundant) switching states.
 The switching state redundancy is a common phenomenon in multilevel
converters.
 It provides a great flexibility for switching pattern design, especially for space
vector modulation schemes.
 The number of voltage levels in a CHB inverter can be found from m = (2H+1).
where H is the number of H-bridge cells per phase leg.
 The voltage level m is always an odd number for the CHB inverter while in other
multilevel topologies such as diode-clamped inverters, it can be either an even or
odd number.
 The CHB inverter introduced above can be extended to any number of voltage
levels.
 The total number of active switches (IGBTs) used in the CHB inverters can be
calculated by Nsw = 6(m-1).
4. Explain the operation of CHB Inverter with unequal DC Voltage.

 The dc supply voltages of the H-bridge power cells are different dc voltages may
be selected for the power cells.
 With unequal dc voltages, the number of voltage levels can be increased without
necessarily increasing the number of H-bridge cells in cascade.
 This allows more voltage steps in the inverter output voltage waveform for a
given number of power cells.
 Two inverter topologies are shown in Figure, where the dc voltages for the H-
bridge cells are not equal.
 In the seven-level topology, the dc voltages for H1 and H2 are E and 2E,
respectively.
 The two-cell inverter leg is able to produce seven voltage levels: 3E, 2E, E, 0, −E,
−2E, and −3E.
 The relationship between the voltage levels and their corresponding switching
states is summarized in Table.
 In the nine-level topology, the dc voltage of H2 is three times that of H1.
 All the nine voltage levels can obtained by replacing the H2 output voltage of
VH2=±2E with VH2 =±3E and then calculating the inverter phase voltage VAN .
 There are some drawbacks associated with the CHB inverter using unequal dc
voltages.
 The merits of the modular structure are essentially lost.
 In addition, switching pattern design becomes much more difficult due to the
reduction in redundant switching states.
 Therefore, this inverter topology has limited industrial applications.
5. Describe about Phase shifted Multicarrier PWM
 A multilevel inverter with m voltage levels requires (m-1) triangular carriers.
 In the phase-shifted Multicarrier modulation, all the triangular carriers have the
same frequency and the same peak-to-peak amplitude, but there is a phase shift
between any two adjacent carrier waves, given by [φ= 360°/(m-1)].
 The modulating signal is usually a three-phase sinusoidal wave with adjustable
amplitude and frequency.
 The gate signals are generated by comparing the modulating wave with the
carrier waves.
 The principle of the phase-shifted modulation for a seven-level CHB inverter is
shown in Figure, where six triangular carriers are required with a 60◦ phase
displacement between any two adjacent carriers.
 Of the three-phase sinusoidal modulating waves, only the phase A modulating
wave VmA is plotted for simplicity.
 The carriers Vcr1, Vcr2, and Vcr3 are used to generate gating for the upper switches
S11, S12, and S13 in the left legs of power cells H1, H2, and H3 respectively.
 The other three carriers, Vcr1−, Vcr2−, and Vcr3−, which are 180◦ out of phase with
Vcr1, Vcr2, and Vcr3, produce the gating for the upper switches S31, S32, and S33 in
the right legs of the H-bridge cells.
 The gate signals for all the lower switches in the H-bridge legs are not shown
since these switches operate in a complementary manner with respect to their
corresponding upper switches.

6. Explain about Level shifted PWM

 Similar to the phase-shifted modulation, an m-level CHB inverter using level-
shifted Multicarrier modulation scheme requires (m-1) triangular carriers, all
having the same frequency and amplitude.

 The (m-1) triangular carriers are vertically disposed such that the bands they
occupy are contiguous.

 The frequency modulation index is given by mf = fcr/fm , which remains the same as
that for the phase-shifted modulation scheme whereas the amplitude modulation
index is defined as [ma= Vm/Vcr(m-1)] for 0≤ma≤1.

 where V̂m is the peak amplitude of the modulating wave and V̂cr is the peak
amplitude of each carrier wave.

 Three schemes for the level-shifted Multicarrier modulation are shown in Figure.

 (a) In-Phase Disposition (IPD), where all carriers are in phase

 (b) Alternative Phase Opposite Disposition (APOD), where all carriers are
alternatively in opposite disposition

 (c) Phase Opposite Disposition (POD), where all carriers above the zero reference
are in phase but in opposition with those below the zero reference.
 The principle of the IPD modulation for a seven-level CHB inverter operating
under the condition of mf = 15, ma = 0.8, fm = 60 Hz, and fcr = fm × mf =
900 Hz is shown in Figure.
 The uppermost and lowermost carrier pair, Vcr1 and Vcr1-, are used to generate the
gatings for switches S11 and S31 in power cell H1.
 The innermost carrier pair, Vcr3 and Vcr3−, generate gatings for S13 and S33 in H3.
The remaining carrier pair, Vcr2 and Vcr2−, are for S12 and S32 in H2.
 For the carriers above the zero reference (Vcr1, Vcr2, and Vcr3), the switches S11, S12,
and S13 are turned on when the phase A modulating signal VmA is higher than the
corresponding carriers.
 For the carriers below the zero reference (Vcr1−, Vcr2−, and Vcr3−), S31, S32 and S33
are switched on when VmA is lower than the carrier waves.
 The gate signals for the lower switches are complementary to their
corresponding upper switches, and thus not shown for simplicity.
 The resultant H-bridge output voltage waveforms VH1, VH2, and VH3 are all
unipolar as shown in Figure.
 The inverter phase voltage waveform VAN is formed with seven voltage levels.
7. Explain about Staircase Modulation.
 The staircase modulation can be easily implemented for the CHB inverter due to
its unique structure.

 The principle of this modulation scheme is illustrated in Figure, where VH1, VH2,
and VH3 are the output voltages of the H-bridge cells in a seven-level inverter.

 The inverter phase voltage VAN is formed by a seven-level staircase.

 The waveform of VAN can be expressed in terms of Fourier series as

 where n is the harmonic order, and θ1, θ2, and θ3 are the independent switching
angles.
 The coefficient (4E∕π) represents the peak value of the maximum fundamental
voltage V̂H,max of an H-bridge cell, which occurs when the switching angle θ1 of
VH1, for example, reduces to zero.
 The three independent angles can be used to eliminate two harmonics in VAN and
also provide an adjustable modulation index, defined by

 where V̂AN 1 is the peak value of the fundamental inverter phase voltage VAN1 and H
is the number of H-bridge cells per phase.

 For the seven-level CHB inverter with 5th and 7th harmonic elimination, the
following equations can be formulated.