Design and analyze different topologies of multilevel inverter

Abstract

Conventional inverters have limitation in high voltage and high power applications. Lately, multilevel inverters are popular for high power applications due to its improved harmonic profile and increased power ratings. There is a lot of literature regarding the topology and control techniques of multilevel inverters. Thus the purpose of this project is to analyze and compare the performance between three multilevel inverter topologies of a 7, 9, 11 level multilevel inverter. Simulation studies on the operation of the multilevel inverter are done using the PSIM9 software. Analyses on the performance of the three topologies are based on the fundamental voltage, output voltage waveform, output current waveform and total harmonic distortion (THD). The general concept of a multilevel inverter is to synthesize a sinusoidal voltage from several levels of voltages. By having more than two levels to build the sinusoidal voltage, harmonic distortion of the waveform is significantly minimized.