DC link Current Ripple Reduction for Five-level Hybrid ANPC Converters Using Double-based PWM Switching method

Abstract

In many applications, the reduction of the current ripple is regarded as a crucial issue due the harmful effects of this parameter on the system. In power converters where higher order of the multilevel inverters is being used, the effects of the current ripple have higher influence and would leads to reducing the expected life-span of the DC link capacitors. In these regards, this paper proposed a creative method to reduce the ripple in the neutral point current for five-level hybrid neutral point clamped (ANPC) inverters. The proposed method depends on modifying the conventional switching sequences by creating a new switching technique. The proposed method results in efficient reduction in the current ripple and extend the life-span of the DC link capacitors. In addition, the proposed method does not require any change on the hardware or using extra devices. Moreover, the inverter is able to operate at the maximum capability without any limitation over the modulation index. The proposed method is verified using simulation results.