A switched-capacitor-based step-up multilevel inverter and its cascaded configuration using reduced number of components

摘要

This article presents a novel 11-level switched capacitor multilevel inverter (SCMLI) structure first. After that, the cascaded configuration of the proposed structure is developed. The structure has the inherent output voltage boosting as well as self-capacitor voltage balancing ability. The voltage boosting feature of the proposed structure mitigates the requirement of heavy magnetic components such as transformers or inductors in the structure, which significantly reduces the weight, cost, and complexity of the conversion system. The operating principle, selection procedure of switched capacitors, and power losses analysis of the proposed 11-level structure are presented in detail. The proposed structure utilizes a smaller number of components as compared to similar structures for realizing the same number of output voltage levels. Further, the structure provides a lower total standing voltage per boosting factor as compared to other structures. An experimental investigation on a 11-level laboratory prototype is conducted and the effectiveness of the proposed structure verified.