A high-gain IΓ-source hybrid single-phase multilevel inverter for photovoltaic application

Abstract

Impedance-based step-up converters are widely developed for photovoltaic applications due to providing single-stage conversion, high-efficiency, low voltage and current stresses, and high boost-factor. An improved Γ-source (IΓ-source) single-phase hybrid multilevel inverter is proposed. This structure has a better voltage gain characteristic, high-efficiency, multilevel output voltage, low output current total harmonic distortion (THD), and continuous input current. It is extensible for attaining higher voltage levels. Furthermore, higher non-shoot-through modulation indexes are obtainable by this topology in comparison with previous works due to performing higher gains in lower shoot-through duty cycles. Also, the output harmonics are reduced because of applying lower shoot-through duty cycles. This article demonstrates the operating principle of this hybrid multilevel inverter in detail. Simulation and experimental results are exhibited to evaluate the performance of this converter. Results confirm the proposed IΓ-source hybrid multilevel inverter, its operating principle, and the modulation strategy.