A Proposed Five-level Neutral Point Clamped Inverter

Abstract

This paper presents a proposed five-level inverter based on conventional five-level Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) topology which is a type of Multilevel Inverters (MLIs). MLI is a great solution for high power application in addition to medium power, low power and renewable energy applications. The proposed topology reduces the number of input DC sources as compared with the conventional five level NPC topology. Also, this circuit reduces the conduction losses by reducing number of switches that turned on in each mode. The circuit operation analysis in each mode is illustrated. A proper modulation strategy based on Pulse Width Modulation PWM is applied on the proposed circuit. The simulation of the proposed circuit is carried out in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. The results show a comparison between conventional five-level NPC and modified circuits which illustrate a good performance for the proposed one which make it suitable for many applications such as photovoltaic systems.