• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.268-275
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• 2015

This paper proposes a method of switching to improve power loss for the single-phase three-level NPC inverter. The conventional switching methods, which are called as the bipolar and unipolar switching methods, are used for single phase inverters using three-level topology. However, these switching method have disadvantage in the power loss. Because all of the switch are operated. To reduce the power loss of the three-level NPC inverter, clamp switching method is introduced in this paper. This way, one of the lag is fixed that switching loss is reduced. This paper analyzes and compares power losses of unipolar method and clamp method. The validity of the power loss analysis is verified through the simulation and experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.257-265
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• 2014

This paper proposes a simple compensation method for switches of the unclamped voltage in the three-level NPC inverter. Voltages of inner-switches can be unclamped in the three-level NPC (neutral point clamped) inverter. It can cause the problem of the switch fault accident. By adding a capacitor, switches of the unclamped voltage can be clamped. Through the analysis of the circuit, the reason behind switches being unclamped was verified which leads to the solution method that designs a compensation capacitor. The proposed method was validated through the simulation and experimental results.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.2168-2180
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• 2014

In this paper, a generalized power loss algorithm for multilevel neutral-point clamped (NPC) PWM inverters is presented, which is applicable to any level number of multilevel inverters. In the case of three-level inverters, the conduction loss depends on the MI (modulation index) and the PF (power factor), and the switching loss depends on a switching frequency, turn-on and turn-off energy. However, in the higher level of inverters than the three-level, the loss of semiconductor devices cannot be analyzed by conventional methods. The modulation depth should be considered in addition, to find the different conducting devices depending on the MI. In a case study, the power loss analysis for the three- and five-level NPC inverters has been performed with the proposed algorithm. The validity of the proposed algorithm is verified by simulation for the three-and five-level NPC inverters and experiment for three-level NPC inverter.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.892-897
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• 2007

This paper presents the output filter design and the output characteristic analysis by cut-off frequency set up of the LCR filter on NPC multi-level inverter with trap-filter. The single-phase NPC three-level inverter operates at low switching frequency. The proposed LC trap filter is comprised of a conventional LCR output filter, by using LC trap filter the need for high damping resistor and low LC cut-off frequency is eliminated. Also. low damping resistor is increased the output filter system. The multilevel inverter system used NPC type inverter in proper system for high power application and controller is used DSP(TMS320C31). The effectiveness of proposed system confirmed the validity through SPICE simulation and experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.376-382
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• 2014

This paper proposes the pulse width modulation (PWM) control strategy for low-speed operation in the three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverters based on the bootstrap gate drive circuit. As a purpose of the cost reduction, several papers have paid attention to the bootstrap circuit applied to the three-level NPC inverter. However, the bootstrap gate driver IC cannot generate the gate signal to the IGBT for low-speed operation, because the bootstrap capacitor voltage decreases under the threshold level. For low-speed operation, the dipolar and partial-dipolar modulations can be the effective solution. However, these modulations have drawbacks in terms of the switching loss and THD. Therefore, this paper proposes the PWM control strategy to operate the inverter at low-speed and to minimize the switching loss and harmonics. The experimental results are presented to verify the validity on the proposed method.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.5
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• pp.778-785
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• 2017

This paper presents a control method for reducing the distortion of the grid current at a grid-connected three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter. The grid current is distorted from the 5th and 7th harmonic components in the stationary frame current also the 6th harmonic component in the synchronous frame current. In this paper, the 6th harmonic component on synchronous frame is controlled by using all-pass filters (APFs) and proportional integral (PI) controllers for distortion of the grid side. When transformed the 6th harmonic component is controlled, the 5th and 7th harmonic components are reduced. The validity of the proposed control method is verified by simulation and experiment results using a 25kW three-level NPC inverter.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.544-558
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• 2013

This paper proposes a simplified and efficient control scheme for Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) based on three-level (NPC) inverter capable to mitigate source current harmonics and compensate all voltage disturbances perturbations such us, voltage sags, swells, unbalances and harmonics. The UPQC is designed by the integration of series and shunt active filters (AFs) sharing a common dc bus capacitor. The dc voltage is maintained constant using proportional integral voltage controller. The shunt and series AF are designed using a three-phase three-level (NPC) inverter. The synchronous reference frame (SRF) theory is used to get the reference signals for shunt and the power reactive theory (PQ) for a series APFs. The reference signals for the shunt and series APF are derived from the control algorithm and sensed signals are injected in tow controllers to generate switching signals for series and shunt APFs. The performance of proposed UPQC system is evaluated in terms of power factor correction and mitigation of voltage, current harmonics and all voltage disturbances compensation in three-phase, three-wire power system using MATLAB-Simulink software and SimPowerSystem Toolbox. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed UPQC system can improve the power quality at the common connection point of the non-linear load.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.173-183
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• 2014

In this paper, an analysis of power losses for the three-level T-type and neutral-point clamped (NPC) PWM inverters is presented, in which the conduction and switching losses of semiconductor devices of the inverters are taken into account. In the inverter operation, the conduction loss depends on the modulation index (MI) and power factor (PF), whereas the switching loss depends on the switching frequency. Power losses for the T-type and NPC inverters are analyzed and calculated at the different operating points of MI, PF and the switching frequency, in which the four different models of semiconductor devices are adopted. In the case of lower MI, the NPC-type is more efficient than the T-type, and vice versa. The validity of the power loss analysis has been verified by the simulation results.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.481-490
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• 2009

This paper describes a SVPWM overmodulation scheme of NPC type three-level inverter for traction drives which extends the modulation index from MI=0.907 to unity. SVPWM strategy is organized by two operation modes of under-modulation and over-modulation. The switching states under the under-modulation modes are determined by dividing them with two linear regions and one hybrid region the same as the conventional three-level inverter. On the other hand, under the over-modulation mode, they are generated by doing it with two over-modulation regions the same as the conventional over-modulation strategy of a two level inverter. Following the description of over-modulation scheme of a three-level inverter, the system description of a vector controlled induction motor for traction drives has been discussed. Finally, the validity of the proposed modulation algorithm has been verified through simulation and experimental results.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.72-77
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• 2015

Three-level diode clamped multilevel inverter, generally known as neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter, has an inherent problem causing neutral point (NP) potential variation. Until now, the NP potential problem of variation has been investigated and lots of solutions have also been proposed. This paper presents a neutral point voltage control technology using the anti-windup PI controller and offset technology of PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) to control the variation of NPC 3-phase three-level inverter neutral point voltage. And the proposed algorithm is tested and verified using a PLL (Phase Locked Loop) in order to synchronize the phase voltage from the line voltage of grid. It significantly improves the voltage balancing under a solar fluctuation conditions of the inverter. Experimental results show the good performance and effectiveness of the proposed method.