Abstract

Asymmetric multilevel inverters generate high-quality output voltage using the same number of components as symmetric multilevel inverters. The main drawback of these topologies is that they require many DC voltage sources, and the power switches must endure high voltage stress. In this paper, a switched-capacitor sub-module inverter topology is proposed to reduce the number of DC voltage sources and the voltage stress on the switches of asymmetric multilevel inverters. The proposed sub-module inverter can generate 15 voltage levels by using two DC power supplies and a capacitor. The voltage of the capacitor can be automatically charged at half of the input DC power supply without the need for any sensors. In addition, the capacitor charging operation does not produce an inrush current because it is charged by the direction of the output current; this is an advantage over switched capacitor multilevel inverters. A modular topology is also presented based on the proposed sub-module inverter to achieve high voltage levels while reducing the number of elements. A comprehensive comparison between the proposal and other multilevel inverter topologies is performed to validate the design of the proposed inverter. In addition, thermal and loss distribution simulations of the proposed sub-module inverter are performed. Finally, the performance, efficiency, and accuracy of the proposed inverter are confirmed through laboratory prototyping.