In this paper, a carrier-based pulse with modulation (PWM) strategy for three-phase three-level inverter is dealt with, which can keep the common mode voltage constant with minimized switching frequency. The voltage gain and the switching frequency in overall operating ranges including overmodulation are investigated and the analytic equations are presented. Finally, the leakage current reduction effect is confirmed by carrying out simulation and experiment. It will be pointed out that the leakage current cannot be perfectly eliminated because of the dead time.
1. Introduction
Transformerless photovoltaic (PV) system has many advantages such as cost and size reduction and higher efficiency over the PV system with a transformer. A common mode (CM) voltage variation between the PV panels and the ground, however, injects an additional leakage current in the inverter
[1
-
2]
. A PWM inverter used in motor drive has a similar problem with a high frequency leakage current that flows through parasitic capacitance between stator windings and a motor frame to the ground
[3
-
4]
. Such a leakage current may result in harmonics in the system as well as losses, electromagnetic interference and even electrical safety problem.
One of the most preferred methods to reduce or eliminate the leakage current is by modulation strategy because there is no need to additional hardware. In order to reduce the leakage current, the CM voltage needs to be kept as constant as possible in the adopted PWM scheme.
It was found in
[5]
that there exist 7 specific space vectors in three-level inverter that produce the same CM voltage, i.e., the 6 medium vectors and one of three zero vectors. Thus, if only these vectors are used to achieve a PWM strategy, the CM voltage will remain constant which leads to leakage current reduction. Such a PWM method with a constant CM voltage can be implemented based on space vector PWM (SVPWM) strategy or carrier based PWM (CBPWM) technique
[6]
.
In
[7]
and
[8]
, the SVPWMs for reducing the leakage currents in three-level inverter system are presented. In the case of SVPWM, some duty ratio equations should be used with sophisticated vector selection algorithms based on the angle of the reference space vector. However, the CBPWM has a merit such that there is no need to determine the electrical angle of the reference space vector. Moreover, the overmodulation operation is quite simple in CBPWM scheme. Under the aspects of implementation complexity and intuitive understanding, the CBPWM method is preferred to the SVPWM one.
In
[9]
and
[10]
, some CBPWM techniques for threelevel inverter are presented where only the aforementioned space vectors with the same CM voltage are used. The CBPWM in
[9]
uses single carrier and thus for convenience, it will be called single carrier based medium vector PWM (SCMVPWM) in this paper.
The SCMVPWM scheme seems to be quite simple. But it has much higher switching frequency, i.e., twice that of the conventional SVPWM in linear mode operation. As a result, the overall system efficiency will be considerably deteriorated due to the increased switching frequency. Moreover, because of dead time involved in every switching instant, the output voltage loss will be increased.
On the other hand, the CBPWM in
[10]
uses double carrier and it is based on specific phase identification strategy. It is named double carrier based medium vector PWM (DCMVPWM). The switching frequency in DCMVPWM is much lower than that of SCMVPWM with the same effect of constant CM voltage as in SCMVPWM. The DCMVPWM can support the true overmodulation from zero to maximum output voltages. In
[10]
, however, only the main idea and basic features of DCMVPWM are presented along with simulation study.
In this paper, the DCMVPWM is further investigated especially focusing on the voltage gain and the switching frequency in overall operating ranges including linear mode modulation and overmodulation. DCMVPWM is compared to SCMVPWM in order to reveal the advantages of the DCMVPWM. Also, the leakage current reduction effect with minimized switching frequency is confirmed by carrying out simulation and the experiment.
2. The CM Voltage and the Leakage Current
Fig. 1
shows a three-phase three-level inverter system with a three-phase balanced load in order to investigate the reduction of the CM voltage variation. In the case of the grid-connected transformerless PV system, the three-phase voltage will be utility source and the inductors will be linked reactors. In motor drive system, the load can be regarded as an equivalent circuit of the motor. In
Fig. 1
,
Cg
and
Rg
represent the stray capacitance and the resistance of the path from P-point or N-point to ground, which become a leakage current path. The leakage current flowing through the grounded path may reach high values without any careful hardware and/or software treatments.
The three-phase three-level inverter system
The condition to eliminate the leakage current is derived in
[8]
, which is reviewed for self-integration.
Fig. 2
shows the simplified circuit for driving the equation of the leakage current from N-point to the ground, where VSI denotes the three-level inverter and the three-phase voltages,
vAN
,
vBN
,
vCN
are the output phase voltages with reference to the N-point. In
Fig. 2
,
Zf
means the combined impedance of
L
and
rs
and
Zleakage
means the combined impedance of
Cg
and
Rg
.
The circuit for analyzing the leakage current
One can obtain the N-point voltage
vN
with respect to the ground as follows
Assuming the balanced three-phase ac voltage, i.e.,
vsa
+
vsb
+
vsc
=0, (1) becomes
where
vCM
is the CM voltage that is defined by
Therefore the leakage current
ileakage
is expressed by
It can be noticed from (4) that the leakage current can be adjusted by controlling
vCM
. In order to eliminate the leakage current, the CM voltage needs to be kept constant.
Fig. 3
illustrates the space vectors and the corresponding CM voltages. The CM voltage for each switching state can be calculated by using (3). As an example, for
V
1
[PNN] vector
vAN
=
Vdc
,
vBN
=0,
vCN
=0 and thus
vCM
= (
Vdc
+0+0)/3 =
Vdc
/3. In this case, [PNN] means that
A
-phase is connected to P-point,
B
-phase to N-point and
C
-phase to N-point.
The Space vectors and the corresponding CM voltages
Note that all the medium vectors (
V
7
~
V
12
), and a zero vector
V
0
[OOO] has the same CM voltage of
Vdc
/2. As a result, if only these seven vectors (
V
0
[OOO],
V
7
[PON],
V
8
[OPN],
V
9
[NPO],
V
10
[NOP],
V
11
[ONP],
V
12
[PNO]) are used to synthesize the output voltage, the CM voltage will not be changed at all, resulting in the elimination of the leakage current in the system.
3. Review of DCMVPWM
In order to drive the synthesis rule of the phase voltages, the reference phase voltages should be identified according to the magnitude of the reference phase voltages, that is,
where
VAOref
,
VBOref
and
VCOref
is the reference phase voltage for
A
-,
B
- and
C
-phase, respectively. It is assumed that
VAOref
+
VBOref
+
VCOref
= 0 for the balanced operation. It should be noted that
Vmax
≥ 0 and
Vmin
≤ 0 at any time to satisfy the zero sum condition, i.e.,
Also, the three phases are identified by
max
-,
mid
- and
min
-phase instead of
A
-,
B
- and
C
-phase according to the reference magnitude as shown in
Fig. 4
.
Identification of the three-phase output terminals
Fig. 5
illustrates
max
-phase voltage synthesis by using P-point voltage(=
Vdc
/2) and O-point voltage(=0). The reference
Vmax
is compared to a triangular signal
v
tri1
to generate the output phase voltage
vmax
. In
Fig. 5
, the gating signals
Q
1max
and
Q
2max
that generate the output phase voltage
vmax
are depicted. It should be noted that the N-point is never connected to the output terminal at all in
max
-phase because
Vmax
≥ 0 at all time. Therefore the
max
-phase switching toggles between P-point and O-point. Also, the gating signal
Q
2max
is fixed to 1(i.e., turn-on state). The turn-on duration of
Q
1max
,
Tmax
is expressed by
Synthesis of max-phase voltage
Similarly,
Fig. 6
shows
min
-phase voltage synthesis procedure by using N-point voltage(=−
Vdc
/2) and O-point voltage(=0). The reference
Vmin
is compared to a triangular signal
v
tri2
to produce the output phase voltage
vmin
. In
Fig. 6
, the gating signals
Q
1min
and
Q
2min
to obtain the output phase voltage
vmin
are shown. In
min
-phase, there is no chance to connect the P-point to the output terminal and the
min
-phase toggles between N-point and O-point. Note that the gating signal
Q
1min
is fixed to 0(i.e., turn-off state). During the turn-off duration of
Q
2min
,
Tmin
,
min
-phase output voltage becomes N-point voltage and
Tmin
is given by
Synthesis of min-phase voltage
Finally, for the
mid
-phase control, it should be noted that because of the dependency of the three phases expressed by zero sum condition of (8), the
mid
-phase voltage
vmid
will be determined by
vmid
=−(
vmax
+
vmin
) as seen in
Fig. 7
.
Synthesis of mid-phase voltage
Table 1
shows
mid
-phase voltage and gating signals
Q
1mid
and
Q
2mid
according to
vmax
and
vmin
values. Thus,
Q
1mid
and
Q
2mid
can be expressed by
mid-phase voltage and gating signals
mid-phase voltage and gating signals
The equations, (11) and (12) guarantee the selection of only the specific seven vectors (
V
0
[OOO],
V
7
[PON],
V
8
[OPN],
V
9
[NPO],
V
10
[NOP],
V
11
[ONP],
V
12
[PNO]).
Fig. 8
shows the overall block diagram for generating the gating signals. In summary, the gating signal is generated as follows;
-
1) With the reference signals (VAOref,VBOref,VCOref),VmaxandVminsignals are obtained by using the sorting comparator [Eq. (5) and (7)].
-
2)max-phase control (Q1max,Q2max):Vmaxis compared tovtr1wherebyQ1maxis generated.Q2maxis intentionally fixed by high state at all time.
-
3)min-phase control (Q1min,Q2min):Vminis compared tovtr2wherebyQ2minis obtained.Q1minis intentionally fixed by low state at all time.
-
4)mid-phase control (Q1mid,Q2mid): Themid-phase gating signals are obtained by Eq. (11) and (12)
-
5) The mapping stage: The phase selector translates all the gating signals(Q1max,Q2max,Q1min,Q2min,Q1mid,Q2mid) to the actual gating signals. For example,A-phase gating signals (Q1a,Q2a) is determined by
Control block diagram of DCMVPWM
Fig. 9
shows the typical waveforms for the DCMVPWM with amplitude modulation index,
mi
=0.8 and frequency modulation index
mf
=36. As seen in
Fig. 9
, the gating signal
Q
1a
comes from one of
Q
1max
,
Q
1min
and
Q
1mid
at each time according to the magnitude of
VAOref
. Also, it is found from
Fig. 9
that the CM voltage is constant, i.e.,
Vdc
/2.
Typical waveforms of the DCMVPWM
4. Characteristics of DCMVPWM
Because the DCMVPWM is basically carrier-based scheme, it has almost the same advantages and features as in the traditional sinusoidal PWM used in the conventional two-level voltage source inverters. In this section, the characteristics of the DCMVPWM are examined.
- 4.1 The overmodulation capability
The overmodulation is used to increase the inverter output voltages beyond its maximum in linear operating region at the expense of the sacrificed output voltage waveform quality. For example, in motor drive system, when the motor is operated at enough high speed, further increase in inverter output voltage may be required to maintain the
v/f
ratio. Also, the overmodulation may be adopted in high power PV system consisting of several inverters in parallel, where the operating frequency is lowered and the output voltage is maximized.
Fig. 10
illustrates the typical overmodulation waveforms with modulation index of 1.2. When the modulation index(
mi
) is increased beyond unity, the command signals cannot make the intersection with the carrier signals around their maximum and minimum. It should be noted that even in overmodulation operation, only the medium vectors and a zero vector
V
0
[OOO] are selected because of the restriction of (11) and (12) and thus the CM voltage is kept constant as seen in
Fig. 10
Typical waveforms of the DCMVPWM in overmodulation (mi=1.2)
If
mi
> 2, there is no intersection between reference signals and carrier signals and thus the output phase voltage waveforms become the quasi-square wave with the four-step change, resulting in the maximum output voltage as seen in
Fig. 11
.
The maximized four-step mode of DCMVPWM (mi=2)
In four-step mode, the procedure to obtain
A
-phase gating signals (
Q
1a
,
Q
2a
) is as follows;
-
1)max-phase: because there is no intersection betweenVmaxandvtr1andVmaxis always greater thanvtr1,Q1maxwill be always high state.Q2maxis intentionally fixed by high state. Therefore,Q1max=1,Q2max=1.
-
2)min-phase: because there is no intersection betweenVminandvtr2andVminis always less thanvtr2,Q2minbecomes always low state.Q1minis given by low state. Therefore,Q2min=0,Q1min=0.
-
3)mid-phase: from Eq. (11) and (12),Q1mid=0,Q2mid=1.
-
4) Based on (13) and (14),Q1aandQ2aare determined.
It is pointed out that in the DCMVPWM the
mi
value from which the four-step mode begins is fixed by 2 while such
mi
value is changed depending on the frequency modulation index in the SCMVPWM.
- 4.2 The Voltage Gain
In linear modulation operation, the output phase voltage is proportional to modulation index,
mi
. The fundamental component peak value of the output phase voltage,
V
1peak
in linear mode is
Fig. 12
illustrates the typical waveforms in overmodulation operation where the moving averages over switching period are depicted with solid line superposed on each gating signals and the output voltage. In
Fig. 12
, the shadowed area means the intervals during which PWM operation occur.
Moving average of the output phase voltage over switching period in overmodulation operation
Assuming that the carrier frequency is enough high, the electrical angles
θ
1
and
θ
3
are approximately expressed by
and
θ
2
=
π
/ 6 .
In
Fig. 12
,
denotes the moving average of the output phase voltage, which is a quarter-wave symmetry waveform. Referring to
Fig. 12
,
can be expressed by
By obtaining the Fourier coefficient of
, one can drive analytic expression for
V
1peak
.
In the DCMVPWM, the modulation index can be changed from 0 to maximum (>2.0) while the magnitude of the output voltages is continuously changed.
Fig. 13
shows the output voltage magnitude with respect to the modulation index where the output voltage magnitude curve is obtained from (15) and (19).
The voltage gain curve of DCMVPWM
By using overmodulation, the output voltage is increased by about 10 % compared to maximum value in linear mode.
Fig. 14
illustrates the maximum output voltage of the DCMVPWM in linear and overmodulation operation. The maximum peak value of the output phase voltage in linear mode,
V
p(Linear)
becomes the radius of the circle inscribed in the hexagon, which is the same magnitude as in the traditional carrier-based sinusoidal PWM.
Maximum output voltage of DCMVPWM
In the overmodulation operation, the magnitude of the fundamental component of the output phase voltage can be extended to its maximum,
Vp(Overmod)
.
Comparing to SVPWM, the magnitudes
Vp(Leanear)
and
Vp(overmod)
are 86.6% and 95.5% of SVPWM respectively.
- 4.3 The switching frequency
In DCMVPWM, the switching states of two phases are changed at the same time as seen in
Fig. 7
. This implies that the switching frequency of DCMVPWM is higher than that of SVPWM.
The total number of commutations per a switching period in the three-level inverter is counted to eight. If
fc
is the carrier frequency, the total number of commutations per a second becomes 8
fc
. Because the three-level inverter has 12 IGBTs, the effective averaged switching frequency
fsw
per each IGBT switch becomes
Fig. 15
shows the waveform comparisons during the sector I (0°~60°) for the DCMVPWM, the SCMVPWM and the conventional SVPWM schemes. In
Fig. 15
,
Nv
is the space vector number selected during sector I.
Reference and carrier signals, output phase voltages, the CM voltages and the space vector numbers selected during sector I (0°~60°); (a) DCMVPWM, (b) SCMVPWM, (c) SVPWM
It can be seen from
Fig. 15
that
Nv
= 0, 7, 8, 12 in the DCMVPWM and SCMVPWM and thus the CM voltages are constant for both DCMVPWM and SCMVPWM. In case of SVPWM, the CM voltage fluctuates between (1/6)
Vdc
and (5/6)
Vdc
since
Nv
= 0, 1, 2, 7, 13, 14. Therefore, the amount of leakage currents in DCMVPWM and SCMVPWM will be much less than that of SVPWM.
In the case of SVPWM, the total number of commutations per a second is 6
fc
and thus the effective switching frequency will be
For the SCMVPWM, the total number of commutations per a second is 12
fc
and thus the effective switching frequency becomes
Regarding the effective switching frequency per a IGBT with the same carrier frequency, the SVPWM has the lowest switching frequency but it cannot produce the constant CM voltage whereas the SCMVPWM can produce the constant CM voltage but it has the highest switching frequency. On the contrary, the switch frequency of the DCMVPWM is higher than that of SVPWM by 33% but it can produce the constant CM voltage. Compared to SCMVPWM, the DCMVPWM has 33% lower switching frequency than SCMVPWM with the same effect on the CM voltage.
Notice that in
Fig. 15
, the output phase voltages,
vAO
and
vCO
in DCMVPWM and SVPWM are exactly same while only the output phase voltage,
vBO
is different. During sector I,
B
-phase becomes
mid
-phase and thus the gating signals are modified by (11) and (12) whereas the gating signals for the
max
- and
mid
-phase are determined as in SVPWM.
In overmodulation operation, the effective switching frequency per IGBT will be decreased because of switching drops. Assuming that the carrier frequency is enough high, the interval
θn
(see
Fig. 10
) is approximately expressed by
where the maximum value of
θn
,
θn,max
=120°.
Therefore, using (22) and (25), the averaged switching frequency,
f
sw,(Overmod)
, in overmodulation region can be approximately obtained.
where
fo
is the inverter output voltage frequency.
5. Simulation Results
To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the DCMVPWM method, simulation and experiment are carried out with parameters listed in
Table 2
. In
[2]
, it is mentioned that the stray capacitance
Cg
of PV cells has typical value of 100-200 pF whereas
Cg
may is increased to 9 nF for the wet panels. In this paper,
Cg
value of 10 nF is chosen considering worst case. Also,
R
g
of 1.3 Ω is chosen based on the resistance of earth wires. Because the leakage currents are not affected by the balanced three-phase utility voltages (
vsa
,
vsb
,
vsc
) as described in Eq. (1), the three-phase system without the utility AC sources is considered in the simulation and experimental setup.
System parameters
- 5.1 The linear modulation operation
Fig. 16
shows the simulation waveforms such as the
A
-phase output voltage, the line-to-line output voltage, the
A
-phase line current and the leakage current in the case of amplitude modulation index
mi
=0.9. As seen in
Fig. 16
, the DCMVPWM is operated well to generate sinusoidal line current. The leakage current is measured at the ground to N-point path through
Rg
and
Cg
. The rms value of the leakage current is estimated to be about 50 mA.
The simulation waveforms when mi=0.9; the A-phase output voltage, vAO, the A-phase to B-phase line-to-line voltage, vAB, the A-phase line current iA and the leakage current ileakage
According to the international standard IEC 602109-2, the maximum leakage current allowed is 60 mA/kW. Also, the German standard DIN VDE 0126-1-1 states that the leakage mean level of 30 mA should be disconnected with 0.3 sec
[2]
. The leakage current in this simulation is more or less the standard level. If the stray capacitance is reduced, the leakage current will be within the fully safe level.
It is true that the DCMVPWM can perfectly eliminate the leakage current owing to the constant the CM voltage. However the practical three-level inverter has the dead time for safe switching operation. During very short dead time, the CM voltage of the inverter can be deviated from its constant value. That is, because of the inevitable dead time, the leakage current cannot be completely eliminated.
Fig. 17
shows the CM voltage and the leakage current where one can see that the CM voltage is not perfectly constant but changed with pulse train pattern. The height of the pulse is about 33 V.
The simulation waveforms when mi = 0.9 ; the common mode voltage, vCM and the leakage current ileakage
Fig. 18
shows the A-phase output voltage and the
A
-phase current for DCMVPWM and SCMVPWM cases. In
Fig. 18
, the moving average voltages
are shown superposed on the corresponding
vAO
waveforms. It can be seen that the amplitude of the
in case of DCMVPWM is about 88 V whereas the amplitude of the
in SCMVPWM is at most about 74 V. Because
mi
=0.9, the theoretical amplitude value of
will be 90 V. Therefore the voltage losses in the DCMVPWM and SCMVPWM are 2V and 16 V, respectively. Such voltage loss is due to the dead time. As a result, the phase current in case of SCMVPWM is smaller than DCMVPWM case due to the severe voltage loss. Comparing DCMVPWM with SCMVPWM, the switching frequency of SCMVPWM is much higher and thus the amount of the dead time is much larger in SCMVPWM. This leads to the more voltage losses in SCMVPWM than DCMVPWM.
The simulation waveforms when mi=0.9 ; the A-phase output voltage, vAO and the A-phase current ia for DCMVPWM and SCMVPWM
Fig. 19
shows the leakage currents in the case of DCMVPWM. SCMVPWM and SVPWM, respectively. It can be seen in
Fig. 19
that SCMVPWM and DCMVPWM has lower leakage current level than that of SVPWM. The leakage current of DCMVPWM is slightly higher than that of SCMVPWM but such difference may be negligible because many minor factors are actually omitted and the model used in simulation is idealized for simulation convenience.
The simulation waveforms when mi=0.9 ; the leakage current ileakage in the case of DCMVPWM, SCMVPWM and SVPWM
It is concluded that DCMVPWM is better than SCMVPWM because the leakage current is almost same but the voltage loss is much smaller.
- 5.2 The Overmodulation operation
In the case that the amplitude modulation index
mi
is greater than unity, the overmodulation occurs as seen in
Fig. 20
.
The overmodulation simulation waveforms in the case of mi =1.2 ; the A-phase output voltage, vAO, the A- to B-phase line-to-line voltage, vAB, the common mode voltage, vCM and the leakage current ileakage
One can notice from
Fig. 20
that there exist some time duration during which any switching operation does not occur like “halt time”. The higher modulation index is, the longer such a halt time is. It is observed from
Fig. 20
that the CM voltage has intermittent pulse train with halt time. Therefore, the leakage current has intermittent pattern synchronized with the CM voltage.
6. Experimental Results
- 6.1 The linear modulation operation
Fig. 21
shows the experimental waveforms with the same conditions that are given to obtain the simulation waveforms of
Fig. 16
. It is found that comparing the waveforms of
Fig. 16
and
Fig. 21
the proposed DCMVPWM is actually well operated to reduce the leakage current within the sufficiently low level.
The experimental waveforms when mi=0.9; the A-phase output voltage, vAO, the A-phase to B-phase line-to-line voltage, vAB, the A-phase line current iA and the leakage current ileakage
Fig. 22
shows the experimental waveforms of the CM voltage and the leakage current in the case of
mi
=0.9. As in simulation waveform of
Fig. 17
, it is observed that the CM voltage has pulse train pattern and the leakage current has sharp pulses during dead time.
The experimental waveforms when mi = 0.9 ; the common mode voltage, vCM and the leakage current ileakage
In
Fig. 23
, the waveforms during the time slot is expanded and shown in the right side of
Fig. 23
in order to the investigate the effect of dead time on the leakage current. It should be noticed that as seen in the expanded figure of
Fig. 23
, the leakage current has very short pulses at every instants of switching state change. Because the dead time is limited to several micro-seconds, the leakage current due to the dead time effect is of high frequency nature.
The experimental waveforms when mi=0.9; the waveforms during the time slot is expanded and shown in the right side
Fig. 24
shows the experimental results of the leakage currents in case of SVPWM and DCMVPWM.
Fig. 24
shows good agreement with the simulation results of
Fig. 19
. By using DCMVPWM, the leakage current is significantly reduced.
The experimental waveforms of the leakage currents when mi=0.9 in case of (top) SVPWM and (bottom) DCMVPWM
- 6.2 The overmodulation operation
Fig. 25
shows the experimental waveforms in the case of overmodulation of
mi
=1.2. It is found that comparing the simulation and experimental waveforms of
Fig. 20
and
Fig. 25
the DCMVPWM is well operated to eliminate the leakage current even in overmodulation operation
The overmodulation experimental waveforms (mi=1.2) ; the A-phase output voltage, vAO, the A- to B-phase line-to-line voltage, vAB, the common mode voltage, vCM and the leakage current ileakage
The leakage current has some time intervals during which the leakage current is perfectly zero without any pulse train. This is because the CM voltage is constant during such halt time.
Fig. 26
shows the experimental waveforms when
mi
=2.2, i.e., full maximized overmodulation. In the full overmodulation, the phase voltage becomes quasi-square waveform. Also the line to line voltage changes its voltage level every 60° intervals. Thus the leakage current shows the short pulse every 60° intervals. From
Fig. 25
and
Fig. 26
, it is found that even in overmodulation, the DCMVPWM can eliminate the leakage current at sufficiently low level. If the dead time is shorten, the leakage current will be more decreased.
The overmodulation experimental waveforms (mi= 2.2) ; the A-phase output voltage, vAO, the A- to B-phase line-to-line voltage, vAB, and the leakage current ileakage
7. Conclusion
In this paper, the DCMVPWM for three-phase three-level inverter is investigated. The basic analytic equations such as the voltage gain and the switching frequency in overall operating ranges including overmodulation are discussed. Also, DCMVPWM is compared to SCMVPWM in order to find the advantages of the DCMVPWM. The switching frequency of DCMVPWM is much lower, about 33 % lower, than that of SCMVPWM while the DCMVPWM and SCMVPWM have the same constant common mode voltage. Because the lower switching frequency means the smaller amount of the dead time, the DCMVPWM has the smaller output voltage losses than SCMVPWM. Finally, the leakage current reduction with minimized switching frequency in DCMVPWM is confirmed by carrying out simulation and the experiment. Because the dead time is inevitable, the leakage current cannot be completely eliminated even though the constant common mode voltage algorithm is employed
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Korea (No. NRF-2013R1A1A4A01012606)
BIO
Kang-soon Ahn received his B.S and M.S. degree in electronics engineering from Hanyang University, Ansan, Korea, in 1996 and 1998. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering with Hanyang University, Ansan, Korea. He is currently working at Willings. Co. LTD. His current research interests include multilevel inverter for PV, ESS and IH inverter.
Nam-Sup Choi received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Korea University in 1987. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Taejeon, Korea in 1989 and 1994, respectively. He is currently a professor in the Division of Electrical, Electronic Communication and Computer Engineering, Chonnam National University, Yeosu, Korea. His research interests include the modeling and analysis of power conversion systems, matrix converters and multilevel converters for renewable energy systems and micro-grid applications.
Eun-Chul Lee received his B.S and M.S. degree in electronic and communication engineering from the Kunsan National University, Kunsan, Korea, in 2004 and 2006. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering with Hanyang University, Ansan, Korea. He is currently working at Willings. Co. LTD. His current research interests include multilevel inverter for PV and ESS.
Hee-Jun Kim received the B.S and M.S. degree in electronics engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, in 1976 and 1978, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, in 1986, all in electronics engineering. Since 1987, he has been a professor with Hanyang University, Ansan, Korea. His current research interests include switching power converters, soft-switching techniques and analog signal processing. Prof. Kim is a senior member of IEEE.
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2015
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Journal of Power Electronics
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“Transformerless Photovoltaic Inverters connected to the Grid”
Conf. Record on APEC 2007
Anaheim, USA
Feb. 25-Mar. 1, 2007
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Kim H-. J.
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Lee H-. D.
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Sul S-. K.
2001
“A new PWM strategy for common-mode voltage reduction in neutral-point-clamped inverter-fed AC motor drives,”
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“A new carrier-based PWM for the reduction of common mode currents applied to neutral-point-clamped inverters”
Conf. Record on APEC 2007
Anaheim, USA
Feb. 25-Mar. 1, 2007
1224 -
1230
Cavalcanti M. C.
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Oliveira K. C.
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Farias A. M.
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“Modulation Techniques to Eliminate Leakage Currents in Transformerless Three-Phase Photovoltaic Systems,”
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“Relationship between space-vector modulation and three-phase carrier-based PWM: A comprehensive analysis,”
IEEE Trans. on Ind. Electron.
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Neves F. A. S.
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“Eliminating Leakage Currents in Neutral Point Clamped Inverters for Photovoltaic Systems,”
IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics
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Lee J-. S.
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2014
“New Modulation Techniques for a Leakage Current Reduction and a Neutral-Point Voltage Balance in Transformerless Photovoltaic Systems Using a Three-Level Inverter,”
IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics
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1732
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Cavalcanti M. C.
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Guerrero J. M.
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“Single-Carrier Modulation for Neutral-Point-Clamped Inverters in Three-Phase Transformerless Photovoltaic Systems,”
IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics
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Choi Nam-Sup
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Lee Eun-Chul
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Ahn Kang-Soon
“A Carrier-Based Medium Vector PWM Strategy for Three-level Inverters in Transformerless Photovoltaic Systems”
Conf. Record on ICPE2015-ECCE Asia
July 1, 2015