Novel modulator for the hybrid two-cell flying-capacitor based ANPC converter

Among the multilevel converters present in the industry, the hybrid flying-capacitor based active-neutral-point-clamped converter is very recent. It presents good features such as high quality output voltage, high modularity and easy extension to achieve a high number of levels with reduced number of power devices. This paper introduces a simple modulator for the single-phase two-cell hybrid flying-capacitor based active-neutral-point-clamped converter. The modulation technique is based on the determination of a switching sequence formed by two switching states which generate the two nearest voltage levels to the reference phase voltage. Some extra calculations are added to the modulation method to control the dc-link capacitors and the floating capacitor voltages. The computational cost of the modulation technique is low only including simple comparisons and mathematical expressions. Simulation results show the high quality output voltages and currents including the dc voltage control.

[1]  L.G. Franquelo,et al.  The age of multilevel converters arrives , 2008, IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine.

[2]  V.G. Agelidis,et al.  Five-level active NPC converter topology: SHE-PWM control and operation principles , 2007, 2007 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference.

[3]  S. R. Pulikanti,et al.  Control of neutral point and flying capacitor voltages in five-level SHE-PWM controlled ANPC converter , 2009, 2009 4th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications.

[4]  P. Steimer,et al.  Active-neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) multilevel converter technology , 2005, 2005 European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications.

[5]  Steffen Bernet,et al.  The active NPC converter and its loss-balancing control , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[6]  Marcelo A. Pérez,et al.  Multilevel Converters: An Enabling Technology for High-Power Applications , 2009, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[7]  Bin Wu,et al.  Recent Advances and Industrial Applications of Multilevel Converters , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[8]  F. Kieferndorf,et al.  A new medium voltage drive system based on ANPC-5L technology , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology.

[9]  D. Boroyevich,et al.  Voltage-balancing strategies for diode-clamped multilevel converters , 2004, 2004 IEEE 35th Annual Power Electronics Specialists Conference (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37551).

[10]  Alex Q. Huang,et al.  An optimum PWM Strategy for 5-level active NPC (ANPC) converter based on real-time solution for THD minimization , 2009, 2009 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition.

[11]  Mario Marchesoni,et al.  A minimum-energy-based capacitor voltage balancing control strategy for MPC conversion systems , 1999, ISIE '99. Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (Cat. No.99TH8465).

[12]  J.W. Kolar,et al.  Optimized Pulse Patterns for the 5-Level ANPC Converter for High Speed High Power Applications , 2006, IECON 2006 - 32nd Annual Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics.

[13]  P.K. Steimer,et al.  6 MVA five-level hybrid converter for windpower , 2008, 2008 IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference.

[14]  Vassilios G. Agelidis,et al.  An n-level flying capacitor based active neutral-point-clamped converter , 2010, The 2nd International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems.