A Generalized Carrier-Overlapped PWM Method for Neutral-Point-Clamped Multilevel Converters

The neutral-point voltage unbalance problem holds back the extensive application of neutral-point-clamped (NPC) multilevel converters with more than three voltage levels in industry. Traditional phase-disposition pulsewidth modulation (PDPWM) or nearest-three-vector (NTV) modulation cannot achieve the voltage balance over the full modulation indexes and load power factors when the voltage level is higher than three. To solve this problem, a novel generalized carrier-based PWM method, named carrier-overlapped PWM (COPWM), for NPC multilevel converters is proposed in this article, which is proven to satisfy the volt–second balance principle. With this modulation method, the average values of all the neutral-point currents are equal to zero in a fundamental period, and therefore, all the dc-link capacitor voltages can be naturally balanced in the ideal and steady-state conditions. In order to simplify its implementation, an equivalent multireference modulation method with only one triangular carrier is also derived. Simulation and experimental results on a five-level diode-clamped inverter are presented to verify the proposed modulation method.