OPERATION CONTROL OF MULTILEVEL INVERTERS FOR INDUCTION MOTORS

Asst. Prof. Hamdy A. Ashour

Prof. Yasser G. Dessouky
Eng. Samia A. Mahmoud
Arab Academy for Science and Technology, Department of Electrical and Computer Control Engineering
Miami, P.O. Box: 1029, Alexandria, EGYPT, hashour@aast.edu
Abstract
This paper introduces theoretical and experimental analysis of 3-ph induction motor operated from 12 semiconductor
switches connected in the form of neutral point clamped multilevel inverter. The general objective of a multi-level
inverter is to synthesize a near sinusoidal voltage from several levels of DC voltages as a staircase (discreet) shaping
waveform. A brief comparison of multilevel inverter has been introduced. Simulation models of the NPC inverters with
different number of switches have been carried out using Simulink under MATLAB. Methods to increase number of
levels (steps), hence reducing filter requirements and total harmonic distortion by increasing number of switches or
controlling the firing patterns of the switches are suggested and analyzed. Controlling the switching pattern of the threephase multi-level inverters to eliminate certain harmonic order in stator voltage of the three-phase induction motor is
explained and analyzed. Motor speed response together with voltage and current waveforms for each configuration are
obtained and discussed. Experimental setup has been designed, implemented and tested for practical validation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Electric machines have been considered as the main workhorse of industry for many years. AC machines are rugged, less
expensive with lower maintenance requirements due to the absence of commutation problems but they exhibit highly
coupled, nonlinear, multi-variable structures, as opposed to separately excited DC machines. There has been intensive
research on the development of AC drive technology and as a consequence, the cost and performance of AC drives have
been improved considerably [1][4]. The concept of multilevel inverters have been introduced to perform a power
conversion in multiple voltage steps to obtain improved power quality, lower switching losses, better electromagnetic
capability and higher voltage ratings [5]-[8]. Methods of operation control and performance enhancement of multilevel
inverters have been investigated [9]-[12]. The availability of such inverters for power system and standard electrical
machine drives for industrial applications has been illustrated [13]-[20]. Through this paper, a brief comparison between
multilevel inverter configurations is discussed, control operation of the 3-ph NPC inverter for driving the 3-ph induction
motor has been modeled and studied, methods of increasing number of voltage levels and elimination of certain harmonic
orders to improve motor performance are demonstrated, and experimental setup has been implemented for practical
validation.
II. MULTILEVEL INVERTERS
The multilevel voltage source inverters provide a unique structure of power electronics devices allows synthesizing a
desired voltage from several steps of DC voltages as depicted in figure 1a. For a large power rating, a multi-stepped
inverter can be utilized with a series-parallel connection of devices. However this arrangement requires matching, and
some amount of voltage or current derating of the devices with complex and not easily available design. A possible
solution for such higher power ratings is an arrangement of identical 1-ph inverters fed from single dc supply while the
output is shaped through series connection of center-tapped transformers with different turns ration [9]-[10] or by a
parallel connection of 3-ph inverters through center-tapped reactors in the output [2]. Other arrangements of multilevel
inverters eliminating the need for the output transformers can be seen in figures 1b, 1c and 1d. These arrangements of
power electronics devices convert the DC supply to an AC supply by proper selection of conducting devices (switching
pattern), and the output is a multi-stepped (discrete) sinusoidal waveform with reduced filter requirements. The features
of the three configurations can be summarized as follows [3]:A. Diode-clamped multilevel inverter
A diode-clamped multilevel inverter (DCMLI), and also may be name as neutral point clamped (NPC), is shown in figure
1b where one leg requires (m-1) DC sources, 2(m-1) switching devices with free wheeling diodes and (m-1)(m-2)
clamping diodes. This implies that a multilevel inverter has a (m) output phase-leg voltage and a (2m-1) level output line
voltage. Although each switching device is only required to block a voltage level of V dc/(m-1), the clamping diodes need
to have a reverse voltage blocking rating VD of:

VD

m 1 k
Vdc
m 1

(1)

Where m is the number of phase-leg voltage levels; k goes from 1 to (m-2) and Vdc is the total DC link voltage. When
(m) is sufficiently high, the number of diodes makes the system impractical to implement, which in fact limits the
possible number of levels with such configuration.
B. Flying-capacitors multilevel inverter
Figure 1c shows one leg of multi-level inverter based on a flying-capacitors multilevel inverter (FCMLI). Assuming that
each capacitor has the same voltage rating, series connection of the capacitors indicates the voltage level between the
clamping points. The inner-loop balancing capacitors for phase- leg a are independent from those for phase-leg b. The

voltage level for the flying-capacitors inverter is similar to that of the diode-clamped type of inverter. That is, the phase
voltage Va0 of a multi-level inverter has m levels, and the line voltage Vab has (2m-1) levels. Assuming that each
capacitor has the same voltage rating as the switching device, the DC bus needs (m-1) capacitors for a multi-level
inverter. The number of capacitors required for each phase is:
m

N C (m j )

(2)

j 1

The switching devices have unequal turn-on time. Like the diode-clamped inverter, the line voltage consists of the
positive phase-leg voltage of terminal a and the negative phase-leg voltage of terminal b. The inverter requires a large
number of storage capacitors. A multilevel inverter requires a total of (m-1)(m-2)/2 auxiliary capacitors per phase leg in
addition to (m-1) main DC bus capacitors in case of individual DC batteries are not available. On the contrary, a
multilevel diode-clamp inverter may require only (m-1) DC bus capacitors of the same voltage rating. It should be noted
that the issue of maintaining the charging balance of the capacitor adds complexity to the system requirements.
C. Cascaded multilevel inverter
A cascaded multilevel inverter as shown in figure 2d consists of a series of H-bridge (single-phase, full-bridge) inverter
units. The general function of this multilevel inverter is to synthesize a desired voltage from several separate DC sources
(SDCSs), which may be obtained from batteries, fuel cells, or solar cells. Each SDCS is connected to an H-bridge
inverter. The AC terminal voltages of different level inverters are connected in series. Unlike the diode-clamp or flyingcapacitors inverter, the cascaded inverter does not require any voltage-clamping diodes or voltage-balancing capacitors.
The phase output voltage is synthesized by the sum of inverter outputs, Van = Va1 + V a2 + --- + V aNS. The required
number NS of isolated dc sources, hence number of H-bridges, to get the m output phase voltage levels is:
(3)
N S (m 1) / 2
It should be noted that each switching device always conducts for 1805 (or half-cycle), regardless of the pulse width of
the quasi-square wave of each bridge, making the switching device current stresses equal while identical repeated design
of such H-bridges optimizes the layout and packaging of such inverter configuration.
A comparison of components requirements per leg for each configuration can be summarized as in table 1.

III. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS

A) Operation analysis
In this paper, the neutral-point-clamped (NPC) multilevel inverter is proposed to be utilized for operation of a 3-ph
induction motor. The three-phase neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverter using 12 switches is shown in figure 2a. In this
circuit the DC bus voltage is split into two levels. The middle point o is defined as the neutral point. The output voltage
Vao has up to three states (levels), (Vdc /2), (0) and (-Vdc /2). For voltage level Vdc /2 , the switches S1a and S2a are the
path of positive current, while D1a and D2a are the path of negative current, as shown in figure 2b. For voltage level 0,
the switches S2a and DC1 are the path of positive current, while S3a and DC2 are the path of negative current, as shown
in figure 2c. For voltage level -Vdc /2, the switches S3a and S4a are the path of positive current, while D3a, D4a are the
path of negative current, as shown in figure 2c. The two diodes DC1 and DC2 clamp the switches voltage to the DC bus
voltage. When both S1a and S2a turn on, the voltage across points a and G is Vdc (i.e.V aG = Vdc ). In this case, DC2
balance output voltage charging between S3a and S4a.The output voltage Vao is AC and VaG is DC, the difference
between Vao and VaG is Vdc /2. The conduction angle of switch Sa1 is reduced from 180o to an angle of (180o 2), and
the number of levels would also change. By changing in switching angles or the firing pattern , the number of level in
the inverter can be increased, (this will be shown in section C).
B) Modeling of 3-ph (NPC) inverters
For comparison analysis, three different configuration models of the 3-ph NPC multilevel inverters have been built using
the Simulink under Matlab software program including:i3-ph using 12 switches
ii3-ph using 24 switches
iii3-ph using 36 switches
An example of such models is shown in figure 3 for the 3-ph (NPC) inverter with 12 switches, which consists of a load
bus, a supply bus, three legs (a, b, c), each leg has four switches, and measurement blocks. Simulation analysis is carried
out based on such models and results will be demonstrated through the following sections.
C) Increasing number of levels
Multi-level inverters include an array of power semiconductors and voltage sources. The output generated is voltage with
stepped wave forms. The term multi-level starts with the three-level inverter, and by increasing the number of levels, the
output voltage has more steps generating a staircase wave form which has a nearly sinusoidal wave shape. Number of
levels in the output voltage can be increased by the following two methods:-

i) Increasing number of devices

The operation of three-phase (NPC) inverters using 12-switch, 24-switgh and 36-switch has been simulated and
investigated. A comparison between the output phase voltage waveforms has been performed keeping the dc voltage
sources constant for all cases. From the analysis of simulation results shown in the figure 4, and when the number of
switches per leg is increased, followings can be concluded:-The output voltage wave form is becoming near to a sinusoidal waveforms.
-The total harmonic distortion (THD) becomes lower.
- The peak reverse voltage of the switch is lower.
-The rating of voltage and current sharing by each switch is lowered.
-According to the phase to neutral voltage, the 12-switch inverter may give 7 levels, and 24-switch may give 9 levels
while 36-switch may give 11 levels.
- 12-switche inverter has only 1, 24-switch has 1 and 2 while 36-switch has 1, 2 and 3 control firing delay angles.
- Number of levels of each inverter can be decided by controlling the () pattern which has more degree of freedom by
increasing number of switches (this will be illustrated in the next section).
- Adding more complexity and increasing the overall cost.
ii) Controlling the firing pattern ()
Figure 5 shows gate signals and different voltage waveforms of the simulated 3-ph 12 switch NPC inverter, where left
column is for = 0 wile right column is for = 20. y changing in switching angles or the firing pattern (the shift angle
from the origin during positive half cycle from 0 to , and during negative half cycle from to 2 the number of
levels in the output voltage can be increased. Considering that i is the number of switching angles, the stepped phase
voltage waveform synthesized by a (2i +1) level inverter, where 1 to i must satisfy 1 < 2 < ..< i < /2. To
explain how the staircase voltage is synthesized, the line to line waveform across the load terminal, where the potentials
of terminals a and c are positive if (S1a & S2a) and (S1c & S2c) are on, and the potential of terminal b is negative if
(S3b & S4b) are on. Hence, the line to line voltages have 3 levels, and can be computed as follows:
Vao = Vdc/2 ,
Vbo = - Vdc/2
and
Vco = Vdc/2
Vab = Vao Vbo = Vdc ,
Vbc = Vbo Vco = -Vdc and
Vca = Vco Vao = 0
(4)
The phase voltage VaN has four levels ( 2 Vdc , 1 Vdc, , - 1 Vdc , - 2 Vdc ), while the line to line voltage Vab has 33

levels ( Vdc, 0, - Vdc) and the voltage between the terminal a and center point o Vao has two levels ( 1 Vdc , - 1 Vdc ).
2

It should be bearing in mined that the firing pattern of the inverter can be controlled to operate this inverter in higher level
mode as follows: If the control signal of switch S1a is delayed by an angle and consequently other control signals will
be modified as shown in right columns of figure 5. The voltage between terminal a and center point of DC supply (Vao)
will have three level (Vdc, 0, - Vdc ) , while the line to line voltage will have five voltage levels ( Vdc , 1 Vdc , 0, - 1 Vdc ,
2
2
1
2
1
1
- Vdc ) and the phase voltage across the load (VaN) will have seven voltage levels (
Vdc , Vdc ,
Vdc, ,0 , - Vdc ,
3
3
2
3
1
- Vdc, - 2 Vdc ) as shown in figure 5. It can be seen that number of levels in the generated output waveform can be
2
3
increased by controlling the delay angle. Increasing number of switches introduce more degrees of freedom since it
increasing the number of available delay angles. Through the analysis in this work, the values of such angles (1 .. i)
are set by try and error to set maximum level from each configuration. Technique for calculation of optimal delays angle
may be suggested as a future work.
D) Operation of 3- phase induction motor through 3-ph (NPC) multi-level inverters
The 3-ph multilevel inverters can be evolved into the standard low and medium voltage motor drive system. Each inverter
has 3 legs, and the number of voltage levels depends on the number of switches in each le and the firing pattern (as
described in section C). MATLAB simulation results have been obtained for the 3-ph induction motor of 300W 220V
start-connected 1490rpm fed through different NPC inverter configurations using 12, 24 and 36 switches. Figure 6
illustrates different simulation results obtained for different inverter configurations. As could be seen from figure 6,
increasing number of switches increases the level of the voltage and current waveforms and the currents became nearly
sinusoidal hence the speed response is faster and better moor response can be achieved. Since the analysis has been
carried out for direct motor starting, increasing in the starting current and torque is also increased by increasing the
number of switch. This problem can be eliminated by introduced a control method such as (v/f) constant ratio control
technique or soft starting technique.
E) Selective harmonic elimination
When the current flows through three phase induction motor, it produces sinusoidally distributed magneto-motive-force (M.M.F) in the
air gap. The fundamental M.M.F is a rotating M.M.F in the forward direction. The third harmonic M.M.F in the three-phase, three-wire

system is pulsating because third harmonic currents are in phase. The fifth harmonic M.M.F wave is also a rotating wave in the
opposite direction to the fundamental. The seventh harmonic M.M.F wave rotates in the same direction as the fundamental wave. In
general, All odd harmonic M.M.F waves of order h = 6n + 1, where n is harmonic order and is an integer number, rotate in the same
direction as the fundamental wave while those whose order is h = 6n - 1 rotate in the opposite direction. When the current fed through
the NPC inverter through motor windings, the M.M.F distribution in space has a staircase wave form. The space harmonic wave rotate
at 1/n times the speed of the fundamental wave. The effects of space harmonic are significant. If the effect of seventh harmonic torque
is appreciable, the motor may settle to a lower speed, the motor crawls. To reduce the crawling effect the seventh harmonics should be
reduced. Also the fifth harmonics produce a negative torque. Therefore, eliminating this fifth harmonics reduces this negative torque.
From a typical quarter-wave symmetric stepped voltage wave form, shown in figure 1a, synthesized by a (2i+1) level,
where i is the number of switching angles, and by applying Fourier series analysis, the amplitudes of the dc offset and
all even harmonics are zero, while the amplitude of any odd nth harmonic of the stepped waveform can be written as[3]:
k m 1

Vn = (4/n)

[ Vk cos (nk) ]

(5)

k 1

Where k integer from 1 to m-1 , Vk is the Kth level of DC voltage, n is an odd harmonic order, m is the number of
level and k is the Kth switching angle.
To minimize harmonic distortion and to achieve amplitude of the fundamental component, up to (m-1) harmonic contents
can be removed from the voltage wave form. In general, the most significant low-frequency harmonics are chosen to be
eliminated by properly selecting angles among different level inverters, and high-frequency harmonic components can be
removed by using additional filter circuit if required. The effect of high-frequency components on the torque is not
significant as the amplitude of the harmonic current components is inversely proportional to the index of the harmonic
components. From the MATLAB harmonic analysis and measurement blocks, results for three-phase 12-switch inverter,
and for the switching angle 1 = 20o , can be plotted as shown in figure 7. The firing angle can be adjusted to eliminate
a certain harmonic. For instance, from equation (5), to eliminate the fifth harmonic, the angle is adjusted as follow:
V5 = (4/5) [ V1 cos (51) ] = 0
hence 1 = 0.2 cos-1 0 = 90/5 = 18 o (6)
These results can be plotted as shown in figure7b.
Also the firing angle can be adjusted to eliminate the seventh harmonic where the switching angle
V7 = (4/5) [ V1 cos (71) ] = 0
hence 1 = 0.2 cos-1 0 = 90/7 = 12.857 c
These results can be plotted as shown in figure 7c.
From equation (5), to eliminate the fifth and seventh harmonic using the 3ph NPC 24-switch inverter, the angles are
adjusted as fallow:
V5 = (4/5) [ V1 cos (51) + V2 cos (52)]

= 0

(8)

V7 = (4/5) [ V1 cos (71) + V2 cos (72)]

= 0

(9)

These equations can be solved iteratively by iteration (MATLAB program) for calculations the 1 and 2 , giving :1 = 30.8571 o
and
2 = 5.1429 o
(10)
Harmonic spectrums of the 12-swutch and 24-switche inverters for different firing patters are illustrated in figures 7 and
8 respectively, showing the effect of selection the right angles (1 and 2) for certain harmonic cancellation. It can be
concluded that increasing number of switches introducing more angles hence more harmonic orders can be eliminated for
better motor performance.

IV. Experimental Validation

A) Experimental setup
Electronic circuits have been utilized to implement the proposed experimental setup and different experimental results are
obtained. It should be noted that the setup and circuits has been designed and implemented as a printed board circuits
(PCB) using available components and material in the local market. The implemented system is proposed to drive 3-ph
induction motor with 12 semiconductor switches connected in the form of a neutral-point-clamped (NPC) multilevel
inverter, this system is composed of five main modules as shown in figure 9, each performs a certain function as follows:
1-PIC module: The hardware circuit is designed to generate 6 switching signals (Q1 ----- Q6) of the inverter
according to the required switching pattern. The circuit has a 16F84A PIC microcontroler used to execute the
software program written in PIC basic programming language for simplicity.
2-Inverse signals generator: This circuit receives the six pulses ( Q 1 ------ Q 6 ) from the PIC modules and
generates corresponding inverse signals ( Q 1 -------- Q 6) through two stages transistors with dead time interval to
prevent the simultaneous operation of power transistors in the same inverter arm, hence prevents possible DC
supply short circuit
3- Gate drive circuits:
----

This circuit receives the 12 single-ended non-isolated signals ( Q 1

------

Q 6 ) and ( Q 1 ----

Q 6) generated by the PIC and inversion modules then provides corresponding 12 double-ended isolated-

ground gate signals for the neutral-point-clamped (NPC) power transistor devices with 12v DC supply level
suitable for the MOSFET switching transistors. Each circuit of the 12 gate drive circuits consists of isolated
power supply, opto-isolating and amplification stages.
4- The 3-ph NPC inverter: It consists of 12 MOSFET IRF740 power transistors with their own built in
freewheeling diodes and also additional 6 power clamped diodes are utilized with two series dc supplies to
implement the circuit shown in figure 2a.
5- Three-phase induction motor : The experimental setup has been tested on a squirrel cage induction motor1
of 0.3 kW, / Y, 220 / 380 V, 1.25 / 0.75 A, 50 Hz, 1410 rpm as a load.
B) Experimental Results
The experimental setup described in section (A) has been implemented and each circuit has been gathered and tested for
different gating pattern by controlling the shift angle for practical validation of the simulation analysis described in
section (III). Different experimental waveforms are obtained using digital scope then compared with the corresponding
simulated results obtained by the simulink model introduced in section (III). The left column of figure 10 depicts the
experimental waveforms of transistor signals, phase voltages, line voltages and motor phase voltage and current, while
the right column depicts the corresponding simulated waveforms. It can be seen that experimental and simulated results
are quit similar. The 3-ph voltages are balanced and phase shifted by 120 c. Phase voltages have 7 levels while line
voltages have 5 levels since the motor is star connected. Although the motor voltages are staircase stepped waves, motor
phase currents are approximately sinusoidal due to the motor inductance equivalent circuit.
V. Conclusions
A brief comparison of the multilevel configurations has been introduced and models of the 3-ph NPC inverter with
different number of switches have been simulated and tested. The multilevel inverter features can be summarized as: the
output voltage and power increase with number of levels without the requirement of increase in rating of individual
device, the harmonic content decreases as the number of levels increases and filtering requirements are reduced, with
additional voltage levels, the voltage waveform has more free-switching angles, which can be reselected for harmonic
elimination without having to restore PWM technique, the switching devices do not encounter any voltage-sharing
problems, and multilevel inverters can easily be applied for high-power applications such as large motor drives and
utility supplies. However, more number of devices, gate drive circuits and isolating power supplies are required, hence
increasing the complexity of the system. Such problem can be overcome by the new technologies of power electronics
devices, power and intelligent modules. The analysis carried out through this paper has shown that:- increasing number of
switches per inverter leads to more staircase in the output voltage and motor currents, motor current becomes nearly
sinusoidal using more switches hence fundamental output voltage is increased while the harmonic component decreases
hence improving the speed response and torque pulsation of the induction motor, controlling the firing angle can be
directly chosen to cancel certain harmonic order such as 5 th and 7th which have a major drawbacks effects on the motor of
they are found with non-negligible magnitudes in the harmonic spectrum. Simulation and experimental results are well
matched showing the effectives of the proposed setup and validating such multi-level inverter configuration for driving
the 3-ph induction motor particularly for higher voltage ratting applications.
References
[1] Paresh C. Sen, Electric Motor Drives and Control-past, present, and future, IEEE Trans. Electron., Dec. 1990
[2] B. K. Bose, Power electronics and AC Drives prentice-hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1986
[3] Muhammad H. Rashid Power Electronics Circuits, devices and Applications
[4]
[5] A.M.Massoud, S.J.Finney and B.W.Williams , High-power, high voltage IGBT applications series connection of
IGBTS or multilevel converters, INT.J. Electronics, vol. 90, NOS. 11-12, 779-794, 2003.
[6] Jose Rodrignez, Jih-sheng Lai,senior Multilevel inverters:A survey of topologies. Controls, and application,
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. vol.49.NO.4, August 2004
[7]
[8] Sherif M.W.Ahmed, G.M.A.Sowelam and M.F.Abd El-Kader Comparison Study between three-phase three-level
inverter techniques The Tenth Middle East Power Systems Conference, dec. 13-15, Port Said, Egypt. November 2005
[9] Keith A. Corzine, Mike W. Wielebski, and Jin wang. Control of cascaded multilevel inverters, IEEE Transactions
on Power Electronics. vol.19.NO.3, May 2004.
[10] Brendan Peter Megrath, Donald Grahame Holmes, and Thomas Lipo, Optimized space vector switching sequences
for multilevel inverters, IEEE, Transactions on Power Electronics. vol.1.NO.3 , November 2003.
[11] Jose Rodriguez, Luis Moron, Jorge Pontt, A High-performance vector control of an 11-level inverter, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics. vol.50.NO.1,February 2003.
[12] Jose Rodriguez, Jorge Pontt, Pablo Carrea, Patricio Cartes and Cesar Silva, A New Modulation Method to reduce
common mode voltages in multilevl inverters, IEEE, Transactions on Industrial Electronics. vol.51.NO.4, August 2004
transmission systems, IEEE, Industrial Electronics, vol. 2, pp. 488-494 , 2000
[13] Brian A.Welchko, Mauricio Beltraode and Thomas A.Lipolife A three-level MOSFET inverter for low-power
drives, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics. vol.51.NO.3, June 2004
[14]

[15] Dudi A. Rendusara, Victor R.Stefanovie, and James W. Analysis of Common Mode Voltage-Neutral Shift in
Medium Voltage PWM Adjustable Speed Drive (MV-ASD) Systems, IEEE, Transactions on Power Electronics.
vol.15.NO.6, November 2000
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PWM for a Three Level Inverter Fed Induction Motor Drive The tenth Middle East Power Systems Conference, Dec. 1315, Port Said, Egypt. November 2005
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Multilevel Modulation for AC Motor drive, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. vol.49.NO.3, september 2000.
[18] Forati Kashani, and DE Doncker Optimization of multilevel voltage source converters for medium-voltage DC
[19] H.A.Ashour, A.El-Shazely Low Cost Three-Phase Emergency Power Supply CIRED International conference,
Turin, Greece, 2005.
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Alexandria, Egypt, 2004

Inverter configuration
Switching devices
Freewheeling diodes
Clamping diodes
Flying capacitors
DC sources

Diode-Clamped
2(m-1)
2(m-1)
(m-1)(m-2)
0
(m-1)
(series dc supplies or
capacitors)

Flying-Capacitor
2(m-1)
2(m-1)
0
(m-1)(m-2)
(m-1)
(series dc supplies or
capacitors)

Cascaded
2(m-1)
2(m-1)
0
0
(m-1)/2
(isolated dc supplies)

Table 1: Comparison of components requirements per phase for different multilevel inverter configurations

(a) Circuit diagram

(a) Output phase voltage

(b) Diode clamped

(b) +Vdc /2 V ( level-1 )

(c)

0V ( level-2 )

(c) Capacitor clamped

(d) Cascaded
Fig.1: Types multilevel inverter

(d)

-Vdc /2 V

( level-3 )

Fig.2: Transistors and diodes current path in

3-ph, 3-level, 12-switch inverter

+v e

V DC/2

ga1

sa1

ga2

sa2

ga3

sa3

ga4

sa4

gb1

sb1

gb2

sb2

gb3

sb3

gb4

sb4

gc1

sc1

gc2

sc2

gc3

sc3

gc4

sc4

pulses

N1
PH1

ph1
R2

PH2
N3

R1.

mesurements2

sco

N2

sig

sig

mesurements1

PH3
s+

(a) Gate signals

si-s

R1

Switches.
R2

R3

V .DC/2
99

ph3
R3
s+
ssco
i-s

(b) Vao

mesurements3

(a) Overall system

= 00

(c)

Vab

(d)

VaN
= 200

Fig 4 : Increasing number of levels by

changing the delay angle

(b) One leg of the 3-ph inverter

Fig 3: Simulink diagrams of the 3-ph 12-switch
inverter as an example of different simulated inverters

(a) Transient motor Speed

output current of 3-level 3ph 12-switches with motor
25
20

(a) 3-ph 12-switch 7-level with one control delay angle

line current

15
armature current, Amp.

10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25

0.5

1.5
time -sec.

2.5

(b) Transient line current

output current of 3-level 3ph 12-switches with motor

output current of 7-level 3ph 36-switches with motor

(b) 3-ph 24-switch 9-level with two control delay angles

10

6
armature current, Amp.

armature current, Amp.

1
0
-1
-2

4
2
0
-2
-4
-6

-3

-8
-4
-10
-5
1.61 1.615 1.62 1.625 1.63 1.635 1.64 1.645 1.65 1.655 1.66
time -sec.

0.015

0.02

0.025
0.03
time -sec.

0.035

0.04

(c) Steady state line currents

phase voltage of 3-level 3ph 12-switches with motor
200
150
100

volt

50
0
-50
-100

(c) 3-ph 36-switch 11-level with three control delay angles

-150
-200
0.82

Gate signals

0.83

0.84

0.85

0.86

Phase voltage ( VaN)

0.87

0.88

(d) Steady state phase voltage

12-switch
Fig 5: Increasing number of levels by
increasing number of inverter switches

24-switch

36-switch

Fig 6: Direct 3-ph induction motor staring

waveforms when being fed through different
multilevel inverter configurations

5th

7th

(a) = 20o ( no harmonics elimination)

5th

(b)

= 18o (elimination of 5th harmonics order)

5th

(c)

7th

7th

= 12.857o (elimination of 7th harmonics order)

Fig 7: Selection of delay angle () for elimination of

certain harmonics order in the 12- switch inverter

Ch1
5th

7th

Ch2
Ch3

(a) 1= 40 & 2= 20
(no harmonics elimination)
o

Ch4
(Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, Ch4 are 12V/div)

(Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, Ch4 are 25V/div)

(a) Gate signals of leg (A) 4 switches

5th

Ch1

7th

Ch2

(b) 1= 30.857o & 2= 5.1429o

(elimination of 5th and 7th harmonics order)

Ch3
(Ch1, Ch2, Ch3 are 50V/div)

Fig 8: Selection of delay angles (1 & 2) for

elimination of certain harmonics order in the
24-switch inverter

(Ch1, Ch2, Ch3 are 50V/div)

(b) 3-ph phase voltages

Ch1
Ch2
Ch3
(Ch1, Ch2, Ch3 are 50V/div)

(Ch1, Ch2, Ch3 are 50V/div)

(c) 3-ph line voltages

(a) Block diagram

Ch1

Inverse
signals
generator
(Q1----Q6)

12-switch
Multilevel
inverter

PIC
module
(Q1----Q6)

12 gate
drive
circuits
(b) Photograph
Fig 9: Experimental setup

Ch2

(c) Motor phase voltage and current

(Ch1 is 50V/div , Ch2 is 2A/div ) (Ch1 is 25V/div , Ch2 is 0.5A/div )

Experimental

Simulated

Fig 10: Experimental and simulated waveforms

of 3-ph 12-switch NPC inverte ( = 200 )