A two-level inverter based SVPWM algorithm for a multilevel inverter

Abstract

Implementation of space vector modulation for multilevel inverters is complex and computationally intensive due to difficulty in determining the location of reference vector, calculation of on-times and determination of switching state vectors. This paper proposes a simple space vector PWM algorithm for a multilevel inverter based on standard two-level inverter and its implementation. Since the proposed multilevel space vector modulation method uses the basic two-level modulation to calculate the on-times, computation process for n-level inverter becomes simpler and easier. The main advantage of the proposed methodology is that it uses a simple mapping process to achieve the multilevel space vector modulation. The effectiveness of the algorithm has been verified by simulation and experiments, on a 3-level inverter. © 2004 IEEE.