Abstract
The new inverter topologies based on switched capacitor concept with voltage boosting ability are attractive for the low voltage applications. Such low voltage requirements allow a single-stage dc-ac power conversion, improving overall system performance, reliability and power density. This brief proposes a new multilevel inverter topology based on the switched-capacitor (SC) with a single source of dc voltage. The proposed topology is ideal for low voltage renewable energy applications. Seven-level (7L) output voltage is accomplished with triple voltage gain using two switched capacitors and 10 switches. Other major features of the proposed topology are self-voltage balancing of capacitor voltages, reduced number of switches with lower voltage stress and generation of negative voltage levels without using backend H-bridge. To show the advantages of the proposed topology, a detailed comparison with other similar topologies with seven-level single-source configuration has been accomplished in this brief. The proposed topology has been tested using the traditional level-shifted sinusoidal pulse width modulation (LS-PWM) technique. This brief includes various experimental results with different operating conditions to prove the performance of the proposed topology.