This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TEC.2018.2874076, IEEE
Transactions on Energy Conversion
1

An Efficient Single-Sourced Asymmetrical Cascaded

Multilevel Inverter with Reduced Leakage Current
Suitable for Single-Stage PV Systems
Ashraf Ahmed, Member, IEEE, Mohana Sundar, Joung-Hu Park1, Senior Member, IEEE


Abstract—An isolated single sourced multi-output dc/dc
converter with a high-frequency link was proposed before to feed
different cells of the Asymmetrical Cascaded H-bridge (ACHB)

Vaux2-dc
inverter. One of the fundamental advantages of the ACHB is that
the main H-bridge is commutated with fundamental frequency,
passing the majority of the inverter power. However, the isolated
DC/DC converter needs to be connected to the main voltage source Auxiliary 2 HB
with high-voltage/high-frequency switches, which limits the power
capability and the efficiency of the converter. In this paper, a Grid

Vsux1-dc
switching pattern based on nearest level modulation (NLM) High voltage/ High
frequency switches
method is proposed to command all the power to be transferred
through the main H-bridge. Therefore, the power circulates Auxiliary 1 HB
between the auxiliary H-bridges with no need for high voltage
switches. As a result, a single-input single-output auxiliary

converter is needed with only 5% of the power rating. This
solution reduces cost and size while it improves the efficiency of
the converter. Furthermore, the architecture makes the inverter
more suitable for high power and high voltage applications. The
inverter switching strategy is based on programmable firing
angles. The main dc-link of the grid connected inverter is
controlled to achieve maximum power point tracking (MPPT),
while the DC/DC isolated converter is controlled to regulate the
auxiliary DC-links. The proposed topology is verified by
simulation and experimental results using a 1.5kW hardware
prototype.
Index Terms—ACHB inverter, programmable firing angles,
High-frequency link converter, THD minimization.
I. INTRODUCTION
M ulti-level inverters are desirable in many applications
because of the high output-power capacity with small
output filters [1-2]. Asymmetrical Cascaded H-Bridge (ACHB)
multi-level inverters as shown in Fig. 1, among all, have been
acknowledged as one of the promising solutions, because high
number of levels can be produced with small number of H-bride
cells compared to symmetrical Cascaded H-bridge (CHB)
inverters [3]. In these kinds of inverters, every H-bridge
inverter needs to be sourced through an isolated DC-DC
converter with a different value from the other H-bridge cells.
This research was supported by the KIAT(Korea Institute for Advancement
of Technology grant funded by the Korea Government(MOTIE : Ministry of
Trade Industry and Energy). (No. P0002397, HRD program for Industrial
Convergence of Wearable Smart Devices. This work is submitted ONLY BY
INVITATION-Special Issue: Power Conversion & Control in Photovoltaic
Power Plants. 1 Joung-Hu Park is a corresponding author. He is with the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea (e-
mail: wait4u@ssu.ac.kr). Ashraf Ahmed and Mohammad and Mohana Sundar
are also with the same Department. (e-mail: ashraf_rshwan@yahoo.com, and
mohanfeb1190@gmail.com).
Vmain-dc
VS
PV
Source
Main HB
Fig.1.Circuit diagram of the single-sourced ACHB using High-Frequency
Link (HFL), the eliminated high-voltage/high-frequency switches are
highlighted by dashed lines.
The main H-bridges is sourced by the highest DC voltage value,
and as a result majority of the power passes through it. As the
main H-bridge switches at the fundamental frequency, the
switching losses are noticeably reduced, which significantly
improves the system efficiency. Furthermore, H-bridges in the
ACHB are regulated with low frequency, so the inverter is
suitable for high power/high voltage applications. The main
drawback of ACHB inverters is the necessity for a number of
isolated power sources [4-10].
Normally, multiple-output power transformers are used to
connect the single source to the multi-level inverter cells [11].
However, bulky transformers and complex peripheral reset
circuits make the solution not practical for many applications
such as electric vehicles. A potential solution is to use a high-
frequency link with single-input/multi-outputs to feed the
auxiliary H-bridge cells simultaneously [12-15]. Figure 1
shows the circuit diagram for this topology. Normally, nearly
20 % of the total power should flow through the auxiliary cells,
which makes cost and size of the power circuit considerably
high. An improved solution was proposed to reduce the size
and cost of the circuit using a modulation strategy where nearly
2 % of the power passes through the auxiliary H-bridge cells
[13]. The drawback of this topology is the high-frequency/
high-voltage switches which connect the high-frequency-link
converter to the main power supply, increasing cost, size and
losses. Therefore, connecting the high-frequency-link
converter to the main power supply limits the benefits of the

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topology. Other solutions proposed with floating capacitors as subscripts aux1, aux2 represent variables for the auxiliary H-
sources [16,17]. In both cases, a floating capacitor was used for bridge cells 1 and 2 respectively. The subscript (p) represents
auxiliary 1 or 2. However, the other auxiliary cell is still power- the peak value of the waveform while (1) represents the
supplied from the main high-voltage rail. In reference [18], the fundamental value. Subscript (inv) represents the inverter AC
floating capacitor was proposed for one cell but with 9-levels, output. Consequently, Fig. 2 shows a generalized inverter
which is no improvement from [16, 17]. Following subsections output voltage waveform for a single-phase ACHB inverter.
summarize objectives, research challenges and contributions. Considering that there is no jump for any level in the output,
the maximum output voltage of the inverter can be calculated
A. Objectives and challenges
by summing the fundamental harmonics of each voltage step
The main objectives and challenges of the paper are: 1) To using Fourier series analysis [15-16].
eliminate the connection between the main power supply and Vinv−1p = V1−1p + V2−1p + ⋯ + Vn−1p (1)
the high-frequency link converter, eliminating the need for high
4
voltage/ high frequency switching semiconductor devices in the Vinv−1p = ∑Lj=1 Vj cos αj (2)
π
circuit, which reduces the size and the cost of the transformer.
Cj
2) To switch the main H-bridge with the fundamental frequency αj = sin−1 ( ) (3)
M
assuring more applicable topology for high power/high voltage
applications. 3) To guarantee maximum number of levels with where M is the modulation index, α j is the firing angle of level
minimum THD. 4) To assure standard leakage current value. j, L is the total positive or negative number of levels, Vj is the
DC voltage level and Cj is a constant compared to the control
B. Contributions signal Msin(ωt) to decide the level j of the switching pattern
The main contributions of this paper can be summarized as [19].
follows: 1) A switching strategy based on nearest level
modulation (NLM) is proposed [19-23]. It is based on LVdc
optimizing programmable firing angles for various modulation (L-1)Vdc
indexes to achieve; zero power flows from the main H-bridge
to the auxiliary H-bridges, and the power in the two auxiliary
H-bridges are equal in magnitude. 2) The switching strategy is
optimized to achieve minimum THD in the output of the
Vinv (V)

inverter. 3) The inverter is modulated such that the power flows

between the auxiliary H-bridge cells as minimum as possible,
i.e. in this case for 27 levels (1:3:9), they are less than 5% of V
dc
the rated total output power. 4) The main H-bridge is
commutated with fundamental frequency assuring minimum
leakage current. 5) As the leakage current is less than the α1 α3 α13 π/2
standards, a bulky transformer is not needed in the α2
configuration. The German DIN VDE 0126-1-1 standard,
regarding transformer-less PV inverters connected to the grid, Fig. 2. Voltage waveform of the proposed 27 level Multi-level inverter
indicates that: the system should be disconnected if the average
leakage current is higher than 30 mA. The perturb-and-observe Considering that the ACHB voltage sources are scaled in
algorithm is implemented to maximize the output power of the power of 3 with the lowest voltage value, Vdc, the peak of the
PV source. The auxiliary DC-link voltages are also controlled fundamental output voltage Vinv-1 (Vinv−1p ) will be;
4Vdc
to maintain the voltage ratio (1:3:9). Vinv−1p = ∑Lj=1 cos αj (4)
π
Section II of this paper provides a theoretical proof using
2j+1
power analysis for the proposed switching strategy. Section III Cj = (5)
3N
provides the control-loop design. Experimental verification
with 1.5 kW hardware prototype is provided in section IV. Then, from (3), the firing angle equation is;
Finally, the paper will be concluded with future work. α𝑗 = sin−1 (
2𝑗+1
) (6)
𝑀∙3𝑁

II. OPERATING PRINCIPLES The fundamental voltage peak for every H-bridge cell
The ACHB inverter topology is based on multiple number (𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥1−1𝑝 , 𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥2−1𝑝 ) could be calculated as in Eq. (7) and (8),
of H-bridge inverter cells (N) which are cascaded with different provided that the fundamental voltages of the different H-
source voltage values. And, each inverter cell can provide 3 bridge cells are in phase.
N=2 N=1
voltage levels. Nearest level modulation (NLM) technique is Vaux1−1p = Vinv−1p | − Vinv−1p | (7)
applied to control the ACHB inverter in this paper. The control
N=3 N=2
technique is based on choosing the voltage level nearest to the Vaux2−1p = Vinv−1p | − Vinv−1p | (8)
reference voltage. In the analysis through this paper, subscript
(main) represents a variable for the main H-bridge cell which As the H-bridge cells are in series, the current is the same in
is the highest DC voltage cell as shown in Fig.1. Furthermore, all the H-bridges. Taking that into account, the per-unit power

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for every H-bridge versus the rating power could be sketched

1.2
according to the modulation index variation (M) as shown in P
Main
Fig. 3(a). The figure shows that the total inverter power and the P
Aux1
1 P =P
main H-bridge power are equivalent to each other in two P
Aux2
Out Main

modulation index values. The power flow between the auxiliary 0.8 P
Out
H-bridges at these two points is zero. Therefore, the inverter
does not need the auxiliary converters to be connected to the

Power (p.u.)
0.6
source. Only a low voltage isolated dc/dc converter is needed
to connect between the two low-voltage auxiliary H-bridges. In 0.4
this case, the power circulating between the two auxiliary H- P =-P =4.5% P
Aux2 Mux1 Out
bridges is less than 5% of the total inverter power. The number 0.2

of levels expected in case of such kind of topology is 21. The

THD versus the number of levels are shown in Fig. 3(b). It 0

shows that the THD is nearly 3.9 %, at the 21 level. The inverter
-0.2
output power (Pout) equals to the main H-bridge power (Pmain) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
in this case, and so the peak of the main voltage is; Modulation index (M)

𝑀𝑉𝑖𝑛𝑣−1𝑝 = 𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛−1𝑝 (9) (a)

Vmain-1p is the peak of the fundamental voltage component of 35

the main H-bride inverter.
4V
Vmain−1p = main−dc cos α5 (10) 30
π

The angle α5 which is the main H-bridge cell firing angle (see 25
Fig. 2), then, can be found from,
𝐶
α5 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛−1 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 (11) 20
THD (%)
𝑀
Therefore;
2
√𝑀2 −𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 15
cos α5 = (12)
𝑀
10 At 21 levels, THD=3.9%
and from Eq.(10), (12),
4𝑉 2
𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛−1𝑝 = 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛−𝑑𝑐 √𝑀2 − 𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝑀𝑉𝑜−1𝑝 (13) 5
𝑀𝜋
The final result of the derivation,

4𝐾𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 0
𝑀2 = 2
√𝑀2 − 𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 ` (14) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
𝜋 Positive number of levels
𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛−𝑑𝑐
where 𝐾𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 = . (b)
𝑉𝑜1 Fig. 3. Output quality of the 27-level inverter (a) Power output in per unit for
Solving equation (14) for M, we can get a generalized each cell (b) THDs of the output voltage.
equation for the required modulation indexes 𝑀𝑐 as in Eq. (15).
2
The programmable firing angles method is proposed to
𝐾𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 4𝜋2 𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛
𝑀𝑐 = √8 ± 2√16 − 2 (15) enable the variable modulation indexes. The method is based
𝜋 𝐾𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛
upon finding an optimal firing-angle-set pattern according to
For 1:3:9 inverter with the per-unit power sketched in Fig. the various modulation indexes by minimization of the output
𝐾 2∙3𝑁−1 inverter voltage THDs. Figure 4 shows the inverter output
3(a), 𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛
2
, 𝐾𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝑁
3 −1
, and N=3. The required
voltage (Vinv), the main H-bridge output (Vmain), auxiliary 1 H-
modulation index Mc is 0.793. Ratio of the power circulating bridge output (Vaux1) and auxiliary 2 H-bridge output (Vaux2).
between the two auxiliary H-bridges to the total power, could The inverter output voltage THD is minimized to find the firing
be calculated from; angles α1 to α13. The THD function is given by,
𝑁=2
𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥1−1𝑝 𝑉𝑜−1𝑝 | 2 2
= −1 (16) √𝑉𝑜−𝑟𝑚𝑠 −𝑉𝑜−1𝑟𝑚𝑠
𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛−1𝑝 2
𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛−𝑑𝑐 √𝑀2 −𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑇𝐻𝐷 = (17)
𝑉𝑜−1𝑟𝑚𝑠

The power is negative in this case, which means that the first where Vo-rms is the rms value of the output voltage waveform.
auxiliary H-bridge is in regenerative mode. One problem with Vo-1rms is the rms value of the fundamental component of the
this topology is the need for a fixed modulation index. However, output voltage which is given by,
1
the fixed switching patterns with fixed modulation index are Vo−1rms = (Vmain−1p + Vaux1−1p + Vaux2−1p ) (18)
√2
not suitable for power electronics applications corresponding to
variation of the main DC-link voltage level and load conditions. Using Fourier series, the expressions of Vmain-1p, Vaux1-1p, and
Vaux2-1p could be calculated from Eq. (19), (20) and (21).

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4Vmain−dc shown in Fig. 5(b). The results show that with the proposed
Vmain−1p = cos α5 (19)
π
4V cos α2 − 2cos α5 + method the THD increases significantly when the modulation
Vaux1−1p = aux1−dc [ ] (20) indexes are higher than 0.35 and less than 0.85. Therefore, the
π cos α8 + cos α11
cos α1 − 2cos α2 + cos α3 + operating region is chosen between 0.35 and 0.85. It can be
cos α4 − 2cos α5 + cos α6 + noticed in the figure that the two lines intersect in 2 points. In
4V
Vaux2−1p = aux2−dc cos α7 − 2cos α8 + cos α9 + (21) the working region, the THD is worst between 0.4 and 0.6 while
π
cos α10 − 2cos α11 + cos α12 + the THD is better elsewhere in the operating region.
[ cos α13 ]
TABLE I. FIRING ANGLE SETS FOR THE PROPOSED METHOD ACCORDING
TO THE MODULATION INDEX VARIATION
Firing angle
M=0.35 M=0.5 M=0.7 M=0.85
in radians
α1 0.16110075 0.073752 0.052911 0.045803
Vinv

α2 0.50117449 0.222682 0.159935 0.137836

α3 0.930146616 0.37703 0.268476 0.231164
α4 1.211427079 0.541145 0.381069 0.26803
α5 1.211427079 0.953814 0.634329 0.26803
α6
Vmain

1.570796327 0.953814 0.634329 0.52812

V α7 1.570796327 1.275982 0.761325 0.637609
main-dc
α8 1.570796327 1.570796 0.920901 0.757707
α9 1.570796327 1.570796 1.12522 0.892546
α10 1.570796327 1.570796 1.570796 1.055609
Vaux1

V
aux1-dc α11 1.570796327 1.570796 1.570796 1.293899
α12 1.570796327 1.570796 1.570796 1.570796
α13 1.570796327 1.570796 1.570796 1.570796
Vaux2

30
V
aux2-dc

α 1 α5 α 8 α11 α13 π/2 25 Working region

α2
Fig. 4. The waveforms for each H-bridge with the corresponding firing angles 20
THD (%)

The waveform RMS value could be calculated as follows: 15

1
Vo−rms = ∫(vmain (t) + vaux1 (t) + vaux2 (t))2 dt (22)
T
10

The THD function in Eq. (17) can be minimized under the

following constraints in Eq. (23) to (25). The firing angles for 5
the second auxiliary H-bridge should be more than zero and less
than π/2 as in Eq. (23). The constraint in Eq. (24) means the 0
0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
power produced by the main H-bridge (Pmain) is equivalent to Modulation index
the total inverter output power (Pout). The constraint in Eq. (25) (a)
assures a condition that the power will flow between the two
0.9
auxiliary H-bridges.Vaux1-1p and Vaux2-1p are defined in Eq. (20), P
Mux1
(21). The DC values in all the equations in this minimization 0.8
P
Mux2
process are in per-unit values. 0.7
π P
Main
0 ≤ α1 ≤ α2 ≤ α3 … . . ≤ α12 ≤ α13 ≤ (23) 0.6 Pout
2
4V P =P
𝑃main = 𝑃out = main−dc cos α5
Power (p.u.)

(24) 0.5 out Main

π
Vaux1−1p + Vaux2−1p = 0 (25) 0.4

0.3
In this paper, a Matlab® minimization algorithm is used to P =-P
Aux1 Aux2
0.2
find the firing angles for different modulation indexes taking
the above constraints into account. A sample of the results of 0.1
the minimization process is given in Table I. The Table shows 0
the firing angle set for some modulation indexes. Figure 5(a) -0.1
shows the THDs in percentage versus modulation indexes for 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Modulation index
the adaptive firing angle method (solid line). The dashed line
(b)
shows the THDs for the traditional NLM method the same as Fig. 5. Optimization results for the proposed firing angles showing (a) THD
in Fig. 3(b). The results of the power distribution analysis are versus modulation index (b) Power in per unit for the 3 inverter cells.

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converter voltage controller is described first in this section

Figure 5(b) shows the inverter output (Pout) matching the followed by the inverter MPPT controller. The DHB converter
main cell power (Pmain) for every value of the modulation index. is controlled by the phase-shift angle between the primary and
Whereas, the two auxiliary cells (Paux1 and Paux2) are equivalent the secondary legs with a fixed duty ratio at 50%. The second
in magnitude but opposite in direction, which means the power auxiliary H-bridge is considered as resistive load to simplify
could flow from one cell to the other. The power flows from the analysis while the first auxiliary one is considered a voltage
auxiliary 2 to auxiliary 1 when the modulation index is less than source. Both, the average auxiliary power (Paux) as well as the
0.43, and the power flows in the opposite direction as the output voltage (Vaux1-dc) can be controlled by the phase shift
modulation index is more than 0.43. The auxiliary power is (ϕaux), see Eq. (26) [25]. The average current over one switching
very small (less than 1%) when the modulation index is cycle at auxiliary-2 side is given by Eq. (27). This is nonlinear
between 0.6 and 0.7, which results into an optimized efficiency. function which is linearized around a specific operating point
On the other hand, the auxiliary power is maximum (nearly 7%) ϕaux0 to give the gain of the DHB converter as in Eq. (28).
at modulation index 0.54. The inverter voltage outputs for the
different modulation indexes (0.35, 0.5, 0.7, 0.85) are simulated 𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥1−𝑑𝑐 𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥2−𝑑𝑐
𝑃𝑎𝑢𝑥 = ∅𝑎𝑢𝑥 (𝜋 − |∅𝑎𝑢𝑥 |) (26)
and shown in Fig. 6. 8𝑛𝜋2 𝐿𝑓
𝑃𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥1−𝑑𝑐
𝐼𝑎𝑢𝑥2−𝑑𝑐 = = ∅𝑎𝑢𝑥 (𝜋 − |∅𝑎𝑢𝑥 |) (27)
𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥2−𝑑𝑐 8𝑛𝜋2 𝐿𝑓
300 𝑑𝐼𝑎𝑢𝑥2−𝑑𝑐 𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥1−𝑑𝑐
M=0.85 𝐾𝑎𝑢𝑥 = | = (𝜋 − 2|∅𝑎𝑢𝑥0 |) (28)
𝑑∅𝑎𝑢𝑥 ϕaux0 8𝑛𝜋2 𝐿𝑓
M=0.7
200
M=0.5
The DHB transfer function (Gaux) from Vaux2-dc to ϕaux can be
M=0.35 simplified to a first order transfer function as in Eq. (29), where
100
Raux is the equivalent resistance of the power passing through
the auxiliary converter, Caux2 is the capacitance for auxiliary-2
Vinv

0
DC-link neglecting the DHB high frequency capacitors. A PI
controller is designed to regulate Vaux2-dc as in Eq. (30).
-100
𝑉𝑎𝑢𝑥2−𝑑𝑐 𝑅𝑎𝑢𝑥
𝐺𝑎𝑢𝑥 = = 𝐾𝑎𝑢𝑥 (29)
∅𝑎𝑢𝑥 1+𝑅𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝐶𝑎𝑢𝑥2 𝑆
-200 1+𝑆
𝐾𝑝
𝐾𝑖
𝐺𝑐−𝑎𝑢𝑥 = 𝐾𝑖 (30)
𝑆
-300
0.06 0.065 0.07 0.075 0.08 0.085 0.09 0.095 0.1 Then the open loop gain will be,
Time (s) 𝐾𝑝
1+𝑆
Fig. 6. Simulation results for the inverter output voltage with different 𝐾𝑖
𝐺𝑐−𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝐺𝑎𝑢𝑥 = 𝐾𝑖 𝐾𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝑅𝑎𝑢𝑥 (31)
modulation indexes using the proposed programmable firing angles. 𝑆(1+𝑅𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝐶𝑎𝑢𝑥2 𝑆)

𝐾𝑝
The waveforms represent the time-domain results of Table I. Taking: = 𝑅𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝐶𝑎𝑢𝑥2 , the pole and zero would cancel
𝐾𝑖
The gate signal generation in this case is developed using a
each other and the system will be reduced to a first order system.
scheme shown in Fig. 7. Eighteen firing angles look-up table
By choosing the required time constant τaux of the closed-loop
are produced as a function of the modulation index. The other 1
look-up table produces the switching pattern as a function of system, Ki can be calculated from 𝐾𝑖 = , then
𝜏𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝐾𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝑅𝑎𝑢𝑥
the firing angles. The control strategy is explained in the 𝐾𝑝 = 𝐾𝑖 𝑅𝑎𝑢𝑥 𝐶𝑎𝑢𝑥2 .
following section.
The control loop is designed to be faster than the main DC-
α1
link control loop, and that to assure Vaux2-dc is able to track the
reference which is Vmain-dc/9. In this case, τaux is chosen to be
M Switching
Firing angles
Pattern Driver around 1 ms. The inverter is used to regulate the main DC-link
Lookup table
Lookup table voltage which is the PV source voltage. The MPPT Perturb-
α13 and-observe control algorithm provides the voltage reference
To (Vmain-dcr) for the control loop [26-27].
Sin(ωt) switches A PLL maintains the inverter synchronized to the utility grid.
As the DHB DC/DC voltage controller is quite robust the
Fig. 7. Switching strategy block diagram with programmable firing angles. inverter model could be presented as in Fig. 8(b). Using Fig.
8(b), the non-linear state space representation can be as in Eqs.
III. INVERTER CONTROL (32) and (33). Both equations are linearized and the MATLAB
The system shown in Fig.1 is controlled to maximize the is used to design the current and voltage PI controllers.
power of the PV source using voltage feedback loop. A Dual 𝑑𝑖𝑔
𝐿𝑔 = 𝑚𝑉𝑃𝑉 − 𝑉𝑔 (32)
Half Bride (DHB) topology, shown in Fig. 8(a), is applied to 𝑑𝑡
𝑑𝑉𝑃𝑉 1 1
link between the two auxiliary H-bridges. The auxiliary DC/DC 𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 = −𝑚𝑖𝑔 − 𝑉 + 𝑉 (33)
𝑑𝑡 𝑅𝑠 𝑃𝑉 𝑅𝑠 𝑠

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Transactions on Energy Conversion
6

Paux Iaux2-dc

n:1
Vaux1-dc Caux2 Raux VAux2-dc

φ aux

(a)
Lg
IPV Ig
Rs

VPV Cmain ACHB

Vg
Vs Inverter

PV source
model

m
(a)

(b)
Fig. 8. Equivalent circuits for (a) the auxiliary DHB converter (b) the ACHB
inverter.

The open loop bode design plots are shown in Fig. 9. Figure
9(a) shows the inner current loop bode plot design. The loop
was designed with cross-over frequency of around 3 k rad/s,
and with around 31-degrees phase margin.
The outer voltage loop bode design plot is shown in Fig. 9(b).
The loop was designed with around 25 rad/s cross-over
frequency and 88.7 degrees phase margin. Both DHB control
loop and inverter control loop are shown in Fig. 10. The MPPT
algorithm produces the reference for the main-dc link voltage
(Vmain-dcr) control loop. The auxiliary DHB converter voltage
loop reference (Vaux2_dcr) is calculated online using the sensed
main dc-link feedback voltage.

(b)
Fig. 9. Inverter open-loop Bode plot (a) inner current & (b) outer voltage loops.

Inverter
controller Voltage
Loop Kw
Delay Current
Vmain-dcr Loop Msin(ωt+ɵ)
MPPT M
IPV
Controller
PI × PI ÷
Switching To
Vgrid
Vmain-dc
Vmain-dc strategy inverter
VPLL PLL switches
PLL Vgrid
Vgrid Feed
forward
DC/DC converter
controller Kw
1/9
Delay

Vaux2-dc_r φ
PI To DC/DC
D PWM converter
0.5
Vaux2-dc

Fig. 10. Inverter and auxiliary DC/DC converter control loops for the proposed topology.

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Transactions on Energy Conversion
IV. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION
The ACHB circuit shown in Fig. 1 was implemented in
hardware to verify the proposed circuit topology. The circuit
was controlled using TMS320F28335 Texas Instruments
digital signal controller with the XDS100v1 development board.
The part numbers are IRFP4868 and IRFP4668PbF for the
main and the auxiliary H-bridge switches respectively. The
hardware results were executed with V main-dc = 225 V, Vaux1-dc =
75 V, and Vaux2-dc = 25 V. First, the switching strategy is
verified compared to the theoretical results in Fig. 6. The
efficiency of the proposed topology is also verified for different
load values, and the leakage current is tested after that. Finally,
the inverter grid connection control scheme combined with the
MPPT and the DC/DC converter auxiliary voltage controllers
are verified. The proposed programmable firing angle method
was tested and verified using the experimental results shown in
Fig. 11. Figures 11(b) and 11(c) show, individually, the voltage
results of the modulation indexes (M=0.5, 0.75 respsectively).
Vinv at M=0.75
Vinv at M=0.5
Vaux1-dc=75 V
Vaux2-dc=25V
(a)
Vinv at M=0.5
Vaux1-dc=75 V
Vaux2-dc=25 V
(b)
Vinv at M=0.75
Vaux1-dc=75 V
Vaux2-dc=25 V
(c)
Fig. 11. Experimental Results with programmable firing angles (a) A step
change from M=0.5 to 0.75 (b) Results with M=0.5 (c) Results with M=0.75.
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7
The results show the same theoretical number of levels
matching the theoretical results in Fig. 6. For M=0.5, the
number of levels is 13 with nearly 10% THD, and with M=0.75,
the number of levels is 21 with THD=4.6%. The Fluke 434
power quality analyzer is used to measure the THD values. The
test results show that Vaux2-dc is regulated successfully to be kept
fixed with the step change in the modulation index. Vaux1-dc
follows Vaux2-dc for power balance without voltage regulation.
Figure 12 shows the DC/DC converter output voltage (Vaux2-
dc) and output current (Iaux2-dc) with the inverter output voltage
(Vinv) and output current (Iinv). As shown in the figure, the total
inverter power is around 16.6 kW, and the DC/DC auxiliary
converter power is around 70 W. The modulation index in this
case is around 0.8. The percentage of power between them is
around 4.7 % which is similar to the theoretical results in Fig.
5. The proposed switching strategy could be easily used in
regenerative mode with the same control strategy. That makes
the topology favorable for Electric vehicle applications. The
efficiency versus power is shown in Fig. 13. The test was
applied under the same conditions as the experimental results
in Fig. 11. The maximum efficiency 98.5% was achieved at
1560 W. This efficiency includes the DC/DC half bridge
bidirectional converter. It is expected the efficiency will be
improved for high voltage high power circuits.
Vaux2-dc =24.5 V
Iaux2-dc =2.8 A
Iinv=8.9 A
Vinv = 184 V
Fig. 12. Experimental Results shows the DC/DC DHB converter and inverter
output voltages and currents. The power output of the inverter around 1.66 kW
and the DHB power is around 70 W, with modulation index around 0.8.
100
80
Efficiency (%)
efficiency=98.5%
60
40
20
0
200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Power (W )
Fig. 13. Experimental efficiency results for different power values.
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Transactions on Energy Conversion
A very low leakage current is expected as the main H-bridge
has 60 Hz switching. The PV array source parasitic stray
capacitance is emulated with a capacitor of 100 nF connected
to the main H-bridge [28]. Figure 14 shows the results with
around 1.6 kW output power. The measured root mean square
value leakage current is around 27 mA which is less than
standard 30 mA value in some countries [24]. See reference [28]
for comparison with very similar test conditions.
The system was connected to the grid to perform MPPT test.
The PV source is simulated by voltage source and a resistance
as in Fig. 8(b). In this case the, the voltage source was around
450 V while the resistance is around 33 Ω. A Perturb-and-
observe MPPT algorithm was implemented with a voltage step
of 10 V and time step of 2 seconds. The maximum power in
this case is around 1.5 kW. The results for test are shown in Fig.
15. Figure 15(a) shows the MPPT voltage (Vmain-dc=Vpv). The
controller was able to track the maximum power point. V aux2-dc
follows Vmain-dc/9 reference. Vaux1-dc follows Vaux2-dc to keep the
power balance. The input current (Ipv) is also shown with
average value around 6.8 A. A zoom in in the results with
inverter output voltage is shown in Fig. 15(b).
Vinv=182 V
Iinv=8.9 A
Leakage current=27 mA
Fig. 14. Leakage current experimental result showing a value around 27 mA
with a total DC-Link of 325 V. Power is around 1.6 kW
V. CONCLUSION
This paper has demonstrated the possibility of using ACHB
multilevel inverters for high-power/ high-voltage applications
efficiently. With a special switching pattern, the single-sourced
ACHB inverter with a high-frequency link converter can be
implemented without connecting the converter to the high-
voltage energy source. The proposed switching pattern enables
minimum power (less than 5%) to flow between the two
auxiliary H-bridge cells only. The proposed topology has
reduced the size and the cost of the high frequency transformer.
The control strategy is based on programmable firing angles
found by minimizing the THD function for every modulation
index. It was found that the switching pattern accomplishes an
acceptable range of THD values if the modulation index was
between 0.35 to 0.85. The control strategy was verified by 1.5
kW test bed. The experimental results have been proven to
match the analysis. The efficiency of the inverter was found to
be 98.5 % at nearly 1.5 kW. In future work, a three-phase
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8
control system will be proposed with improved control strategy.
Furthermore, the topology will be tested with a higher voltage
source to demonstrate the advantage of removing the high-
voltage / high frequency semiconductor devices.
Vmain-dc =225 V
IPV =6.8 A
Vaux1-dc =76 V
Vaux2-dc = 24.5 V
(a)
Vmain=230 V
Vaux1-dc = 79 V
Vaux2-dc =24.5 V
Vinv =180 V
Vinv =180 V
(b)
Fig. 15. MPPT experimental Results show (a) the three DC-Link voltages and
input current (b) the inverter output voltage.
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Transactions on Energy Conversion
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9
[24] Verband der Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik e.V,
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Ashraf Ahmed (M’09) received the B.Sc. and
M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Assiut
University-Egypt, Cairo University-Egypt in 1999
and 2005 respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree
from University of Durham - UK in 2011, in the field
of renewable energy control and power electronics.
He is currently an Assistant Professor at Soongsil
University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests
include the analysis and design of switching power
converters for renewable energy applications.
Mohana Sundar Manoharan received his B.S. from
the Department of Electrical Engineering of
Kalasalingam University, India, in 2011. He received
his M.S degree in 2013 and is currently working
towards his Ph.D. degree at Soongsil University,
Seoul, Korea. His current research interests include the
analysis and design of Power Conditioning Systems
using Multi-level Inverter.
Joung-Hu Park (S’02 - M’06 – SM’13) received
his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of
Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1999,
2001 and 2006, respectively. He is currently an
Associate Professor at Soongsil University, Seoul,
Korea. From August 2004 to August 2005, he was a
visiting scholar at Virginia Tech. Blacksburg, VA,
USA, and from July 2015 to June 2016, he was a
visiting scholar at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His
current research interests include the analysis of high-frequency switching
converters and renewable energy applications.