IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 04, NO.

2, JUNE 2016 521

A Pulsewidth Modulation Technique for

High-Voltage Gain Operation of
Three-Phase Z-Source Inverters
Mohamed S. Diab, Ahmed A. Elserougi, Senior Member, IEEE, Ahmed M. Massoud, Senior Member, IEEE,
Ayman S. Abdel-Khalik, Senior Member, IEEE, and Shehab Ahmed, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract— Z-source inverter (ZSI) was recently proposed as

a single-stage buck–boost dc–ac power conversion topology.
It augments voltage boost capability to the typical voltage
buck operation of the conventional voltage source inverter with
enhanced reliability. However, its boosting capability could be
limited; therefore, it may not suit applications requiring a high-
voltage boosting gain. To enhance the boosting capability, this
paper proposes a new pulsewidth modulation (PWM) technique
to control the generation of the shoot-through intervals in
three-phase ZSIs. The proposed modulation technique achieves
a reliable high-voltage gain operation without adding any extra
hardware to the ZSI structure, which preserves its single-stage Fig. 1. ZSI.
buck–boost conversion nature. In this paper, the principle of
the proposed modulation technique is analyzed in detail, and
the comparison of the ZSI performance under the conventional has been recently proposed as a viable solution with several
and the proposed PWM techniques is given. The simulation
and experimental results are shown to verify the analysis of the performance merits [1]. The ZSI can be employed in the
proposed concept. inversion stage as VSI or CSI supporting both buck and boost
Index Terms— Pulsewidth modulation (PWM), shoot functions only in a single stage. The ZSI uses an exclusive
through (ST), voltage boost, Z-source inverter (ZSI). impedance network coupled between the dc voltage source
and the converter circuit. This impedance network consists
I. I NTRODUCTION of inductors and capacitors connected in X-shape, as shown
in Fig. 1, which allows the ZSI to buck or boost its output
T RADITIONAL voltage source inverters (VSIs) and
current source inverters (CSIs) are experiencing buck
and boost dc–ac converter capability, respectively; however,
ac voltage.
Theoretically, the ZSI can produce an infinite gain; however,
they cannot retain the two features together; therefore, their from practical perspectives, the effect of parasitic components
obtainable output voltage range is limited to either less or adversely limits this high gain [2]. On the other hand, for
more than the input voltage. For applications requiring both all existing modulation techniques of ZSIs, there is an inter-
buck and boost voltage conversion, Z-source inverter (ZSI) dependence between the shoot-through (ST) intervals and the
modulation index, which are considered the control parameters
Manuscript received February 16, 2015; revised May 27, 2015; accepted of ZSI gain. This causes a conflict of the output power quality
August 19, 2015. Date of publication August 25, 2015; date of current version and the system boost inversion capability. In other words,
April 29, 2016. This work was supported by the Qatar National Research
Fund, a member of Qatar Foundation, through the National Priorities Research an increase in boost factor would compromise the modula-
Program under Grant NPRP 4-250-2-080. Recommended for publication by tion index and results in a lower modulation index [2], [3].
Associate Editor Jin Wang. In addition, the lower modulation indices increase the voltage
M. S. Diab is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Alexandria
University, Alexandria 21544, Egypt (e-mail: mohamed.said@alexu.edu.eg). stress on the capacitors and the switching devices.
A. A. Elserougi and A. S. Abdel-Khalik are with the Texas A high-voltage gain is usually required in single-stage grid-
A&M University at Qatar, Doha 23874, Qatar, and also with the Electrical connected photovoltaic (PV) applications to meet the grid
Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria Univer-
sity, Alexandria 21544, Egypt (e-mail: ahmed.elserogi@qatar.tamu.edu; voltage requirements. The output voltage of PV array could
ayman.abdel-khalik@qatar.tamu.edu). be increased by increasing the number of series connected
A. M. Massoud is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, modules. However, this solution is not reliable at all because
Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar (e-mail: ahmed.massoud@qu.edu.qa)
S. Ahmed is with the Department of Electrical and Computer the failure of one of the PV modules results in a complete loss
Engineering, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha 23874, Qatar (e-mail: of generation [4]. Alternatively, a front-end boost converter
shehab.ahmed@qatar.tamu.edu). may be added, and consequently, the two-stage conversion
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. system will employ an additional control circuit and one
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JESTPE.2015.2472528 more solid-state switch, which adds significant complexity
2168-6777 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
522 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 04, NO. 2, JUNE 2016

and hardware to the conversion system [5], [6]. Therefore,

the single-stage power converters with higher boost ratios are
required, which might be limited in ZSI typical gains. This
leaves a research gap in the development of ZSI with high-
voltage gain.
Over the recent years, researchers have proposed various
ZSIs topologies in numerous diversified studies. Some of
them have directed their studies to modeling, control, appli-
cations, and modulation techniques of ZSIs [1], [7]–[18],
while others have focused on the development of new
ZSI topologies [19]–[38]. Through extensive efforts, several
studies have been oriented toward improving the gain of the
converter and reducing the stresses on the capacitors, induc-
tors, and switching devices. Part of these studies have been
directed to develop pulsewidth modulation (PWM) approaches
to control the generation of the ST intervals with the attempt Fig. 2. Comparison of the voltage gain for different modulation techniques
of obtaining elevated voltage gain, thus limiting the voltage for traditional ZSIs.
stress across the switching devices [1], [10]–[12]. Others tried
to develop different topologies of the impedance network to
obtain the aforementioned goal [19]–[25].
Navigating through ZSIs’ literature, a simple boost control
method was introduced in [1]. With this control method, the
voltage stress across the switches is quite high, which restricts
the attainable voltage gain due to the limited voltage rating of
the switching devices. A maximum boost control approach was
presented in [10] to achieve the minimum voltage stress across
the switches. Nevertheless, the Z-source network experiences
low-frequency ripples. A maximum constant boost method was
proposed in [11] to achieve maximum voltage boost/gain while
maintaining a constant boost viewed from the Z-source net-
work and producing no low-frequency ripples associated with
the output frequency, which significantly reduces the passive
components’ requirements of the Z-network. A modified space
vector PWM (MSVPWM) was proposed in [12], which assigns Fig. 3. Comparison of the boost ability of different topologies using the
the ST intervals evenly to each phase within the zero voltage maximum boost control method.
periods. Compared with simple, maximum, and constant boost
methods, the MSVPWM covers the same voltage gains in a was proposed in [22], which provides a robust step-up inver-
wider range of the modulation index; however, the voltage sion to overcome the boost limitation of the classical ZSI.
stress across the switches is significantly higher than that of In [23], the switched-inductor qZSI was proposed to combine
the simple boost control method. A comprehensive survey of the advantages of both SL-ZSI and qZSI. In [24], the two
the ZSI PWM schemes is introduced in [13] and [14]. These inductors of the impedance network were replaced by a
PWM techniques have a common drawback, where a wide transformer with a turn ratio of 2:1 to obtain high-voltage
range of high-voltage gain is achievable only in a narrow range gain, which is called trans-ZSI. In [25], the boosting factor of
of modulation index. This is due to the nature of the relation the ZSI was improved by adding inductors, capacitors, and/or
between the voltage gain and the modulation index, and the diodes to the impendence network to produce a high dc-link
interdependence between the modulation index and the ST voltage for the main power circuit from a very low-input dc
intervals. As shown in Fig. 2, the characteristic curve between voltage, which is called diode-assisted qZSI and capacitor-
the voltage gain and the modulation index has a sharp variation assisted qZSI. All of these topologies use additional inductors,
at higher voltage gains, which keeps these higher gains very capacitors, and diodes compared with the traditional ZSIs,
sensitive to any small variation in the modulation index. which adds significant complexity and hardware to the power
Recently, some modified impedance networks have been conversion system and could lead to reduction in the effective
proposed for increasing the voltage gain and also reducing voltage gain when the ST or load current is increased. On the
the stresses on the switching devices. In [19]–[21], a class of other hand, the relation between the voltage gain and the
quasi-ZSIs (qZSIs) to overcome the shortcomings of the classi- modulation index is obtained when one of these topologies is
cal ZSI has been proposed which has the advantages of reduc- implemented still inherits the main demerit of the traditional
ing passive component ratings and improving the input profile. ZSI which is the sharp variation at high-voltage gains and the
A successful combination of the ZSI and switched-inductor sensitivity of the higher voltage gains to the small variation of
structure, commonly called switched-inductor ZSI (SL-ZSI) the modulation index, as shown in Fig. 3.
DIAB et al.: PWM TECHNIQUE FOR HIGH-VOLTAGE GAIN OPERATION
TABLE I
S HOOT T HROUGH , V OLTAGE B OOST, G AIN , S TRESS , AND C APACITOR V OLTAGE FOR D IFFERENT M ODULATION T ECHNIQUES OF ZSI
This paper proposes a new modulation technique for
three-phase ZSIs, which is capable of reaching a wider
voltage-boost range with high reliability and without adding
extra components. Unlike all the conventional modulation
techniques where the ST duty ratio depends on the modulation
index, the proposed modulation technique decouples the inter-
dependence between the ST duty ratio and the modulation
index keeping the latter constant at its maximum possible
value, and both of the ST duty ratio and the boosting factor
depend on a new parameter rather than the modulation index.
The proposed modulation technique, the relationships of the
voltage gain versus the proposed ST control parameter, and the
voltage stress versus the voltage gain are analyzed in detail in
the Sections III and IV.
The main contributions of this paper can be summarized in
the following.
1) Decoupling the interdependence inherited in all the
conventional modulation techniques of the ZSI, which
exists between the ST duty ratio and the modulation
index, with the possibility of keeping the modulation
index constant at its maximum possible value. Thus,
avoiding any possible contradiction between the output
power quality and the capability of system boost
inversion.
2) Proposing a new ST control parameter rather than
the modulation index, by which the voltage boost is
determined.
3) Achieving high-voltage gains in a wider range of the
proposed ST control parameter with enhanced reliability
and excellent capability of disturbance rejection with a
moderate voltage stress on the capacitors and switching
devices when compared with the conventional modula-
tion techniques.
II. VOLTAGE B OOST AND S TRESS FOR THE
C ONVENTIONAL PWM M ODULATION T ECHNIQUES
A uniqueness of PWM control in ZSI is the ability of the
ST state with the aid of the Z-network to boost the input
dc voltage to a desired ac output voltage that is higher than
523
the available dc-link voltage in a single conversion stage.
This can be done by gating on both the upper and the lower
switches of the same-phase leg. Several PWM techniques can
be used to control the generation of the ST duty cycles. The
most common techniques are simple boost, maximum boost,
maximum constant boost, and MSVPWM. For all of these
modulation schemes, the overall voltage gain G is given by [1]
2Vo ac
G= = MB (1)
Vdc in
where Vo ac is the peak value of the output phase voltage,
Vdc in is the input dc voltage, M is the modulation index, and
B is the boosting factor which can be determined by the ST
period To over the switching cycle T as follows:
1
B= (2)
1 − 2 TTo
where the ST duty cycle Do = (To /T ).
Table I summarizes the important relations for the conven-
tional modulation techniques and the proposed one (in the
proposed scheme, the modulation√ index of the modulating
signals is kept constant (M = 1/ 3), while a new variable,
namely, K , is used to control the ST periods). The detailed
illustration and derivations of the proposed scheme are pre-
sented in the Section III.
A common factor between the conventional modulation
techniques is the interdependence between the ST duty ratio
and the modulation index. As the modulation index decreases,
the voltage gain increases; however, the voltage stress on
the capacitor and the switching devices is increased which
is considered as an obstacle to find the optimum modulation
index at which the maximum gain is achieved with reduced
voltage stress on the passive elements and the switching
devices.
A clear drawback of the conventional modulation techniques
is that the higher voltage gains are located on a very sharp
curve so they are very sensitive to the modulation index
variation. Since the capacitor voltage and inductor current
depend on the modulation index [11], any small fluctuation in
524 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 04, NO. 2, JUNE 2016

the modulation index at these higher voltage gains results in

high ripples in the capacitor voltage and the inductor current.

III. P ROPOSED M ODULATION T ECHNIQUE FOR

T HREE -P HASE Z-S OURCE I NVERTER
To overcome the demerits of the conventional modulation
schemes outlined in the interdependence between the ST duty
ratio and the modulation index, and the sensitivity of the high-
voltage gains to any small variation in the modulation index;
this paper proposes a new modulation technique for the three-
phase ZSIs. In the proposed technique, the interdependent
relation between the ST duty ratio and the modulation index
is decoupled, where the modulation index is kept constant at
its maximum possible value and the boosting factor depends
on a new parameter. The proposed modulation scheme is
inspired from the discontinuous PWM switching patterns [39].
Steinke [40] has proposed a carrier-based method termed
switching frequency optimal PWM in which a zero sequence
component is added to the modulating waveform. This method
takes the instantaneous average of the maximum and minimum
of the reference voltages (Vao ∗ , V ∗ , and V ∗ ) and subtracts
bo co
this average from each of the individual reference voltages
to obtain the modulation signals (Va∗ , Vb∗ , and Vc∗ ) [41]. The
basic reference voltages and their corresponding zero sequence
are defined as in (3) and (4), respectively
Fig. 4. Modulating signals generation in the proposed modulation technique.
∗
Vao = M sin(ωt)
∗ to get the desired modulating signals can be expressed
Vbo = Msin(ωt − 2π/3) (3)
∗ as follows:
Vco = Msin(ωt + 2π/3)
∗ , V ∗ , V ∗ ) + min(V ∗ , V ∗ , V ∗ )
max(Vao bo co ao bo co Vzs proposed
Vzs = (4)   
2 1 d  ∗ ∗ ∗
  ∗ ∗ ∗

= 1 − sgn max Vao , Vbo , Vco max Vao , Vbo , Vco
where M is the modulation index, while Vzs is the zero 2 dt
  
sequence component, which can be expressed generally as [41] 1 d  ∗ ∗ ∗
  ∗ ∗ ∗

+ 1 + sgn min Vao , Vbo , Vco min Vao , Vbo , Vco
∗ ∗ ∗ 2 dt
Vzs = (1 − 2 Ao ) + Ao max(Vao , Vbo , Vco ) (7)
∗ ∗ ∗
+ (1 − Ao )min(Vao , Vbo , Vco ) (5)
where sgn is the sign function which yields 1 for positive
where Ao is a constant ranging from 0 to 1. If Ao = 0.5, then values and −1 for negative values. Then, the modulating
the zero sequence component in (4) can be obtained. signals can be expressed, as in (6), by replacing the zero
The new set of the reference voltages, namely, the modu- sequence voltage (Vzs ) with that given by (7).
lating signals could be obtained as follows [41]: Based on (3), (6), and (7), Fig. 4 shows the generation
of the modulation signals in the proposed modulation tech-
Va∗ = Vao
∗
− Vzs nique. It can be noticed that the proposed modulating signals
Vb∗ = Vbo
∗
− Vzs (Va∗ , Vb∗ , and Vc∗ ) could be considered as the segments of the
Vc∗ = Vco
∗
− Vzs . (6) difference between two corresponding signals of the reference
∗ , V ∗ , and V ∗ ). The segments of the modulation
voltages (Vao bo co
In the proposed scheme, the same concept is used, where signals are changing every 60°, as given in Table II.
the modulating signals of the ZSI are obtained by subtract- In the proposed scheme, it has to be noted, from (6) and (7),
that if the reference voltages (Vao ∗ , V ∗ , and V ∗ ) are
ing the zero sequence voltage (Vzsproposed ) from the reference bo co
voltages (Vao ∗ , V ∗ , and V ∗ ). The proposed modulating signals three-phase balanced sinusoidal waveforms with amplitude M,
bo co
(Va∗ , Vb∗ , and Vc∗ ) are selected to be, as shown in Fig. 4, such the peak√of the three modulating signals (Va∗ , Vb∗ , and Vc∗ )
that the corresponding line voltages are full sinusoidal wave- will be√ 3M. Therefore, in order to avoid overmodulation
forms with a unity gain, and the duration at which these refer- (i.e., 3M ≤ 1), the amplitude of the original reference √
voltages (Vao ∗ , V ∗ , and V ∗ ) should be limited to 1/ 3
ence voltages are zero will be used to generate the ST pulses. √bo co
The corresponding zero sequence voltage, which should be (i.e., M = 1/ 3), which corresponds to 57.7% of the
subtracted from the reference voltages (Vao ∗ , V ∗ , and V ∗ ), conventional techniques.
bo co
DIAB et al.: PWM TECHNIQUE FOR HIGH-VOLTAGE GAIN OPERATION 525

TABLE II The upper and lower ST envelopes (V p and Vn ) when the

M ODULATING S IGNALS FOR ZSI U SING THE
P ROPOSED M ODULATION T ECHNIQUE
offset K is inserted can be expressed as follows:
 
V p = max Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗
   
+ K 1 − ceil max Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ (8a)
 ∗ ∗ ∗
Vn = min Va , Vb , Vc
   
− K 1 + floor min Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ (8b)
where ceil and floor functions yield the nearest higher and
lower integer of a real number, respectively.
To generate the envelopes in the proposed scheme,
the zero periods in the signals of max (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ ) and
min (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ ) should be replaced by K and −K ,
respectively (as shown in Figs. 5 and 6). Referred to (8a),
ceil(max (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ )) = 1 during the nonzero periods of
max (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ ) signal, i.e., the added part K (1-ceil
(max (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ ))) = 0, and V p = max (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ ).
Alternatively, when ceil(max (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ )) = 0 during the
zero periods of max (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ ) signal, the added part
K (1-ceil(max (Va∗ , Vb∗ , Vc∗ ))) will equal K , i.e., V p will
equal K . Similarly, this can be applied to (8b). The waveform
of the ST envelopes, when the offset K is inserted, is shown
in Fig. 5(b). The generation methodology of the ST envelopes
could be summarized, as shown in Fig. 6. When the carrier
triangular wave is greater than the positive ST envelope V p
or lower than the negative ST envelope Vn , the inverter turns
into an ST zero state, as shown in Fig. 7.

IV. A NALYSIS OF VOLTAGE B OOST AND S TRESS FOR

THE P ROPOSED M ODULATION T ECHNIQUE
To obtain the relationship between the voltage gain and
the ST control parameter (K ) in the proposed modulation
technique, the average ST duty ratio can be estimated with
the aid of Fig. 8. Since the ST state is repeated periodically
every π/3, the ST duty ratio over one switching cycle in the
Fig. 5. Shoot-through envelopes of the proposed modulation interval [(π/6), (π/2)] can be expressed as follows:
technique (a) with K = 0 and (b) with an arbitrary offset K  = 0. √
T01 (θ ) 1 − 3M sin(θ + π/6)
= (9a)
T 2
It has to be noted that the difference between any two T02 (θ ) 1−K
= (9b)
modulating signals gives a full sinusoidal waveform with a T 2 √
unity gain, which represents the corresponding line voltage To (θ ) To1 (θ ) + To2 (θ ) 2 − [K + 3M sin(θ + π/6)]
reference. The two ST envelope signals V p and Vn can be = = .
T T 2
generated by extracting the instantaneous maximum and mini- (9c)
mum values of the three modulating signals (Va∗ , Vb∗ , and Vc∗ ),
as shown in Fig. 5(a). For a controllable generation of the The average duty ratio of the ST can be calculated as follows:
 π/2 √
ST intervals, the zero-level segments in the extracted envelopes 1 To (θ ) π(2 − K ) − 3 3M
can be biased by an offset K , as shown in Fig. 5(b) (ranging Do = dθ = . (10)
π/3 π/6 T 2π
from zero to one).
Since the value of the offset K does not affect the output Then, the boosting factor (B) is obtained as follows:
waveform, then it can be changed to control the ST duty ratio 1 π
to obtain the required voltage boost instead of changing the B= = √ . (11)
1 − 2Do 3 3M − π(1 − K )
modulation index M, allowing the√latter to be constant at its
maximum possible value (M = 1/ 3). The main idea of the The overall voltage gain (G) is determined as follows:
proposed modulation technique is to change the offset K at 2Vo ac πM
constant M to obtain the required voltage boost. In general, as G= = MB = √ . (12)
Vdc in 3 3M − π(1 − K )
the value of K decreases, the ST increases and the boosting
factor of the ZSI increases as well. From [1], the capacitor voltage can be expressed according to
526 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 04, NO. 2, JUNE 2016

Fig. 6. Envelopes generation using the proposed modulation technique.

Fig. 8. Calculation of the average ST duty ratio using the proposed

modulation technique.

Fig. 9(a) shows that at high-voltage gain, the proposed

modulation method has an intermediate voltage gain charac-
teristics among the other conventional modulation methods.
Fig. 7. √ Sketch map of the proposed modulation technique
(M = 1/ 3 and K = 0.2). Fig. 9(b) has two different horizontal axes, the first one is
for the conventional modulation techniques and has its range
the following equation: for the modulation index M, while the other one is for the
proposed modulation technique and has its range for the offset
1 − Do
Vc = Vdc in . (13) K with constant modulation index at√ its maximum possible
1 − 2Do value in this technique (M = 1/ 3). For the proposed
Substituting (10) into (13) leads to modulation technique, it is noted that a wide range of high-
√ voltage gain is achievable in a wide range of the offset K
Vdc in π K + 3 3M which is considered the new ST control parameter. Compared
Vc = √ . (14)
2 π(K − 1) + 3 3M with the conventional modulation techniques, the variation of
As per the analysis in [1], the voltage stress (Vs ) across the the voltage gain with the ST control parameter in the proposed
switches is BVdc in . Therefore, the voltage stress under the modulation technique has a reduced sharpness especially at
proposed modulation technique can be calculated as follows: high-voltage gains. Therefore, the proposed modulation tech-
nique allows these higher voltage gains to be reachable without
G ripples on both capacitor voltage and inductor current during
Vs = BVdc in =
Vdc in . (15)
M any external disturbances in the ST control parameter.
Fig. 9 shows the variation of voltage gain for different Another attractive feature of the proposed modulation
modulation techniques, including simple boost, maximum technique is that the voltage stress on the capacitors and
boost, maximum constant boost, MSVPWM, and the proposed the switching devices is lower than that of both the simple
control method with the ST duty cycle (Do ), and their boost method and the MSVPWM at the higher√voltage gains
corresponding ST control parameter, respectively. especially at modulation indices lower than 1/ 3, as shown
DIAB et al.: PWM TECHNIQUE FOR HIGH-VOLTAGE GAIN OPERATION
Fig. 9. Comparison of voltage gain for different modulation techniques as
a function of (a) ST duty cycle and (b) ST control parameter.
Fig. 10. Voltage stress comparison for different modulation techniques.
in Fig. 10, which makes the proposed modulation technique
suitable for applications requiring very high-voltage boost.
Variation of the voltage gain of the proposed technique with
its correspondent ST control parameter (K ) at different values
of the modulation index is shown in Fig. 11, where it is
clear that the sharpness of the curves is reduced as the
modulation index is increased to its maximum possible value.
527
Fig. 11. Variation of voltage gain of the proposed modulation technique
with the new ST control parameter (K ) at different values of the modulation
index.
Fig. 12. PI capacitor voltage control.
In addition, from (15), the voltage stress of the proposed PWM
technique is reduced as the modulation index is increased.
Based on the last two facts, it is preferable to implement the
proposed PWM technique at the maximum possible value of
the modulation index with the possibility of using the
third-harmonic injection method to increase the maximum
possible value of the modulation index.
V. C APACITOR VOLTAGE C ONTROL
To assess the proposed modulation technique when applied
to ZSIs, a controller for the capacitor voltage is designed and
applied on both the conventional PWM techniques and the
proposed modulation technique for the same voltage gain,
where one of the capacitor voltages is measured for the
feedback control, and the error between both the reference
and measured voltage is used as an input to a PI controller,
as shown in Fig. 12. To achieve the desired voltage boost, the
PI controller generates the appropriate ST control parameter
(either M or K ) that is used to generate the positive and
negative envelopes which give the ST intervals. At high-
voltage gains, the control signal obtained from the PI controller
528 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 04, NO. 2, JUNE 2016

Fig. 13. Differentiation of voltage gain with respect to the ST control

parameter (M for the conventional modulation methods and K for the Fig. 14. Capacitor voltage ripples for different modulation techniques when
proposed one). the ST control parameters (M and K ) have a step disturbance of ±0.01.

TABLE III
S PECIFICATIONS FOR THE ZSI
will oscillate around the typical value. Therefore, in both
the conventional PWM methods and the proposed modulation
technique, the PI controller generates a signal for the modula-
tion index M and the offset K , respectively, which oscillates
around the proper value that achieves the desired voltage boost.
Fig. 13 shows the variation of the voltage gain differen-
tiation with respect to the ST control parameter for both
the conventional modulation techniques and the proposed
one, where the sensitivity of the higher voltage gains to the
variation of the parameter K in the proposed modulation
technique is lower than the sensitivity of the conventional
techniques to the variation of the modulation index M. That
is why the ripples imposed on the capacitor voltage and the VI. S IMULATION R ESULTS
inductor current for the proposed modulation technique will be
Extensive simulation studies are performed to verify the
lower than that of the conventional techniques at higher voltage
performance of the proposed modulation technique with the PI
gains. This can be proved from the relation of the capacitor
capacitor voltage control strategy mentioned in the Section V.
voltage and the ST control parameter (either M or K ) by
The model parameters are shown in Table III. The performance
adding a small disturbance (dM or dK) to the ST control
of the proposed modulation technique is compared with the
parameter, then varying the value of the disturbance within
performance of the simple, maximum, and constant PWM
a narrow range just lower and higher than the typical value
control methods during two different scenarios summarized
of the ST control parameter at which the desired voltage
as follows.
boost is achieved. An assessment of the capacitor voltage
ripples Vc for both the proposed and conventional mod-
A. Input Voltage Fluctuation
ulation techniques could be obtained, as shown in Fig. 14,
where a step disturbance of ±0.01 is added to the modulation In this scenario, the input voltage is changed from
index for the four conventional modulation techniques and 72 to 48 V at t = 2 s, while the output line voltage is kept
the same disturbance value is added to the offset K for constant at 150 V rms. This leads to a step change in the
the proposed modulation technique at different voltage gains. voltage gain from 3.5 to 5.2. The simulation results of the
It is clear that the capacitor voltage ripple is lower when ZSI using the conventional PWM techniques and the proposed
the proposed modulation technique is applied compared with modulation technique during input voltage variation are shown
other conventional modulation techniques, where the influence in Fig. 15. For each modulation technique, the input voltage,
degree of the disturbance inserted in the ST control parameter the capacitor voltage, and the Z-network voltage are shown.
is diminished descendingly from the simple boost control For the simple boost control method, Fig. 15(a) shows one
method to the maximum boost method in the conventional of the capacitor voltages of the ZSI. Due to the extreme
modulation techniques, and is the lowest in the case of the sharpness of the curve relating the voltage gain and the mod-
proposed modulation technique. ulation index for the simple boost method, any small variation
DIAB et al.: PWM TECHNIQUE FOR HIGH-VOLTAGE GAIN OPERATION 529

Fig. 15. Simulation results of three-phase ZSI during input voltage variation. Fig. 16. Simulation results of three-phase ZSI during load current variation.
(a) Simple boost. (b) Constant boost. (c) Maximum boost. (d) Proposed (a) Simple boost. (b) Constant boost. (c) Maximum boost. (d) Proposed
modulation technique. modulation technique.

in the modulation index obtained from the PI controller at causes a voltage swelling on the impedance network, as shown
high-voltage gain (after the step change in the input voltage), in Fig. 15(a). It can be noticed that the ripple voltage imposed
leads to very high ripples on the capacitor voltage which on the capacitor after t = 2 s is 13 V, while the oscillations
530 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 04, NO. 2, JUNE 2016

Fig. 17. Experimental setup.

on the Z-network voltage is 25 V. These oscillations directly

affect both the output voltage and the load current, where
they become mutable and unsteady. Fig. 15(b) shows the
performance of ZSI using constant boost control method,
where the capacitor voltage ripples after t = 2S is 10 V, while
the oscillation on the Z-network voltage is 22 V. Fig. 15(c)
shows the performance of ZSI using maximum boost control
method, where the capacitor voltage ripples after t = 2S is 6 V,
while the oscillation on the Z-network voltage is 10 V. The
performance of ZSI using the proposed modulation technique
is shown in Fig. 15(d), where the step change in the input
voltage does not significantly affect the capacitor voltage, and
the Z-network voltage has a nearly constant envelope without
oscillations. Although the capacitor voltage under the proposed
technique is the largest before t = 2S (at low voltage gain),
it becomes lower than that of the simple boost method after t
= 2S (at high voltage gain).

B. Load Current Disturbance
In this scenario, the load current is doubled at t = 2 s,
while the output line voltage is kept constant at 150 V
rms as before. The simulation results of the ZSI using the
conventional PWM techniques and the proposed modula-
tion technique during load current disturbance are shown
in Fig. 16. For each modulation technique, the input
voltage, the capacitor voltage, and the Z-network voltage
are shown.
For the simple boost control method, Fig. 16(a) shows the
capacitor voltage of the ZSI. Again, it has a high-voltage ripple
after the step change in the load current due to the same
reasons mentioned in the last scenario leading to a voltage
swelling across the impedance network. Fig. 16(b) and (c)
shows the performance of the ZSI under both constant and
maximum boost control methods, respectively, where the
capacitor voltage is oscillating after t = 2 s causing voltage
swelling on the impedance network with unsteady envelope for
the doubled load current. The performance of the ZSI using
the proposed modulation technique is shown in Fig. 16(d),
where the step change in the load current does not significantly
affect the capacitor voltage, and the Z-network voltage has a
nearly constant envelope without oscillations. In addition, the
load current has been doubled with a steady envelope after
Fig. 18. Experimental waveforms of ZSI using the proposed modulation
technique (M = 0.577 and K = 0.214). (a) Input voltage, capacitor voltage,
and output voltage and current. (b) Input voltage, capacitor voltage, inductor
current, and inverter dc-link voltage (Vdco ). (c) Expanded view of (b).
t = 2 s. The obtained simulation results are consistent with
Figs. 10 and 14.
VII. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
An experimental system is built in laboratory with the same
parameters used in the simulation. To reduce the current in
the power circuit, the experiment used a 100-/phase resistive
load series with 5-mH/phase inductive load. The PWM control
signals with the ST states are generated by a high-performance
DSP TMS320F28335 from Texas Instruments. The hardware
setup is shown in Fig. 17, while the experimental results are
shown in Figs. 18–20.
To investigate the performance of the ZSI using the
proposed modulation technique, the input voltage of the
dc source is kept at 72 V, and then it is boosted to 424 V across
the impedance network. With this dc-link voltage, the inverter
produces line-to-line output voltage of 150 V. The modulation
√
index is kept at its maximum possible value (M = 1/ 3),
while the offset K is set to 0.214. From top to bottom,
Fig. 18(a) shows the voltage across capacitor, dc-input voltage,
DIAB et al.: PWM TECHNIQUE FOR HIGH-VOLTAGE GAIN OPERATION
TABLE IV
A SSESSMENT S UMMARY OF THE P ROPOSED M ODULATION T ECHNIQUE C OMPARED W ITH THE C ONVENTIONAL T ECHNIQUES
Fig. 19. Experimental results during step change in the overall voltage gain
with a PI closed-loop control on the capacitor voltage. (a) Simple boost control
method. (b) Proposed modulation technique.
output line voltage, and load current, while Fig. 18(b) shows
the voltage across capacitor, dc-input voltage, inductor current,
and the inverter dc-link voltage. Fig. 18(c) is the expanded
view of Fig. 18(b).
To assess the proposed modulation technique and validate
both the simulation results and the deduction of Fig. 14, the
performance of the ZSI is inspected under both the simple
boost control method and the proposed modulation technique
during a step change in the voltage gain through two scenarios.
In the first scenario, the step change in the voltage gain
is performed through a closed-loop control on the capacitor
voltage with a PI controller, as shown in Fig. 12, while the
second scenario injects a very small disturbance to the ST
control parameter with an open-loop scheme. The results of
the two scenarios are shown in Figs. 19 and 20, respectively.
In the first scenario, the input voltage is kept constant
at 72 V and the overall voltage gain is changed from 1.4 to 2.8.
Fig. 19 shows one of the capacitor voltages, output voltage
of the impedance network, and the inductor current for both
531
Fig. 20. Experimental results during step change in the overall voltage
gain using an open-loop scheme with a step disturbance of ±0.01 in
the ST control parameter. (a) Simple boost control method. (b) Proposed
modulation technique.
the simple boost control method and the proposed modulation
technique. It is clear that after the step change in the voltage
gain, the ripples of both the capacitor voltage and the inductor
current for the simple boost method are large compared with
the proposed modulation technique, while the voltage across
the Z-network has a voltage swelling in the case of the simple
boost method.
In the second scenario, the input voltage is kept constant at
48 V and the overall voltage gain is changed from 1.33 to 3
with a step disturbance of ±0.01 applied to both of the
modulation index M and the offset K for the simple and
proposed modulation techniques, respectively.
Fig. 20 shows the voltage across dc-input supply, capacitor
and impedance network, and the inductor current for both
the simple boost control method and the proposed modulation
technique.
At lower voltage gain, the performance of ZSI has not
been affected by the disturbance injected into the ST con-
532 IEEE JOURNAL OF EMERGING AND SELECTED TOPICS IN POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 04, NO. 2, JUNE 2016
trol parameter for both the simple and proposed techniques.
However, at high-voltage gain, the ZSI exhibits high ripples on
the capacitor voltage and the inductor current with a voltage
swelling across the Z-network in the case of the simple boost
method, while it has not been significantly affected by that
disturbance when the proposed technique is implemented.
VIII. A SSESSMENT OF THE P ROPOSED
M ODULATION T ECHNIQUE
The pros and cons of the proposed modulation technique
are summarized and compared with the conventional PWM
techniques in Table IV. One of the limitations of the proposed
modulation technique is that its salient features significantly
appear at high-voltage gain operation of the ZSIs. However,
the operation of the ZSIs at high-voltage gain was found
to be inefficient [42]. Therefore, the proposed modulation
technique of the ZSIs is recommended to be utilized in the
applications in which the high-voltage gain operation is not
required all the time, and thus the average efficiency could
be significantly accepted. One of these applications is the
dynamic PV array reconfiguration that is utilized to enhance
the maximum extracted power from the PV systems during
partial shading [43], [44]. In this approach, each string of
series PV modules can be reconfigured to form two parallel
strings, which has the advantage of invulnerability to partial
shadings. The conditional parallel-connection of PV modules
during partial shadings requires a high-voltage boost converter
with a wide range of controllability. The ZSIs with the
proposed modulation technique could be considered as an
attractive solution for such applications.
IX. C ONCLUSION
A new modulation technique for three-phase ZSIs is
proposed in this paper. This modulation technique decouples
the interdependence between the ST duty ratio and the mod-
ulation index inherited in all the existing PWM techniques
by proposing a new parameter by which the ST duty ratio
and the boosting factor are determined, while keeping the
modulation index constant at its maximum possible value.
With the proposed technique, a reliable operation of the ZSI
at high-voltage gains is ensured without significant ripples on
both the capacitor voltage and the inductor current due to its
advantage to reject any disturbance in the ST control parame-
ter. Moreover, the voltage stress of the proposed technique is
lower than that of both the simple boost and the MSVPWM
techniques at high-voltage gains. The proposed modulation
technique is very suitable for PV and fuel cells applications,
which necessitates high-voltage boost. The performance of
the ZSI using the proposed modulation technique has been
verified by the simulation and the experiments and it was
also compared with the performance of the conventional
PWM techniques.
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Mohamed S. Diab was born in Alexandria,
Egypt, in 1990. He received the B.Sc. (Hons.) and
M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Alexan-
dria University, Alexandria, in 2012 and 2015,
respectively.
He joined Spiretronic, LLC, Houston, TX, USA,
in 2013, as a Research Engineer. He is currently
a Teaching Assistant with the Electrical Engineer-
ing Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
University. His current research interests include
power electronics, renewable energy, electric drives,
and grid integration of distributed generators.
533
Ahmed A. Elserougi (SM’13) was born in
Alexandria, Egypt, in 1982. He received the B.Sc.,
M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineer-
ing from the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
University, Alexandria, in 2004, 2006, and 2011,
respectively.
He is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Associate
with Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar.
He is also a Lecturer with the Electrical Engineer-
ing Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
University. His current research interests include
power quality, HVdc and FACTS, renewable energy, and electric power utility.
Ahmed M. Massoud (SM’11) received the
B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. degrees from the Faculty
of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria,
Egypt, in 1997 and 2000, respectively, and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
Computing and Electrical Department, Heriot-Watt
University, Edinburgh, U.K., in 2004.
He was a Research Fellow with Strathclyde
University, Glasgow, U.K., from 2005 to 2008,
and Texas A&M at Qatar, Doha, Qatar, from
2008 to 2009. From 2009 to 2012, he was an
Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, College
of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, where he is currently an Associate
Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering. He is also an
Associate Professor with the Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of
Engineering, Alexandria University. His current research interests include
power electronics, energy conversion, renewable energy, and power quality.
Ayman S. Abdel-Khalik (SM’12) received the
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineer-
ing from Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt,
in 2001 and 2004, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree
from Alexandria University, and Strathclyde Univer-
sity, Glasgow, U.K., in 2009, under a dual channel
program.
He was with Spiretronic, LLC, Houston, TX, USA,
from 2009 to 2014, as a Senior Research Scientist.
He is currently an Assistant Research Scientist with
Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar. He is
also an Associate Professor with the Electrical Engineering Department,
Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. His current research interests
include electrical machine design, electric machine simulation, electric drives,
energy conversion, renewable energy and power quality, and HVdc.
Shehab Ahmed (SM’12) was born in Kuwait City,
Kuwait, in 1976. He received the B.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from Alexandria University,
Alexandria, Egypt, in 1999, and the M.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M Univer-
sity, College Station, TX, USA, in 2000 and 2007,
respectively.
He was with Schlumberger Technology Corpora-
tion, Houston, TX, USA, from 2001 to 2007, where
he was involved in downhole mechatronic systems.
He is currently an Associate Professor with Texas A&M University at Qatar,
Doha, Qatar. His current research interests include mechatronics, solid-state
power conversion, electric machines, and drives.