Performance Analysis and Comparative Evaluation
of Two-winding Multi-tapped transformer based
Nine-Level Inverter
Md. Abdullah Ansari
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, India
maansari11@myamu.ac.in
Abstract—With the continuous increase in demand of
electrical energy, power electronics is becoming an important
aspect of our lives. Renewable energy sources like Solar and
Wind are helping a lot in reducing this ever-increasing demand
of electrical energy besides being cheap and clean.
Conventional two-level inverters used for converting DC
output from renewable energy sources to AC waveform
contains lot of harmonics and are replaced by Multilevel
Inverters (MLI). MLI’s are gaining more and more interest of
researchers these days because of small harmonic distortion
and low switching frequency operation. In this paper, Two-
winding Multi-tapped transformer (TWMTT) based nine-level
inverter is discussed in detail along with its switching sequence
and its comparison with other prominent topologies of nine-
level inverters is also drawn. On implementing this topology in
MATLAB/Simulink, total harmonic distortion (THD) was
found to be 9.37% which is very low compared to other
topologies for nine level inverters.
Keywords— Multilevel Inverter, switching, Total harmonic
distortion, Multi-winding, Tapping.
I. INTRODUCTION
As the demand of electrical energy is continuously
increasing, the role of power electronics is as crucial as
computers and communication systems[1][2]. Renewable
energy sources like solar and wind are reducing this demand
to a large extent[3]. But the output of such sources is DC in
nature which is not usable to consumers[4]. Inverters are
used for converting this DC waveform into smooth AC
waveform. But the main problem associated with
conventional two-level inverters (-Vdc and Vdc) is the high
harmonic pollution and high switching frequency which
further accounts for high switching losses. These
weaknesses prevent the use of such inverters in high power
applications. By reducing total harmonic distortion (THD),
the need of output filter is also reduced[5]. One of the
solutions to such a problem is the use of Multilevel Inverters
(MLI). The so-called Multilevel starts from three-level[6].
MLI is gaining more and more interest of researchers these
days because of its low switching frequency operation and
hence low switching loss[7]. This makes it possible to use
MLI’s in high power applications. MLI employs
combination of switches and DC voltage sources to produce
various voltage levels in the output which can be used in
medium-voltage high-power applications[8]. More the
number of output voltage levels less is the THD and hence
smaller is the size of filter required[9][10]. The general
purpose of an MLI is to produce a stair case type of voltage
waveform close to sinusoidal waveform so that the harmonic
distortion is reduced[11].
Jaffar Ali Lone
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, India
jalone@myamu.ac.in
There are various types of MLI’s, each having own their
merits and demerits.
1) Cascaded H-Bridge MLI
2) Flying Capacitor MLI
3) Diode clamped type MLI
4) Two-winding Multi-tapped Transformer based MLI
Cascaded H-bridge MLI is used in many areas including
STATCOM applications, drives, plasma,etc.[12][13]. But its
use is limited by isolated and constant DC supply for each
unit and consequently more complex circuit for more output
levels[14][15].
Flying capacitor MLI, though requires only one DC source,
but necessitates large sized capacitor for storing charge as
well as clamping the output[16]. For multi-level design,
providing insulation and thermal design to charge storing
elements becomes quite difficult[17]. Moreover, due to
practical limitations, this topology can be extended upto six
levels only.
Diode clamped MLI is also impractical due to two major
problems namely: Capacitor voltage unbalance and excess
of clamping diodes. Total no. of clamping diodes required
for M level inverter is (M-1)x(M-2) which shows a quadratic
rise in no. of diodes making the circuit impractical for
use[6]. For same level voltage synthesis, flying capacitor
based MLI has more flexibility than diode clamped
MLI[13].
Two-winding Multi-tapped Transformer based MLI involves
variation in output due to change in the turns ratio of
transfomer. One obvious advantage is the isolation between
input and output side. Single DC source without any extra
inductor or capacitor makes the circuit simple and compact.
And in addition, only one switch at a time is ON for
comparitively smaller duration, enabling the use of low rated
switches and hence, minimising the cost[18]. The size of
transformer varies inversely with the operating
frequency[19].
In this paper modelling, analysis and comparison of different
types of nine-level inverters is presented. TWMTT based
nine-level inverter is discussed in detail along with
switching sequence. The circuit diagram and results of other
topologies of nine-level inverters are discussed in Section
IV. THD of all the topologies is calculated and comparison
is also made. MATLAB/Simulink software is used for
simulation purposes.
 II. DESCRIPTION OF TWO-WINDING MULTI-TAPPED
TRANSFORMER BASED NINE-LEVEL INVERTER
The basic operation of an MLI is shown in Fig. 1. A
multilevel inverter circuit consists of a DC voltage source,
semiconductor switches and the control circuit for the same.
Here, we have taken Two-winding Multi-tapped
Transformer based nine-level inverter working on the
principle of varying the output voltage by changing turns
ratio of transformer.
A constant DC supply is connected at the center point of
primary winding and switches are connected to tapping
equidistant from each other (Fig. 2). S 1, S2, S3 and S4
working for the first half of cycle and S 5, S6, S7 and S8 for
the other half cycle. The conduction period of each switch is
controlled by varying pulse width and phase delay of pulse
generator.
The voltage developed at the secondary terminal V 2 obtained
from input source V1 is given by:
N2
V 2= V when half of source voltage equals the capacitor voltage
N1 1
where N1 and N2 denotes the number of turns in the primary
and secondary windings respectively.
When a particular switch is triggered, there is a change in
the turns ratio and accordingly output voltage changes.
From fig. 2. when S4 is ON, N2/N1 becomes 1/8 and when S 3
is ON, it becomes 1/4 and so on and accordingly V 2
changes. V2 obtained corresponding to each switch is
depicted in Fig. 3. Zero level can be introduced by turning-
off all the switches simultaneously.
The switching sequence of the TWMTT based nine-level
inverter is shown in Table I. The uniqueness of this topology
is that only one switch is made to conduct at a time relieving
the stress on the other switches.
While implementing the above switching sequence in
MATLAB/Simulink, one important point worth mentioning
is the selection of suitable internal parameters of Multi-
Winding Transformer taken from Simscape Library. The
values of parameters taken are provided in Table II. The
Conduction period of switches used in the topology is also
given in Table III.
III. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
The distortion in the output waveform of a multilevel
inverter should be as small as possible. It is possible only if
THD is very low. The root-mean-square (RMS) value of the
output voltage of inverter can be defined as:
V rms =V 1 , rms √ 1+THD
2
As evident from the above equation, when THD is zero,
RMS value of the waveform is equal to the fundamental
RMS voltage. Moreover, THD can also be decreased by
increasing the number of output voltage levels or by using
different pulse width modulation (PWM) techniques.
On running the model in the Simulink, we found that the
total harmonic distortion (THD) comes out to be 9.37%,
which is relatively very low. Fig. 4. and 5. shows the output
waveform and THD of the TWMTT topology respectively.
IV. COMPARATIVE EVALUATION WITH PROMINENT NINE
LEVEL INVERTERS
In this section, comparative study with three other prominent
topologies is emphasized namely: Cascaded H-bridge
(CHB), Flying capacitor (FC) and Diode clamped (DC)
based MLI.
Fig. 6. shows the circuit diagram for the above topologies.
For obtaining the desired nine level output voltage, proper
triggering of all the switches is required. Here, Power
MOSFET is used as switch which enables high efficiency
while operating at higher frequencies. In each case, total
sixteen Power MOSFET switches are used. On
implementing the above three topologies in
MATLAB/Simulink, the output
Voltage obtained is shown in Fig. 7. In case of CHB
topology, sine PWM method is used for triggering switches
with Triangular Carrier signal of frequency 5000 Hz. The
sequence of gate pulses is shown in Fig. 8. The major
drawback of CHB topology is the requirement of four equal
and isolated DC voltage sources. Moreover, for getting more
output levels, the number of elements and complexity of the
circuit increases gradually which can be inferred from Fig.
6(a). In case of FC topology, zero output voltage is produced
which is not practically feasible. For Diode Clamp topology,
huge number of clamping diodes are used in addition with
large-sized capacitors. It is clear that the output is not purely
sinusoidal which is required, so to minimize the error and to
design proper filter circuit, it is necessary to analyze the
harmonic components namely THD (%) which is given in
Fig. 9.
Summing all the above, Table IV. shows the comparison
between different nine-level inverter topologies. Clearly, we
can see that TWMTT based nine-level inverter requires a
smaller number of semiconductor switches and THD is also
very low. Moreover, only one switch conducts at a time.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper design, analysis and comparison of the most
prominent topologies of nine-level inverter was carried and
it was found that TWMTT based nine-level inverter requires
smaller number of switching devices and is having very low
THD of 9.37% relative to other nine-level topologies. By
using appropriate switching sequence, a staircase type of
voltage waveform can be generated close to sinusoidal
waveform. As the number of voltage levels increases, we get
a waveform closer to sinusoidal waveform and THD
decreases. But rating of transformer consequently increases
which limits its practical usage for higher levels.
MATLAB/Simulink software was used for simulation
purposes.
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