Cascaded H Bridge Converter:

Phase shifted and Level shifted PWM

Anandarup Das
Asst. Professor
Room-402A, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi.
anandarup@ee.iitd.ac.in
Switching in CHB
• How to switch the cells in a CHB? There are many of them !
• Two techniques:
• PSPWM (Phase Shifted PWM)
• LSPWM (Level Shifted PWM)
• They almost give very close harmonic performances; however the losses
can become substantially different with the two techniques.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 2

PSPWM
• In this technique, the modulating waves for each cell are identical; however
the carriers for each cell are phase shifted.
• Fundamental voltages from each cell get added.
• Output voltage harmonics move higher in the spectrum.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 3

One cell
• Carriers for two legs in one cell are given 1800 phase
shift.
• Assume the carrier frequency (= switching frequency)
is fs=2 kHz= 40 times fundamental (=50 Hz).
• Harmonics at the output of each cell is at 2fs=4 kHz =
80 times fundamental.
• Fundamental output voltage magnitude = mVdc, where
m is the modulation index.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 4

5 cell CHB
• Assume the number of cells in each phase = 5.
• Then number of levels = L = 11 from the 5 cell CHB converter.
• No of carriers required = L-1=10.
• Phase shift between carriers = 3600/(L-1)= 360.
• The angle ‘3600’ is with respect to triangular frequency.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 5

 Carriers in 5 cell CHB
• The number and position of carriers for a 5 cell CHB are shown below.

Carriers for two

legs in one cell
(e.g. CHB1)

Carriers for all

cells for the
same leg

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 6

5 cell CHB
Leg A Leg B
For CHB1 Vcr1 (00) -Vcr1 (1800)
For CHB2 Vcr2 (360) -Vcr2 (2160)
For CHB3 Vcr3 (720) -Vcr3 (2520)
For CHB4 Vcr4 (1080) -Vcr4 (2880)
For CHB5 Vcr5 (1440) -Vcr5 (3140)

• The number and position of all the carriers for a 5 cell CHB are shown.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 7

5 cell CHB
• Harmonics at the output of any phase is at 5x 2fs=5x 4 kHz = 20 kHz = 400
times fundamental (50 Hz).
• Fundamental output voltage magnitude = 5x mVdc

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 8

 Example of PSPWM

Mod waveform

Carriers for two

legs in one cell
(e.g. CHB1)

Carriers for all

cells for the
same leg

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 9

 Example of PSPWM - zoomed view

Mod waveform

Carriers for two

legs in one cell
(e.g. CHB1)

Carriers for all

cells for the
same leg

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 10

 Output of cells

cell1 cell5

cell2
leg

cell3 • The sum of the 5 cells (blue

waveforms) is the ‘leg’ waveform
cell4 (pink waveform).

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 11

Harmonic spectrum
Harmonics at the output of each
cell is at 2fs=4 kHz = 80 times
fundamental.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 12

Harmonic spectrum
Pole voltage harmonics at the
output of converter is at 10fs=20
kHz = 400 times fundamental.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 13

Load phase voltage
Load phase voltage magnitude is
same as that of pole voltage but
does not have the triplen
harmonic components.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 14

LSPWM
• In this technique, the carriers for each cell are identical but vertically
shifted.
• Fundamental voltages from each cell get added.
• Take example of a 5 level CHB.
• (L-1)=4 carriers are used.
• If the total height of the reference wave can reach 1 at maximum
modulation index, then each carrier height is ¼=0.25.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 15

 Carriers and reference wave

Mod waveform

Carrier 1

Carrier 2

Carrier 3

Carrier 4

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 16

 Carriers and reference wave (zoomed view)

Mod waveform

Carrier 1

Carrier 2

Carrier 3

Carrier 4

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 17

Cells switching in LSPWM
• Individual switches in the
2 H-Bridges can be
switched with the logic
shown.

Logic
For H1 S1 S4
Varef> Vtri 1 on off
Varef> Vtri 3 off on
For H2 S1 S4
Varef> Vtri 2 on off
Varef> Vtri 4 off on

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 18

LSPWM
• Assume the carrier frequency is fs=20 kHz.
• Harmonics at the output is at 20 kHz = 400 times fundamental (50 Hz).
• Switching frequency of cells will vary. On an average, cells will switch at 20
kHz/5=4 kHz. On an average, devices will switch at 4 kHz/2=2 kHz.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 19

 Example of 5 cell CHB with LSPWM
Cell 1 Cell 5 • Assume a 5 cell CHB
with LSPWM.
• The output of each cell
Cell 2 leg and the leg is shown.
• The cells are switching
differently.
Cell 3

Cell 4

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 20

Harmonic spectrum
Pole voltage harmonics at the
output of converter is at fs=20 kHz
= 400 times fundamental (50 Hz).

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 21

Load phase voltage
Load phase voltage harmonic
profile is shown.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 22

Line voltage
Line voltage harmonic profile
is shown.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 23

Features of LSPWM
• Loss distribution is not same in all cells. Conduction and switching losses
become different.
• Rotation of switching pattern is desirable.
• It is possible to have single carrier implementation.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 24

Single carrier implementation
Modulating
waveform

Modified
modulating
waveform

Carrier

• The modulating waveform can be brought inside one carrier. This helps in easy
implementation with DSPs.
ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 25
Other types

• PD (Phase disposition), POD (Phase Opposition disposition), APOD

(Alternate Phase opposition disposition) are other techniques.
• They provide very similar harmonic performances.

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 26

Measurement of harmonics
• Measurement of harmonics is given by Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).
• THD is the ratio of the rms values of all the harmonic components of a
signal to the rms value of the fundamental.

𝑉ℎ 2 𝑉22 +𝑉32 +𝑉42 +⋯+𝑉𝑛2

ℎ=𝑛
• THD of a voltage can be given as, THD = σℎ=2 =
𝑉1 𝑉1
• THD is not an accurate depiction of harmonics from voltage source
converters. Weighted THD is a more suitable expression.
𝑉 /ℎ 2
• WTHD = σℎ=𝑛
ℎ=2
ℎ
𝑉1

ANANDARUP DAS, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DELHI, INDIA 27