High-Reliability and Reduced Switch Count Single-Phase Dual-Output Current Source Inverter Using Switching-Cell Structure

In this article, a novel high-reliability single-phase dual-output current source inverter is presented. By using the switching-cell (SC) structure in the proposed topology, the overlap-time between switching transition can be minimized or eliminated. This improves the quality of ac output currents, efficiency, and dc-source utilization. Additionally, the capacitors in SC structure can help to reduce dv/dt of power switches and clamp the overshoot voltage under open-circuit problems, thus improving reliability. Two modes of common and different frequency operations are considered and detailed pulsewidth modulation schemes are presented. A 650-W hardware prototype was built and tested to verify the performance of the proposed inverter, and the results are compared with conventional single-phase dual-output current source inverters.