Switching-Cell Structure-Based Generic Five-Level Current-Source Inverter

In this article, a new single-phase five-level current-source inverter is proposed. The proposed inverter provides open/short-circuit immunity and minimizes overlap time by adding four small film capacitors, thus enhancing the inverter's reliability. The efficiency and output waveforms quality are improved due to reduced overlap-time interval. The proposed inverter also provides natural balancing of the inductor currents. In addition, the n switching cells can be used to extend to the proposed N-level inverter. The operating principle, steady-state analysis, fault-state analysis, and parameter selections of the proposed inverter are presented. Furthermore, a comparative study of the proposed inverter and other five-level current-source inverters is addressed. Finally, a 1 kW prototype is implemented to verify the feasibility of the proposed inverter.