A Comparison of Multicarrier PWM Strategies for Cascaded and Neutral Point

Clamped Multilevel Inverters

B. P. McGrath and D.G. Holmes
Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering,
Monash University
Wellington Road, Clayton, 3168, AUSTRALIA
Abstract -- Analytical solutions of Pulse Width Modulation
(PWM) strategies for multilevel Neutral Point Clamped (NPC)
and Cascaded inverters are presented. These solutions show
that the Alternative Phase Opposition Disposition (APOD)
PWM strategy for NPC inverters produces the same spectral
components as the Phase Shifted Carrier PWM (PSCPWM)
strategy for Cascaded inverters, when the carrier frequencies
are adjusted to achieve the same number of total switch
transitions for each inverter over one fundamental cycle. From
this understanding, a method is proposed to apply the
harmonically superior Phase Disposition (PD) PWM strategy
for NPC inverters to Cascaded inverters, to achieve improved
harmonic performance for the modulation of cascaded
inverters. Both theoretical and experimental results confirming
this understanding are presented.
I. INTRODUCTION
Multilevel inverter structures are becoming increasingly
popular for high power applications, because their switched
output voltage harmonics can be considerably reduced by
using several voltage levels while still switching at the same
frequency. As well, higher input DC voltages can be used
since semiconductors are connected in series for multilevel
inverter structures, and this reduces the DC voltage each
device must withstand.
Two common multilevel inverter structures are the Neutral
Point Clamped (NPC) inverter, and the Cascaded inverter.
The NPC inverter uses one DC bus subdivided into a number
of voltage levels by a series string of capacitors [1]. The
Cascaded inverter is made up from series connected single
phase full bridge inverters, each with their own isolated DC
bus [2]. Figures 1(a) and 1(b) illustrate 5 level NPC and
Cascaded inverter topologies respectively.
For the NPC inverter, most carrier based PWM schemes
that have been investigated derive from the carrier
disposition strategies originally proposed by Carrara et al [3],
i.e. for an NPC inverter with N levels, N-1 triangular carriers
with the same frequency and amplitude are arranged so that
they fully occupy contiguous bands in the range of +V
DC
and
-V
DC
. A sinusoidal reference centered in the middle of the
carrier set is then compared with each carrier to determine
the voltage level that the converter should switch to. Three
alternative PWM strategies with differing phase relationships
between the carriers are commonly referenced, viz:
(i) Alternative Phase Opposition Disposition (APOD),
where each carrier is phase shifted by 180
0
from its
adjacent carriers.
(ii) Phase Opposition Disposition (POD) where the carriers
above the reference zero point are out of phase with
those below the zero point by 180
0
.
(iii) Phase Disposition (PD) where all carriers are in phase.
It is generally accepted that the PD strategy gives rise to the
lowest harmonic distortion for the line-to-line voltage [3][4].
Note that for three level converters the APOD and POD
strategies are equivalent. Figure 2(a) illustrates the carrier
and reference arrangement for five level APOD modulation.
For the Cascaded inverter, Phase Shifted Carrier PWM
(PSCPWM) is the standard modulation strategy. For this
technique the modulation of the full bridge inverters in each
C1
C2
C3
C4
SA1
SA2
SA3
SA4
S'A1
S'A2
S'A3
S'A4
SB1
SB2
SB3
SB4
S'B1
S'B2
S'B3
S'B4
SC1
SC2
SC3
SC4
S'C1
S'C2
S'C3
S'C4
+V
DC
-V
DC
DA1
DA2
DA3
DA3
DA2
DA1
DB1
DB2
DB3
DB3
DB2
DB1
DC1
DC2
DC3
DC3
DC2
DC1
V
A
V
B
V
C
(a)
+
VD C
+
V DC
+
VD C
+
V D C
+
VD C
+
V D C
C
A1
C
A2
C
B1
C
B2
C
C1
C
C2
V
A V
C
V
B
S
A1
S'
A2 S'
A1
S
A2
S
A3
S'
A4 S'
A3
S
A4
S
B1
S'
B2 S'
B1
S
B2
S
B3
S'
B4 S'
B3
S
B4
S
C1
S'
C2 S'
C1
S
C2
S
C3
S'
C4 S'
C3
S
C4
V
N
V
A1
V
A2
V
B1
V
B2
V
C1
V
C2
(b)
Figure 1 : Structure of (a) Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) Multilevel Inverter and (b) Cascaded Full Bridge Multilevel Inverter .
0-7803-5695-0/00/$10.00 (c) 2000 IEEE
multilevel phase leg is modular. Recent work has shown that
better results for a Cascaded inverter occur when each full
bridge inverter is controlled using three level modulation [5].
With this approach, the sinusoidal reference waveforms for
the two phase legs of each full bridge inverter are phase
shifted by 180
0
, while the carriers between the full bridge
inverters are phase shifted by 180
0
/N (N is the number of
full bridge inverters in a multilevel phase leg). This strategy
leads to cancellation of all carrier and associated sideband
harmonics up to the 2N
th
carrier group. Figure 2(b)
illustrates the carrier and reference arrangements for a single
multilevel phase leg of a five level cascaded structure.
To date only a few attempts have been made to link
together the modulation processes for the above two
multilevel converter topologies [4], with limited success. In
this paper, modulation strategies for the two converter
topologies are directly compared by considering harmonics
identified from analytic solutions based on a Double Fourier
Series analysis of the switched waveforms. This comparison
shows that the APOD strategy for the NPC topology and the
PSCPWM strategy for cascaded inverters give rise to the
same harmonic profile for the same number of total switch
transitions. Such a result leads to the idea that any NPC
inverter modulation strategy should be able to be applied to a
Cascaded inverter, and since the PD strategy is known to be
superior for NPC inverters, an equivalent strategy for a
Cascaded inverter would probably be equally superior. This
paper explains how this can be achieved, with results
presented for five level cascaded inverters.
II. SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF NPC PWM STRATEGIES.
In principle any time varying waveform can be described
by an infinite series of harmonic components, but in practice
the non periodic nature of a PWM switched waveform makes
the determination of these components difficult. This
problem was first solved for communications theory and then
adapted for use with power converter systems by Bowes [6],
by representing the switched waveform as a two dimensional
function of the carrier and reference waveforms. The
function is periodic in both dimensions even if the switched
waveform is not periodic, and hence can be expressed in
general harmonic form as a Double Fourier series (1). The
harmonic coefficients of (1) are obtained by evaluating the
double integration of (2) for a particular PWM strategy.
Solutions to (2) for the three multilevel PWM carrier
disposition strategies identified above were first obtained by
Carrara et al. [3]. However these solutions are complex and
difficult to apply because the integral in (2) was evaluated
using decomposition of the region of integration into areas of
symmetry (referred to as "bases" by the authors). This
approach allows the development of solutions for NPC
converters of any level and for modulation depths exceeding
unity, but the use of the base concept obscures identification
of similarities which might exist between these solutions and
modulation processes for other converter topologies.
For this paper a different analysis approach is used that
leads to a simpler form of the analytical solution. This new
form also better facilitates a theoretical comparison with the
modulation processes of Cascaded inverters.
To evaluate (2), the function F(x,y) must be defined in the
(x,y) plane. This is done by comparing the reference
waveform in the y dimension against the carrier
waveform(s) in the x dimension according to the rules of
the particular modulation strategy to be solved, to create
regions in the (x,y) space within which F(x,y) is constant.
This is illustrated in Figure 3 for the 5 level APOD strategy.
With the region of integration now precisely defined
equation (2) can be evaluated. (The evaluation requires
0
VDC
/3 2/3 4/3 0 5/3 2
0t
MVDC
-VDC
-MVDC

(a)

0
VDC
/3 2/3 4/3 0 5/3 2
0t
MVDC
-VDC
-MVDC

(b)
Figure 2 : Carrier and Reference waveform arrangements for:
(a) 5 Level APOD system for NPC inverter (b) 5 Level Phase Shifted Carrier PWM (PSCPWM) strategy for Cascaded inverter.
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2
m
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+


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(2)
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significant algebra to reduce (2) to a tractable form, and is
not presented in this paper because of space limitations.)
Equations (3) and (4) present solutions to (2) for the NPC
5 level APOD and PD modulation strategies respectively.
Figures 6 and 7 present their corresponding spectra.
From these solutions it can be seen why the PD strategy
achieves superior line-to-line harmonic performance. Figure
7(a) shows the harmonic spectra for one phase leg of a NPC
inverter under PD modulation, where the most significant
harmonic is the first carrier component. This is in sharp
contrast to APOD modulation which only generates carrier
sideband components, as shown in Figure 6(a). Clearly, PD
modulation places significant harmonic energy into a carrier
component for each phase leg, and relies on common mode
cancellation between the inverter phase legs to eliminate this
carrier from the final line-to-line output voltage, as shown in
Figure 7(b). Consequently, the harmonic sidebands (which
do not fully cancel between phases) have less energy. This
explains the improved performance of the PD strategy
compared to the APOD strategy.
It is noted in passing that the APOD strategy is in turn
better than the POD strategy because it puts more harmonic
energy into triplen sideband harmonics, which also cancel on
a line-to-line basis [5, 7]. This is not explored further here.
III. CASCADED INVERTER PSCPWM ANALYTIC SOLUTION .
Recent work [5] has shown how the general solutions for
two level modulation [7] can be extended to obtain an
analytic solution for PSCPWM applied to Cascaded inverters.
For the 5 level case the analytic solution for the phase
voltage and line to line voltages are given in (5a) and (5b)
respectively.
Comparing equations (3) and (5), the only significant
difference is that for APOD, the first set of sideband
harmonics are centered about the carrier frequency, while for
PSCPWM the first set of sideband harmonics are centered
about the fourth multiple of the carrier frequency. However,
since the total number of switch transitions for PSCPWM is
exactly four times the number of switch transitions for
APOD, when the carrier frequency is adjusted to achieve the
same number of overall switch transitions, the frequencies of
the harmonic components become the same.
Figures 8 and 6 compare the harmonic spectra for
PSCPWM of a Cascaded inverter against APOD modulation
of a NPC, with carrier frequencies adjusted to achieve the
same number of switch transitions over a fundamental cycle.
The results are identical for all major harmonics. (A similar
result is in fact obtained for any odd level converter system.)
The two solutions also have a minor difference in the
cos(k) terms which determine the sign of the harmonic
components. This difference results from different placement
of the active switch states within the carrier interval for each
modulation strategy. Theoretically this difference could
affect sideband interactions between carrier sets, but the
practical effect is negligible for pulse ratios greater than 10.
IV. PHASE DISPOSITION (PD) MODULATION FOR CASCADED
INVERTERS.
The conclusion from Section III is that APOD modulation
of a NPC and PSCPWM of a Cascaded inverter essentially
produce the same switched output voltages. From a state
machine perspective this is reasonable because the two
converter topologies have the same number of switches, the
same number of voltage levels in a phase leg, and the same
possible space vector states. So given that the PD strategy for
NPC inverters is known to produce a better harmonic
performance, the question then becomes how to implement a
PD equivalent modulation strategy for Cascaded inverters.
In Section II it was identified that the PD strategy achieves
its better performance by placing harmonic energy into a
carrier component in each phase voltage and relying upon the
- -/2 /2
y = 0t
x = Ct
F(x,y) = +VDC
F(x,y) =
-VDC
F(x,y) =
-VDC
F(x,y) = 0 F(x,y) = 0
F(x,y) = +VDC/2
F(x,y) = +VDC/2
F(x,y) = -VDC/2
F(x,y) = -VDC/2
F(x,y) = -VDC/2
F(x,y) = -VDC/2
- - -+
Figure 3: Contour plot of F(x,y) for five level APOD.
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

+ + + +
1
0
0 1 2 0 _
1 2 cos 1 cos 2
1
cos
m
n
n
C n
DC
DC AN APOD
t n t m n m M m J
m
V
t MV t V

(3a)
( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

'

,
_

,
_

+
,
_

+ +

,
_

+
1
0
0 1 2
0 _
3
1 2 sin
3
1 2 sin cos 2
1 2
6
cos 3
m
n
n
C n
DC
DC AB APOD
t n t m n n m M m J
m
V
t MV t V

(3b)
Analytical Solution for a 5 Level NPC inverter under APOD PWM strategy - 3(a) Phase Voltage 3(b) Line to Line Voltage
0-7803-5695-0/00/$10.00 (c) 2000 IEEE
cancellation of this component when the line-to-line voltages
are formed. For a Cascaded inverter, exactly the same effect
can be achieved by using discontinuous PWM with phase
shifted carriers for each full bridge in each multilevel phase
leg. (This strategy retains a three level switched output
without eliminating the carrier from the full bridge output.)
Figure 4 shows the reference and carrier waveform
arrangements required to achieve this form of modulation for
three level and five level systems. Note that the individual
phase legs of each full bridge inverter no longer necessarily
switch at every carrier cycle, much in the same way a NPC
inverter operates under PD modulation. Of course, this also
means that the carrier frequency must be doubled to maintain
the same overall number of switch transitions, but this is a
normal adjustment for discontinuous modulation.
Note that continuous PWM cannot achieve the same result
because a 180
0
phase shifted carrier is required to retain the
carrier within each full bridge inverter, and this leads to two
level modulation which is known to be inferior. [7].
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS.
The experimental system used to confirm this investigation
comprised a series of cascaded full bridge inverters, with
each inverter modulated by a separate TMS320C240 DSP
based controller. Figure 5 shows the experimental switched
voltage and filtered load currents obtained for a three and a
five level inverter. Figure 9 shows the experimental voltage
spectra for the five level Cascaded inverter. Figure 9(a)
shows the carrier component clearly in the phase voltage
spectrum while Figure 9(b) shows the improvement in the
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1
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+
+
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0 0
0
2 2
1 2
2
1
0
0 1 2
0 0
1 2
2
0 _
2 1 2 cos
1 2 cos 2 sin cos 4
1 2 sin 2 cos 1 cos 2 cos 1 2
4 1 2
1 2 2
1 2
1
4
1 2 2 cos 1 cos 4
2
1
1 2 cos 1 2 sin cos 2 1
1 2
1 2 2
1 2
1 4
cos
m
n
n
C
k
k
DC
m
n
n
C n
DC
m
C
k
k DC
DC AN PD
t n t m
k n k n
k n k n k
n k
M m J
m
V
t n t m n M m J
m
V
t m k k
k
M m J
m
V
t MV t V

(4a)
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( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
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,
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,
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+
,
_

,
_

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0
0
0
2 2
1 2
2
1
0
0 1 2
0 _
3
2 1 2 sin
1 2 cos 2 sin cos 4
1 2 sin 2 cos 1 cos 2
cos
1 2
1 2 4
1 2 2
1 2
3
2 sin
8
3
1 2 2 sin
3
1 2 sin cos 4
2
1 2
6
cos 3
m
n
n
C
k
k
DC
m
n
n
C n
DC
DC AB PD
t n t m
k n k n
k n k
n
k
k n
M m J
m
n
V
t n t m n n M m J
m
V
t MV t V

(4b)
where:
4
0
2
1
cos
1


,
_

M
Analytical Solution for a 5 Level NPC inverter under PD PWM - 4(a) Phase Voltage 4(b) Line to Line Voltage
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

'

+ + +
1
0
0 1 2 0 _
1 2 4 cos 1 cos 2
1 4
cos 4
m
n
n
C n
DC
DC AN PS
t n t m n M m J
m
V
t MV t V

(5a)
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

'

,
_

,
_

+
,
_

+
,
_

+
1
0
0 1 2 0 _
3
1 2 4 sin
3
1 2 sin cos 2
1 8
6
cos 3 4
m
n
n
C n
DC
DC AB PS
t n t m n n M m J
m
V
t MV t V

(5b)
Analytical Solutions for 5 level Cascaded Inverter under PSCPWM - 5(a) Phase Voltage 5(b) Line to Line Voltage.
0-7803-5695-0/00/$10.00 (c) 2000 IEEE
line-to-line voltage spectra because of the common mode
carrier cancellation across the phases. A comparison of these
spectra with those of Figure 7 confirms that the spectra
produced by the bipolar discontinuous PWM strategy for
Cascaded inverters is equivalent to the PD strategy for NPC
inverters. (It should be noted that this form of modulation
can be extended to any level of Cascaded inverter by using
appropriate discontinuous references.)
VI. SUMMARY.
Analytic solutions have been developed using Double
Fourier Analysis for carrier disposition modulation of NPC
multilevel inverters. These solutions have been compared
with analytic solutions for PSCPWM modulation of
Cascaded inverters, and the APOD strategy has been shown
to be the same as the PSCPWM strategy when the carrier
frequencies are adjusted to achieve the same number of total
switch transitions over a fundamental cycle. From this
understanding, an equivalent PD modulation strategy has
been developed for Cascaded inverters using discontinuous
PWM with phase shifted carriers within each bridge of the
Cascaded inverter. The new modulation strategy gives a
similar improved harmonic performance for Cascaded
inverters as PD modulation achieves for NPC inverters.
VII. REFERENCES.
[1] Nabae, H. Akagi and I. Takahashi, A New Neutral-Point-Clamped
PWM Inverter, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. IA-
17, NO. 5, September/October 1981, pp.518-523.
[2] Y. Liang and C. Nwankpa, A New Type of Statcom Based on
Cascading Voltage Source Inverters with Phase-Shifted Unipolar
SPWM, in Conf. Rec. 1998 IEEE/IAS Annual Meeting, pp. 1447-
1453.
[3] G. Carrara, S. Gardella, M. Marchesoni, R. Salutari and G. Sciutto, A
New Multilevel PWM Method: A Theoretical Analysis, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 7, NO. 3, July 1992, pp.497-
505.
[4] Agelidis and M. Calais, Application Specific Harmonic Performance
Evaluation of Multicarrier PWM Techniques, in Conf. Rec. 1998
IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference, pp. 172-178.
[5] D. G. Holmes and B. P. McGrath, "Opportunities for Harmonic
Cancellation with Carrier Based PWM for Two-Level and Multi-Level
Cascaded Inverters", in Conf. Rec. IEEE/IAS Annual Meeting, 1999,
(in press).
[6] S.R Bowes, New Sinusoidal Pulse-Width Modulated Inverter, IEE
Proceedings, Vol.122, No. 11, pp. 1279-1285, November, 1975.
[7] D. G. Holmes, A General Analytical Method for Determining the
Theoretical Harmonic Components of Carrier Based PWM Strategies,
in Conf. Rec. IEEE/IAS Annual Meeting, 1998, pp. 1207-1214.
/3 2/3 4/3 0 5/3 2
0t
V
DC
-V
DC
V
DC
-V
DC
V
DC
-V
DC
/3 2/3 4/3 0 5/3 2
0t
V
DC
-V
DC
V
DC
-V
DC
V
DC
-V
DC
V
DC
-V
DC
V
DC
-V
DC
Figure 4 : Reference and Carrier waveforms required for PD modulation of (a) Three level and (b) Five Level Cascaded Inverters.
300V
-300V
150V
-150V
5A
-5A
Load
Current
Phase
Voltage
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time (mSec)
Asymmetrical Regular Sampled 3 Level Cascaded Inverter
Waveforms Discontinuous PWM
Mod Depth = 0.8
FC = 2.1kHz
F0 = 50Hz
Line
Voltage

600V
-600V
300V
-300V
5A
-5A
Load
Current
Phase
Voltage
0 10 20 30 40 50
Time (mSec)
Asymmetrical Regular Sampled 5 Level Cascaded Inverter
Waveforms Continuous PWM
Mod Depth = 0.9
FC = 2.1 kHz
F0 = 50Hz
Line
Voltage
(a) Three Level System (b) Five Level System.
Figure 5: Cascaded Inverter, Discontinuous Bipolar PWM Experimental Switched Voltages and Filtered Load Currents
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0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency (Hz)
10
-1
10
-3
10
-5
10
-4
10
0
10
-2
Mod Depth = 0.9
F
C
= 2100Hz, F
0
= 50Hz
THD(120th Harmonic) = 30.2%
6(a) Phase Leg Voltage Analytical Spectrum
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency (Hz)
10
-1
10
-3
10
-5
10
-4
10
0
10
-2
Mod Depth = 0.9
F
C
= 2100Hz, F
0
= 50Hz
THD(120th Harmonic) = 26.3%
6(b) Line-to-Line Voltage - Analytical Spectrum
Figure 6: Five Level NPC Inverter, APOD PWM
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency (Hz)
10
-1
10
-3
10
-5
10
-4
10
0
10
-2
Mod Depth = 0.9
F
C
= 2100Hz, F
0
= 50Hz
THD(120th Harmonic) = 30.2%
7(a) Phase Leg Voltage - Analytical Spectrum
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency (Hz)
10
-1
10
-3
10
-5
10
-4
10
0
10
-2
Mod Depth = 0.9
F
C
= 2100Hz, F
0
= 50Hz
THD(120th Harmonic) = 13.0%
7(b) Line-to-Line Voltage Analytical Spectrum
Figure 7: Five Level NPC Inverter, PD PWM strategy
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency (Hz)
10
-1
10
-3
10
-5
10
-4
10
0
10
-2
Mod Depth = 0.9
F
C
= 525Hz, F
0
= 50Hz
THD(120th Harmonic) = 30.2%
8(a) Phase Leg Voltage Analytical Spectrum
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency (Hz)
10
-1
10
-3
10
-5
10
-4
10
0
10
-2
Mod Depth = 0.9
F
C
= 525Hz, F
0
= 50Hz
THD(120th Harmonic) = 26.3%
8(b) Line-to-Line Voltage Analytical Spectrum
Figure 8: Five Level Cascaded Inverter, PSCPWM
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency (Hz)
10
-1
10
-3
10
-5
10
-4
10
0
10
-2
Mod Depth = 0.9
F
C
= 2100Hz, F
0
= 50Hz
THD(120th Harmonic) = 29.9%
9(a) Phase Leg Voltage Experimental Spectrum
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
Frequency (Hz)
10
-1
10
-3
10
-5
10
-4
10
0
10
-2
Mod Depth = 0.9
F
C
= 2100Hz, F
0
= 50Hz
THD(120th Harmonic) = 12.9%
9(b) Line-to-Line Voltage - Experimental Spectrum
Figure 9: Five Level Cascaded Inverter, Discontinuous Bipolar PWM
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