Modeling and simulation of novel stepped DC coupled quasi Z-Multilevel Inverter for single phase systems

This paper presents the modeling and simulation of a novel topology of quasi Z-Multilevel Inverter with stepped DC input. The proposed inverter incorporates a simple switching technique with reduced component count and is aimed at producing boosted multilevel output AC voltage. The inverter consists of two stages and the buck /boost operation is obtained by varying the shoot through period of the pulses obtained by maximum constant boost control with third harmonic injection. With all the advantages of the quasi Z-network, the proposed inverter eliminates the fly back diodes and capacitors present in a conventional Z-Multilevel Inverter. Further the stress on the devices is less which leads to reduction in component value and hence the cost. The novel stepped DC coupled Single Phase quasi Z-Multilevel Inverter is modeled and simulated in the MATLAB – SIMULINK environment and its performance is analyzed for varying input and switching conditions. The voltage and current waveforms across each stage of the inverter is analyzed and the results are presented for different levels of input.