A New Single-Source Nine-Level Quadruple Boost Inverter (NQBI) for PV Application

Abstract

Multi-level inverters (MLIs) with switched capacitors are becoming popular due to their utilization in AC high-voltage applications as well as in the field of renewable energy. To achieve the required magnitude of output voltage, the switched capacitor (SC) technique employs a lesser number of DC sources in accordance with the voltage across the capacitor. Designing an efficient high-gain MLI with fewer sources and switches needs a rigorous effort. This paper introduces a prototype of a nine-level quadruple boost inverter (NQBI) topology powered by one solar photo-voltaic source using fewer capacitors, switches, and diodes when compared to the other SC-MLIs topology. The suggested NQB inverter produces nine levels of voltage in its output by efficiently balancing the voltages of the two capacitors. The various SC-MLIs are compared in order to highlight the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed nine-level quadruple boost inverter (NQBI) topology. To validate the efficacy of the proposed solar photovoltaic based NQBI without grid connection, detailed experimental results are presented in a laboratory setting under various test conditions. © 2013 IEEE.