A Fault Tolerant Nine-level Inverter Topology with Full DC Utilization for Electric Vehicle Application

Abstract

In this study, a fault-tolerant nine-level inverter architecture for an electric vehicle application is presented. Although the importance of two-level inverters [1] is well-known in EV applications, it contains significant unwanted harmonics for generated voltage. As replacing a two-level inverter proliferates the quality of power with a multilevel inverter, it is considered one of the efficient ways. Even though multilevel inverters' essence considerably reduces total harmonic distortion. Eventually, the size of the filter requirement also will minimize. Because of the increased device count and capacitor voltage balance issues, we have a slew of reliability concerns. As a result, a fault-tolerant nine-level inverter built by cascading H-Bridge [2] and modified T-type voltage source inverters [3] and a bidirectional switch are presented. With the tiniest changes in the switching combinations, the provided inverter topology can sustain system faults caused by the failure of the source and/or switching devices. Subsequently, When compared to standard nine-level inverters, it features fewer switching devices. The results are observed and validated with a hardware platform while the suggested system is simulated in a MATLAB/Simulink environment under standard and malfunctioning settings. © 2022 IEEE