A novel nine-level boost inverter with a low component count for electric vehicle applications

Abstract

In electric vehicles (EVs), considerable battery cells are cascaded in series for motor driving to improve the output voltage. The series combination of battery cells causes challenges like isolation of faulty cells, voltage unbalance, and slow charge equalization. Therefore, state-of-charge (SOC) and voltage equalization circuits are often used in industries to protect the battery cells. A nine-level inverter circuit with a double voltage boost is proposed to reduce the above issues based on the switch-capacitor (SC) principle. Unique features like self-balancing, voltage boosting are attained, which cannot be achieved through traditional inverters. The proposed topology can operate at a wide range of modulation indices ((Formula presented.)) to produce different voltage levels. The absence of a back-end H-bridge in the proposed circuit offers low voltage stress across the semiconductors. The operating principle, capacitor sizing, and modulation approach are presented. Further, experimental tests are conducted at different loading conditions to verify the performance of the proposed circuit. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.