A New Structure of Quasi Z-Source-Based Cascaded Multilevel Inverter

In this paper, a new topology for cascaded multilevel inverters based on quasi Z-source converter is proposed. In the proposed topology, the magnitude of output voltage is not limited to dc voltage source, while the magnitude of output voltage of conventional cascaded multilevel inverters is limited to dc voltage source. In the proposed topology, the magnitude of output voltage can be increased by controlling the duty cycle of shoot-through (ST) state, transformer turn ratio, and the number of switched inductors in the Z-source network. As a result, there is no need for extra dc-dc converter. In the proposed topology, the total harmonic distortion (THD) is decreased in comparison with the conventional Z-source inverters. The proposed topology directly delivers power from a power source to load. In addition, in the proposed basic unit, higher voltage gain is achieved in higher modulation index which is an advantage for the proposed base unit. The performance of the proposed topology is verified by the experimental results of five-level single-phase inverter.