A new topology for multilevel inverter considering its optimal structures

• A new multilevel inverter with reduced number of IGBTs is proposed.
• The proposed inverter consists of a basic unit and a full bridge converter.
• The optimal topologies are obtained for specified purposes.
• The proposed topology is compared with other conventional topologies.
• The simulation and experimental are obtained for the single-phase 19-level inverter.

In this paper, a new topology for multilevel inverters is proposed. The proposed topology consists of a basic unit and a full bridge converter. An extended topology is proposed and for the extended topology, three algorithms have been proposed to determine magnitudes of dc voltage sources. The proposed topology from viewpoint of the number of switches, the number of dc voltage sources, and the number of output voltage steps are optimized. The optimal structures for the extended topology are investigated for various objectives such as minimum number of switches and dc voltage sources for producing the maximum output voltage steps. Both simulation results and experimental verification of the proposed multilevel inverter for a single-phase 19-level multilevel inverter are presented.