Design of a 13-Level Switched Capacitor Inverter with Cost Optimization and Adaptive Load Handling
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper presents the design and analysis of a 13-level switched capacitor inverter (SCI) topology that focuses on cost optimization and adaptive load handling for modern power conversion applications. The proposed inverter uses a single DC source, a reduced number of power switches, and strategically placed switched capacitor cells to generate thirteen distinct voltage levels without the need for bulky transformers or multiple isolated inputs. This design significantly reduces the component count, voltage stress across switches, and overall system complexity, making it suitable for compact and low-cost renewable energy systems. The inverter topology includes a front-end DC-DC boost converter for voltage regulation and effective power extraction from variable DC sources such as photovoltaic panels. An efficient modulation scheme ensures smooth switching and low total harmonic distortion (THD) in the output waveform. The inverter is capable of maintaining stable output voltage and waveform quality under both steady-state and dynamic load conditions, including sudden changes in RL loads. Simulation and hardware results validate the performance, showing consistent output, improved efficiency, and reliable operation under varying load profiles. The adaptive behavior and modular structure of the inverter make it highly applicable for grid-connected systems, standalone renewable units, and distributed generation. The proposed 13-level SCI provides a balance of performance, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness for next-generation power electronics systems.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
Sarwer, Z., Siddique, M.D., Sarwar, A., Mekhilef, S., Anwar, M.N., “Switched capacitor based 7 -level and 9-level multilevel inverters with single DC source and reduced voltage stress”, e-Prime - Adv. Electr. Eng., Electron. Energy, vol. 6, 2023.
V.Thiyagarajan, “A novel 7-Level symmetric inverter module with less circuit components”, Materials Today: Proceedings, Vol.62, No. 2, pp. 944–949, 2022.
DhanamjayuluC., P.Sanjeevikumar, S.M.Muyeen, “A structural overview on transformer and transformer-less multi level inverters for renewable energy applications”, Energy Reports, Vol. 8, pp. 10299–10333, 2022.
Y. Ye, S. Chen, X. Wang and K. -W. E. Cheng, "Self-Balanced 13-Level Inverter Based on Switched Capacitor and Hybrid PWM Algorithm," in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 68, no. 6, pp. 4827-4837, June 2021, doi: 10.1109/TIE.2020.2989716.
H. P.Vemuganti, D.Sreenivasarao, S. K.Ganjikunta, H. M.Suryawanshi and H.Abu-Rub, “A Survey on Reduced Switch Count Multilevel Inverters,” IEEE Open Journal of the Industrial Electronics Society, vol. 2, pp. 80–111, 2021.
N. Sandeep, “A 13-Level Switched-Capacitor-Based Boosting Inverter”, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, 2020.
M. J. Sathik, N. Sandeep, D. Almakhles, and F. Blaabjerg, “Cross connected compact switched-capacitor multilevel inverter (c3-scmli) topology with reduced switch count,” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, pp. 1–1, 2020.
J. Zeng, W. Lin, D. Cen and J. Liu, "Novel K-Type Multilevel Inverter With Reduced Components and Self-Balance," in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 4343-4354, Dec. 2020, doi: 10.1109/JESTPE.2019.2939562.
Y. Ye, S. Chen, X. Wang, and K. W. E. E. Cheng, “Self-balanced 13- level inverter based on switched-capacitor structure and hybrid pwm algorithm,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., 2020.
Y. Nakagawa and H. Koizumi, “A boost-type nine-level switched capacitor inverter,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 34, no. 7, pp. 6522–6532, 2019.