New multilevel inverter with reduction of switches and gate driver

This paper presents a novel topology for symmetrical cascaded multilevel converter. The proposed circuit consists of series connected sub multilevel converters blocks and it can generate DC voltage levels similar to other topologies. The proposed topology results in reduction of switches number, losses, installation area and converter cost. This converter has been used in a Dynamic Voltage Restorer (DVR). Simulation results carried out by MATLAB/SIMULINK show the voltage injection capability of converter and the efficiency of its controller in compensating voltage sag and swell.