Improved Model Predictive Control for Asymmetric Flying Capacitor 3-Level Inverter to Balance Capacitor Voltages and Reduce Computational Burden

The paper presents a switch-reduced inverter structure called the 3-level asymmetric flying capacitor inverter and an improved predictive control technique to control the load current and balance of the capacitor voltages. The 3-level asymmetric inverter uses fewer power devices but still has almost good characteristics as the complete 3-level configuration. First, the operational analysis and mathematical model are described. Next, an improved predictive control technique with the pre-selection strategy of candidate vectors is proposed. Finally, the control efficiency of the improved algorithm is evaluated based on the output qualities of the 3-level asymmetric flying capacitor inverter under different load conditions using Matlab software. Comparative analyses are also performed for 2-level, traditional 3-level, and asymmetric 3-level T-NPC inverters.