AMid-Point Clamped Five-Level Inverter With Limited Switched-Capacitor Inrush Current For PV Applications

A compact mid-point five-level inverter for the integration of solar photovoltaic system with the grid is proposed in this article. By nature, it is a mid-point type, so it can minimize the leakage current of the capacitor. In addition to this, the voltage across the capacitors is balanced automatically without any external circuit used. Also, it can able to transfer reactive power utmost. Two tiny inductors are used in this circuit, hence they will minimize the stress on the capacitors during their charging. These stresses are very less compared to basic midpoint multi-level inverters. The input current provided by the proposed inverter is continuous due to its symmetric switching sequence. A 3 kW model is designed and simulated in the PLECS platform to validate the performance of the proposed inverter, where many parameters (like devices internal resistance, forward voltage drop thermal description etc.) are considered to make it as a real-time model.