A Switched Capacitor-Based Multilevel Boost Inverter for Photovoltaic Applications

In this paper, a single-phase 13-level switching capacitor multilevel boost inverter (SCMLBI) with less switches and a voltage boost gain of six times is presented. The main focus of this work is to present a single DC source SCMLBI topology, which can provide an AC output voltage with low harmonic distortion by suitable sinusoidal pulse modulation (SPWM) technique. The given SCMLBI boost topology is designed to provide 13 output voltage levels utilizing a single DC source and 14 power electronic switches, and it includes intrinsic capacitor self-voltage balancing. The presented SCMLBI inverter does not require any magnetic elements like inductors which do not make the system complex in IC fabrication. In this work, the DC source is provided with a solar PV array with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. The proposed SCMLBI topology provides an output voltage larger than the input voltage by appropriately converting the capacitors in series and parallel combinations. Sinusoidal PWM technique is used to control the switches in SCMLBI. A solar PV array of 100 W with incremental and conductance MPPT algorithm is used in this work. The verification of the presented SCMLBI topology is simulated on MATLAB software. Hardware results are also presented for the validation of SCMLBI topology.