Enhanced DC-Link Capacitor Voltage Balancing Control of DC-AC Multilevel Multileg Converters

This paper presents a capacitor voltage balancing control applicable to any multilevel dc-ac converter formed by a single set of series-connected capacitors implementing the dc link and semiconductor devices, such as the diode-clamped topology. The control is defined for any number of dc-link voltage levels and converter legs (for single-phase and multiphase systems), guaranteeing the capacitor voltage control for any modulation index value and load (from idle mode to full power). The associated control loop small-signal transfer function is presented, from which optimum compensator design guidelines are derived. The improvement in control performance is verified through simulation and experiments comparing with a previous balancing control strategy in a four-level three-phase dc-ac conversion system. The satisfactory control performance is also verified through simulation in a four-level five-phase dc-ac conversion system.