A single-source nine-level inverter with quadratic boost ability for renewable energy applications

A nine-level inverter with quadratic boost ability is proposed in this paper. The presented topology produces quadruple boosted output voltage by utilizing 10 switches, one diode, two capacitors, and a single dc source. In the proposed topology a back-end H-bridge is not required to produce negative voltage levels, which in turn reduces the voltage stress across the switches to the maximum of twice the input voltage. The two switched capacitors (SC) are charged to the dc source voltage rating and twice the voltage rating of the dc source, respectively, to produce quadruple voltage boosting. The high-voltage boosting capability makes it suitable for the integration of renewable energy sources to the grid. Nearest level control (NLC)-based modulation technique is applied to produce gate driver signals for the inverter circuit. The proposed topology is compared with the recently published topologies in terms of used components such as switches, diodes, sources, and capacitors are made so as to show the advantages of the presented reduced component count topology. Finally, simulation and hardware results are obtained under certain loading conditions to validate the operability of the proposed topology. The total harmonic distortion (THD) of the proposed topology at the unity modulation index is 8.2%.