Bootstrap cascaded multilevel converter

Abstract

This paper presents a cascaded-type multilevel inverter whit only one DC voltage source, which uses a floating capacitor to feed the other cascaded H-bridge, the capacitor is charge in a bootstrap technique and then the converter can provide a peak voltage equal to twice the DC-source regard-less on the power factor in the load, the converter is ideal for renewable systems applications as inverter stage in energy generation or grid integration, experimental results with a 5-level prototype verify the converter behavior.