Abstract
This paper proposes a new dc-voltage-balancing circuit for a five-level diode-clamped inverter intended for a medium-voltage motor drive. This circuit consists of two unidirectional choppers and a single coupled inductor with two galvanically-isolated windings. The dc magnetic fluxes in the magnetic core, which are generated by the two windings, cancel out each other. Therefore, the inductor does not generate any dc-magnetic flux in the magnetic core. This makes the inductor compact by a factor of six compared to previously used balancing circuits containing two non-coupled inductors. Experimental results obtained from a 200-V 5.5-kW downscaled model verify that the dc mean voltages of the four split dc capacitors are balanced well under all operating conditions.
