Abstract
This paper proposes a new high-efficiency grid-connection inverter suitable for the interface with thin-film solar cells, which is composed of two bidirectional buck converters and an H-bridge PWM converter connected in series. The switching frequencies of the first bidirectional buck converters are equal to the grid frequency, while the second one is operated at the twice of the grid frequency. The combination of these two converter synthesizes an ac rectangular voltage pulse train from the dc input power. The H-bridge PWM converter is operated at 20kHz with a low dc capacitor voltage to compensate for the harmonic voltage included in the rectangular voltage pulse train. As a result, the proposed grid-connection inverter makes it possible to reduce both switching loss and common mode voltage. Experimental results obtained by a 1-kW single-phase inverter demonstrate a high efficiency of 98% without any common mode voltage.
