Manfred W. Gekeler; Stefan Schreitmüller; Gunter Voigt: Comparison of the EMC and efficiency characteristics of hard and soft switching three-level inverters
Abstract
Three-level inverters are used in electrical drive systems, as grid infeed inverter in PV power
plants or as active power line filters. Up to now so called hard switching topologies have
been used. A new ‘Soft Switching Three Level Inverter (S3L Inverter)’ which is now available
provides reduced switching losses and higher efficiency. In this paper the S3L inverter is
compared with a hard switching T-type inverter topology (H3L inverter). S3L inverters provide
higher efficiency and additionally advantages in electromagnetic compatibility due to the soft
switching performance, especially when using the ‘Super Soft Switching Three Level Inverter
(SS3L Inverter)’.