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Opportunities for Harmonic Cancellation with Carrier-Based PWM for Two-Level and Multilevel Cascaded Inverters
Donald Grahame Holmes, Member, IEEE, and Brendan P. McGrath
AbstractPulsewidth modulation (PWM) strategies have been the subject of many years of research effort, and the merits of the various alternatives investigated have been argued extensively. In general, it is now accepted that natural or asymmetrical regular sampled PWM with a third harmonic injected or a space-vectorcentered reference waveform gives the best harmonic performance, with discontinuous modulation having some advantages for higher modulation ratios. This paper uses a general analytical solution for carrier-based PWM to mathematically identify the harmonic cancellation that occurs in various PWM implementations and converter topologies. This solution provides a formal justification for the superiority of natural and asymmetrical regular sampling techniques in eliminating half of their sideband harmonics simply by virtue of their phase leg switching. Then, the use of fundamental reference phase shifting between phase legs to create single- and three-phase 11 output voltages is reviewed, and the harmonic cancellation that occurs is identified. One significant result from this analysis is the realization that an odd/triplen carrier/fundamental ratio has no intrinsic harmonic benefit, contrary to the generally accepted wisdom. Finally, opportunities for harmonic elimination in multilevel cascaded inverter systems by carrier phase shifting are investigated, and the optimum phase shift is identified. Index TermsAnalytic solution, harmonic cancellation, multilevel cascaded converters, pulsewidth modulation.

of these benefits for both naturally and regular sampled PWM has not been published to date. Recent work [6] has presented a general mathematical technique for determining the theoretical harmonic components of any carrier-based PWM strategy. In particular, this work presents a common approach for analyzing naturally sampled and regular sampled (both symmetrical and asymmetrical) PWM strategies, together with closed-form analytic solutions for all the major PWM variations that are in use. This paper now uses these closed-form solutions to determine exactly how and which harmonics are cancelled for different PWM strategies applied to two-level and multilevel converters. The results of this work show why particular fundamental and carrier-phase relationships have distinct harmonic advantages when used in two level and multilevel cascaded inverter topologies. II. PWM HARMONICS GENERATED PHASE LEG
BY A

TWO-LEVEL

I. INTRODUCTION ULSEWIDTH modulation (PWM) strategies have been the subject of many years of research effort, and the harmonic benefits of strategies such as third harmonic injected reference waveforms, space-vector modulation, and discontinuous switching, for two-level converters, are now well established [1][3]. In contrast, however, a mathematical explanation for these benefits is less well known, and this can lead to misunderstandings among less experienced engineers as to which PWM strategies are advantageous in particular applications. Additionally, for multilevel cascaded inverter systems, while the benefits of phase shifting the carrier waveform have been recognized [4], [5], a complete mathematical explanation

Paper IPCSD 00057, presented at the 1999 Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, October 37, and approved for publication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Industrial Power Converter Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. Manuscript submitted for review June 1, 1999 and released for publication November 27, 2000. The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, 3168, Australia (e-mail: grahame.holmes@eng.monash.edu.au; brendan.mcgrath@eng.monash.edu.au). Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-9994(01)02103-X.

The basic building block of voltage-source-type inverters is a single two-level switched phase leg, consisting of two active switches and their associated antiparallel diodes, as shown in Fig. 1(a). The fundamental constraint for this structure is that one of the two switches must always be ON, to provide a continuous conduction path for the output load current. From this building block, two-level single-phase and three-phase inverters, and multilevel voltage-source inverters constructed from cascaded single phase inverters, can be developed, as shown in Fig. 1(b)(d). Note that the multilevel topology of Fig. 1(d) requires six independent dc power supplies, as outlined in [7]. The most common PWM strategy for a two-level phase leg is a "sine-triangle" comparison of a (sinusoidal) low-frequency fundamental reference waveform against a high-frequency carrier waveform. The phase leg switches to the upper or the lower dc rail supply depending on whether the reference waveform is, respectively, greater than or less than the carrier waveform. A wide variety of PWM strategies have been proposed based on this principle, the variations of which can be broadly categorized according to the following: carrier waveformtriangle, sawtooth, trapezoidal; offset waveform which is added to the fundamental reference, i.e., none, 1/6 or 1/4; third harmonic, an offset to center the switched output in the carrier interval (otherwise known as space-vector modulation), or an offset to set a phase-leg output to one dc rail for part of the fundamental cycle (discontinuous switching);

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 1. Development of single-phase, three-phase, and multilevel cascaded inverters from a single two-level switched phase leg. (a) Two-level phase leg. (b) Single-phase VSI. (c) Three-phase VSI. (d) Cascaded multilevel three-phase VSI.

Fig. 2. Position of rising and falling edges resulting from the three common sampling techniques.

sampling technique, i.e., natural, symmetric regular sampled, or asymmetric regular sampled. Fig. 2 illustrates the influence that the sampling technique in particular can have on the switched output waveform. Naturally sampled PWM directly compares the actual reference waveform against the carrier waveform, while regular sampled PWM holds the reference waveform fixed during a half or full carrier interval (respectively termed symmetrical and asymmetrical sampling) to facilitate a digital PWM implementation. The sampling technique determines the position of the rising and falling edges of the switched pulses, thus influencing the spectra produced. Each of the above PWM variations has particular harmonic benefits, the merits of which have been argued for years. However, from [6], the general harmonic form of the switched output waveform of a single phase leg controlled by any carrier-based PWM scheme can be written as

(1)

where (1) has been adapted from [6] to include an arbitrary phase offset for both the fundamental and the carrier waveforms, and complex harmonic coefficients of the more usual separate sine and cosine coefficients. The two summation terms in (1) represent fundamental/baseband harmonics and carrier/sideband harmonics, respectively. For the simplest PWM strategy of a triangular carrier and a simple sinusoidal fundamental reference, the solution process described in [6] leads to harmonic components as detailed in (2), shown at the bottom of the next page, for the cases of naturally sampled PWM, symmetrical sampled PWM, and asymmetrical sampled PWM, respectively. These expressions define , carrier fundamental and baseband harmonics , and sideband harmonics multiple harmonics . The centered around the carrier multiples which reprecoefficients in (2) contain terms of the form sent Bessel functions of the first kind of order and argument . See (2a)(2c), analytical solutions for switched output of a single-phase leg under simple sine-triangle PWM, shown at the bottom of the next page. In particular, it can be seen from (2a) and (2c) that, by virtue terms present in the summation exof the pressions, naturally sampled and asymmetrical regular sampled PWM eliminate every odd sideband harmonic for each odd carrier multiple, and every even sideband harmonic for each even carrier multiple. Symmetrical regular sampled PWM in contrast term in the summation expressions, has a which does not achieve similar sideband harmonic elimination. Thus, symmetrical regular sampled PWM generates more sideband harmonic components than asymmetrical sampling, and so cannot achieve the same level of harmonic cancellation as asymmetrical sampling for any converter topology. Examination of the harmonic coefficients developed in [6] for more complex PWM schemes with various offsets added to the fundamental reference, shows the same odd and even sideband harmonic cancellation for all continuously modulated naturally and asymmetrical regular sampled PWM strategies. Hence, this harmonic elimination within a phase leg can be identified as an intrinsic advantage of natural and asymmetrical regular sampling for continuous modulation, irrespective of the modulation strategy. For discontinuous modulation strategies, no equivalent harmonic sideband elimination occurs within the individual

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two-level phase leg. Furthermore, these PWM strategies create significant baseband harmonic components for each phase-leg output, and rely on common-mode cancellation across multiple phase legs to eliminate these harmonics from the final output. As a practical matter, this increases the risk of incomplete cancellation depending on the accuracy of implementation of the switching waveform. Equation (2) also identifies that what are often referred to in the literature as subharmonics can be more usefully described as carrier sideband harmonics which intrude below the fundamental component when the carrier/fundamental ratio is low. Evaluation of the magnitude of the Bessel functions in (2) identifies the significant (i.e., greater than 0.5%) lower frequency sideband harmonics as for natural or asymmetric regular sampling (symmetric regular sampling has twice as many significant harmonics because of less harmonic sideband elimination), and . these will only intrude below the fundamental when repHence, the conventional wisdom of maintaining resents a comfortable safety margin, but there appears to be no theoretical rationale for requiring to be an odd triplen integer multiple of as is often stated in the literature unless perhaps the phase leg load can create cross-modulation interference between nearby sideband harmonics. Note also that symmetric and asymmetric regular sampled PWM creates low-order baseband harmonic components as identified in (2b) and (2c) irrespective of the reference waveform, but these components are usually insignificant for any reasonable carrier/fundamental ratio. The solutions of (2) identify the first opportunity for harmonic cancellation, by using natural or asymmetric regular sampling irrespective of the fundamental and carrier waveforms. The second opportunity for harmonic cancellation comes about by arranging the switching of multiple phase legs to create common-mode harmonics which cancel across phase legs, as discussed in the next sections.

III. OPPORTUNITIES FOR HARMONIC CANCELLATION IN SINGLE PHASE CONVERTERS For a single-phase inverter with two phase legs, a sinusoidal l-l output fundamental is achieved across the phase legs if the second phase-leg reference waveform is phase delayed by 180 . Under these conditions, the phase-leg switched waveforms and the inverter l-l output voltages can be developed from (2) into (3), analytical solutions for l-l output of a single-phase inverter under three-level sine-triangle PWM, shown at the bottom of the next page. Equation (3) shows that complete cancellation occurs in the l-l output voltages for all even sideband harmonics irrespective of the modulation strategy and the carrier/fundamental frequency ratio. For naturally and asymmetric regular sampled PWM [(3b) and (3d)], this consequently eliminates all odd carrier multiple harmonics, thus confirming the well-known harmonic benefit of three-level modulation for a single-phase inverter. However, the same benefit is not achieved for symmetric regular sampled PWM [(3c)] because this strategy does not eliminate odd sideband harmonics at odd carrier multiples within each phase leg and, hence, complete sideband harmonic cancellation between the two phase legs at odd carrier multiples does not occur. In contrast, the common alternative of two-level modulation (achieved by switching the second phase leg in direct opposition to the first) is equivalent to phase delaying both the fundamental and the carrier waveforms by 180 . Under these conditions, the phase-leg and l-l output voltages become as in (4), analytical solutions for l-l output of a single-phase inverter under two-level naturally sampled PWM, shown at the bottom of the next page, and odd carrier sideband harmonic cancellation does not occur between the two phase legs irrespective of the modulation sampling process and strategy.

(naturally sampled) (2a)

(symmetric regular sampled) (2b)

(asymmetric regular sampled) (2c) where modulation depth

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It is important to recognize that, in all of these examples, carrier sideband harmonic cancellation is a consequence of the internal phase-leg modulation strategy and the various phase shifts of the fundamental and carrier waveforms that are used. The carrier/fundamental ratio has no influence, and need not even be integer.

IV. OPPORTUNITIES FOR HARMONIC CANCELLATION IN THREE PHASE CONVERTERS For a three-phase inverter with three two-level phase legs, a balanced set of three-phase l-l output voltages is obtained if the phase-leg references are displaced by 120 . Under these

(3a)

(3b)

where

(3c)

where

(3d)

(4a)

(4b)

(5a)

(5b)

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conditions, the phase-leg and l-l voltages are given (for naturally sampled PWM) by (5), analytical solutions for l-l output of a three-phase inverter under naturally sampled sine-triangle PWM, shown at the bottom of the preceding page. In this case, the triplen sideband harmonics around each carmultiple of 3) and, rier multiple are cancelled (i.e., when hence, the major significant sideband harmonics become as is well defined in the literature. However, it is again significant to recognize that the sideband cancellation is not caused by any triplen carrier ratio requirement, and there is no identifiable harmonic benefit in maintaining an odd carrier/fundamental ratio. (In passing, it is commented that a triplen odd carrier/fundamental ratio does create low-pass-filtered l-l voltages which are visually symmetrical, but this is a nicety only, and offers no intrinsic harmonic benefits). For regular sampled PWM, the triplen sideband harmonics are similarly cancelled in a three-phase system, with extra harocmonics at curring for symmetrical regular sampling because of the poorer harmonic elimination that occurs within the phase leg for this modulation strategy. The sideband harmonic cancellation process described above is independent of the fundamental reference waveform, since it reference waveform phase shift occurs only because of the causing matching phase shifts in the sideband harmonics created in each phase leg. More complex reference waveforms only change the magnitude of these harmonics and, hence, similar cancellation occurs for the more sophisticated PWM strategies of third harmonic injected, space vector, discontinuous modulation, etc. The popular misconception that it is a triplen carrier/fundamental ratio which causes carrier and sideband harmonic cancellation between phase legs appears to have arisen from early harmonic analysis work which assumed an integer pulse ratio and a general harmonic form of (6) to appropriately displace the three funSetting damental carriers for three-phase operation then seems to logically require to be a triplen ratio when the carrier harmonic is created to achieve cancellation between phase legs. However, the error is in the use of the general harmonic form of (6), which implicitly assumes a 0 phase relationship between the reference waveform and the carrier. This relationship is not sustained for the other two phase references unless a triplen carrier ratio is defined, so that the application of the general harmonic form of (6) is only valid for a triplen carrier, rather than requiring such a ratio. Equation (1) is the correct general harmonic form for fixed carrier PWM systems. V. OPPORTUNITIES FOR HARMONIC CANCELLATION CASCADED SINGLE-PHASE CONVERTERS
IN

Multilevel cascaded inverter topologies as shown in Fig. 1(d) use series-connected full-bridge inverters to achieve increased voltage range and reduced output harmonics. Previous work has

Fig. 3. Harmonic components for single-phase legnatural, symmetrical, and asymmetrical regular sampled PWM.

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identified how careful modulation of each single-phase inverter can lead to significant reduction in harmonics in the switched output voltage [5]. This harmonic reduction can now be mathematically evaluated and optimized using the analytic solutions developed earlier for three-level (3) and two-level (4) modulation of a single-phase inverter. For three-level modulation (naturally or asymmetrically sampled), the odd carrier multiple sideband harmonics are already eliminated within each inverter as has been shown in (3). Hence, sideband harmonics only exist at even carrier multiples for each single-phase inverter. If the carrier waveforms for series inverters in a phase leg , where th conare now phase shifted by verter, the harmonics in the complete phase leg are defined by (7a), shown at the bottom of the page. Therefore, since for (8) the only phase-leg harmonics remaining across the cascaded inverters will be sideband harmonic components centered around th carrier multiples as defined in (7b), shown at the bottom of the page. Therefore, for two cascaded inverters with carrier phase shifts of 90 , harmonic cancellation up to sidebands around multiples will be achieved; for three cascaded inverters with carof rier phase shifts of 60 , harmonic cancellation up to sidebands will be achieved, and so on. around multiples of Equation (7c), shown at the bottom of the page, gives the phase-leg solution for multiply cascaded asymmetric regular sampled single phase inverters. Note that, once again, this cancellation is not dependent on the carrier/fundamental ratio, and is valid even for very low pulse ratios and, of course, additional triplen sideband harmonic

cancellation around the th carrier multiples will also occur between the phase legs as a separate process because of the 120 phase shift that occurs between the fundamental reference components of the three-phase system. For cascaded inverters controlled by two-level modulation, the carrier phase shift required between the cascaded inverters , because of the lesser harmonic becomes elimination that is achieved by this modulation strategy within each single-phase inverter. Hence, this strategy will only achieve harmonic elimination up to the th carrier multiples and is, therefore, not recommended for multilevel cascaded inverters, since it only achieves half the harmonic benefits of a three-level inverter modulation strategy. VI. CALCULATED AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Fig. 3 shows the calculated harmonics for a single phase leg under naturally, symmetric, and asymmetric sampled PWM, where the anticipated partial elimination of the odd and even harmonic sidebands can be clearly seen. These calculations were performed within MATLAB using built-in functions for "). All Bessel functions of the first kind (i.e., "bessel spectral calculations were validated through the comparison with simulation results, also obtained using MATLAB, and then experimentally for selected cases. Fig. 4 shows the calculated harmonics for a single-phase inverter under three-level modulation, with complete elimination of all odd carrier sideband harmonics for naturally and asymmetric sampled PWM as expected. Fig. 5 shows the harmonics for a three-phase inverter under asymmetric regular sampled, space vector and a non/integer carrier/fundamental ratio. The partial triplen only carrier sideband harmonic cancellation can be clearly seen in contrast to the single-phase inverter harmonics of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 presents experimental results showing the progressive elimination of lower groups of sideband harmonics as the

(7a)

(7b)

where

(7c)

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Fig. 4. Harmonic components for three-level single-phase inverternatural, symmetrical, and asymmetrical regular sampled PWM.

Fig. 5. l-l output harmonic components for three-phase inverterasymmetrical regular sampled PWM with sinusoidal reference, space-vector reference, and non/integer carrier ratio.

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Fig. 7. Experimental switched phase leg voltages and (filtered) load current for two and three cascaded inverters per phase leg.

Fig. 6. Experimental results showing progression of harmonic cancellation from single-phase inverter, two cascaded inverters (five-level modulation), and three cascaded inverters (seven-level modulation).

number of series inverters in a cascaded multilevel increases (harmonics of one phase leg only are shown, so triplen sideband cancellation across phase legs will provide further benefit).

Fig. 7 shows the experimental switched waveforms for the multilevel phase legs. It should be particularly noted that effective harmonic sideband cancellation relies on all single-phase inverters having exactly the same dc-bus voltage (i.e., well within a few percent of each other). Also, it is essential that the reference waveform for each single-phase inverter is sampled at the peak and trough of that inverters effective triangular carrier (i.e., reference samples must be phase shifted by the carrier phase shift). Otherwise, harmonics across the multiple inverters do not have the correct magnitude or phase relationship to achieve proper cancellation.

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VII. SUMMARY Carrier-based PWM is the most common strategy used for inverter control in power electronic switching systems. However, the harmonic consequences of the sampling strategy, the fundamental reference waveform, and carrier phase shifts are often not clearly or correctly understood by many engineers. This paper has shown how the recently developed general analytical solution for carrier-based PWM schemes can be used to precisely identify what harmonic cancellation is possible for various modulation strategies. The results confirm that natural and asymmetric regular sampled PWM offer the particular advantage of eliminated sideband harmonics within the switched phase leg. The conclusion is also made that there is no particular benefit in an odd/triplen carrier/fundamental frequency ratio despite many previous references to the contrary, and that an in, to avoid sigteger carrier ratio is only important for nificant sideband harmonics intruding below the fundamental and being regarded as subharmonics. Finally, the optimum carrier phase shift is identified for multilevel cascaded inverters to achieve the best possible harmonic cancellation within each phase leg. REFERENCES
[1] S. R. Bowes and A. Midoun, Suboptimal switching strategies for microprocessor-controlled PWM inverter drives, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., pt. B, vol. 132, no. 3, pp. 133148, May 1985. [2] J. T. Boys and P. G. Handley, Harmonic analysis of space vector modulated PWM waveforms, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., pt. B, vol. 137, no. 4, pp. 197204, July 1990. [3] J. Holtz, Pulse width modulationA survey, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 39, pp. 410420, Dec. 1992. [4] J. W. Dixon and B. T. Ooi, Dynamically stabilised indirect current controlled SPWM boost type 3-phase rectifier, in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, 1988, pp. 700705. [5] Y. Liang and C. O. Nwankpa, A New type of Statcom based on cascading voltage source inverters with phase-shifted unipolar SPWM, in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, 1998, pp. 14471453. [6] D. G. Holmes, A general analytical method for determining the theoretical components of carrier based PWM strategies, in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, 1998, pp. 12071214. [7] F. Z. Peng, J. S. Lai, J. W. McKeever, and J. VanCoevering, A multilevel voltage-source inverter with separate dc sources for static var generation, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 32, pp. 11301138, Sept./Oct. 1996.

Donald Grahame Holmes (M88) graduated from and received the Masters degree in power systems engineering from the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, in 1974 and 1979, respectively, and received the the Ph.D. degree in PWM theory for power electronic converters from Monash University, Clayton, Australia, in 1998. He worked for six years with the local power company, developing SCADA systems for power transmission networks, before returning to the University of Melbourne as a faculty member. In 1984, he joined Monash University, Clayton, Australia, to work in the area of power electronics. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in this area and heads the Power Electronics Research Group at Monash University. He also manages graduate students and research engineers working together on a mixture of theoretical and practical R&D projects. The present interests of the group include fundamental modulation theory, current regulators for drive systems and PWM rectifiers, active filter systems for quality of supply improvement, resonant converters, current-source inverters for drive systems, and multilevel converters. He has a strong commitment and interest in the control and operation of electrical power converters. He has made a significant contribution to the understanding of PWM theory through his publications and has developed close ties with the international research community in the area. He has authored more than 60 papers published in international conference proceedings and professional journals, Dr. Holmes regularly reviews papers for all major IEEE TRANSACTIONS in his area. He is an active member of the Industrial Power Converter and Industrial Drives Committees of the IEEE Industry Applications Society.

Brendan P. McGrath received the B.Sc. degree in applied mathematics and physics and the B.E. degree in electrical and computer systems engineering in 1997 from Monash University, Clayton, Australia, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in the Power Electronics Group. In 1995, he was an Intern with CSIRO and the Australia Telescope National Facility and, in 1996, he was an Intern with PowerNet Victoria. He was a Research Assistant in the Power Electronics Group, Monash University, in 1997 and, during the summer of 2000, he was an Intern with the Wisconsin Electrical Machines and Power Electronics Consortium, University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he worked on reduced-switch-count motor drives. His research interests include modulation theory, multilevel converters, and fundamental control principles for power electronic converters.