Ishani Banerjee
Independent Researcher
India
Abstract
This manuscript presents a comprehensive comparative study of pulse-width modulation (PWM) techniques applied to multilevel inverters as of 2019. Multilevel inverters have emerged as a key technology in high-power and medium-voltage applications due to their ability to generate high-quality voltage waveforms with reduced harmonic distortion and lower switching stress. Among the numerous PWM schemes available—such as sinusoidal PWM (SPWM), space vector PWM (SVPWM), carrier-based discontinuous PWM (DPWM), and selective harmonic elimination (SHE)—selection depends on criteria including total harmonic distortion (THD), switching losses, computational complexity, and ease of implementation. This study examines these PWM methods through detailed case studies, identifies current research gaps, describes a unified experimental methodology, presents comparative results, and draws conclusions on their relative merits. The findings provide guidance for engineers seeking optimal performance–complexity trade-offs in industrial applications demanding high efficiency and power quality.
Keywords
Multilevel Inverter, PWM Techniques, Total Harmonic Distortion, Switching Losses, SPWM, SVPWM
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