New efficient multilevel inverter topology presented - the PECIN MLI

We recently published an article presenting a new cascaded multilevel inverter topology for battery-electric traction applications.

The PECIN topology is the result of our research in multilevel inverters over the last years and optimizes all essential aspects regarding inverter operation and battery management capabilities.

The PECIN MLI is a cascaded multilevel inverter and can be considered a reconfigurable battery system that can directly generate AC voltage at its terminals. This allows three-phase AC loads with high power to be operated directly on the battery system.

The PECIN MLI is designed for the highest efficiency and single-cell battery management capability. At the same time, the topology requires a minimal number of semiconductor switches compared to its range of functions. In addition to regular four-quadrant operation, the topology can reconfigure the connection of individual battery cells between serial and parallel. This achieves a minimum overall internal resistance by considering and minimizing the internal resistance of the power electronics and the variable internal resistance of the reconfigurable battery.

The paper presents a three-phase 17-level demonstrator and its operation. Here, a comparison between different modern multilevel inverter topologies from the literature shows that the PECIN MLI is highly efficient and minimizes the number of electrical components.

Click here for the paper: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9799761