An Eight-Switch Five-Level Current Source Inverter

This paper proposes an eight-switch three-phase five-level current source inverter (CSI), which employs only one traditional H6 inverter and two shunt branches at the DC side to realize the five-level switching. The corresponding space vector modulation (SVM) strategy for the proposed CSI topology is also presented, which uses the two shunt-connected power switches to add certain special modulation-state segments to ensure the switching instants completed under lower current stresses and lower power dissipation. Compared with other five-level CSI topologies, the proposed CSI utilizes less power switches. Simulation and experimental results verified the performance of the proposed CSI.