Generalized multi-cell switched-inductor and switched-capacitor Z-source inverters

High performance voltage and current-source inverters (VSI and CSI) are widely required in various industrial applications such as servo-motor drives, special power supplies, distributed power systems and hybrid electric vehicles. However, the traditional VSI and CSI have been seriously restricted due to their narrow obtainable output voltage range, short-through problems caused by misgating and some other theoretical difficulties due to their bridge-type structures. The Z-source inverter was proposed to overcome the problems associated with the traditional inverters, in which the functions of the traditional dc-dc boost converter and the bridge-type inverter have been successfully combined. To further widen the operational range or gain of the Z-source inverter in both the voltage and current type configurations, the generalized switched-inductor and switched-capacitor impedance networks are proposed hereon. Both simulation and experimental testing have been conducted for validating the extra boosting introduced with some representative results captured and presented near the end of the paper.