A single-phase five-level multilevel inverter with rated power fault-tolerant feature

Abstract

Multilevel inverters with fault-tolerance capabilities are critical for powering modern emergency loads, where reliability is the crucial parameter. For enhanced reliability, this paper introduces a single-phase five-level fault-tolerant multilevel inverter to ensure continuous operation even after the occurrence of the faults, while maintaining rated power output. The proposed converter achieves this feature by adopting redundant switches and triacs, which improves the fault-tolerant capability. This paper presents the detailed operating principle of the proposed converter, and its effectiveness is validated through the MATLAB/SIMULINK platform. Further, a 500 W prototype is developed and tested under normal and fault conditions. The experimental results confirmed that the proposed converter can be reconfigured to operate at rated power during faulty conditions. Furthermore, an extensive analysis of reliability, efficiency, and other performance metrics is presented to evaluate the superiority of the proposed converter. The advantages of the proposed converter make it an excellent choice for critical applications.