Inverter.

Alternating Current (AC) power supply is used for almost all the residential,
commercial and industrial needs. But the biggest issue with AC is that it cannot be stored for
future use. So AC is converted into DC and then DC is stored in batteries and ultra-capacitors.
And now whenever AC is needed, DC is again converted into AC to run the AC based
appliances. So the device which converts DC into AC is called Inverter. The inverter is used to
convert DC to variable AC. This variation can be in the magnitude of voltage, number of
phases, frequency or phase difference.

Classification of Inverter

Inverter can be classified into many types based on output, source, type of load etc.
Below is the complete classification of the inverter circuits:

(I) According to the Output Characteristic

Square Wave Inverter,
Sine Wave Inverter
Modified Sine Wave Inverter
(II) According to the Source of Inverter
Current Source Inverter
Voltage Source Inverter
(III) According to the Type of Load
Single Phase Inverter
 Half Bridge Inverter
 Full Bridge Inverter
Three Phase Inverter
 180-degree mode
 120-degree mode
(IV) According to different PWM Technique
Simple Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM)
Multiple Pulse Width Modulation (MPWM)
Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM)
Modified sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (MSPWM)
(V) According to Number of Output Level
Regular Two-Level Inverter
Multi-Level Inverter
(I) According to the Output Characteristic
According to the output characteristic of an inverter, there can be three different types
of inverters.
Square Wave Inverter
Sine Wave Inverter
Modified Sine Wave Inverter
1) Square wave inverter
The square wave inverter is a type of inverter which converts solar DC power to AC
power. The output waveform of the voltage for this inverter is a square wave. This type of
inverter is least used among all other types of inverter because all appliances are designed
for sine wave supply. If we supply square wave to sine wave based appliance, it may get
damaged or losses are very high.
 The square wave inverter is simpler in design and more efficient than a sine wave
inverter.
 However, the square wave will not be appropriate for some loads, because the large
harmonic content can cause interference.
 Some electromechanical devices do not work well with square wave power. If the load
is reactive, there will be loss of efficiency due to reactive power loss, so the efficiency
advantage of the inverter may be nullified.
 Resistive loads also may suffer from radiated interference due to harmonic content.
 The cost of this inverter is very low but the application is very rare. It can be used in
simple tools with a universal motor.

The square wave inverter is easy to design and suitable for less sensitive electronic devices.
For more sensitive electronics, the supply from square wave inverter can result into noise. In
this tutorial, a square wave inverter is designed which will input power from a battery and
output a square AC waveform. An Inverter should generate an AC signal at the output but that
signal is not necessarily an exact sine wave. A square wave can also be considered as an AC
signal which can be used to drive less sensitive AC devices.
The output voltage, frequency, and waveform of the inverter depends on the design of the
inverter. The inverter itself does not generate any power. It only converts power from DC to
AC. The power is actually drawn from the battery.
First of all, it is important to understand that the AC appliances are meant to be run on AC
supply with certain specifications. Every country maintains its own standards for main
supplies. But most of the countries have power supply having frequency from 50 Hz to 60 Hz.
The supply usually has symmetric waveform and the voltage level ranges from 120 V to 220
or 230 V. This is the general standard in most of the countries. According to the Indian
standards for driving AC loads, the AC supply must be of the frequency 50Hz with the
symmetrical AC waveform and the voltage of the AC should be in between 220 V to 240 V.
The European Union has similar standards. In United States and Canada, the mains voltage
should be 120 V with 5 percent tolerance at 60 Hz frequency.
As according to the Indian standards, the AC appliances are meant to work efficiently at a
frequency of 50Hz and voltage between 220V to 240V AC, in this tutorial, a symmetrical
square wave generator having 50 Hz frequency will be designed. The acceptable deviation in
the frequency can be +/- 0.5 Hz.
A symmetrical waveform has the same time period for both the halves of the cycle whereas in
an asymmetric waveform, the time period of positive and negative cycle are different. If an
unsymmetric AC wave is applied to an AC appliance which converts the electrical energy into
mechanical energy like motor then it will experience jerks during its rotary motion. So it is
necessary that the AC waveform should be symmetric in nature. So, the Square wave generator
will be designed to produce an AC waveform having peak voltage of 220 V and 50 Hz
symmetric waveform.

2) Sine wave
The output waveform of the voltage is a sine wave and it gives us a very similar output
to the utility supply. This is the major advantage of this inverter because all the appliances
we are using, are designed for the sine wave. So, this is the perfect output and gives guarantee
that equipment will work properly. This type of inverters is more expensive but widely used
in residential and commercial applications.

3) Modified sine wave

 The construction of this type of inverter is complex than simple square wave inverter
but easier compared to the pure sine wave inverter. The output of this inverter is neither pure
sine wave nor the square wave. The output of such inverter is the some of two square waves.
The output waveform is not exactly sine wave but it resembles the shape of a sine wave.

Square wave inverter

The square wave inverter is a type of inverter which converts solar DC power to AC
power. The square wave inverter is simpler in design and more efficient than a sine wave
inverter. However, the square wave will not be appropriate for some loads, because the large
harmonic content can cause interference. Some electromechanical devices do not work well
with square wave power. If the load is reactive, there will be loss of efficiency due to reactive
power loss, so the efficiency advantage of the inverter may be nullified. Resistive loads also
may suffer from radiated interference due to harmonic content.

(II) According to the Source of the Inverter

Voltage Source Inverter

Current Source Inverter

1) Current Source Inverter

In CSI, the input is a current source. This type of inverters is used in the medium voltage
industrial application, where high-quality current waveforms are compulsory. But CSIs are not
popular.

2) Voltage Source Inverter

In VSI, the input is a voltage source. This type of inverter is used in all applications
because it is more efficient and have higher reliability and faster dynamic response. VSI is
capable of running motors without de-rating.

(III) According to the Type of Load

Single-phase Inverter
 Three-phase Inverter

1) Single-phase inverter

Generally, residential and commercial load uses single phase power. The single-phase
inverter is used for this type of application. The single-phase inverter is further divided into
two parts;

Single Phase Half-bridge Inverter

Single Phase Full-bridge Inverter

2) Three Phase Bridge Inverter

In case of industrial load, three phase ac supply is used and for this, we have to use a
three-phase inverter. In this type of inverter, six thyristors and six diodes are used.

It can operate in two modes according to the degree of gate pulses.

180-degree mode
120-degree mode

(IV) Classification According to Control Technique

 Single Pulse Width modulation (single PWM)

 Multiple Pulse Width Modulation (MPWM)
 Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM)
 Modified Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (MSPWM).

(V) According to the Number of Levels at the Output

Regular Two-Level Inverter
Multi-level Inverter

1) Regular two-level Inverter

These inverters have only voltage levels at the output which are positive peak voltage and
negative peak voltage. Sometimes, having a zero-voltage level is also known as a two-level
inverter.

2) Multilevel Inverters

Now a day’s many industrial applications have begun to require high power. Some appliances
in the industries, however, require medium or low power for their operation. Using a high
power source for all industrial loads may prove beneficial to some motors requiring high power,
while it may damage the other loads. Some medium voltage motor drives and utility
applications require medium voltage. The multi-level inverter has been introduced since 1975
as an alternative in high power and medium voltage situations. The Multilevel inverter is like
an inverter and it is used for industrial applications as an alternative in high power and medium
voltage situations. The multi-level inverter is divided into four parts.

Flying capacitor Inverter

Diode-clamped Inverter

Hybrid Inverter

Cascade H-type Inverter

Diode Clamped Multilevel Inverter:

The main concept of this inverter is to use diodes and provides the multiple voltage
levels through the different phases to the capacitor banks which are in series. A diode transfers
a limited amount of voltage, thereby reducing the stress on other electrical devices. The
maximum output voltage is half of the input DC voltage. It is the main drawback of the diode
clamped multilevel inverter. This problem can be solved by increasing the switches, diodes,
capacitors. Due to the capacitor balancing issues, these are limited to the three levels. This type
of inverters provides high efficiency because of the fundamental frequency used for all the
switching devices and it is a simple method of the back to back power transfer systems.

Ex: 5- Level diode clamped multilevel inverter, 9- level diode clamped multilevel inverter.

 The 5- level diode clamped multilevel inverter uses switches, diodes; a single capacitor
is used, so the output voltage is half of the input DC.
 The 9- level diode clamped multilevel inverter uses switches, diodes; capacitors are two
times more than the 5-level diode clamped inverters. So the output is more than the
input.
Applications of Diode Clamped Multilevel Inverter:

 Static var compensation

 Variable speed motor drives
 High voltage system interconnections
 High voltage DC and AC transmission lines

Flying Capacitors Multilevel Inverter:

The main concept of this inverter is to use capacitors. It is of a series connection of capacitor
clamped switching cells. The capacitors transfer the limited amount of voltage to electrical
devices. In this inverter switching states are like in the diode clamped inverter. Clamping
diodes are not required in this type of multilevel inverters. The output is half of the input DC
voltage. It is a drawback of the flying capacitors multilevel inverter. It also has the switching
redundancy within the phase to balance the flying capacitors. It can control both the active and
reactive power flow. But due to the high-frequency switching, switching losses will take place.

EX: 5-level flying capacitors multilevel inverter, 9-level flying capacitors multilevel inverter.

 This inverter is the same as that diode clamped multi inverter

 In this inverter, only switches and capacitors are used.
Applications of Flying Capacitors Multilevel Inverter

 Induction motor control using DTC (Direct Torque Control) circuit

 Static var generation
 Both AC-DC and DC-AC conversion applications
 Converters with Harmonic distortion capability
 Sinusoidal current rectifiers

Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter:

The cascaded H-bride multilevel inverter is to use capacitors and switches and requires less
number of components in each level. This topology consists of a series of power conversion
cells and power can be easily scaled. The combination of capacitors and switches pair is called
an H-bridge and gives the separate input DC voltage for each H-bridge. It consists of H-bridge
cells and each cell can provide the three different voltages like zero, positive DC, and negative
DC voltages. One of the advantages of this type of multi-level inverter is that it needs less
number of components compared with diode clamped and flying capacitor inverters. The price
and weight of the inverter are less than those of the two inverters. Soft-switching is possible by
some of the new switching methods.

Multilevel cascade inverters are used to eliminate the bulky transformer required in case of
conventional multi-phase inverters, clamping diodes required in case of diode clamped
inverters and flying capacitors required in case of flying capacitor inverters. But these require
a large number of isolated voltages to supply each cell.

Ex: 5- H-bridge multilevel inverter, 9- H-bridge clamped multilevel inverter.

 This inverter is also the same as that diode clamped multi inverter.
Applications of Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter

 Motor drives
 Active filters
 Electric vehicle drives
 DC power source utilization
 Power factor compensators
 Back to back frequency link systems
 Interfacing with renewable energy resources.

Reference
https://www.engineersgarage.com/designing-square-wave-inverter-for-ups-part-6-17/
https://circuitdigest.com/tutorial/different-types-of-inverters
https://www.elprocus.com/multilevel-inverter-types-advantages/