A High-Efficiency MOSFET Transformerless Inverter for Nonisolated Microinverter Applications

State-of-the-art low-power-level metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET)-based transformerless photovoltaic (PV) inverters can achieve high efficiency by using latest super junction MOSFETs. However, these MOSFET-based inverter topologies suffer from one or more of these drawbacks: MOSFET failure risk from body diode reverse recovery, increased conduction losses due to more devices, or low magnetics utilization. By splitting the conventional MOSFET-based phase leg with an optimized inductor, this paper proposes a novel MOSFET-based phase leg configuration to minimize these drawbacks. Based on the proposed phase leg configuration, a high efficiency single-phase MOSFET transformerless inverter is presented for the PV microinverter applications. The pulsewidth modulation (PWM) modulation and circuit operation principle are then described. The common-mode and differential-mode voltage model is then presented and analyzed for circuit design. Experimental results of a 250 W hardware prototype are shown to demonstrate the merits of the proposed transformerless inverter on nonisolated two-stage PV microinverter application.