Five-level cascade asymmetric multilevel converter

A five-level cascaded asymmetric multilevel converter is analysed and designed. This topology synthesises five voltage levels with a reduced number of components when compared to the most common symmetric topologies. It allows getting more voltage levels with less switching states. Its behaviour is similar to a hybrid converter with the advantage of working with only one DC bus. It does not present the usual drawbacks of symmetrical topologies. The cascaded asymmetric converter, presented here, appears as a very attractive alternative among the five-level converters with no voltage balancing problem. The performance of the proposed topology is evaluated with Pspice simulations in different applications.