Cascaded Multi-Level Inverter Based IPT Systems for High Power Applications

A single phase H-bridge inverter is employed in conventional Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) systems as the primary side power supply. These systems may not be suitable for some high power applications, due to the constraints of the power electronic devices and the cost. A high-frequency cascaded multi-level inverter employed in IPT systems, which is suitable for high power applications, is presented in this paper. The Phase Shift Pulse Width Modulation (PS-PWM) method is proposed to realize power regulation and selective harmonic elimination. Explicit solutions against phase shift angle and pulse width are given according to the constraints of the selective harmonic elimination equation and the required voltage to avoid solving non-linear transcendental equations. The validity of the proposed control approach is verified by the experimental results obtained with a 2kW prototype system. This approach is expected to be useful for high power IPT applications, and the output power of each H-bridge unit is identical by the proposed approach.