A new multilevel PWM method: a theoretical analysis

A generalization of the PWM (pulse width modulation) subharmonic method for controlling single-phase or three-phase multilevel voltage source inverters (VSIs) is considered. Three multilevel PWM techniques for VSI inverters are presented. An analytical expression of the spectral components of the output waveforms covering all the operating conditions is derived. The analysis is based on an extension of Bennet's method. The improvements in harmonic spectrum are pointed out, and several examples are presented which prove the validity of the multilevel modulation. Improvements in the harmonic contents were achieved due to the increased number of levels.>