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Multilevel inverters with a large number of steps (more than 50 levels) can generate high quality voltage waveforms, good enough to be considered as suitable voltage template generators. Many levels or steps can follow a voltage reference with accuracy, and with the advantage that the generated voltage can be modulated in amplitude instead of pulse-width modulation. The main disadvantage of this type of topology is the large number of power supplies and semiconductors required to obtain these multistep voltage waveforms. This paper is focussed on minimizing the number of power supplies and semiconductors for a given number of levels. Different combinations of topologies are presented, and the corresponding mathematical relations have been derived. This paper shows optimized curves to obtain the relation between a minimum number of power semiconductors required for a given number of levels. Experimental results obtained from an optimized prototype, capable of generatng 81 levels of voltage with only four power supplies and 16 transistors per phase, are shown. Index Terms--Amplitude (AM), pulse-width modulation (PWM).

Common-mode voltages appear in pulse-width modulated current-source inverters (PWM-CSIs) drives due to the operating principles of the input rectifier and the output inverter. This paper presents the modeling and analysis of a medium voltage current-source inverter drive, using the Matlab software. Simulated results of the model are in close agreement with experimental waveforms obtained from an industrial ac drive, which shows over-voltages of up to 100%, generating important insulation stresses at the motor stator terminals. Index Terms--Common-mode voltages, medium voltage ac drives, PWM-CSI.

A protection scheme for series active power filters is presented and analyzed in this paper. The proposed scheme protects series active power filters when short-circuit faults occur in the power distribution system. The principal protection element is a varistor, which is connected in parallel to the secondary of each current transformer. The current transformers used to connect in series the active power filter present a low-magnetic saturation characteristic increasing current ratio error when high currents circulate through the primary winding, thus generating lower secondary currents. In this way, the power dissipated by the varistors is significantly reduced. After a few cycles of short-circuit currents flowing through the varistor, the gating signals applied to the active power filter switches are removed and the pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) voltage-source inverter (VSI) is short circuited through a couple of antiparallel thyristors. Index Terms- Current transformer, pulsewidth-modulation voltage-source inverter, series active power filter, varistor

A control strategy which allows conventional voltage-source current-controlled (VSCC) pulsewidth modulation (PWM) rectifiers to work simultaneously as active power filters is presented. The proposed control strategy also allows compensating the system power factor and compensating unbalanced loads. The measurement and/or calculation of the harmonics and reactive power are not required, making the proposed control scheme very simple. The active front-end rectifier acts directly on the mains line currents, forcing them to be sinusoidal and in phase with the mains voltage supply. To improve the dynamic of the system, the amplitude of the current is controlled by a fuzzy system, which adjusts the dc-link voltage of the PWM rectifier. The strategy is based on connecting all the polluting loads between the PWM rectifier and their input current sensors. The main advantages of this approach are the following: 1) there is no need to install a specially dedicated active power filter; 2) it also works simultaneously as power factor compensator; and 3) no special and complicated calculations are required for harmonic elimination. The viability of the proposed active front-end rectifier is proved by simulation and with experimental results obtained from a 2-kVA PWM prototype.