9-level Symmetrical Cascaded Switched-Diode with Artificial Bee Colony Optimizer

Abstract

Multilevel inverters (MLIs) are power electronic circuits that is used to replace traditional two-level inverters. MLIs allow for more flexible control of the dv/dt and di/dt ratios, as well as a greater number of output levels in voltage and current in staircase waveforms. The design of a traditional multilevel inverter, on the other hand, necessitates additional power switches and has limitations in a broad variety of applications. In this paper, the new approach known as Symmetrical Cascaded Switched-Diode (SCSD) is used to form a nine-level output voltage with fewer switches and its aim to remove low-order harmonics like the 3rd, 5th, and 7th. The switching angles were determined using the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) Optimizer method and non-linear equations obtained from the Fourier series of the output voltage and current waveform. The suggested circuit was tested with two modulation indices, modelled using PSIM software, and assessed by experimentation. THD for modulation index 0.62 is around 7.09 percent for simulation and 7.7 percent for experimental results, while modulation index 0.84 produces 4.08 percent for simulation and 4.5 percent for experimental results.