A hybrid modulation technique for the dc-bus voltage balancing in a three-phase npc converter

In this paper a new pulse width modulation technique for three-phase neutral point clamped (NPC) converter is presented, with the aim to actively control the dc-bus capacitors' voltages. To meet this requirement, usually NPC modulation techniques are either based on the sole common mode voltage injection (CM1) or on the sole multi-step (MS) switching mode of operation. Contrarily, the presented approach combines these two strategies, taking advantages of all their main benefits while keeping the switching transitions to the minimum required number. The approach has been numerically tested and compared with some of the other strategies, showing an overall better behaviour, especially for high modulation indices.