Modified Impedance-Source Inverter with Continuous Input Currents and Fault-Tolerant Operations

• Main Authors: Jing Yuan, Yongheng Yang, Ping Liu, Yanfeng Shen, Frede Blaabjerg
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: impedance source converter; Z-source inverter; switched-inductor; fault-tolerant; continuous input current
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/13/3408

Impedance-source (Z-source) inverters are increasingly adopted in practice, where a high voltage gain is required. However, issues like drawing a non-continuous current from the DC source and ceasing the energy supply under DC source faults are also observed. In this paper, an embedded enhanced-boost Z-source inverter (EEB-ZSI) is thus proposed to tackle the issues. The proposed EEB-ZSI employs two DC sources, which enable the continuous input current and fault-tolerant operations (e.g., open-circuit and short-circuit faults in the DC sources). The operational principles are presented in detail with an in-depth circuit analysis. Moreover, the proposed EEB-ZSI is benchmarked with prior-art Z-source inverters. Experimental tests further demonstrate the effectiveness of EEB-ZSI regarding the continuous input current and flexible fault tolerance.