PUBLICATIONS

 Power converters are designed to operate over a wide range of voltage to meet various industrial demands. Recently, multilevel inverters have been receiving considerable attention owing to their ability to reduce the current ripple and its associated harmonic distortion. However, for applications requiring high voltage/power ratings, large electrolytic capacitors are essential, which are significantly affected by the ripple in the DC-link current. This causes a significant reduction in the lifespan and reliability of the power converter and necessitates expensive diagnosis and maintenance procedures. This study proposes a technique to reduce the ripple in the DC-link current and common-mode voltage in five-level hybrid active neutral-point-clamped (5L-HANPC) inverters. The proposed method uses a unique control algorithm that can smoothly select the required voltage vectors for reducing the current ripple in the DC-link current. The results demonstrate the capability of the proposed method to reduce the DC-link current ripple over a wide range of modulation indexes. Additionally, the system operates effectively without noticeable changes in the output-waveform harmonics. The proposed method is verified through simulations and experiments.