PWM Strategy to Alleviate Common-Mode Voltage with Minimized Output Harmonic Distortion for Five-Level Cascaded H-Bridge Converters

High-frequency components of common-mode voltage (CMV) induce the shaft voltage and bearing current, which lead to premature failures in motors. In addition, due to non-zero average CMV, the low-frequency components of CMV, particularly the third-order harmonic component, have been reported to cause difficulties in common-mode filter design. Furthermore, the utilization of distant voltage vectors in the pulse-width modulation (PWM) with reduced CMV magnitudes gives rise to high output harmonic distortion compared to PWM ones without CMV reduction. In an attempt to solve the aforementioned issues, this article presents a PWM strategy that features reduced CMV magnitudes, zero average CMV, and improved output harmonic distortion for a five-level cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter. In addition, the carrier rotation technique based on the phase-leg redundancy of the CHB topology is also combined with the proposed scheme to achieve equal power loss distribution among power switching devices. Both simulation and experimental results confirm that the proposed strategy produces better output harmonic distortion than that of POD-SPWM and APOD-SPWM under the condition of reduced CMV magnitudes, zero average CMV, and equal power loss distribution.