A New Fault-Tolerant Strategy Based on a Modified Selective Harmonic Technique for Three-Phase Multilevel Converters With a Single Faulty Cell

Abstract

This paper proposes a new fault-tolerant strategy to revamp performance of three-phase multilevel converters with a single faulty switch. The proposed fault-tolerant strategy is based on the application of a modified selective harmonic elimination (SHE) technique in conjunction with the fundamental phase-shift compensation method. The proposed fault-tolerant strategy makes the most use of the converter capacity in the faulty condition, generates balanced line voltages, and eliminates a wide range of lower order harmonics to limit the total harmonic distribution of the converter voltages in the faulty condition. In this paper, first, a brief background about cascaded H-bridge multilevel converters and SHE technique is provided. Then, the proposed fault-tolerant strategy and the modified SHE technique are presented. Finally, several experimental results are provided to validate the operation of the proposed strategy.