Modulation with Sinusoidal Third-Harmonic Injection for Active Split DC-Bus Four-Leg Inverters

Three-phase four-leg inverters are commonly employed to supply unbalanced loads avoiding the use of a transformer. A suitable output filter is necessary to improve the harmonic content of the output voltage and current waveforms. To this aim, different kind of filters, presenting both symmetrical and asymmetrical phase-to-phase and phase-to-neutral behavior, can be used. The paper discusses and analyzes the effects of different carrier-based modulation techniques, based on the independent control of the fourth leg from that of the other phases, with reference to the different filter topologies. The comparison, performed through extensive simulations and experimental tests, have demonstrated that in case of the asymmetrical filter utilization, such as the active split dc-bus (also known as split-link), the conventional continuous and discontinuous space-vector modulations produce a significant harmonic content in the output voltages even at no-load condition. Moreover, the analysis is extended considering the interaction between the modulation strategy and load characteristics as linear, nonlinear, balanced and unbalanced loads. The problem is discussed in detail and a specific design procedure for the active split dc-bus is presented.