International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 09, November- 2012

T-Shaped Z-Source Inverter

Sheeja P.Kumar1, P.Shailaja2
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,Teegala Krishna Reddy Engineering College
JNTU,Hyderabad,India

Abstract—This paper extends the impedance source (Z-source) inverters (CSIs) have similar limitations and problems. For
inverters concept to the T-Shaped Z-source inverters in PV solar VSIs: 1) The obtainable ac output voltage cannot exceed the
panels. The availability, utility and cost is implemented best dc source voltage. So a dc-dc boost converter is needed in the
output of the solar panels.T-Shaped Z-Source consists of one applications, for instance, with limited available dc voltage or
transformer and a capacitor connected such that a T-Shape is with the demand of higher output voltage. 2) Dead time is
formed Hence the name is T-Shaped. The T-Shaped Z-Source required to prevent the shoot-through of the upper and lower
inverter is divided into two parts, the first part is step up or step switching devices of each phase leg. However, it induces
down dc to dc voltage using T-Shaped Z-Source and the inverter
waveform distortion. For CSIs: 1) Their output voltage cannot
converts dc to ac. The voltage fed T-Shaped z source inverteris
used to convert solar step up voltage DC to AC voltage. In this be lower than the dc input voltage. 2) Overlap time between
paper sinusoidal pulse width modulation is used to control the phase legs is required to avoid the open circuit of all the upper
switches. Thus the output generated is sine wave. While switching devices or all the lower devices. The Z-source
maintaining the main features of the previously presented Z- inverter (ZSI) [1], as well as the derived quasi Z-source
source network, the new networks exhibit some unique inverters (qZSI) [2, 3], can overcome the above problems.
advantages, such as the cost is reduced increasing the availability They advantageously utilize the shoot-through of the inverter
as d.c is taken from solar panels. Also the increased voltage gain bridge to boost voltage in the VSIs (or open circuit in the CSIs
and reduced voltage stress in the voltage-fed trans-ZSI. The to buck voltage). Thus, buck-boost functionality is achieved
simulation results for the voltage fed PV system are presented for
with a single stage power conversion. They also increase the
analysis.
immunity of the inverters to the EMI noise [4], which may
Keywords— Photo Voltaic, DC-DC conversion using T-Shaped Z- cause misgating and shoot-through (or open-circuit) to destroy
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Source, DC-ac Conversion using inverter the conventional VSIs and CSIs. The voltage-fed Z-source
inverter can have theoretically infinite voltage boost gain.
I. INTRODUCTION However, the higher the voltage boost gain is, the smaller
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modulation index has to be used. In applications such as grid-

As the energy resources and their utilization will be a connected photovoltaic (PV) generation and fuel cell power
prominent issue of this century, the problems of natural conversion, a low voltage dc source has to be boosted to a
resource depletion, environmental impacts, and the rising desirable ac output voltage. A small modulation index results
demand for new energy resources have been discussed in a high voltage stress imposed on the inverter bridge.
fervently in recent years. Several forms of renewable zero Several pulse width modulation (PWM) methods [5, 6] have
pollution energy resources, including wind, solar, bio, been developed with the attempt of obtaining as much voltage
geothermal and so forth, have gained more prominence and gain as possible and thus limiting the voltage stress across the
are being researched by many scientists and engineers [1-2]. switching devices. The maximum boost control [5] achieves
Solar cell installations involve the use of multiple solar panels the maximum voltage gain through turning all the zero states
or modules, which can be connected in series or in parallel to in the traditional VSIs to shoot-through zero states.
provide the desired voltage level to the inverter. The cascaded Nevertheless, it brings in low frequency ripples associated
H-bridge multilevel inverter topology requires a separate DC with the ac side fundamental frequency. So the constant boost
source for each H-bridge so that high power and/or high control [6] has been proposed to eliminate those ripples and
voltage that can result from the combination of the multiple thus reduce the L and C requirement in the Z-source network,
modules in a multilevel inverter would favour this topology with slightly less voltage gain, compared to the maximum
[3-7]. To maximize the energy harvested from each string, a boost control. These PWM methods still have limits to further
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) strategy is needed. extend the voltage gain without sacrificing the device cost.
The task of finding the optimum operation point might Recently, some modified impedance source networks were
increase the complexity and component count as the number proposed in [7-10] for the sake of increasing the output
of isolated DC sources increase. The approach chosen to deal voltage gain. Among them, a T-source inverter [7] has the
with the number of input sources was to monitor AC output possibility of increasing voltage gain with the minimum
power parameters instead of DC input measurements. component count. As will be discussed in the next section, it
Traditional voltage-source inverters (VSIs) and currentsource can be grouped into a general class of transformer based Z-
source inverters called T-Shaped-ZSIs presented in this paper,

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 09, November- 2012
which employ two transformer windings in the impedance Shape. The linear transformer behaves more or less like an
network. The voltage-fed Z source/quasi Z-source inverters inductor which is magnetically coupled. When the two
cannot have bidirectional operation unless replacing the diode inductors are coupled as shown in Fig.2, thevoltage across the
with a bidirectional conducting, unidirectional blocking switch inductor L1 is reflected to the inductor L2.Also, the voltage
[11]. Neither can the traditional current-fed inverters ([12-14]) across L2 can be madeproportional to the voltage across L1 by
do unless they are fed by a phase-controlled rectifier in front changing the turnsratio n2 / n1. The T-Shaped quasi Z source
that can change the dc link voltage polarity. Interestingly, the inverter has an extra shoot-through zero state besides the six
current-fed Z-source/quasi Z-source inverters [2, 15, 16] can active states and two traditional zero states [18].For the
have voltage buck-boost and bidirectional power flow only purpose of analysing thecharacteristics of the T-Shaped Z-
with a diode in the impedance network. With the newly source inverters, this paper willfocus on the two general
developed reverse blocking IGBTs [17], this single stage continuous current modes as in the Zsource inverter: the
power converter becomes a promising topology. Yet, their dc– shoot-through zero state and the non-shoot-through states [1,
ac voltage gain cannot exceed two in the boost mode 19].
operation. In other words, the dc input voltage cannot be
lower than half of the peak output line-to-line voltage. Hence,
this paper further proposes two current-fed T Shaped Z-source
inverters that are capable of reaching wider voltage boost
range and bidirectional power flow with a single diode. As a
result, a wider output voltage range can be obtained, which is
[8].essential to some applications such as HEV/EV motor
drives.The T-Shaped Z-source inverters can be derived from
the voltage-/current-fed quasi Z-source inverters or the
voltage- /current-fed Z-source inverters. The T-Shaped Z-
source-inverters inherit their unique features, and they can be
controlled using the PWM methods applicable to the Z-source
inverters. This paper will begin with the derivation of two
voltage-fed T-Shaped Z-source-inverters from one of the quasi
Z-source inverters. simulation results will demonstrate their Fig.2 Voltage-fedT-Shapedquasi-Z -source inverter
new properties different from the Zsource/ quasi Z-source
In the shoot-through zero state, the inverter is equivalent to
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inverters.
a short circuit as shown in Fig. 3(a). The diode is reversed
II. THE VOLTAGE-FED TSHAPED-Z-SOURCE biased. Note that the symbol Dshis used here for shoot-
INVERTERS through duty ratio in voltage-fed Zsourceinverters.During the
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shoot-through zero state for an interval of DshT, the voltages

Fig.1. shows the voltage-fed T-Shaped Z-source inverter across L1 and L2 are:
consists of three main parts: Solar panel (MPPT), a d.c link
circuit and an inverter bridge. The d.c link circuit is (1)
implemented by the Z-source network (L1, L2, and C1). In the = (2)
voltage fed T-Shaped Z-Source inverter, d.c link is used to
boost the voltage and the boosted voltage is converted to a.c
voltage by means of an inverter bridge.

Fig.3 (a)The equivalent circuits of the voltage-fed T-Shaped qZSI viewed

from the dc link, shoot-through states

Fig.1 voltage fed T-Shaped z source inverter In the non-shoot-through states for an interval of(1―Dsh) T,
In the voltage fed T-Shaped Z Source inverter single the inverter bridge can be modelled as an equivalentcurrent
transformer with a capacitor is connected such that it forms T- source as shown in Fig. 3(b). The non-shoot-throughstates

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 09, November- 2012
include the six active states and two traditional zerostates. For It can be seen that if the turns ratio is 1, the inverter dc
the non-shoot through zero state, the inverter is equivalent to linkvoltage boost gain is the same with that of the original Z
an open circuit. During the non-shoot through zero state the source/ quasi Z-source inverters, but one capacitor is saved
voltages across L1 and L2 are: inthe new T-Shaped Z-source network. If the turns-ratio is
over 1, the inverter dc link voltage boost gain can be higher
=- (3) given the same modulation index, M. In other words, it needs
= =- (4) a smaller shoot-through duty ratio Dsh (accordingly a larger
modulation index M) to produce the same ac output voltage
than the Z source/ quasi Z-source inverters do. The voltage
gain (MB) versus the modulation index for the voltage-fed T-
Shaped quasi-Z source inverter (with a turns ratio n=2) is
compared in Fig. 4 with that for the Z-source/quasi Z-source
inverters, using the constant boost control.

Fig. 3(b) the equivalent circuits of the voltage-fed T-Shaped qZSI viewed
from the dc link(b) Non-shoot-through states

The average voltage of both inductors should be zero over one Fig. 4 Voltage gain (MB) versus modulation index of the voltage-fed T-
switching period in the steady state. Thus, the voltage across Shaped ZSI/-qZSI (n=2) and ZSI/qZSI.
L1 is:
The voltage stress, Vs across the switching devices can be
assessed by comparing its peak dc link voltage against the
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= =0 (5) minimum dc voltage (GVdc) [6] needed for the traditional VSI
to produce the same ac output voltage at M=1. The ratio
represents extra cost that the voltage-fed trans-quasi-Z-source
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From the above equation, the capacitor voltage can be

inverter and Z-source/quasi Z-source inverters have to pay for
calculated as:
the voltage boost in association with the higher voltage stress.
= (6) In Fig. 5, the voltage-fed trans-Z-source inverter has less
voltage stress across the inverter bridge for the same dc-ac
Wheren=n2/n1>0 output voltage gain. Hence, this circuit is beneficial to
From (4) and (6), the dc link voltage across the bridge in the applications, in whicha high voltage gain is required.
non-shoot-through states can be boosted to:

= =B (7)

Where the boost factor is:

B= (8)

The peak value of the phase voltage from the inverter output:
/2=M.B. /2 (9)
Fig. 5 Active switch voltage stress of voltage-fed T-Shaped ZSI/-qZSI (n=2)
WhereM is the modulation index. When the constant boost and ZSI/qZSI.
control [6] is used, the voltage gain (MB) as defined in [5] is:

G = MB = (10)

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 09, November- 2012
III. MPPT CONTROL FOR PV SYSTEM
The typical output power characteristics of a PV array
A solar cell is comprised of a P-N junction semiconductor that undervarious degrees of irradiation is illustrated by Figure 8.
produces currents via the photovoltaic effect. PV arraysare Itcan be observed in Figure 7 that there is a particular optimal
constructed by placing numerous solar cells connected in voltage for each irradiation level that corresponds to
series and in parallel. A PV cell is a diode of a large- maximum output power. Therefore by adjusting the
areaforward bias with a photovoltage and the equivalent outputcurrent (or voltage) of the PV array, maximum power
circuit isshown in Figure 6. fromthe array can be drawn.

Fig.6 PV Cell equivalent circuit

The current-voltage characteristic ofa solar cell is derived in
as follows: Fig8PV cell power characteristics

Due to the similarities of the shape of the wind and PV array

I= - (11) power curves, a similar maximum power point tracking
I= - [exp( -[ (12) scheme known as the hill climb search (HCS) strategy is often
applied to these energy sources to extract maximum power.
The HCS strategy perturbs the operating point of the system
Where and observes the output. If the direction of the perturbation
= photocurrent, (e.g an increase or decrease in the output voltage of a PV
= diode current, array) results in a positive change in the output power, then
= saturation current, the control algorithm will continue in the direction of the
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A = ideal factor, previous perturbation. Conversely, if a negative change in the

q = electronic charge 1.6x10-9, output power is observed, then the control algorithm will
= Boltzmann‘s gas constant (1.38x10-23), reverse the direction of the pervious perturbation step. In the
case that the change in power is close to zero (within a
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T = cell temperature,
specified range) then the algorithm will invoke no changes to
= series resistance,
the system operating point since it corresponds to the
= shunt resistance,
maximum power point (the peak of the power curves). The
I = cell current,
MPPT scheme employed in this paper is a version of the HCS
V = cell voltage
Typically, the shunt resistance (Rsh) is very large and the
IV. SINUSOIDAL PULSE WIDTH MODULATION
series resistance (Rs) is very small. Therefore, it is common to
neglect these resistances in order to simplify the solar cell
In the most straight forward implementation, generation of the
model. The resultant ideal voltage-current characteristic of a
desired output voltage is achieved by comparing the desired
photovoltaic cell is given by and illustrated by Figure 7.
reference waveform (modulating signal) with a high frequency
triangular ‗carrier‘ wave as depicted schematically in Fig.9.
I= [exp( (13) Depending on whether the signal voltage is larger or smaller
than the carrier waveform, either the positive or negative dc
bus voltage is applied at the output. Note that over the period
of one triangle wave, the average voltage appliedto the load is
proportional to the amplitude of the signal (assumed constant)
during this period. The resulting chopped square waveform
contains a replica of the desired waveform in its low
frequency components, with the higher frequency components
being at frequencies of an close to the carrier frequency.
Notice that the root mean square value of the ac voltage
waveform is still equal to the dc bus voltage, and hence the
total harmonic distortion is not affected by the PWM process.
The harmonic components are merely shifted into the higher
Fig 7: PV cell voltage-current characteristic

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 09, November- 2012
frequency range and are automatically filtered due to capacitor value of 10micro farads. An isolated transformer
inductances in the ac system. placed to perform buck –boost operation of z source inverter
When the modulating signal is a sinusoid of amplitude Am, In above figure shown the input voltage trns z source inverter
and the amplitude of the triangular carrier is Ac, the ratio in that the irradiance o f solar panel is 100V but according to
m=Am/Ac is known as the modulation index. Note that the mppt controller algorithm the voltage is increased to
controlling the modulation index therefore controls the 140V.In Fig 13 capacitor voltage of quasi voltage fed trans z
amplitude of the applied output voltage. With a sufficiently source inverter is shown the capacitor will whatever voltage
high carrier frequency, the high frequency components do not applied to the transformer and perform the buck –boost
propagate significantly in the ac network (or load) due to the operation.
presence of the inductive elements. However, a higher carrier
frequency does result in a larger number of switchings per
cycle and hence in an increased power loss. Typically
switching frequencies in the 2-15 kHz range are considered
adequate for power systems applications. Also in three-phase
systems it is advisable to use fc/fm=3k, so that all three
waveforms are symmetric.

Fig 13 Quasi voltage fed trans z source inverter capacitor voltage

The pulse are produced to the inverter by using sinusoidal

pulse width modulation in sinusoidal pulse width modulation
the reference signal compares the carrier signal produces
switching pulses. The switching frequency of inverter is
2000Hz. Modulation index , modulation frequency given as
0.8 & 50Hz.because of sinusoidal pulse width modulation the
harmonic distortion will be very less compare to traditional
modulation techniques. Inverter output voltage & currents is
shown in fig15 & 16 the output voltage is varied to 140 volts
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& current is 7 amps getting as inverter output voltage.
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Fig 9: Principal of Pulse Width Modulation

Note that the process works well for .For, there are periods of
the triangle wave in which there is no intersection of the
carrier and the signal as in Fig.9. However, a certain amount
of this ―over modulation‖ is often allowed in the interest of
obtaining a larger ac voltage magnitude even though the
spectral content of the voltage is rendered somewhat poorer.
Note that with an odd ratio for fc/fm, the waveform is anti- Fig10 Pulses produced to inverter
symmetric over a 360 degree cycle. With an even number,
there are harmonics of even order, but in particular also a
small dc component. Hence an even number is not
recommended for single phase inverters, particularly for
smallratios of fc/fm.

V.SIMULATION RESULTS

In this section the simulation results showed in MATLAB .her

the Pv solar panels as input supply taking input supply as
100V .the MPPT controller is employed to get accurate solar
power to the load .A voltage fed trans z source inverter is
placed in the circuit with the inductor value of 1mH & Fig 11 Inverter Output voltage

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 1 Issue 09, November- 2012
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