A Five‐Level Switched Capacitor‐Based Common‐Ground Inverter for Photovoltaic Applications

ABSTRACT This paper presents a switched capacitor (SC)‐based common‐ground five‐level inverter for photovoltaic (PV) applications. The common‐ground connection is formed between the grid neutral and source negative, reducing the circuit's concern of leakage current due to PV parasitic capacitance. Moreover, the proposed inverter can obtain a two‐time boost to the input voltage by using SCs. Self‐voltage balancing and the absence of the requirement for precharging capacitors made the circuit simple and attractive. Further, the least disconnection time between the source and the circuit minimizes the magnitude of inrush currents in the PV buffer capacitors. The proposed inverter only has six switches and two diodes to realize a five‐level output with double boosting of input source voltage, making the circuit compact and low‐cost compared with its counterparts. MATLAB simulations and 500‐W laboratory prototype experimental results validate the performance and practicality of the proposed inverter for PV applications.