A Novel Five-Level Double-Boost Inverter with Reduced Spike Current

This paper proposes a novel five-level double-boosting multi-level inverter (MLI) that uses a single DC source and requires only six power switches, one diode, and one capacitor. This design enables soft charging of the capacitor by integrating a charging inductor, which helps minimize or completely avoid large inrush or spike currents in the charging pathway. In this proposed topology, the capacitor is self-balanced. The proposed inverter topology offers several advantages compared to existing five-level inverters, such as significantly reducing inrush current, boosting capability, lower total standing voltage (TSV), common ground configuration, higher efficiency, and using fewer components. MATLAB Simulink simulations demonstrate the superior effectiveness of the proposed five-level double-boosting MLI in terms of reducing spike current.