Improved PWM Strategies to Mitigate Dead-Time Distortion in Three-Phase Voltage Source Converter

Pulsewidth modulation (PWM) strategies, including continuous PWM (CPWM) and discontinuous PWM (DPWM), have been efficiently applied in the three-phase voltage source converters (VSCs). In the three-phase VSCs, dead-time distortion is inevitable. The characteristics of the dead-time distortion of three-phase VSCs with CPWM strategies have been studied extensively, whereas those of DPWM strategies have not been studied in detail. In this article, a comparative analysis of the dead-time distortion of CPWM strategies and DPWM strategies is conducted. Furthermore, the improvement of the PWM strategies to mitigate dead-time distortion is presented. The improved PWM strategies inject the compensation signals to the modulation signals to reconstruct the dead-time voltage error, which can significantly reduce the dead-time distortion of various PWM strategies. Experimental tests are conducted and the experimental results are provided to verify the analysis results of the dead-time distortion of DPWM strategies and the improved PWM strategies.