Application of a Neural Network Based Space
Vector PWM Algorithm
To Multi-Level Inverters
1
Ayşe KOCALMIŞ
1,2
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Firat University, 23119, Elazig-Turkey
Abstract: In this paper, application of an artificial neural
network (ANN) based space vector pulse width modulation
technique (SVPWM) to a three-level inverter has been realized.
However, the proposed modulation technique can be also applied
to multi-level inverters having more than three levels. Two ANN
structures are applied in the modulation algorithm. One of them
is used for determining the sector in the space vector hexagon, and
the other one is used for calculating the region in the sector.
Modeling and simulation of the proposed control algorithm and
the three-level inverter feeding either an R-L load or induction
motor load have been performed. Simulation results are presented
illustrating good performance of the drive system.
I. INTRODUCTION
Multi-level based voltage-fed inverters have recently
become very popular for high power applications in industry.
Multi-level inverters produce a better output spectrum than 2-
level inverters employing the same device switching frequency.
However, PWM generation is more complex. Voltage sharing
of the switching devices in multi-level inverters is easily
performed [1]. In addition, with multi-level inverters voltage
stress on each switching states is reduced [2].
There are 3 basic types of multi-level converters: Isolated H-
bridge, Diode clamped converter and Flying capacitor
converter. In the diode clamped multi-level inverters except in
the 3-level circuit, the capacitor voltages do not share
automatically. Either some form of extra balancing circuit is
needed or multiple (non-isolated) DC supplies are required one
for each capacitor. In addition, as the number of levels
increases, some diodes have to block large voltages [3]. This
makes this type of multi-level inverters unattractive for more
than 5-levels since many diodes in series are required. It is also
difficult to build in redundancy. In the flying capacitor multi-
level inverters, the flying capacitors need to be pre-charged to
half of DC supply voltage. The switching strategy must be used
to maintain flying capacitors at the correct voltage. This must
be done via some form of feedback mechanism. As the number
of levels increases in the flying capacitor circuit arrangement,
the number of capacitors required increases rapidly. This
circuit is also difficult to build in redundancy. The problems
with H-bridge multi-level inverters are: Each H-bridge needs
an isolated DC supply compared to the other types of multi-
level inverters which need only one supply [4]. In order to cope
with this problem it is normally required some sort of
complicated transformer arrangement. In addition, capacitors
Sedat SÜNTER2
associated with each supply can be large in H-bridge
converters.
In this study, isolated H-bridge three-level inverter has been
considered. This is because the device voltage sharing is
automatic because of the independent DC supplies. There is
also no restriction on switching pattern. Some redundancy is
possible by using more H-bridges per phase than is actually
required [5]. By using a lot of H-bridges, very high voltage
converters can be made this way. The H-bridge circuit is
modular. Therefore, this is an advantage for manufacture and
maintenance.
PWM generation in multi-level inverters is more difficult
than 2-level inverters. In recent years, various pulse width
modulation (PWM) techniques have been developed. Space
vector PWM (SVPWM) technique is one of them and can be
applied to multi-level inverters [6]. The SVPWM algorithm
gives higher fundamental voltage amplitude and better
harmonic spectrum compared to carrier-based sine-triangle
PWM (SPWM). However, application of SVPWM algorithm
to multi-level inverters is more complex because of large
number of inverter switching states [7].
The application of artificial neural networks (ANN) in power
electronics area is recently growing. In this paper, ANN is used
to determine the regions and sectors in SVPWM using
modulation index and vector position as input. This paper
presents modeling and simulation of a feedforward ANN based
SVPWM multilevel inverter using H-bridge circuit
configuration using Simulink/ MATLAB package program.
The output of the inverter feeds both a passive R-L and
induction machine loads.
II. ANN BASED SVPWM AND THREE-LEVEL INVERTERS
The cascaded multilevel inverter (H-bridge) shown in Fig.1
is one of the three possible multi-level inverter configurations.
It can be realized by connecting several single- phase H-bridge
inverters depending on the level numbers. For instance, using
one single-phase inverter circuit for each output leg as shown
in Fig.1 gives 3-level at each output phase or 5-level at each
output line [7]. The relationship between the level number and
number of H-bridges for each output phase can be given as;
N −1
Hb = (1)
2
Where; N is the level number and Hb is number of the H-
bridge inverters for each output phase.
 that calculation technique for the other sectors will be similar.
Sector A is divided into 4 regions as shown in Fig.2 where all
the possible switching states for each region are given as well.
SVPWM for three-level inverters can be implemented by
considering the following steps;

A. Determine the sector and the region in the sector by

using ANN
B. Calculate the switching times, Ta, Tb, Tc
C. Find the switching states.

Se
3
Fig. 1. Three level multilevel inverter using cascaded inverters with

ct
or

or
ct
separated DC sources.

1
Se
TABLE I
SWITCHING STATES OF THE INVERTER SWITCHES (X=A, B, C
PHASES)
Vx0 SX1 SX2 SX1’ SX2’
Vdc/2 1 0 0 1
0 1 1 0 0
0 0 1 0 1
-Vdc/2 0 1 1 0
Fig. 2. Space vector diagram of three-level inverter.

Each H-bridge inverter circuit generates square-wave
voltage waveforms with different modulation index. For three
level inverters the voltage levels will be Vdc/2, 0 and -Vdc/2. In
Table 1 the switching states of H-bridge inverter are
summarized.
In three-level inverters there are 33= 27 possible states. All
voltage vectors can be divided into four groups; zero voltage
vectors (000, 111, -1-1-1), small voltage vectors (110,00-
1,…,0-1-1), medium voltage vectors (10-1,01-1,..,1-10) and
large voltage vectors (1-1-1,11-1,…, 1-11). All zero vectors lie
on the center of hexagon, and other voltage vectors (24 active
voltage vectors) are on the corners of each triangle in hexagon.
Fig.2 shows all possible states. Space vector diagram of three-
level inverters is divided to six sectors (Sector 1,…, Sector6)
and each sector is divided to four regions (1, 2, 3, 4) as seen in
Fig.2. [8].
The principle of SVPWM method is that the command
voltage vector is approximately calculated by using three
adjacent vectors. The duration of each voltage vectors obtained
by vector calculations [9];
* T
T1 V1 + T2 V2 + T3 V3 = Ts V
(2)
Determining the sector and region with ANN
The SVPWM algorithm is used to obtain training data for
relevant ANN-SVPWM. For any vector position and
modulation index, the region and sector in SVPWM are found
by using ANN structure. Two ANN are used as one for sector
determination and the other for region determination.
A five-layer network is used for implementing each subnet.
Subnets are obtained using Trainlm function applying
Levenberg-Marquardt training method in MATLAB. First
layer is input which consists of the vector position, modulation
index and output frequency. The 2nd,3rd and 4th hidden layers
consist of 7, 15 and 15 tansig neurons, respectively. Finally, the
output layer consists of 1 purelin neuron.
Calculating The Switching Times, Ta, Tb, Tc
Ta, Tb, Tc switching times for Sector A is given in Table.2
[10].
TABLE II
SWITCHING TIMES FOR SECTOR A
Region I Region II
1.1*m*Ts*sin((π/3)-α) Ts(1-1.1*m*sin(α+π/3))
a

T1 + T2 + T3 = Ts T Ts/2(1-(2*1.1*sin(α+π/3)) 1.1*Ts*m*sinα
b
T 1.1*Ts*sinα Ts/2((2*1.1*m*sin(π/3-α))-1)
where V1, V2, and V3 are vectors that define the triangle region c
in which V* is located. T1, T2 and T3 are the corresponding Region III Region IV
vector durations and Ts is the sampling time. T Ts/2(1-2*1.1*m* sinα) Ts/2(2*1.1*m*sin(α)-1)
In a three-level inverter similar to a two-level inverter, each a
T Ts/2(2*1.1*m*sin(π/3+α)-1) 1.1*m*Ts*sin((π/3)-α)
space vector diagram is divided into 6 sectors. For simplicity b
here only the switching patterns for Sector A will be defined so T Ts/2(1+2*1.1*m*sin(α-π/3)) Ts(1-(1.1*m*sin(α+π/3))
c

Finding The Switching States
By considering the switching transition of only one device at
any time; the switching orders given below are obtained for
each region located in Sector A if all switching states in each
region are used. Therefore, switching signals for Sector A are;
Region 1:-1-1-1, 0-1-1, 00-1, 000, 100, 110, 111
Region 2: 0-1-1, 1-1-1, 10-1, 100
Region 3: 0-1-1, 11-1, 10-1, 100, 110
Region 4: 00-1, 10-1, 11-1, 110
Fig.3. Switching Signals of Sector A: (a) Region.1, (b) Region 2, (c) Region 3,
(d) Region 4.
Fig.4 illustrates direction of the switching sequences for all
regions in the sectors. Modulation index in SVPWM is defined
as;
V*
m= (3)
V1sw
Where; V* is the amplitude of command or reference voltage
vector and V1sw is the peak value of the mean harmonic
(2Vd/π). The modulation index varies between 0 and 1 in linear
region. The rotating reference voltage V* for m ≤ 0.907
remains within the hexagon corresponding to linear operation
region. In SVPWM method the command voltage vector is
approximately calculated by using three adjacent vectors.
III. MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF ANN BASED THREE-
LEVEL SPACE VECTOR PWM INVERTER
MATLAB/Simulink packed program is used to model and
simulate the complete ANN based three- level SVPWM
inverter. Fig.5 shows Simulink model of the whole drive
system including a load which is either an R-L load or
induction motor load. “ANN” block determinates the sector
and region in SVPWM using modulation index and vector
position as input applying artificial neural network . “Space
vector” block calculates the switching times according to
Table.2 and generates SVPWM signals as explained in Section
II. “Inverter” block represents the three-phase inverter model
using ideal switches. 3-pahase R-L load is modeled as shown
in Fig.5. However, induction motor model is not shown here.
The motor parameters are given in Appendix.
Fig.4. Switching sequence for three-level SVPWM inverter.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
Simulation results have been taken for various operating
conditions for both active and passive loads. In Fig.6, the
output current, line voltage and spectra are given for a passive
load of R=100Ω and L=0.1H. In this case, switching frequency
and DC link voltage of the cascade inverters was taken as 1kHz
and 500V, respectively with the output frequency of 60Hz.
Fig.7 illustrates the three-phase motor currents, motor line
voltage, motor speed and electromagnetic torque. Here, the
output frequency has been set to 10Hz corresponding to
300rpm motor speed. In order to maintain constant v/f
operation the modulation index has been set to 0.18. Similar
results for the induction motor load have been taken at 65Hz
output frequency the motor operates at constant power region
with small v/f ratio. In this case the modulation index has been
set to 0.9.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A feedforward neural network based space vector PWM for
a three-level inverter has been modeled and simulated. ANN is
used to determine the sector and region in SVPWM inverter.
The proposed method is a good solution to the classical method
at high level numbers in multilevel inverters. The proposed
control algorithm used in the three-level inverter can be easily
applied to multilevel inverters. It has been shown that high
quality waveforms at the output of the multilevel inverter can
be obtained even with 1 kHz of low switching frequency. presented and they illustrate good performance of the drive
Simulation results for both R-L and induction motor loads are system.

Fig. 5. Simulink model of the drive system

Fig. 6. (a) Output current, (b) The line output voltage, (c) The line output
voltage waveform and its spectra (fo=60Hz and m=0.7)

(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)

(c)
 APPENDIX
Ratings of the three-phase, 4-pole, 380 V, 50 Hz squirrel cage
induction motor are:
Frequency range: 0-65Hz
Stator resistance (Rs): 7Ω
Rotor resistance (Rr): 6Ω
Stator leakage inductance (Lls): 0.52mH
Rotor leakage inductance (Lllr): 0.52mH
Magnetizing inductance (Lm): 0.5mH
Rotor inertia (J): 0.0085kgm2
(c)
PN: 1.1kW
TN: 7.62 Nm
Fig. 7. (a) Three-phase motor currents, (b) The motor line voltage
waveform, (c) Motor speed, Electromagnetic torque (m=0.18, fo=10Hz,
fs=1kHz )

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(c)
Fig. 8. (a) Three-phase motor currents, (b) The motor line voltage
waveform, (c) Motor speed, Electromagnetic torque (m=0.9, fo=65Hz,
fs=1kHz)