Star-C - A novel converter topology

The Star-C is a new multilevel converter topology that is characterized by presenting a close to perfect sinusoidal output voltage. Its main purpose is to reduce the electromagnetic emissions that can interfere with other equipment placed nearby and to provide a high output power quality without the need of external filters. At the same time, the Star-C requires a significantly lower amount of components than multilevel converters able to reach similar performance. This work introduces the novel converter topology, explains its control and modulation and compares it with conventional two- and three-level converters in terms of THD, efficiency, current ripple and cost. The results show that the Star-C offers a THD that is up to ten times lower than its closer contester. Additionally, its efficiency is slightly higher due to the fact that zero current switching is used. On the other hand, the cost and size of the Star-C is significantly higher than the other converters under comparison. However, this work does not include the cost of the external filters that each converter might require, which is expected to reduce the cost gap between the Star-C and conventional converters. Note that this paper is based on the findings in "Star-C - A new converter topology" by Alexander Holmström.