IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 57, NO.

6, JUNE 2010

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Multistring Five-Level Inverter With Novel PWM Control Scheme for PV Application
Nasrudin A. Rahim, Senior Member, IEEE, and Jeyraj Selvaraj
AbstractThis paper presents a single-phase multistring ve-level photovoltaic (PV) inverter topology for grid-connected PV systems with a novel pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) control scheme. Three PV strings are cascaded together in parallel conguration and connected to a ve-level inverter to produce output voltage in ve levels: zero, +1/2Vdc , Vdc , 1/2Vdc , and Vdc . Two reference signals that were identical to each other with an offset that was equivalent to the amplitude of the triangular carrier signal were used to generate PWM signals for the switches. DSP TMS320F2812 is used to implement this PWM switching scheme together with a digital proportionalintegral current control algorithm. The inverter offers much less total harmonic distortion and can operate at near-unity power factor. The validity of the proposed inverter is veried through simulation and implemented in a prototype. The experimental results are compared with a conventional single-phase multistring three-level grid-connected PWM inverter. Index TermsGrid-connected, multilevel inverter, multistring, photovoltaic (PV), pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) inverter, proportionalintegral (PI) current control.

Fig. 1. Conguration of multistring inverters.

I. I NTRODUCTION S THE WORLD is concerned with fossil-fuel exhaustion and environmental problems caused by conventional power generation, renewable energy sources, particularly solar and wind energy, have become very popular and demanding. Photovoltaic (PV) sources are used today in many applications because they have the advantages of being maintenance and pollution free [1]. Solar-electric-energy demand has grown consistently by 20%25% per annum over the past 20 years, which is mainly due to the decreasing costs and prices. This decline has been driven by the following: 1) an increasing efciency of solar cells; 2) manufacturing-technology improvements; and 3) economies of scale [2]. A PV inverter, which is an important element in the PV system, is used to convert dc power from the solar modules into ac power to be fed into the grid. A general overview of different types of PV inverters is given in [3] and [4]. This paper presents a multistring ve-level inverter for PV application. The multistring inverter shown in Fig. 1 is a further development of the string inverter, where several strings are interfaced with their own dcdc converter to a common dcac inverter [5]. This is benecial, compared with
Manuscript received February 23, 2009; revised May 26, 2009 and July 20, 2009; accepted August 26, 2009. Date of publication October 20, 2009; date of current version May 12, 2010. The authors are with the Center of Research for Power Electronics, Drives, Automation and Control, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia (e-mail: jeyraj95@um.edu.my). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIE.2009.2034683

Fig. 2. Carrier and reference signals.

the centralized system, because every string can be controlled individually. Thus, the operator may start his/her own PV power plant with a few modules. Further enlargements are easily achieved because a new string with a dcdc converter can be plugged into the existing platform. A exible design with high efciency is hereby achieved [3]. In this paper, a ve-level inverter is used instead of a conventional three-level pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) inverter because it offers great advantages, such as improved output waveforms, smaller lter size, lower electromagnetic interference, lower total harmonic distortion (THD), and others [6][12]. This paper proposes a single-phase multistring ve-level inverter topology. It consists of three strings of PV arrays connected to their own dcdc boost converter. An auxiliary circuit comprising four diodes and a switch is congured together with a conventional full-bridge inverter to form this topology. A novel PWM control scheme is introduced to generate switching signals for the switches and to produce ve output-voltage levels: zero, +1/2Vdc , Vdc , 1/2Vdc , and Vdc (assuming that Vdc is the supply voltage). This inverter topology uses two reference signals instead of one to generate PWM signals for the switches. Both reference signals Vref1 and Vref2 are identical to each other, except for an offset value that is equivalent to the amplitude of carrier signal Vcarrier , as shown in Fig. 2. Because the inverter is used in a PV system, a proportionalintegral (PI) current control scheme is employed

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Fig. 3. Single-phase multistring ve-level inverter topology.

to keep the output current sinusoidal and to have high dynamic performance under rapidly changing atmospheric conditions and to maintain the power factor at near unity. Simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the proposed inverter conguration. II. M ULTISTRING F IVE -L EVEL I NVERTER T OPOLOGY The proposed single-phase multistring ve-level inverter topology is shown in Fig. 3. It consists of three dcdc boost converters connected to a common dc bus, an auxiliary circuit, and a full-bridge inverter conguration. Input sources, PV string 1, PV string 2, and PV string 3 are connected to the inverter via the dcdc boost converters. Because the proposed inverter is used in a grid-connected PV system, the utility grid is used instead of a load. The dcdc boost converters are used to track the maximum power point (MPP) independently and to step up inverter output voltage Vinv to be more than 2 of grid voltage Vg to ensure power ow from the PV arrays into the grid [13], [14]. As a step-up transformer with a ratio of 1 : 2 is used, Vinv should be 2Vg (1) Vinv > 2 or Vg Vinv > . (2) 2 Therefore, the dc-bus voltage is assumed to be approximately 200 V. In this paper, the multistring approach is adopted because each dcdc converter can independently perform MPP tracking (MPPT) for its PV strings. This will compensate for mismatches in panels of like manufacture, which can be up to 2.5% [15]. It offers the further advantage of allowing panels to be given different orientations and so open up new possibilities in architectural applications. Furthermore, a greater tolerance to localized shading of panels can be achieved. Another advantage of multistring conguration is that the mixing of different sources becomes possible, i.e., existing PV panel strings could be extended by adding new higher output panels without compromising the overall string reliability or performance. Other than that, greater safety during installation and maintenance adds to the advantages of multistring conguration. Depending on the design, each converter module may be able to isolate its connected power source so that the wiring of series or

parallel connection of these strings can be performed safely. The power-source-converter connection is a safe low-voltage connection [16]. The dcdc boost converters are connected in parallel to avoid high dc-bus voltage, which will eventually increase the size of the capacitors and the inverters cost. Therefore, only two capacitors with equal capacitance rating are used as the dc bus, and the other dcdc boost converters are connected to this dc bus, as shown in Fig. 3. A ltering inductance Lf is used to lter the current injected into the grid. The injected current must be sinusoidal with low harmonic distortion. In order to generate sinusoidal current, a sinusoidal PWM is used because it is one of the most effective methods. A sinusoidal PWM is obtained by comparing a highfrequency carrier signal with a low-frequency sinusoid signal, which is the modulating or reference signal. The carrier has a constant period; therefore, the switches have constant switching frequency. The switching instant is determined from the crossing of the carrier and the modulating signal. III. PWM M ODULATION Modulation index Ma for a ve-level PWM inverter is given as [17] Ma = Am 2Ac (3)

where Ac is the peak-to-peak value of carrier and Am is the peak value of voltage reference Vref . Because, in this paper, two reference signals that are identical to each other are used, (3) can be expressed in terms of the amplitude of carrier signal Vc by replacing Ac with Vc , and Am = Vref1 = Vref2 = Vref M= Vref . 2Vc (4)

If M > 1, a higher harmonic in the phase waveform is obtained. Therefore, M is maintained between zero and one. If the amplitude of the reference signal is increased higher than the amplitude of the carrier signal, i.e., M > 1, this will lead to overmodulation. Large values of M in sinusoidal PWM techniques lead to full overmodulation [18]. Fig. 4 shows the carrier and reference signals for different values of M . From the PWM modulation, the analysis of harmonic components in the proposed inverter can be preformed. The output voltage produced by comparison of the two reference signals and the carrier signal can be expressed as [7]

Vo () = A0 +

(An cos n + Bn sin n).

n=1

(5)

If there are P pulses per quarter period, and it is an odd number, coefcients Bn and Ao would be zero, where n is an even number. Therefore, the (5) can be rewritten as

Vo () =
n=1,3,...

An cos n 2Vdc n
P 4

(6) (1)int(i/2) sin(nm+i )

An =

(7)

m=0 i=1

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Fig. 5. Inverter output voltage (Vinv ) and switching pattern for the singlephase ve-level inverter. TABLE I I NVERTER O UTPUT VOLTAGE D URING S4 S8 S WITCH O N AND O FF

Fig. 4. Carrier and reference signals for different values of modulation index (M ). (a) M = 0.3. (b) M = 0.5. (c) M = 0.7. (d) M = 1.2.

where m is a pulse number and is the phase displacement angle. The Fourier series coefcients of the conventional singlephase full-bridge inverter by sinusoidal PWM is given as An = 4Vdc n
P

[(1)m sin(nm )] .
m=1

(8)

IV. O PERATING P RINCIPLES OF M ULTISTRING F IVE -L EVEL I NVERTER Combinations of PV strings are used as the input voltage sources. The voltage across the strings are known as Vpv1 , Vvp2 , and Vpv3 . Referring to (1) and (2), Vpv1 , Vvp2 , and Vvp3 are boosted by the dcdc boost converters to exceed grid voltage Vg , and the voltage across the dc bus is known as Vpv . The operating principle of the proposed inverter is to generate ve output-voltage levels, i.e., 0, +Vpv /2, +Vpv , Vpv /2, Vpv , as in Fig. 5. As shown in Fig. 3, an auxiliary circuit that consists of four diodes and a switch S4 is used between the dc-bus capacitors and the full-bridge inverter. Proper switching control

of the auxiliary circuit can generate half level of PV supply voltage, i.e., +Vpv /2 and Vpv /2 [7]. Two reference signals Vref1 and Vref2 will take turns to be compared with the carrier signal at a time. If Vref1 exceeds the peak amplitude of carrier signal Vcarrier , then Vref2 will be compared with the carrier signal until it reaches zero. At this point onward, Vref1 takes over the comparison process until it exceeds Vcarrier . This will lead to a switching pattern, as shown in Fig. 5. Switches S4 S6 will be switching at the rate of the carrier signal frequency, while S7 and S8 will operate at a frequency that is equivalent to the fundamental frequency. Table I illustrates the level of Vinv during S4 S8 switch on and off. If one of the PV strings is disconnected from the dc bus, the operation of the other dcdc boost converters will not be affected because they are connected in parallel. As the dcdc boost converters are used to track the MPPT point, it can be concluded that the MPPT of the PV strings is done independently. Later expansion of the PV strings is also possible by adding a dcdc boost converter, as shown in Fig. 6. V. C ONTROL S YSTEM A LGORITHM AND I MPLEMENTATION One of the problems in the PV generation systems is that the amount of electric power generated by the solar arrays is always changing with weather conditions, i.e., the intensity of solar radiation. An MPPT method or algorithm, which has quickresponse characteristics and is able to make good use of the

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inverter switches. This is to ensure that Ig is in phase with grid voltage Vg and always at near-unity power factor. A. Mathematical Formulation The PI algorithm can be expressed in the continuous time domain as
t

u(t) = Kp e(t) + Ki
=0

e( ) d

(11)

Fig. 6. PV string extension for existing conguration.

electric power generated in any weather, is needed to solve the aforementioned problem [19]. Various MPPT control methods have been discussed in detail in [20][22]. In this paper, the perturb-and-observe algorithm is used to extract maximum power from the PV arrays and deliver it to the inverter. The feedback controller used for the inverter is the PI algorithm. As shown in Fig. 7, the current injected into the grid, which is also known as grid current Ig , is sensed and fed back to a comparator, which compares it with reference current Iref . Iref is obtained by sensing utility grid voltage Vg . The sensed Vg signal is converted into a reference signal before it is multiplied with variable m. Therefore Iref = Vg m. Variable m is the sum of m1 , m2 , and m3 , i.e., m = m1 + m2 + m3 . (10) (9)

where u(t) control signal; e(t) error signal; t continuous-time-domain time variable; calculus variable of integration; Kp proportional mode control gain. is the integral mode control gain Ki Implementing this algorithm by using a DSP requires one to transform it into a discrete-time domain. Trapezoidal sum approximation is used to transform the integral term into a discrete-time domain because it is the most straightforward technique. The proportional term is directly used without approximation P term: I term:
t

Kp e(t) = Kp e(k )

(12)

Ki
=0

e( ) d = Ki

i=0

h [e(i) + e(i 1)] . 2

(13)

Time relationship: t = k h, where h is the sampling period and k is the discrete-time index, with k = 0, 1, 2, . . .. For simplication, it is convenient to dene the new controller gains as K i = Ki h 2 (14)

Variables m1 , m2 , and m3 are obtained from the MPPT algorithm, as shown in the owchart in Fig. 8. Variables m1 , m2 , and m3 correspond to the MPPT algorithm for strings 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The values of m1 , m2 , and m3 change with respect to the irradiance level. If the irradiance level is high, the corresponding values of m1 , m2 , and m3 are also high. Thus, by referring to (10), it will lead to high value of m. Because Iref is proportional to m, a high value of Iref is obtained. As a result, the inverters output current Ig will be high as it follows Iref to minimize the instantaneous error between Ig and Iref . The instantaneous current error is fed to a PI controller. The integral term in the PI controller improves the tracking by reducing the instantaneous error between the reference and the actual current. The resulting error signal u, which forms Vref1 and Vref2 , is compared with a triangular carrier signal, and intersections are sought to produce PWM signals for the

from which one can construct the discrete-time PI control law as

k

u(k ) = Kp e(t) + Ki
i=0

[e(i) + e(i 1)] .

(15)

To eliminate the need to calculate the full summation at each time step (which would require an ever-increasing amount of computation as time goes on), the summation is expressed as a running sum sum(k ) = sum(k 1) + [e(k ) + e(k 1)] u(k ) = Kp e(k ) + Ki sum(k ). (16) (17)

These two equations, which represent the discrete-time PI control law, are implemented in DSP TMS320F2812 to control the overall operation of the inverter.

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Fig. 7.

Multistring ve-level inverter with control algorithm implemented in DSP TMS320F2812.

Fig. 9. PI control algorithm implemented in DSP TMS320F2812.

Fig. 8.

MPPT owchart.

mode control term (i.e., the summation) will continue to increase but will not produce a corresponding increase in the controller output (and hence will not produce any additional increase in the plant response). The integral can become quite large, and it can take a long time before the controller is able to reduce it once the error signal changes sign. The effect of windup on the closed-loop output is larger transient overshoot and undershoot and longer settling times. One approach for overcoming the integral-mode windup is to simply limit in the software the maximum absolute value allowed for the integral, independent of the controller output saturation [23], as shown in Fig. 9. VI. S IMULATION AND E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS A. Simulation Results Simulations were performed by using MATLAB/Simulink to verify that the proposed inverter can practically be implemented in a PV system. It helps one to conrm the PWM switching strategy for the multistring ve-level inverter. Then, this

B. Algorithm Implementation Control signal saturation and integral-mode antiwindup limiting are easily implemented in software. In this paper, the control signal itself takes the form of PWM outputs from the DSP. Therefore, the control signal is saturated at the value that corresponds to 100% duty cycle for the PWM. An undesirable side effect of saturating the controller output is the integralmode windup. When the control output saturates, the integral-

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Fig. 10. PWM switching strategy and PWM signal for S4 S8 .

strategy is implemented in a real-time environment, i.e., the DSP to produce PWM switching signals for the switches. Fig. 10(a) shows the way the PWM switching signals are generated by using two reference signals and a triangular carrier signal. The resulting PWM signals for switches S4 S8 are shown in Fig. 10(b)(f). Note that one leg of the inverter is operating at a high switching rate that is equivalent to the frequency of the carrier signal, while the other leg is operating at the rate of fundamental frequency (i.e., 50 Hz). The switch at the auxiliary circuit (S4 ) also operates at the rate of the carrier signal. As mentioned earlier, modulation index M will determine the shape of inverter output voltage Vinv and grid current Ig . Fig. 11 shows the simulation results of Vinv and Ig for different values of M . Referring to (1) and (2), the dc-bus voltage is set to 200 V into the (> Vg / 2; in this case, Vg is 240 V) to inject current grid. Fig. 11(a) shows that Vinv is less than Vg / 2 because M is less than 0.5. The inverter should not operate at this condition because the current will be injected from the grid into the inverter, as shown in Fig. 11(b). The overmodulation condition,

which happens when M > 1.0, is shown in Fig. 11(c). It has a at top at the peak of the positive and negative cycles because both reference signals exceed the maximum amplitude of the carrier signal. This will cause Ig to have a at portion at the peak of the sine waveform, as shown in Fig. 11(d). To optimize the power transferred from the PV arrays to the grid, it is recommended to operate at 0.5 M 1.0. Vinv and Ig for the optimal operating condition are shown in Fig. 11(e) and (f). As Ig is almost a pure sinewave, THD can be reduced compared with that under other values of M . B. Experimental Results The simulation results are veried experimentally by using DSP TMS320F2812. Three PV strings with different types of solar modules and locations are connected to the ve-level inverter via a common dc bus. Table II illustrates the PV modules characteristics and their location, while Table III shows the multistring ve-level inverters specications and its controller parameters. The prototype inverter is shown in Fig. 12. PWM

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Fig. 11. Inverter output voltage (Vinv ) and grid current (Ig ) for different values of M . (a) Vinv for M < 0.5. (b) Ig for M < 0.5. (c) Vinv for M > 1.0. (d) Ig for M > 1.0. (e) Vinv for 0.5 M 1.0. (f) Ig for 0.5 M 1.0.

switching signals for the switches are generated by comparing a triangular carrier signal with two reference signals, as shown in Fig. 13. Code Composer Studio (CCS), the programming platform for DSP TMS320F2812, programs the control algorithm for the proposed multistring ve-level inverter. CCS offers the advantage of graph displaying, which can be used to investigate the results as in Figs. 1418. As the input voltage of each string is converted into oating-point values for DSP manipulation, the values corresponding to Figs. 1418 do not represent the actual values of the input voltage but are good enough for investigation and analysis. Fig. 14 shows the input of PV strings 1, 2, and 3. Here, PV string 1 is on, while PV string 3 is off. When PV string 2 is turned from off to on, m increases to increase the amplitude of Iref because more power is generated at the input, subsequently increasing the current injected into the grid. As PV string 2 shuts down, its voltage goes to zero, while PV string 1 maintains its MPP, as shown in Fig. 15. m decreases to decrease the amplitude of Iref as the current injected into the grid is less because PV string 2 stops producing power.

The same phenomena happen when PV string 1 is on, PV string 2 is off, and PV string 3 is turned from off to on, as shown in Fig. 16. When PV string 3 is turned off, m decreases as in Fig. 17 to decrease Iref . As a result, less current is injected into the grid compared with the previous condition when PV string 3 was on. Fig. 18 is captured when all three strings are on initially. Then, PV string 3 is turned off followed by PV string 2. m decreases when PV string 3 is turned off, and it decreases further when PV string 2 is turned off. This shows that the strings are working independently and that later expansion of the strings is possible. Fig. 19 shows the experimental results for grid voltage Vg and the inverters output voltage Vinv . As the grid voltage had been stepped down to half the actual voltage by using a 1 : 2ratio transformer, the magnitude of Vg is now 120 V. To inject current into the grid, Vinv > 2Vg ; Vinv is thus set at 200 V. Figs. 2022 show the experimental results for Vinv and Ig for 8, 5, and 3 A, respectively. It can be seen that Vinv consists of ve levels of output voltage, and Ig has been ltered to resemble a pure sinewave. The magnitude of Vinv did not change, but it maintained at 200 V as the current injected into the grid

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TABLE II C HARACTERISTICS OF PV M ODULES

TABLE III PV M ULTISTRING F IVE -L EVEL I NVERTER S PECIFICATIONS AND C ONTROLLER PARAMETERS

Fig. 13. PWM switching signals for S4 S8 . (a) S4 . (b) S5 and S6 . (c) S7 and S8 .

Fig. 12. Prototype of the multistring ve-level PWM inverter.

decreased when the irradiance level decreased. Modulation index M is 0.8. For M that is less than 0.5, Vinv is less than Vg / 2. Therefore, current will be injected from the grid into the inverter, as shown in Fig. 23. This condition should be avoided to protect the PV system from damage.

In the case of M being more than one, the results are not shown because the PV system is designed to operate at conditions of M being less than one. This is done by calculating the input current and input voltage corresponding to the output voltage and output current. Then, M is varied accordingly for the inverter to operate at minimum- and maximum-power conditions. Below the minimum-power condition (for example, during heavy clouds or nighttime) or above the maximumpower condition (for example, overrating of PV arrays, which exceeds the rating of the inverter), the inverter should not operate to ensure the safety of the PV system and the environment. To prove that the proposed multistring ve-level inverter has advantages over the conventional multisting three-level inverter in terms of THD and power factor, the corresponding

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Fig. 14. Conditions during PV string 1s being switched on and PV string 2s being switched from off to on.

Fig. 15. Conditions during PV string 1s being switched on and PV string 2s being switched off.

measurements were made on both inverters. A FLUKE 43B Power Quality Analyzer was used for this purpose. The conventional multistring three-level inverter for grid-connected PV application is shown in Fig. 24. The same current control techniques were used to control the overall performance of the inverter. The only difference between both inverters is the

elimination of the auxiliary circuit, and therefore, only one dcbus capacitor is used. Fig. 25 shows the THD measurement for the multistring ve-level inverter, while Fig. 26 shows the THD measurement for the multistring three-level inverter. The %THD for the ve-level inverter is recorded as 5.7%, while the %THD for the three-level inverter is 9.5%. From

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Fig. 16. Conditions during PV string 1s being switched on and PV string 3s being switched from off to on.

Fig. 17. Conditions during PV string 1s being switched on and PV string 3s being switched off.

both illustrations, the THD measurement for the multistring ve-level inverter is much lower than that for the multistring three-level inverter. The power-factor measurement is shown in Fig. 27. It is notable that both grid voltage Vg and the current injected into grid Ig are in phase with a power factor of 0.99.

Fig. 28 shows the relationship between Ig and the THD measurement. It shows that, as Ig increases, the THD decreases. Because Ig is increased by increasing modulation index M to force more current injected into the grid, it can be concluded that M is proportional to Ig .

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Fig. 18. Conditions during PV string 1s being switched on and PV strings 2s and 3s being switched off.

Fig. 19. Experimental results of Vg and Vinv for M = 0.8.

Fig. 21. Experimental results of Vinv and Ig at Ig = 5 A for M = 0.8.

Fig. 20. Experimental results of Vinv and Ig at Ig = 8 A for M = 0.8.

Fig. 22. Experimental results of Vinv and Ig at Ig = 3 A for M = 0.8.

Efciency measurements were carried out to compare the efciency of the multistring three-level PWM inverter with the multistring ve-level PWM inverter for PV application. Table IV illustrates the measured efciency of both inverters operating at different output powers. At 960- and 600-W op-

erating conditions, the measured efciency of the multistring three-level PWM inverter was approximately 90%, while the measured efciency for the multistring ve-level PWM inverter was 86%. For the 360-W operating condition, the efciency

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Fig. 23. Experimental results of Vinv and Ig for M = 0.2. Fig. 26. THD result of the multistring three-level PV inverter.

Fig. 27.

Grid voltage Vg and grid current Ig at near-unity power factor.

Fig. 24. Conventional multistring three-level PWM inverter for PV application.

Fig. 28.

Relationship between Ig and THD measurement.

TABLE IV M EASURED E FFICIENCY OF T HREE - AND F IVE -L EVEL PWM I NVERTERS AT D IFFERENT O UTPUT P OWER VALUES

Fig. 25. THD result of the multistring ve-level PV inverter.

decreased to 89% and 84% for the three- and ve-level PWM inverters, respectively. As expected, the efciency of the multistring ve-level PWM inverter is lower compared to the conventional multistring three-level PWM inverter. The main reason is the addition of

the auxiliary circuit between the dcdc boost converters and the full-bridge inverter conguration. The switching losses of switch S4 in the auxiliary circuit caused the efciency of the

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multistring ve-level PWM inverter to be approximately 4% less than that of the multistring three-level PWM inverter. However, the simulation and experimental results show that the THD of the proposed inverter is lower compared to that of the conventional three-level PWM inverter, which is an important element for grid-connected PV systems. VII. C ONCLUSION This paper has presented a single-phase multistring ve-level inverter for PV application. A novel PWM control scheme with two reference signals and a carrier signal has been used to generate the PWM switching signals. The circuit topology, control algorithm, and operating principle of the proposed inverter have been analyzed in detail. The conguration is suitable for PV application as the PV strings operate independently and later expansion is possible. Furthermore, the experimental results indicate that the THD of the multistring ve-level inverter is much less than that of the conventional multistring three-level inverter. In addition, both grid voltage and grid current are in phase at near-unity power factor. R EFERENCES
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Nasrudin A. Rahim (M89SM08) was born in Johor, Malaysia, in 1960. He received the B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K., and the Ph.D. degree in 1995 from HeriotWatt University, Edinburgh, U.K. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he is also the Director of the Center of Research for Power Electronics, Drives, Automation and Control. His research interests include power electronics, real-time control systems, and electrical drives. Dr. Rahim is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, U.K., and a Chartered Engineer. He is also the Chairman of the Working Group WG-8, covering reluctance motor, of the IEEE Motor Subcommittee under the IEEE Power Engineering Society/Electric Machinery Committee.

Jeyraj Selvaraj was born in Kedah, Malaysia, in 1980. He received the B.Eng. (Hons.) degree from Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, Malaysia, in 2002, the M.Sc. degree in power electronics and drives jointly from the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K., and the University of Nottingham, Nottingham, U.K., in 2004, and the Ph.D. degree from the University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2009. He is currently with the Center of Research for Power Electronics, Drives, Automation and Control, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University Malaya. His research interests are single- and three-phase multilevel inverters, digital PI current control techniques, photovoltaic inverters, and dcdc converters.