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Pulse-Width Modulation of Z -Source Inverters

Poh Chiang Loh, Member, IEEE, D. Mahinda Vilathgamuwa, Senior Member, IEEE, Yue Sen Lai, Geok Tin Chua, and Yunwei Li, Student Member, IEEE
Abstract -Source inverters have recently been proposed as an alternative power conversion concept as they have both voltage buck and boost capabilities. These inverters use a unique impedance network, coupled between the power source and converter circuit, to provide both voltage buck and boost properties, which cannot be achieved with conventional voltage-source and current-source inverters. To facilitate understanding of -source inverter modulation, this paper presents a detailed analysis, showing how various conventional pulse-width modulation strategies can be modied to switch a voltage-type -source inverter either continuously or discontinuously, while retaining all the unique harmonic performance features of these conventional modulation strategies. This paper starts by analyzing the modulation requirements of a single-phase H-bridge -source inverter, and subsequently extends the analysis to cover the more complex three-phase-leg and four-phase-leg -source inverters, with carrier-based implementation reference equations derived for all the inverters. The theoretical and modulation concepts presented have been veried both in simulation and experimentally. Index TermsBuck-boost, current source inverters (CSIs), pulse-width modulation (PWM), voltage source inverters (VSIs), -source inverters.

I. INTRODUCTION

RADITIONALLY, power inverters can be broadly classied as either the voltage-source inverter (VSI) or current-source inverter (CSI) type, as shown in Fig. 1. For a VSI, the inverter is fed from a dc voltage source usually with a relatively large capacitor connected in parallel, as in Fig. 1(a). It is well known that the maximum ac voltage output of a VSI is limited to 1.15 times half the dc source voltage (using modulation strategies with triplen offsets added) before being over-modulated. The VSI can therefore only be used for buck (step-down) dcac power conversion or boost (step-up) acdc power rectication, assuming that no additional dcdc converter is used to buck/boost the dc link voltage. On the other hand, a CSI is fed from a dc current source, which is usually implemented by connecting a dc source in series with a relatively large inductor as in Fig. 1(b), and its ac voltage output is always greater than the dc source voltage that feeds the dc-side inductor. The CSI is therefore only suitable for boost dcac power conversion or buck acdc power rectication.
Manuscript received June 17, 2004; revised February 25, 2005. This paper was presented at the 39th IEEE IAS Annual Meeting Conference, Seattle, WA, October 37, 2004. Recommended by Associate Editor P. M. Barbosa. P. C. Loh, D. M. Vilathgamuwa, and Y. Li are with the Center for Advanced Power Electronics, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore S639798 (e-mail: pcloh@ieee.org; emahinda@ntu.edu.sg; ywli@pmail.ntu.edu.sg). Y. S. Lai is with A Lighting Enterprise, Singapore 389422 (e-mail: alexlai33@hotmail.com). G. T. Chua is with the Economic and Development Board (Singapore) Attachment Program, Kanagawa 212-8520, Japan (e-mail: tin_79@pmail.ntu.edu.sg). Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPEL.2005.857543

Fig. 1. Typical dcac inverter topologies (a) VSI and (b) CSI.

For applications requiring both buck and boost power conversions, -source inverters have recently been proposed as a possible solution with many performance benets summarized in [1]. Fig. 2(a) shows the general representation of a -source inverter, where a unique impedance network is coupled between a power source and an inverter circuit. The power source and inverter circuit can be of either the voltage-source or currentsource type, and the impedance network is implemented using ) cona split-inductor ( and ) and capacitors ( and nected in shape. This unique impedance network allows the -source inverter to buck and boost its output voltage, and also provides it with unique features that cannot be achieved with conventional VSIs and CSIs [1]. Given its many benets, this paper now presents a detailed analysis on the modulation of voltage-type -source inverters (see Fig. 2). This paper shows how various conventional VSI pulse-width modulation (PWM) strategies (e.g., centered space vector modulation (SVM) and 60 -discontinuous PWM [2][5]) can be modied to switch a -source inverter either

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Fig. 2. -source inverter (a) general representation and (b) voltage-type phase-legs. conguration with

Fig. 3. -source inverter equivalent circuits when in (a) shoot-through state and (b) nonshoot-through state.

continuously or discontinuously, while retaining all the unique harmonic performance features of these conventional PWM strategies. First, this paper starts by analyzing the modulation requirements of a single-phase H-bridge -source inverter, and subsequently extends the analysis to cover the more complex three-phase-leg and four-phase-leg -source inverters, with carrier-based implementation reference equations derived for all the presented inverters. The theoretical and modulation concepts presented in the paper have been veried by both detailed MATLAB simulation and experimental investigations. II. OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF VOLTAGE-TYPE -SOURCE INVERTER Fig. 2(b) shows the topology of a voltage-type -source inphase-legs ( 2 for H-bridge, 3 for verter with 4 for four-phase-leg inverters), where three-phase-leg, and a dc voltage source and a conventional voltage-source converter with two, three, or four phase-legs, are connected at opposite ends of the -source impedance network. (Note that an optional diode can be connected in series with the power source to block the reverse ow of current, if required.) Voltage-type -source inverters are considered here because voltage-type inverters are generally more established and can conveniently be constructed using low-cost, high-performance insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules (with integrated anti-parallel diode) or intelligent power modules. With the use of the same topology as that of a conventional VSI, a voltage-type -source inverter can assume all active (nite output voltage) and null (0 V output voltage) switching states of VSI. But unlike the conventional VSI where dead-time delays are inserted to the complementary switching of the two switches of a phase-leg to prevent short-circuiting of the phaseleg, a voltage-type -source inverter has the unique feature of allowing both power switches of a phase-leg to be turned ON simultaneously (shoot-through state) without damaging the inverter [1]. The impact of this phase-leg shoot-through on the

inverter performance can be analyzed by considering the equivalent circuits shown in Fig. 3. When in a shoot-through state during time interval , the inverter side of the -source network is shorted as in Fig. 3(a). Therefore, (assuming and ) (1) Alternatively, when in a nonshoot-through active or null state during time interval , current ows from the -source network through the inverter topology to the connected ac load. The inverter side of the -source network can now be represented by an equivalent current source, as shown in Fig. 3(b). This current source sinks a nite current when in a nonshoot-through active state and sinks zero current when in a nonshoot-through null state. From Fig. 3(b), the following equations can be written: (2) Averaging the voltage switching period ( across a -source inductor over a 0, where ) then gives (3) Using (2) and (3), the peak dc voltage V across the inverter phase-legs and the peak ac output voltage V can be written as V V V (4) (5)

where is the boost factor introduced by the shoot-through is the modulation ratio commonly used for constate, ventional VSI modulation, and the term in {} gives the ac

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TABLE I SWITCHING STATES OF H-BRIDGE Z -SOURCE INVERTER (!S REPRESENTS COMPLEMENT OF S , WHERE X = 1 OR 3)

output of a conventional VSI. Obviously, (5) shows that the ac output voltage of a -source inverter is boosted by a factor of always 1 , which cannot be achieved with a conventional VSI (assuming no additional dcdc converter is used). III. MODULATION OF SINGLE-PHASE H-BRIDGE -SOURCE INVERTER As described in Section II, the unique feature of -source inverter is that it allows the a voltage-type shooting-through of an inverter phase-leg, which in turn gives rise to an ac output voltage boost, controlled by varying . This section now presents an analysis on the duty cycle how to introduce phase-leg shoot-through appropriately to the modulation of a simple H-bridge -source inverter. Extensions of the concepts to cover more complex three-phase-leg and four-phase-leg inverters are presented in the next two sections. A. Switching State Sequence and Placement 2 in Fig. 2(b), the seven Consider a topology with switching states of a single-phase -source inverter are listed in Table I. The active and null states in which the two switches of a phase-leg are switched complementary, are common to both conventional VSI and H-bridge -source inverter. However, the remaining three shoot-through states in which one (shoot-through states H1 and H2) or two phase-legs (shoot-through state H3) are short-circuited, are unique to the H-bridge -source inverter. Also, observe from Section II and Table I that when in a shoot-through state, the dc link capacitor voltages are boosted but the inverter output voltage is kept at 0 V, similar to that of a null state where the ac load is short-circuited. Therefore, for a xed switching cycle, inserting of shoot-through states within the null intervals with the active state intervals maintained constant will not alter the normalized (relative to ) voltsec average per switching cycle. This feature allows all existing voltsec PWM methods to be used for controlling a -source inverter with only minor modications added to insert the shoot-through states. As an illustration, Fig. 4 shows the PWM switching of a conventional single-phase VSI and a single-phase -source inverter. For conventional VSI modulation, (e.g., two state transitions occur per switching cycle null active null ) with the active state centrally placed within the switching period to minimize the generated harmonic distortion [2]. For -source inverter modulation, additional shoot-through states are carefully added to the null intervals with the active interval kept constant and centrally
Fig. 4. Modulation of single-phase Z -source inverter.

placed within the switching period to retain all the harmonic benets of central active state placement. The shoot-through states should preferably have the same time interval to minimize the size of the dc network inductors [1], and should be added immediately adjacent to the instants of state transitions of a conventional VSI to ensure a single device switching per state transition. Therefore, for a single-phase -source inverter with two state transitions per switching cycle, the number of 2) shoot-through states that can be inserted equal-interval ( is two. Their inclusions are shown in Fig. 4. In addition, note that only shoot-through states H1 and H2 can be used in the preferred state sequence since shoot-through state H3 cannot be reached from any nonshoot-through (active or null) state with only a single device switching. B. Carrier-Based Implementation For synthesizing the preferred state sequence in Fig. 4 through carrier-based implementation, this subsection explains, with reference to the reference/carrier comparison diagrams in Fig. 4, the formulation of modulating references needed for carrier-based -source inverter modulation. For a conventional VSI, the reference signals used are for modulating phase-leg , and for phase-leg . In general, the rst state transition during the falling carrier edge occurs when the maximum of the two signals ( in Fig. 4) crosses the falling slope of the carrier at time . To insert a shoot-through state

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adjacent to this transition from to , the upper (odd-numbered) and lower (even-numbered) switches of the relevant -source phase-leg should therefore be modulated using (normalized with respect to ) (6) or where ( in Fig. 4) causes the upper switch and ( in Fig. 4) to turn ON at . Obviously, these causes the lower switch to turn OFF at switching actions insert the desired shoot-through state H1, as illustrated in the lower half of Fig. 4. Following through similar analysis, the second shoot-through to by using the state H2 can be inserted from following modied reference signals for controlling the other two switches (7) or where and of represents the minimum , in Fig. 4). Without modication, the same derived equations (6) and (7) can also be used for ensuring the correct insertion of shoot-through states during the rising carrier edge. ( , IV. MODULATION OF THREE-PHASE-LEG -SOURCE INVERTER

TABLE II SWITCHING STATES OF THREE-PHASE-LEG Z -SOURCE INVERTER (!S REPRESENTS COMPLEMENT OF S , WHERE X =1, 3, OR 5)

For a three-phase-leg VSI, both continuous switching (e.g., centered SVM) and discontinuous switching (e.g., 60 -discontinuous PWM) are possible with each having its own unique null placement at the start and end of a switching cycle and characteristic harmonic spectrum. This section now extends the analysis presented in Section III to derive various continuous and discontinuous PWM strategies for a three-phase-leg -source 3) with each having the same inverter (see Fig. 2(b) with characteristic spectrum as its conventional counterpart. A. Continuous PWMState Sequence, Placement and Carrier-Based Implementation Table II lists the fteen switching states of a three-phase-leg -source inverter. In addition to the six active and two null states associated with a conventional VSI, the -source inverter has seven shoot-through states representing the short-circuiting of a phase-leg (shoot-through states E1 to E3), two phase-legs (shoot-through states E4 to E6) or all three phase-legs (shootthrough state E7). These shoot-through states again boost the dc link capacitor voltages and can partially supplement the null states within a xed switching cycle without altering the normalized voltsec average, since both states similarly short-circuit the inverter three-phase output terminals, producing 0 V across the ac load. Shoot-through states can therefore be inserted to existing PWM state patterns of a conventional VSI to derive

different modulation strategies for controlling a three-phase-leg -source inverter. As an illustration, Fig. 5 shows the continuous centered SVM state sequence of a conventional three-phase-leg VSI, where three state transitions occur (e.g., null active active null ) and the null states at the start and end of a switching cycle span equal time intervals to achieve optimal harmonic performance [2]. With three-state transitions, three equal-interval shoot-through states can be added immediately adjacent to the active states per switching cycle for modulating a -source inverter. Preferably, the shoot-through states should be inserted such that equal null intervals are again maintained at the start and end of the switching cycle to achieve the same optimal harmonic performance. This preferred state sequence and placement are shown in the lower half of Fig. 5, where the middle shoot-through state is symmetrically placed about the original switching instant. The active states {100} and {110} are left/right shifted accord6 with their time intervals kept constant, and the reingly by maining two shoot-through states are lastly inserted within the null intervals, immediately adjacent to the left of the rst state transition and to the right of the second transition. This way of sequencing inverter states also ensures a single device switching at all transitions, and allows the use of only shoot-through states E1, E2, and E3. The other shoot-through states cannot be used since they require the switching of at least two phase-legs at every transition. The state sequence and placement in Fig. 5 can similarly be generated through carrier-based implementation. Starting with a three-phase set of normalized sinusoidal signals and noting that the rst VSI transition is triggered by the intersection of the falling carrier with ( in Fig. 5) at , the modied references for inserting reprethe rst shoot-through state E1 can be derived as (8) ( sents the triplen offset needed for implementing centered SVM is for inserting shoot-through state E1 [2]). In (8), by turning ON the upper (odd-numbered) switch of the relevant , while is for ending the phase-lag at shoot-through by turning OFF the lower (even-numbered) switch

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Fig. 5. Continuous modulation of three-phase-leg Z -source inverter.

at 6 ( , in Fig. 5). Analyzing the second and third VSI transitions trig( in Fig. 5) and gered by ( in Fig. 5), respectively, (9) and (10) can also be derived for inserting the remaining two shoot-through states E2 and E3. These derived equations are equally applicable during the rising carrier edge (8) (9) (10) or

B. Discontinuous PWMState Sequence, Placement and Carrier-Based Implementation Discontinuous VSI PWM involves the elimination of a null state either at the start or end of a switching cycle, as shown in Fig. 6. Effectively, this also means clamping a phase-leg to the positive or negative dc rail, while the remaining two phase-legs remain pulse-width modulated. Now, only two state transitions 2 occur and therefore two shoot-through states of interval can be inserted. As an example, consider the falling carrier edge in Fig. 6(a) where the rst shoot-through state is inserted to the right of active state {100} to keep the time interval of this active state constant and also to clamp it to the start of the switching cycle, locking A-phase to the positive dc rail throughout the switching cycle. The second active state {110} is then right2 with its time span again kept conshifted accordingly by stant, follows by the insertion of the second shoot-through state to the right of this active state.

Fig. 6. Discontinuous modulation of three-phase-leg Z -source inverter (a) clamping to V =2 and (b) clamping to V =2.

Again, carrier-based implementation of discontinuous PWM for -source inverter is possible with the modied reference signals derived using the same procedure described in Section IV-A. These references are given in (11)(13) for positive dc rail clamping and (14)(16) for negative dc rail clamping. Positive dc Rail Clamping (11) (12) (13)

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TABLE III SWITCHING STATES OF FOUR-PHASE-LEG Z -SOURCE INVERTER (!S REPRESENTS COMPLEMENT OF S , WHERE X = 1, 3, 5, OR 7)

Fig. 7.

Continuous modulation of four-phase-leg Z -source inverter.

Negative dc Rail Clamping

(14) (15) (16) or

the gure, active state {1100} remains stationary with states F2 4 inserted to its left and right respectively and F4 of interval during the falling carrier edge. Active states {1000} and {1101} 4 with their are then respectively left- and right-shifted by time spans kept constant. Lastly, states F1 and F3 are added to the left of state {1000} and right of state {1101} respectively. With this state placement, equal null intervals are obtained at the start and end of a switching cycle, hence preserving the optimal harmonic performance of a conventional SVM modulated four-phase-leg VSI reported in [6]. Following through the same analytical procedure outlined in Section IV, carrier-based version of the above-described state placement can be implemented using the following modied references:

V. MODULATION OF FOUR-PHASE-LEG

-SOURCE INVERTER

(17)

Similarly, for a four-phase-leg -source inverter (see 4), both continuous and discontinuous Fig. 2(b) with PWM strategies can be derived, as described in the following subsections. A. Continuous PWMState Sequence, Placement and Carrier-Based Implementation Table III lists the switching states of a four-phase-leg -source inverter, which include fourteen active states, two null states and fteen shoot-through states. These shoot-through states again short-circuit all four ac output terminals, producing 0 V across the ac load. Of the fteen shoot-through states, only states F1 to F4 can be inserted at the four state transitions of a four-phase-leg -source inverter, taking into consideration the criterion of only a single device switching per state transition. This insertion of shoot-through states is illustrated in the lower half of Fig. 7, together with the relevant reference offsetting. In

(18) (19)

(20) or where is the reference signal for the neutral phase-leg, , , , and ( , , , in Fig. 7).

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Fig. 9. Schematic of the experimental three-phase-leg Z -source inverter setup.

Positive dc Rail Clamping (21) (22) (23) (24) Negative dc Rail Clamping (25) (26) (27) (28) or VI. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Fig. 8. Discontinuous modulation of four-phase-leg Z -source inverter (a) clamping to V =2 and (b) clamping to V =2.

B. Discontinuous PWMState Sequence, Placement and Carrier-Based Implementation Typical state sequences for discontinuous PWM with positive and negative dc rail clamping are given in Fig. 8(a) and (b), respectively. These gures show the elimination of one null state [{0000} in Fig. 8(a) and {1111} in Fig. 8(b)], leaving only three state transitions per switching cycle for the insertion of three 3) shoot-through states. The modied references needed for ( carrier-based implementation are also shown in the gures, and can mathematically be expressed as follows.

The modulation concepts and carrier-based implementation equations presented have been veried in Matlab/Simulink simulation for H-bridge, three-phase-leg and four-phase-leg -source inverters using the popular SVM, 60 -discontinuous and 30 -discontinuous modulation strategies. However, due to space limitation, only selected results for three-phase-leg and four-phase-leg -source inverters are presented. Experimental verication using a three-phase-leg inverter prototype has also been performed (see Fig. 9, and note that since the theme of the paper is to compare spectra of the inverter switched load is deemed appropriate voltages before the load, a for the experimental work). The experimental -source network was constructed using existing laboratory components of 6.3 mH and 2200 F with 70 V. (Note that and an input dc voltage source of

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Fig. 10. Simulated harmonic spectra of three-phase-leg Z -source inverter. SVM modulation (top) with and (bottom) without shoot-through for T =T 0.3.

Fig. 12. Simulated harmonic spectra of three-phase-leg Z -source inverter. 30 -discontinuous modulation (top) with and (bottom) without shoot-through 0.3. for T =T

Fig. 13. Simulated harmonic spectra of four-phase-leg Z -source inverter. SVM modulation (top) with and (bottom) without shoot-through for T =T 0.3.

Fig. 11. Simulated harmonic spectra of three-phase-leg Z -source inverter. 60 -discontinuous modulation (top) with and (bottom) without shoot-through for T =T 0.3.

can be minimized to reduce system cost, but this was not within the scope of investigation for this paper.) The hardware inverter was controlled digitally using a Texas Instruments TMS320F240 digital signal processor (DSP) with composed C codes for generating the required modulating references and a general-purpose timer in the DSP for generating the common 5-kHz triangular carrier needed for reference comparison. The DSP generated PWM pulses were then sent out through six independent PWM channels to gate the six switches (Semikron SKM50GB63D IGBT modules) of the implemented inverter. Figs. 1012 show the simulated centered SVM, 60 -discontinuous and 30 -discontinuous harmonic spectra for -source inverter with and without a three-phase-leg 0.3 and 0.6, while Figs. 13 shoot-through for and 14 show the corresponding SVM and 60 -discontinuous spectra for a four-phase-leg -source inverter. Note the close

Fig. 14. Simulated harmonic spectra of four-phase-leg Z -source inverter. 60 -discontinuous modulation (top) with and (bottom) without shoot-through for T =T 0.3.

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Fig. 15. (Top) Simulated and (bottom) experimental harmonic spectra of three-phase-leg Z -source inverter controlled using SVM with shoot-through for T =T 0.3.

Fig. 17. (Top) Simulated and (bottom) experimental harmonic spectra of three-phase-leg Z -source inverter controlled using 30 -discontinuous 0.3. modulation with shoot-through for T =T

Fig. 16. (Top) Simulated and (bottom) experimental harmonic spectra of three-phase-leg Z -source inverter controlled using 60 -discontinuous modulation with shoot-through for T =T 0.3.

Fig. 18. Experimental (top) switching line voltage and (bottom) current 0.3. waveforms of Z -source inverter modulation for T =T

match between spectra with and without shoot-through for the presented modulation strategies, which can only be achieved through the proper placement of shoot-through states as analyzed in this paper. Figs. 1517 show the experimental centered SVM, 60 -discontinuous and 30 -discontinuous spectra for a three-phase-leg -source inverter with the same shoot-through interval (the simulated spectra are replotted at the top of these gures for comparison). The close match between the simulated and experimental results further veries the modulation concepts and simulation investigation performed. In closing, Fig. 18 shows the experimental switching waveforms, which clearly demonstrate the boosting of dc supply voltage ( 70 V) to V 175 V [see Fig. 2 and (4)] directly feeding the inverter that corresponds to the line voltage pulse height.

VII. CONCLUSION This paper presents a detailed analysis on -source inverter modulation, showing how various conventional PWM strategies for controlling a conventional VSI can be modied to switch a voltage-type -source inverter either continuously or discontinuously. Through the proper placement of shoot-through states, -source inverter modulation can be made to reproduce the desired performance features of various reported conventional PWM strategies. This paper analyzed the single-phase H-bridge topology, and the more complex three-phase-leg and four-phase-leg topologies with the modulation concepts and derived carrier-based reference equations veried in simulation for all presented voltage-type -source inverters, and experimentally for a three-phase-leg -source inverter.

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REFERENCES
[1] F. Z. Peng, Z -source inverter, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 504510, Mar/Apr. 2003. [2] D. G. Holmes, The signicance of zero space vector placement for carrier-based PWM schemes, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 32, no. 5, pp. 11221129, Sep./Oct. 1996. [3] A. M. Hava, R. J. Kerkman, and T. A. Lipo, Simple analytical and graphical methods for carrier-based PWM-VSI drives, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 4961, Jan. 1999. [4] J. Holtz, Pulse width modulationa survey, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 39, no. 6, pp. 410420, Dec. 1992. [5] S. R. Bowes and Y. S. Lai, Investigation into optimizing high switching frequency regular sampled PWM control for drives and static power converters, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., vol. 143, pp. 282293, Jul. 1996. [6] P. C. Loh and D. G. Holmes, A multidimensional variable band ux modulator for four phase-leg voltage source inverters, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 628635, Mar. 2003.

Yue Sen Lai received the B.Eng degree (with honors) in electrical and electronic engineering from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2004. He is now with A Lighting Enterprise, Singapore, as a Manager.

Geok Tin Chua received the B.Eng degree (with honors) in electrical and electronic engineering from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2004. She is now undergoing engineering training with the Economic and Development Board (Singapore) Attachment Program, Kanagawa, Japan.

Poh Chiang Loh (S01M04) received the B.Eng (with honors) and M.Eng degrees from the National University of Singapore, in 1998 and 2000, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Monash University, Victoria, Australia, in 2002, all in electrical engineering. During the Summer of 2001, he was a Visiting Scholar with the Wisconsin Electric Machine and Power Electronics Consortium, University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he worked on the synchronized implementation of cascaded multilevel inverters, and reduced common mode carrier-based and hysteresis control strategies for multilevel inverters. From 2002 to 2003, he was a Project Engineer with the Defence Science and Technology Agency, Singapore, managing major defence infrastructure projects and exploring new technology for intelligent defense applications. Since 2003, he has been an Assistant Professor with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Yunwei Li (S04) received the B.Eng degree in electrical engineering from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2002 and is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. From February to August 2005, he was attached to the Institute of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark, as a Visiting Scholar. Mr. Li is a member of the IEEE Industrial Application Society.

D. Mahinda Vilathgamuwa (S90M93SM99) received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, in 1985 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK, in 1993. He joined the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 1993 as a Lecturer and where he is now an Associate Professor. He has published more than 80 research papers in refereed journals and conferences. His research interests are power electronic converters, electrical drives, and power quality. Dr Vilathgamuwa is the co-Chairman of the Power Electronics and Drives Systems Conference 2005 (PEDS05).