Modulation Strategy of a 3 × 5 Modular Multilevel Matrix Converter

In this paper, a modulation strategy of a 3 × 5 modular multilevel matrix converter (M3C) is proposed. The circuit of 3 × 5 M3C is firstly introduced. Then, operation rules of 3 × 5 M3C are illustrated, and a connection pattern of branches is determined based on these rules. Different voltage states in the input and output side can be achieved by different connection patterns. These voltage states are represented in the form of vector. It is hard to synthesize five-phase output with the three-level synthesis method. Therefore, the five-level synthesis method is adopted in this paper; i.e., is the branch states have been increased. Ten effective vectors and a zero vector are selected based on the five-level synthesis method. With this modulation strategy, we achieve output line-to-line voltages that are in line with the trend of a sine wave. The segment division and duty cycle calculation are very simple, and the modulation strategy can be implemented easily. The simulation model of 3 × 5 M3C is constructed based on Matlab/Simulink, and the corresponding experimental platform is set up. The results of simulation and experiment show that the proposed method is reasonable and correct.