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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 20, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2005

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 modified 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 verified 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 classified 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 rectification, 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 rectification.
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 Identifier 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 benefits 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 benefits, 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 modified to switch a -source inverter either

0885-8993/$20.00 2005 IEEE

LOH et al.: PULSE-WIDTH MODULATION OF

-SOURCE INVERTERS

1347

Fig. 2.
-source inverter (a) general representation and (b) voltage-type
phase-legs.
configuration 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 verified by both
detailed MATLAB simulation and experimental investigations.

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
)

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 flow 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 (finite 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

(1)
Alternatively, when in a nonshoot-through active or null state
during time interval , current flows 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 finite 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

(4)
V

(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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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 20, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2005

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 fixed 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 modifications
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

benefits 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 first 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

LOH et al.: PULSE-WIDTH MODULATION OF

-SOURCE INVERTERS

1349

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
)

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

(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 modified reference signals for controlling the other
two switches
(7)
or
where
and
of

represents the minimum

,
in Fig. 4). Without modification, 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

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 fifteen 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 fixed 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 first 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 first VSI transition is triggered by the intersection of the falling carrier with
(
in Fig. 5) at
, the modified references for inserting
reprethe first 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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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 20, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2005

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 first 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 modified 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)

LOH et al.: PULSE-WIDTH MODULATION OF

-SOURCE INVERTERS

1351

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.

Negative dc Rail Clamping

(14)
(15)
(16)
or

V. MODULATION OF FOUR-PHASE-LEG

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

the figure, 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 modified
references:

-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.

(18)
(19)

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 fifteen shoot-through states. These shoot-through
states again short-circuit all four ac output terminals, producing
0 V across the ac load. Of the fifteen 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

(20)
or
where

is the reference signal for the neutral phase-leg,

,
,
,
and
(
,
,
,
in Fig. 7).

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 20, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2005

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 figures 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 modified references needed for
(
carrier-based implementation are also shown in the figures, and
can mathematically be expressed as follows.

The modulation concepts and carrier-based implementation

equations presented have been verified 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
verification 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

LOH et al.: PULSE-WIDTH MODULATION OF

-SOURCE INVERTERS

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.

1353

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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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 20, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2005

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. 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.

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
figures for comparison). The close match between the simulated and experimental results further verifies 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.

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

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 modified 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 verified in simulation
for all presented voltage-type -source inverters, and experimentally for a three-phase-leg -source inverter.

LOH et al.: PULSE-WIDTH MODULATION OF

-SOURCE INVERTERS

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11221129, Sep./Oct. 1996.
[3] A. M. Hava, R. J. Kerkman, and T. A. Lipo, Simple analytical and
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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.

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).

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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.

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.