This paper presents an enhanced hybrid active neutral-point-clamped H-bridge (E-HANPC H-bridge) topology to achieve high power density with high efficiency at reduced cost for wide range of applications. The proposed converter is a five-level Si/SiC devices-based hybrid H-bridge configuration comprising symmetrical legs. It provides low ratio of SiC to Si devices leading to reduced converter cost. Moreover, a multi-segment pulse-width-modulation (PWM) scheme is proposed. The proposed PWM scheme enables high switching frequency operation of the E-HANPC H-bridge converter at reduced losses. Further, the proposed scheme utilizes the redundant switching states to eliminate the lower-order harmonics in the neutral-point current resulting in balanced dc-link capacitor voltages. The effectiveness of the proposed PWM scheme for the E-HANPC H-bridge converter is analyzed using the analytical and simulation studies. Finally, the key experimental validation results are presented using the developed 5 kVA laboratory-scale prototype of the E-HANPC H-bridge converter.
