A Comparative Study of Single- and Multi-Cell Three- Level ANPC Inverters for Electric Aircraft Applications

With carbon emission becoming a global issue, electric aircraft holds great potential as the future of transportation. A multi-inverter configuration has been adopted in previous studies for electric propulsion systems with voltage and power levels increasing. Based on the three-level active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) topology, this paper evaluates and compares the performance of three design cases with different numbers of parallel inverter cells, for medium-voltage high-power electric aircraft propulsion systems. With the redundant design considered, the key indicators regarding efficiency, reliability, weights, and costs of the three design cases are assessed based on the aircraft's mission profile. Moreover, a long-term economic comparison with the effect of efficiency and weight is conducted.