A Sorting Balance Control for Battery Sources in a
Single Phase Multilevel Inverter
Chun-Yu Yang Yaow-Ming Chen
Department of Electrical Department of Electrical
Engineering, Engineering,
National Taiwan University National Taiwan University
Taipei, Taiwan Taipei, Taiwan
r04921020@ntu.edu.tw
Abstract— The reconfigurable battery array (RBA) can
generate different levels of dc voltage for the single phase
multilevel inverter (MLI). However, it implies that each
battery module inside the RBA will provide different level of
energy for the output load. In this paper, single voltage sensing
balance (SVSB) method is proposed to equalize the battery
modules voltage of the RBA. The proposed SVSB method only
need a voltage sensor to accomplish the battery module
equalization. The circuit structure and operational principle of
the MLI with the RBA are introduced in this paper. The
control strategy of the proposed SVSB method will be
illustrated. Finally, the computer simulation and hardware
experimental results of a 4-level prototype MLI are given to
verify the performance of the proposed SVSB method.
Keywords—voltage balance, reconfigurable battery array,
multilevel inverter
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, the popularity of the hybrid electric vehicle
(HEV) is growing around the world due to the environment
concern. For the conventional HEV system, the H-bridge
inverter is adopted to generate the ac output power for the
motor. However, the H-bridge inverter has relatively high
harmonic currents. Hence, the multi-level inverter (MLI) has
been developed to improve this problems [1]. Due to the
characteristic of multi-level dc voltage, the harmonic of the
MLI can be reduced by comparing to the conventional H-
bridge inverter [2]-[3]. Also, it has better power utilization
during operation [4].
In order to supply enough power for the HEV, the input
power sources of the HEV are usually composed of
numerous battery modules, known as reconfigurable battery
array (RBA) [5]-[7]. Battery modules in a RBA system can
be reordered to provide desired voltage or current. However,
different arrangement of the battery modules will cause
inequivalent terminal voltage easily, which is especially
crucial for the MLI application. The reason is that the power
consumption in each level of the MLI is different. Hence,
without any battery balancing control (BBC), the voltage
differences between each battery module will increase. The
unbalanced voltage problem not only shortens the lifetime of
the battery due to over-discharge, but also reduces the MLI
output performance.
978-1-5090-2998-3/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE 2742
Kai-Cheung Juang
Industrial Technology Research
Institute
Hsinchu, Taiwan
In order to overcome the battery voltages unbalance
problem for the MLI application, the shifting balance (SHB)
method has been proposed to realize battery equalization
during the discharging process [8]. However, the SHB
method is not adequate when the initial voltages among
various battery modules are different. Therefore, the single
voltage sensing balance (SVSB) method with the ability to
balance the battery voltage is proposed.
In this paper, the operational principle of the adopted
MLI with a single voltage sensor is introduced, first. Then,
the algorithm of the proposed SVSB method is illustrated.
Finally, the experimental results of using the SHB and the
SVSB methods are presented. From the comparison results,
the performance of the proposed SVSB method are verified.
II. OPERATIONAL PRINCIPLE OF A SINGLE PHASE
MULTILEVEL INVERTER
The circuit structure of the MLI with the RBA is shown
in Fig. 1(a). The dc voltage levels are formed by the
switching behavior of the RBA, which consists of a series-
connected battery modules, and the H-bridge inverter
converts the dc voltage into a sinusoidal current/voltage.
Each battery module in the RBA is composed of an
independent battery cell and two switches, Sn1 and Sn2, as
shown in Fig. 1(b). The switch Sn1 is named as the stand-by
switch and is connected in series with the battery cell. The
other switch Sn2 is called as the by-pass switch and is
connected in parallel with the battery cell branch. According
to the structure of the battery module, two output voltage
levels can be generated.
Module
k
Q1 Q2
L
Vdc Module Vab Vo Load
2
Module
Q3 Q4
1
(a) The circuit structure of the adopted MLI with a RBA.

(b) The battery module inside the RBA.
Fig. 1. The proposed MLI with a RBA and its battery module configuration
When Sn1 is on and Sn2 is off, the output voltage of the
battery module is equal to the battery cell’s voltage. On the
other hand, when Sn1 is off and Sn2 is on, the output voltage
becomes zero. Hence, if there are k battery modules in the
RBA, the terminal dc-link voltage Vdc can be discretely
formed from 0 to k times the battery cell voltage as shown
in Fig. 2. The adopted sinusoidal output conversion method
and a single voltage sensing method are introduced as
follows.
Vdc
Vcell_1+Vcell_2+...+Vcell_k
Vcell_1+...+Vcell_k-1
Vcell_1+Vcell_2
Vcell_1
0 t
Fig. 2. The dc output of a k-level MLI
A. Sinusoidal Output Converion Method
Generally, there are two methods to convert the
multilevel dc voltage input into a sinusoidal waveform. The
first method uses Fourier series analysis to calculate the turn-
on period of each module to shape the whole sinusoidal
wave [9]. The other one combines the stepped voltage with
sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) to produce a
sinusoidal waveform [10]. The former method needs a
complex calculation to obtain the discharge information of
every cell, while the latter one only needs voltage feedback
to generate appropriate and exclusive duty cycle for each
module. Because of the simplicity, the stepping dc-link
voltage with SPWM method as shown in Fig. 3 is adopted in
this paper to fulfill the dc to ac conversion.
Vdc
Vcell_1+Vcell_2+...+Vcell_k
Vcell_1+...+Vcell_k-1
Vcell_1+Vcell_2
Vcell_1
0 t
Fig. 3. The stepped dc-link voltage with SPWM
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A 4-level MLI (k=4) will be used as an example to
introduce the conventional BBC and the proposed SVSB in
the next section.
B. A Single Voltage Sensing Method
In this paper, the proposed SVSB is developed to retrieve
the information of the battery cell voltage by only one single
voltage sensor. As shown in Fig. 3, the dc-link voltage Vdc is
composed of different numbers of battery cells at different
time, which leads to a stepping voltage waveform. Owing to
the stepping characteristic of Vdc, the voltage of each battery
cell can be retrieved by sensing Vdc at different time and
decomposing it. Fig. 4 shows the captured time of different
levels. The battery module voltage of different level can be
computed as follows.
At t1 Vdc (t1 ) = Vcell _1 (1)
At t2 Vdc (t 2 ) − Vdc (t1 ) = Vcell _ 2 (2)
At t3 Vdc (t3 ) − Vdc (t 2 ) = Vcell _ 3 (3)
At t4 Vdc (t 4 ) − Vdc (t3 ) = Vcell _ 4 (4)
Based on equations (1)~(4), the voltage of each cell can
be calculated. It should be noticed that the sinusoidal output
conversion method adopted in this paper is combined with
the SPWM operation, and only one of the battery modules
operates under high switching frequency in every dc voltage
level. Therefore, the sensing period is very important in
order to retrieve the correct terminal voltage of all battery
modules under different dc level operation.
Vdc Positive Half-cycle Negative Half-cycle
Vcell_1+Vcell_2+Vcell_3+Vcell_4 Vcell_1+2+3+4
Vcell_1+Vcell_2+Vcell_3
Vcell_1+Vcell_2
Vcell_1+2+3
Vcell_1
t1 t2 t3 t4
t
Fig. 4. The captured time of the partial cell voltages
III. CONTROL STRATEGY FOR BATTERY SOURCES
A 4-level MLI (k=4) with a RBA will be adopted to
explain the control strategy of the proposed SVSB method.
In order to achieve battery equalization, the level
arrangement of each battery module is very important. Fig. 5
shows the composition of the dc-link voltage for the MLI
where each voltage level is formed by different number of
battery modules. Based on the operation principle of the
MLI, the battery module which is selected as the level 1
voltage source, Va, needs to transmit energy to the output for
the longest time ta, which also consumes the largest energy.
On the other hand, the battery module which is selected
as the level 4 voltage source, Vd, will supply the output for
the shortest time td. Without any battery equalization method
for the RBA, the battery module in low level will be easily
over-discharged because of the unequal power transmission
to the output per cycle. Therefore, the battery module with
the higher state of charge (SOC) should be selected as the
lower voltage level and vice versa.
mode, either the stand-by mode or the by-pass mode, for
each battery module. The PWM signals are sent to the
battery modules to generate an appropriate dc-link voltage,
and to the H-bridge converter to provide the desired
sinusoidal output current or voltage.

Module
Q1 Q2
4
L
Module
3
Vab Vo Load
Module
2

Module
Q3 Q4
1

Control
Unit
PWM generator

Va, Vb, Vc, Vd

Fig. 5. The composition of the dc-link voltage for the MLI Vdc
Battery Balance
A. Shifting Balance Method Control
The concept of SHB is shown in Table. I. Without
sensing the voltage of each battery module, the module in
level k is always shifted to level (k-1) after one ac line cycle. Fig. 6. The control block diagram of sorting balance control in 4-level MLI
Meanwhile, the module in the lowest level is shifted to the system
highest level. If the initial voltages of all k battery cells are The flow chart of the proposed SVSB method is shown
the same, even though the voltage drop of each cell is in Fig. 7. First, in the positive half-cycle, Vdc is sensed to
different within one ac line cycle, the voltage of each cell calculate cell voltages. Since the adopted MLI includes
will be equivalent after k line cycles. Hence, battery balance SPWM operation, there are some periods that Vdc drops a cell
is accomplished without any over-discharge problem. voltage due to the turn-off period of the module as Fig. 3. In
However, SHB has poor performance when the initial order to prevent incorrect measurement, it should check
voltage of each cell is different. The shifting arrangement whether the Vdc is higher than the one at the previous stepped
only ensures that the voltage of each cell has the same level. In every level, the voltage data are collected five times
voltage drop every k line cycle, so the voltage of each cell to eliminate the effect of noise. Finally, by using simple
will be inequivalent. Therefore, the SVSB is proposed in this sorting method, bubble sort, the new order of the modules
paper to achieve battery balance with or without equivalent can be generated in the negative half-cycle.
initial voltage. The module with high SOC is arranged to the lowest
TABLE I. THE CONCEPT OF SHIFTING BALANCE CONTROL level to transmit more power. The one with low SOC is
Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3 Cycle 4 ordered to the highest level to consume less energy. After
Vcell_4 Level 4 Level 3 Level 2 Level 1 many cycles, the voltage difference of each cell can be
Vcell_3 Level 3 Level 2 Level 1 Level 4 decreased and battery balance can be achieved.
Vcell_2 Level 2 Level 1 Level 4 Level 3 In the case of the unbalanced initial voltage, SVSB can
Vcell_1 Level 1 Level 4 Level 3 Level 2 also achieve battery voltage balance by consideration of
SOC. However, for the SHB, the principle of voltage balance
B. SVSB Method is built on consumption of equivalent energy for some
The control block diagram of the experimental example cycles. Because of this, the unbalanced initial voltage of
4-level MLI with a single voltage sensor is shown in Fig. 6. battery modules couldn’t be recognized by the system using
The controller is composed of a BBC unit and a PWM the SHB method. Although there is one voltage sensor
generator unit. The BBC unit will detect the voltage of each required in the SVSB method, it can accomplish battery
individual battery module and determines the operation balance even though their initial voltages are different.

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 Vcell_1 Vcell_2 Vcell_3 Vcell_4

Start
16
Vcell_1
if done_k=1,
15.5
Vcell_2
k=k+1 15
Vcell_3
Level k = 1 ~ 4
14.5
Vcell_4
dcell_k[n-1]>0.5 & Positive 14
N
done_k=0 Half-cycle
Vab Vo

Y N
100
Vab Vo
50

N V dc [n]>pre_Vdc sort_done=0 Y Bubble Sort

0

-50
Y N
-100

Vcell_k[n]=Vcell_k[n-1]+(Vdc[n]-pre_Vdc)*0.2 End sort_done=1 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2

Time (s)

(b)
count_k=
count_k+1
N count_k=4 Fig. 8. The discharging period of four cells with the same initial voltage
using (a) SHB (b) SVSB
Y

done_k=1 B. Battery Balance in Different Initial Cell Voltage

pre_Vdc =Vdc[n]

Fig. 7. The flow chart of SVSB control Due to the self-discharge characteristics of batteries or
the leakage current in circuits, the initial voltage of each cell
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS might be different. For the SHB, because the power
consumption of each cell is the same after every four line
In this paper, the 4-level MLI controlled by the proposed cycles, the voltage drop of each cell will be equal. As a
SVSB method is verified by the simulation software PSIM. result, the difference due to the different initial voltage will
Also, the performance of the proposed SVSB is compared not be eliminated by using the conventional SHB as shown
with the conventional SHB under two different conditions, in Fig. 9(a). However, for the proposed SVSB, the voltage
equal or unequal initial battery module voltages. equalization among battery modules can be achieved even
with different initial voltages. The voltage variation among
A. Battery Balance in Same Initial Cell Voltage different battery modules as shown in Fig. 9(b). It implies
In Fig. 8, the initial voltage of each cell is equal to 16V, that the proposed SVSB can achieve better equalization
which is roughly the value of four Lithium-ion batteries in performance.
series. Variables Vcell_1, Vcell_2, Vcell_3, and Vcell_4 are the cell Vbcap1 Vbcap2 Vbcap3 Vbcap4

voltages, Vab is the voltage right after the H-bridge, and Vo is 16

the output voltage of the MLI. The simulation results show Vcell_2
that with the SHB, voltage difference may occur during the 15.5

0.5V Vcell_3
balancing process. However, after a certain amount of Vcell_4
cycles, the voltage of each cell will become the same, again. 15

Vcell_1
For the proposed SVSB, the cell voltages maybe different 14.5

at the beginning. However, after several cycles, all cell 0.5V

voltages are very close to each other. Besides, both of them
14

can achieve a good sinusoidal output voltage waveform. 13.5

Vbcap1 Vbcap2 Vbcap3 Vbcap4

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Time (s)
16
Vcell_1 (a)
15.5
Vcell_2
Vcell_3
Vcell_1 Vcell_2 Vcell_3 Vcell_4

Vcell_4
15
16

Vcell_2
14.5

0.5V
15.5
14

Vm Vo Vcell_3
100
Vab Vo
15

Vcell_1 Vcell_4
50
14.5

14
-50

-100
13.5
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Time (s)

(a) 0 0.05 0.1

Time (s)
0.15 0.2

(b)
Fig. 9. The discharging period of four cells with the different initial voltage
using (a) SHB (b) SVSB

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 V. EXPERIMENT RESULTS
The adopted 4-level MLI in this paper had been built to
verify the proposed SVSB method. As shown in Fig. 10, the
voltage of each cell is roughly 16.8V using four 18650
Lithium-ion batteries in series. The dc-link voltage Vdc has
the stepping voltage combined with the SPWM. Because of
using 4 battery modules in the RBA, there are obviously 4
level-voltage in Fig. 10(a). Fig. 10(b) shows the RBA
modules are operated in high switching frequency with
different duty cycles. It implies that the RBA is functioned
well with SPWM operation.
Fig. 11 is the output voltage and current of the 4-level
MLI. It demonstrates that the prototype MLI is functionally
operated and the output are sinusoidal voltage waveforms.
(a)
The testing condition for battery balance in shown in
Table. II. There are two cases. Case A has the same initial
battery voltages while Case B is not. The results of battery
balance are demonstrated as follows.
TABLE II. THE TESTING CONDITION OF BATTERY BALANCE
Testing
Case A Case B
Condition
Vcell_4 16V 16V
Vcell_3 16V 16V
Vcell_2 16V 16V
Vcell_1 16V 15.5V
In Fig.ġ 12, the initial voltage of each cell is equal to
16V, where Vcell_1, Vcell_2, Vcell_3, and Vcell_4 are the cell
voltages. The experimental results show that either using the
SHB or the SVSB, the voltages of battery cells can remain
equivalent during the entire operation of the MLI.
However, the measurement results for Case B with
different initial voltages are shown in Fig. 13. The
difference of battery voltage couldn’t be cancelled by using
the SHB. However, with the proposed SVSB method, the
voltage of each battery cell can be equalized even though
their initial voltages are different. Besides, the equalization
of the battery voltage can be achieved quickly and remain
unchanged by using the proposed SVSB method.
The experimental results shows that the proposed SVSB
method can accomplish the battery module equalization
under either different or same initial battery voltage.

1hr
(a)
(b)
Fig. 10 The dc-link voltage Vdc (a) the stepped voltage in Vdc (b) the
SPWM wave in Vdc

1hr
(b)
Fig. 12. The hardware experiments in the case A using (a) SHB (b) SVSB

Fig. 11 The output voltage and current of the 4-level MLI

2746
 Vehicles," IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 3537-
3546, July 2014.
[6] T. Morstyn, M. Momayyezan, B. Hredzak and V. G. Agelidis,
"Distributed Control for State-of-Charge Balancing Between the
Modules of a Reconfigurable Battery Energy Storage System," IEEE
Trans. Power Electron., vol. 31, no. 11, pp. 7986-7995, Nov. 2016.
[7] G. Gunlu, "Dynamically Reconfigurable Independent Cellular
Switching Circuits for Managing Battery Modules," IEEE Trans.
Energy Convers., vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 194-201, March 2017.
[8] J.-H. Kim, M.-S. Kang, S.-B. Oh and E.-H. Kim, "New control
scheme of lithium-polymer battery units using single phase multi-
level converter," 8th Int. Conf. Power Electron. - ECCE Asia, Jeju,
1hr 2011, pp. 2997-3000.
(a) [9] C.-M. Young, N.-Y. Chu, L.-R. Chen, Y.-C. Hsiao and C.-Z. Li, "A
Single-Phase Multilevel Inverter With Battery Balancing," IEEE
Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 1972-1978, May 2013.
[10] M. Ahmed, M. G. Elsheikh, M. A. Sayed and M. Orabi, "Single-
phase five-level inverter with less number of power elements for grid
connection," 2012 Twenty-Seventh Annu. IEEE Appl. Power Electron.
Conf. Expo. (APEC), Orlando, FL, 2012, pp. 1521-1527.
[11] T. Kim, W. Qiao and L. Qu, "Series-connected reconfigurable
multicell battery: A novel design towards smart batteries," 2010 IEEE
Energy Convers. Congr. Expo., Atlanta, GA, 2010, pp. 4257-4263.

1hr
(b)
Fig. 13. The hardware experiments in the case B using (a) SHB (b) SVSB

VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the SVSB method for the MLI with a single
voltage sensor is proposed. Since the battery modules inside
the RBA of the MLI are providing power in different period
of time, the battery voltage of each cell will drop down
differently. It will reduce the battery’s lifetime dramatically.
The proposed SVSB uses a single voltage sensor to retrieve
the information of the battery voltages. Then rearranges the
battery modules to proper level to achieve battery
equalization. The proposed SVSB method can also achieve
battery equalization with different initial cell voltages. The
proposed SVSB is easy to be realized by using a micro
control unit. The simulation and experiment results are
presented to verify the performance of the proposed SVSB
method.

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