Industrial electronics
5 things
4 Things About Inverters: DC to AC
4 things about inverters that turn your battery into mains AC
Quick check · tap an answer to continue
Lesson notes
Key points
- 1. DC in, AC out: An inverter converts DC from a battery or solar panel into AC.
- 2. Four switches, H-bridge: A full bridge uses four switches, firing diagonal pairs alternately to reverse current.
- 3. Never fire one leg: Turning both switches in one leg on together shorts the supply: shoot-through.
- 4. PWM shapes the sine: Sinusoidal PWM varies pulse widths so the filtered output approximates a clean sine wave.
Takeaway: An H-bridge with PWM turns DC into near-sinusoidal AC.
Quick check: What fault occurs if both switches in one inverter leg conduct together?
- Freewheeling
- Shoot-through
- Commutation failure
Both switches on in one leg short the DC supply directly, called shoot-through.
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