Power inverter
Output waveform An inverter may produce a square wave, sine wave, modified sine wave, pulsed sine wave, or near-sine pulse-width modulated wave (PWM) depending on circuit design.
A power inverter device that produces a multiple step sinusoidal AC waveform is referred to as a sine wave inverter. To more clearly distinguish the inverters with outputs of much less distortion than the modified sine wave (three-step) inverter designs, the manufacturers often use the phrase pure sine wave inverter.
Almost all consumer grade inverters that are sold as a "pure sine wave inverter" do not produce a smooth sine wave output at all, [citation needed] just a less choppy output than the square wave (two-step) and modified sine wave (three-step) inverters. However, this is not critical for most electronics as they deal with the output quite well.
A common modified sine wave inverter topology found in consumer power inverters is as follows: An onboard microcontroller rapidly switches on and off power MOSFETs at high frequency like ~50 kHz. The MOSFETs directly pull from a low voltage DC source (such as a battery).
An inverter may produce a square wave, sine wave, modified sine wave, pulsed sine wave, or near-sine pulse-width modulated wave (PWM) depending on circuit design. Common types of inverters produce square waves or quasi-square waves. One measure of the purity of a sine wave is the total harmonic distortion (THD).
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