This paper proposes three Carrier Overlapping PWM (COPWM) methods that utilize the (CFD) control freedom degree of vertical offsets among carriers. They are: COPWM-A, COPWM-B, COPWM-C these three methods are simulated . This paper presents a comparative study of diode clamped and cascaded three phase five-level inverters based on sinusoidal PWM& modified space vector PWM control techniques. Performance analysis is based on the results of simulation study conducted on the operation of the multilevel inverters using MATLAB/ SIMULINK. For comparison purposes, non-overlapping phase disposition PWM (PD PWM) using SPWM and modified space vector PWM is also presented. The performance parameters chosen the work included fundamental output voltage and total harmonic distortion. . A hardware set up was developed for a single-phase 5-level cascaded inverter topology using constant pulses.