Three‐stage multiphase‐switched‐capacitor boost DC‐AC inverter

A closed‐loop scheme of a three‐stage multiphase‐switched‐capacitor boost DC‐AC inverter (MPSCI) is proposed by combining the multiphase operation and sinusoidal‐pulse‐width‐modulation (SPWM) control for low‐power step‐up DC‐AC conversion and regulation. In this MPSCI, the power unit contains two parts: MPSC booster (front) and H‐bridge (rear). The MPSC booster is suggested for an inductor‐less step‐up DC‐DC conversion, where three voltage doublers in series are controlled with multiphase operation for boosting voltage gain up to 2³ = 8 at most. The H‐bridge is employed for DC‐AC inversion, where four solid‐state switches in H‐connection are controlled with SPWM to obtain a sinusoidal AC output. In addition, SPWM is adopted for enhancing output regulation not only to compensate the dynamic error, but also to reinforce robustness to source/loading variation. The relevant theoretical analysis and design include: MPSCI model, steady‐state/dynamic analysis, voltage conversion ratio, power efficiency, stability, capacitance selection, total harmonic distortion (THD), output filter, and closed‐loop control design. Finally, the closed‐loop MPSCI is simulated, and the hardware circuit is implemented and tested. All the results are illustrated to show the efficacy of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A highly efficient single‐phase sine‐wave inverter with single‐switch high‐frequency modulation

This paper presents a highly efficient single‐phase sine‐wave inverter with single‐switch high‐frequency modulation. In this topology, a control circuit is connected at the lower arm of a full‐bridge inverter to control the output voltage across the full‐bridge inverter. The switch at the lower arm of the full‐bridge inverter controls the output voltage of the full‐bridge inverter by increasing or reducing the voltage level at the lower arm of the inverter. This switch of lower arm is controlled by a high‐frequency sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) switching signal, while the power switches of the full‐bridge inverter operate with a square‐wave switching signal at the line frequency to unfold DC–AC inversion, thus producing a sinusoidal voltage at the load. Both computer simulation and experiment are carried out to verify the performance of the proposed topology. Experimental results from a 1000‐W laboratory prototype are presented to testify and validate the analysis, design, and performance of the proposed topology. The results show that the proposed topology has nearly sinusoidal output voltage and current waveforms with a total harmonics distortion of less than 5%. © 2017 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Characteristics comparison of high‐frequency multilevel inverter connected with filter inverters

This paper presents a characteristics comparison of a high‐frequency multilevel inverter connected with small‐ capacity filter inverters. In general, PWM inverters require a low‐pass filter in order to reduce switching harmonics. However, in the high‐frequency systems such as class D power amplifiers, the cutoff frequency of the low‐pass filter must be set at high frequency. Thus, harmonic distortion of the output voltage is enlarged to a harmful level. Increasing the number of output voltage levels is effective in reducing the harmonic distortion of the output voltage and the low‐pass filter size. The proposed systems consist of a five‐level inverter and several cascade‐connected low‐voltage full bridge inverters without any external DC power sources for filtering the output voltage. The five‐level inverter generates a stepwise waveform with five‐level voltage, and the low‐voltage filter inverter superimposes harmonic components to compensate for the voltage waveform distortion. Therefore, the proposed system can reduce its total switching loss and can increase the number of the output voltage levels. In this paper, the effectiveness of the proposed systems is verified through several experiments. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 161(3): 58–65, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20373     

Dynamic modeling of DC–DC converters with peak current control in double‐stage photovoltaic grid‐connected inverters

In photovoltaic (PV) double‐stage grid‐connected inverters a high‐frequency DC–DC isolation and voltage step‐up stage is commonly used between the panel and the grid‐connected inverter. This paper is focused on the modeling and control design of DC–DC converters with Peak Current mode Control (PCC) and an external control loop of the PV panel voltage, which works following a voltage reference provided by a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm. In the proposed overall control structure the output voltage of the DC–DC converter is regulated by the grid‐connected inverter. Therefore, the inverter may be considered as a constant voltage load for the development of the small‐signal model of the DC–DC converter, whereas the PV panel is considered as a negative resistance. The sensitivity of the control loops to variations of the power extracted from the PV panel and of its voltage is studied. The theoretical analysis is corroborated by frequency response measurements on a 230 W experimental inverter working from a single PV panel. The inverter is based on a Flyback DC–DC converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) followed by a PWM full‐bridge single‐phase inverter. The time response of the whole system (DC–DC + inverter) is also shown to validate the concept. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A single‐stage phase‐shifted full‐bridge AC/DC converter with variable frequency control

This letter presents a single‐stage soft‐switched full‐bridge AC/DC converter for low‐voltage/high‐current output applications. A phase‐shifted method with a variable frequency control is used to regulate the DC bus voltage and the output voltage of the single‐stage AC/DC converter. The proposed circuit topology and control scheme exhibit superior performances (i.e. high power factor, high‐efficiency, and ring‐free features). Correspondingly, a laboratory prototype, 500 W 5V/100A AC/DC converter, is implemented to verify the feasibility of the proposed design. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Switched‐capacitor‐voltage‐multiplier boost DC–AC inverter with adaptive stages

A multistage switched‐capacitor‐voltage‐multiplier inverter (SCVMI) is proposed with a variable‐conversion‐ratio phase generator and a sinusoidal pulse‐width‐modulation controller for boost DC–AC conversion and high‐efficiency regulation. Its power unit contains: SCVM booster and H‐bridge. The SCVM booster includes two m_c‐stage switched‐capacitor cells and two n_c‐stage switched‐capacitor cells in the interleaving operation to realize DC–DC boost gain of m_c × n_c at most. Here, the variable‐conversion‐ratio phase generator is suggested and adopted to change the running stage number and topological path for a suitable gain level of m × n (m = 1, 2, ?,m_c, n = 1, 2, ?,n_c) to improve efficiency, especially for the lower AC output. The H‐bridge is employed for DC–AC conversion, where four switches are controlled by sinusoidal pulse‐width‐modulation not only for full‐wave output but also for output regulation as well as robustness to source/loading variation. Some theoretical analysis and design include: SCVMI model, steady‐state/dynamic analysis, conversion ratio, power efficiency, stability, capacitance selection, output filter, and control design. Finally, the closed‐loop SCVMI is simulated, and the hardware circuit is implemented and tested. All the results are illustrated to show the efficacy of this scheme. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Control of sub‐harmonic oscillation in peak current mode buck converter with dynamic resonant perturbation

In this paper, a dynamic resonant perturbation (DRP) method is proposed to control sub‐harmonic oscillation in a peak current mode controlled buck converter. Different from the traditional non‐feedback resonant parametric perturbation method, the proposed DRP method extracts an approximate sinusoidal control signal from the output voltage. The self‐stabilizing condition for the designed control signal is presented, and its analog circuit implementation is given as well. Furthermore, the system stability boundary is obtained by investigating the system eigenvalues, and the control parameter is effectively determined. The presented simulation and experiment results show that the proposed DRP method eliminates sub‐harmonic oscillation without sacrificing the peak value of the inductor current and features with a self‐stabilizing characteristic for external condition changes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

FPGA‐based implementation for improved control scheme of grid‐connected PV system with 3‐phase 3‐level NPC‐VSI

The large scale penetration of renewable energy resources has boosted the need of using improved control technique and modular power electronic converter structures for efficient and reliable operation of grid‐connected systems. This study investigates the performance of a grid‐connected 3‐phase 3‐level neutral‐point clamped voltage source inverter for renewable energy integration by using improved current control technique. For medium or high‐voltage grid interfacing, the multilevel inverter structure is generally used to reduce the voltage stress across the switching device as well as the harmonic distortion. The neutral‐point clamped voltage source inverter is controlled by using decoupling technique along with the proper grid synchronization via moving average filter–based phase‐locked loop. The moving average filter–based phase‐locked loop is used to reduce the delay in grid angle estimation under balanced as well as distorted grid conditions. A Lyapunov‐based approach for analysing the stability of the system has also been discussed. In this study, the hardware‐in‐loop (HIL) simulation of the control algorithm and the grid synchronization technique is realized using Virtex‐6 FPGA ML605 evaluation kit. The performance of the system is analyzed by conducting a time‐domain simulation in the Matlab/Simulink platform and its performance is examined in the HIL environment. The simulation and the hardware cosimulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

A passive EMI filter with access to the ungrounded motor neutral line: direct connection of a general‐purpose inverter to a three‐phase grounded voltage source

This paper proposes a small‐sized passive EMI filter for the purpose of eliminating high‐frequency shaft voltage and ground leakage current from an AC motor. The motor is driven by a general‐purpose PWM inverter connected to a three‐phase grounded voltage source. The passive EMI filter requires access to the ungrounded neutral point of the motor. This unique circuit configuration makes the common‐mode inductor effective in reducing the high‐frequency common‐mode voltage generated by the PWM inverter with a carrier frequency of kHz. As a result, both high‐frequency shaft voltage and ground leakage current can be eliminated very efficiently. However, the common‐mode inductor may not play any role in reducing the low‐frequency common‐mode voltage generated by the diode rectifier, so that a low‐frequency component still remains in the shaft voltage. Such a low‐frequency shaft voltage may not produce any bad effect on motor bearings. The validity and effectiveness of the EMI filter are verified by experimental results obtained from a 200‐V 5‐kVA laboratory system. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 159(2): 80–87, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20243     

A high‐input‐voltage backlight module driver for multi‐lamp LCD panels

A half‐bridge (HB) resonant inverter for driving a backlight module with multiple cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) is proposed. Conventionally, a backlight module driving inverter is designed to operate with a low‐input DC voltage. Therefore, a buck converter is required to step down the high‐output DC voltage of a power factor correction (PFC) pre‐regulator. The circuit cost is high and the conversion efficiency is low. In this letter, a high‐input‐voltage HB resonant inverter with only one transformer is used to drive multiple lamps. Analysis and design considerations are discussed in detail. Simulations and experimental results are close to the theoretical prediction. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dead‐time elimination SVPWM of six‐leg inverter

We present a six‐leg voltage source inverter (VSI) with a single DC link to feed a three‐phase inductive load. The space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) of the six‐leg inverter is studied in detail. The novel switching strategy in one sampling period for H bridge is proposed to avoid the 180° phase shift of the PWM signals for upper and lower side switches. Based on the novel switching strategy, a dead‐time elimination SVPWM is proposed, which can be easily implemented on a digital signal processor. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the validity and features of the proposed novel SVPWM. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

基于同步相量测量单元的直流附加控制器研究

利用直流系统的快速响应特性，可以在不增加附加设备的条件下有效地抑制交直流系统的低频振荡。基于全球定位系统(GPS)的同步相量测量单元(Phasor Measurement Unit，PMU)能够测量母线电压相量，尤其是电压的相角。该文利用PMU可改进控制提出了一种基于PMU的直流附加控制器，该控制器以不同区域电压相角差作为输入信号，能有效地反映区域间的低频振荡信息，同时研究了通信延迟对系统阻尼的影响，并考察了控制器的鲁棒性。以一个四机两区域系统作为测试系统，利用仿真软件PSS／E对系统进行小信号稳定和时域仿真分析，分析结果表明该直流附加控制器在系统较大的运行范围内提高了系统阻尼和系统区域联络线的传输能力，有效地抑制系统低频振荡，并且具有较好的鲁棒性，在故障情况下也能较好地发挥作用。     

Control of Uninterrupted Switching Using a Virtual Synchronous Generator Between Stand‐Alone and Grid‐Connected Operation of a Distributed Generation System for Houses

The home applications of distributed generations facilities such as photovoltaic and gas engine cogeneration systems are growing and many distributed generations are connected to a grid by a DC/AC inverter. The DC/AC inverter is controlled by a phase‐locked loop (PLL) in order to be synchronized with the power system frequency. However, the control scheme of stand‐alone operation uses voltage control, and the PLL is unnecessary. Therefore, it is hard to realize uninterrupted change between stand‐alone and grid‐connected operation. In this paper, we propose a virtual synchronous generator control scheme in order to use the same control scheme in stand‐alone and grid‐connected operation. We carried out experiments to demonstrate the control characteristics.     

A new method of damping harmonic resonance at the DC link in a large‐capacity rectifier‐inverter system

This paper proposes a new method of damping harmonic resonance in the DC link of a large‐capacity rectifier‐inverter system, such as in rapid‐transit railways. A voltage‐source PWM converter is connected in series to the DC capacitor of the rectifier through a matching transformer, acting as a damping resistor to the DC capacitor current. No filters are needed to extract harmonic components from the DC capacitor current. This results in a quick response and highly stable damping. The relationship between the control gain of the PWM converter and the required rating is theoretically discussed. We show that the required rating is less than one‐thousandth of that previously proposed. In particular, regenerating the power consumed by the PWM converter is very important because of the large power in practical systems. Normally, an additional PWM inverter is connected to the DC bus of the PWM converter to regenerate the consumed power. The additional inverter regenerates the DC power to the AC source through a transformer. This method, however, makes the damping circuit complex, thus the proposed method for the DC‐link harmonic resonance is less practicable. In this paper, a simple and novel scheme that utilizes the DC‐link voltage of the rectifier as a DC source for the PWM converter is proposed. The excellent practicability of the proposed damping method with the novel regenerating scheme is confirmed using digital computer simulation. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 144(2): 53–62, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10172     

A three‐phase voltage‐source PWM inverter system characterized by sinusoidal output voltage with neither common‐mode voltage nor normal‐mode voltage

This paper deals with an inverter system integrating a small‐rated passive EMI filter with a three‐phase voltage‐source PWM inverter. The purpose of the EMI filter is to eliminate both common‐mode and normal‐mode voltages from the output voltage of the inverter. The motivation of this research is based on the well‐known fact that the higher the carrier or switching frequency, the smaller and the more effective the EMI filter. An experimental system consisting of a 5‐kVA inverter, a 3.7‐kW induction motor, and a specially designed passive EMI filter was constructed to verify the viability and effectiveness of the EMI filter. As a result, it is shown experimentally that both three‐phase line‐to‐line and line‐to‐neutral output voltages look purely sinusoidal as if the inverter system were an ideal variable‐voltage, variable‐frequency power supply when viewed from the motor terminals. This results in complete solution of serious issues related to common‐mode and normal‐mode voltages produced by the inverter. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 145(4): 88–96, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10206     

High‐efficiency grid‐connected inverter topology for low‐power photovoltaic applications

For low‐power applications, such as household photovoltaic panels, the efficiency and reliability of the distributed generation system is an important issue. A high‐efficiency inverter topology derived from the normal full‐bridge circuit is proposed for grid‐connected photovoltaic applications. In the proposed topology, a couple of diodes are added in parallel with the grid‐frequency switches as freewheeling diodes working during the positive and negative half‐cycles of the utility voltage, respectively, thus preventing the output current from flowing through the body diodes of switches. Because of its natural configuration, simple operation, and three‐level function, the proposed topology features a high level of efficiency and reliability over a wide voltage range, and allows the best cost–effective ratio. These characteristics are compared with those of other existing advanced topologies, followed by a theoretical analysis on the output filter and the implemented circuit of modulation scheme. Experimental results from a 3 kW hardware prototype verify the feasibility of the proposed solution. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

基于概率法的交直流混联系统小干扰稳定性分析与改善

高压直流输电广泛运用于区域电网互联,使得传统交流低频振荡问题越发复杂。大多数对交直流低频振荡的研究都是针对单一运行方式的,本文采用概率法研究多运行方式下交直流混联系统的低频振荡特性并加以抑制。利用插入式建模技术(PMT)建立交直流输电系统和附加直流功率调制的小干扰模型;计算多运行方式下的概率潮流,采用混合中心距和半不变量结合Gram-Charlier级数展开的方法求解概率特征根。基于含交直流混联的四机两区域系统,分别使用中心频率法和测试信号法设计电力系统稳定器(PSS)和附加直流功率调制器(DCM)。根据控制效果提出DCM和PSS参数分步设计的协调原则,仿真结果表明系统小干扰概率稳定性得到明显改善。     

Design and analysis of power‐CMOS‐gate‐based switched‐capacitor DC–DC converter with step‐down and step‐up modes

A unified multi‐stage power‐CMOS‐transmission‐gate‐based quasi‐switched‐capacitor (QSC) DC–DC converter is proposed to integrate both step‐down and step‐up modes all in one circuit configuration for low‐power applications. In this paper, by using power‐CMOS‐transmission‐gate as a bi‐directional switch, the various topologies for step‐down and step‐up modes can be integrated in the same circuit configuration, and the configuration does not require any inductive elements, so the IC fabrication is promising for realization. In addition, both large‐signal state‐space equation and small‐signal transfer function are derived by state‐space averaging technique, and expressed all in one unified formulation for both modes. Based on the unified model, it is all presented for control design and theoretical analysis, including steady‐state output and power, power efficiency, maximum voltage conversion ratio, maximum power efficiency, maximum output power, output voltage ripple percentage, capacitance selection, closed‐loop control and stability, etc. Finally, a multi‐stage QSC DC–DC converter with step‐down and step‐up modes is made in circuit layout by PSPICE tool, and some topics are discussed, including (1) voltage conversion, output ripple percentage, and power efficiency, (2) output robustness against source noises and (3) regulation capability of converter with loading variation. The simulated results are illustrated to show the efficacy of the unified configuration proposed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A High‐Frequency Cycloconverter Based on a Phase‐Shift Control Method

This paper proposes a new control method for a high‐frequency cycloconverter consisting of two half‐bridge inverters and a series–resonant circuit. This cycloconverter acts as an ac‐to‐ac direct power conversion circuit without any dc stage. This circuit does not require a diode bridge rectifier, and thus, can be used to reduce forward voltage drops and power losses in the diodes. A new phase‐shift control method is proposed to regulate the capacitor voltage in each half‐bridge inverter and to achieve zero‐voltage switching. The proposed phase‐shift control is theoretically discussed and is also verified by an experimental circuit consisting of superjunction power MOSFETs. As a result, the proposed high‐frequency cycloconverter exhibits a good power conversion efficiency as high as 97.7% at the rated power of 1.3 kW.