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A capacitor voltage balancing method for a modular multilevel dc (MMDC) converter is proposed. The MMDC inherits the desirable features of both a modular multilevel converter (MMC) and a dual active bridge, namely high voltage capability, fault tolerance, zero-voltage switching-on of all the power devices, and a wide operating range. These features are ideal for a dc transformer in any dc distribution system. One key MMDC control issue is balancing of submodule capacitor voltages. Conventional MMC balancing techniques cannot be used as arm currents of an MMDC change direction within each switching cycle. This paper establishes that the average capacitor voltage of each arm is self-balanced and proposes a method to balance voltages within an arm by assigning the gate signals with higher charge difference to the submodules with lower voltages and vice versa. Charge difference is obtained by the voltage difference, hence only the SM capacitor voltages are required for balancing control. Different from the existed methods, the proposed technique is not limited by voltage gain or load conditions. Simulation and experimental results show that capacitor voltages are balanced under different voltage gains, different output power, and also when the MMDC starts up, hence ensuring the stable MMDC operation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a novel hybrid excited generator, which is suitable for a variable-speed wind power generation system. Two sets of excitation sources are employed, which are permanent magnets (PMs) on the rotor and the field windings on the stator. The rotor is design with PM-iron structure, namely the PMs and iron poles are alternatively located in rotor, which can provide PM excitation and flux modulating simultaneously. Meanwhile, the adjacent stator teeth are designed with different height, which enables the stator with flux modulating effect, and, therefore, bidirectional flux modulating can be achieved. Some specific harmonics excited by the rotor PMs can be effectively adjusted by the field current, and the back electromotive force and electromagnetic torque can be regulated accordingly. Therefore, the proposed generator can achieve constant voltage control and maximum power point tracking control by controlling the field current. The design considerations and field regulating principle are analytically investigated. An improved Tabu search algorithm is used to optimize the proposed generator, and finite-element method is used to realize preliminary study of the electromagnetic performances. A prototype is manufactured and experimental tests are conducted to verify the theoretical analysis and control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The voltage balancing of the floating capacitors in modular multilevel converter (MMC) is of great importance for the safe operation. However, the existing voltage-balancing algorithms usually suffer from high switching frequency, leading to unnecessary switching losses and device costs. This paper proposes an adaptive capacitor voltage-balancing method for high-power MMCs with reduced switching frequency. The operational characteristics and switching process of the submodules (SMs) are analyzed in detail. And then the relationship between the switching frequency and the capacitor voltage deviation is derived. Based on the analysis, an adaptive method is proposed to make a trade-off between the switching losses and the balancing effect through a closed-loop control of the alternating number of the SMs. The calculation formulas of the switching frequency are also presented. PSCAD/EMTDC simulation and RT-LAB-based real-time control hardware in the loop (HIL) test results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method under different operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a fully modular control strategy for input-series output-parallel (ISOP) inverter system is proposed to ensure equal sharing of input voltage and output current among the constituent inverters. Compared with existing control strategies, such as centralized control that restricts the modularity of the system and distributed control, which realizes voltage and current sharing by means of connecting constituent inverter modules through sharing buses, the proposed control strategy can achieve fully modular design without any control signal interconnection among the constituent inverters, leading to superior modularity and reliability. First, the control strategy is deduced and the principle of the control strategy is analyzed. Then, the detailed implementation and stability analysis of the proposed strategy are presented. At last, a two-module ISOP inverter system is tested in the laboratory and the experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, a fully integrated digitally assisted low-dropout regulator (LDO) for a NAND flash memory system is proposed and verified using 500 nm I/O CMOS transistors. By combining an amplifier (AMP)-based LDO with a comparator (CMP)-based LDO, the proposed LDO achieves both fast load response in the transient state and accurate regulation in the steady state, which are advantages of the CMP-based LDO and AMP-based LDO, respectively. Moreover, loop frequency stability is satisfied in a wide range of load currents between 0 and 150 mA by using the simple structure of the gm-boost cell to insert an auxiliary path. For an input voltage range of 2.3–3 V and an output voltage of 2.1 V, the measured output droop is 225 mV for a 150 mA load step in the load transition time of 20 ns with the total bias current of 81\,\mu \rmA. The fabricated prototype chip occupies 160\,\times \,610\,\mu \rmm^2 with an on-chip output capacitor of 2 nF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medium-voltage dc/dc converters have recently acquired importance in the smart grid and dc distribution framework. However, several open issues remain with regard to the reliability of such systems. This paper proposes a modular isolated dc/dc converter with multiple quadruple active bridge building blocks. This design, in combination with a virtual resistor-based control, weights the paths depending on the components wear-out and can balance the stress of the semiconductors in the attempt of extending overall system lifetime. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated in simulations and supported with measurements on a small-scale demonstrator with open modules, built in order to verify in real time the capability of controlling the thermal stress of the semiconductors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the application of a solid-state input current harmonic filtering technique, named as power semiconductor filter (PSF), for boost-type power factor corrector (PFC). The filtering technique is based on connecting an active device, namely, series pass device (SPD), in series with the input of the boost converter. By adjusting the control signal to the SPD, the input current of the PFC is profiled to be in phase with the supply voltage and regulate the output voltage. The power dissipation of the SPD is maintained at a low level by operating the SPD at the boundary between the linear and saturation regions. Modeling of the static and dynamical characteristics, design, and analysis of the entire system will be given. A 100 W, 85–265 Vac/400 Vdc PFC with the boost converter operating in discontinuous conduction mode has been built and evaluated. Experimental results reveal that the PSF can reduce the input current harmonics and improve the input power factor. They are in close agreement with the theoretical predictions. Finally, the conducted electromagnetic interference under different supply voltages will also be reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to propose an efficiency model to evaluate the impact of the pulse width modulation (PWM) duty cycle jitter on the efficiency of switching-mode power converter. By taking the product of two perturbation terms into consideration, which is ignored in the conventional average small-signal model, the average efficiency model is proposed first. Due to the nonlinear characteristic of the PWM generator, the multifrequency efficiency model is also developed by considering the sideband frequency. Three different perturbation waves are induced to the control loop of the converter to generate the jitter to observe its impact on the efficiency. The mathematical expression of the efficiency drop based on the proposed multifrequency model is derived. The reason of control-to-output gain's magnitude spike on the Bode plot can be explained by the derived equations. Eventually, the methods to reduce the efficiency drop caused by the jitter are suggested. In spite of various perturbation frequencies, amplitudes, and waveforms, the mathematical calculation, the computer simulation, and the hardware measurement of the efficiency drop are consistent which validate the accuracy of the proposed multifrequency efficiency model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axes cross-coupling in dq-frame will deteriorate the current control performance, especially for applications with low switching/sampling frequency. Decoupling methods based on inductor current state feedback and complex vector proportional-integrator controllers are usually performed to solve this problem. In this paper, an alternative decoupling method based on preprocessed reference current feed-forward is proposed, which can provide excellent decoupling performance even with considerable control delay. The current control of grid-connected voltage source converters is analyzed with complex-coefficient transfer functions. It is revealed that the decoupling performance of current control schemes is closely related to the symmetry of current closed-loop transfer function bode diagrams. The current closed-loop transfer function should show a standard symmetrical bode diagram with respect to 0 Hz, if axes cross-coupling is well decoupled. A quantitative index named cross-coupling function is then proposed to analyze and comprehensively compare the decoupling performance of the proposed method and existing ones in terms of the influence of the control delay, inductance estimation error, grid frequency deviation, and voltage disturbance. Experimental tests are implemented to validate the performance of the proposed method and comparison results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic voltage restorer (DVR) technology has become a mature power quality product. In high-power applications, DVR using a multilevel converter is commonly used. However, DVR using a multilevel direct pulse width modulation (PWM) ac–ac converter has not been well studied. This paper presents a new DVR topology using a cascaded multilevel direct PWM ac–ac converter. In the proposed scheme, the unit cell of the multilevel converter consists of a single-phase PWM ac-ac converter using switching cell structure with coupled inductors. Therefore, the multilevel converter can be short- and open-circuited without damaging the switching devices. Neither lossy RC snubber nor a dedicated soft commutation strategy is required in the proposed DVR. This improves the reliability of the DVR system. The output voltage levels of the multilevel converter increase with the number of cascaded unit cells, and a high ac output voltage is obtained by using low-voltage-rating switching devices. Furthermore, a phase-shifted PWM technique is applied to significantly reduce the size of the output filter inductor. A 1-kW prototype of single-phase DVR is developed, and its performance is experimentally verified. Finally, the simulation results are shown for a three-phase DVR system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes two direct torque control (DTC) strategies to reduce the common-mode voltage (CMV) in the five-phase induction motor driven by three-level five-phase inverter. In each technique, 31 voltage vectors consisting of 30 nonzero voltage vectors, and a zero voltage vector are selected out of available 243 voltage vectors. The selection of these voltage vectors are based on their capabilities of reducing the CMV, eliminating the x–y stator flux and maintaining the torque ripple under control. The ten large, ten small, and a zero voltage vector are same in both schemes, however only difference in designing the control strategy for the two schemes is the utilization of different ten medium voltage vectors. First proposal (DTC-I) reduces the CMV to $3V_{{\rm{dc}}}\,/ 10$ and second proposal (DTC-II) reduces to $V_{{\rm{dc}}}\,/ 10$. These schemes are compared with DTC technique of five-phase induction motor fed by two-level five-phase inverter in order to judge the capabilities of proposed schemes in context of reducing the CMV. The simulation and experimental results validate the proposed DTC techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current control loop response in voltage source inverters impacts the quality of output current and output voltage waveforms. Parabolic current control provides a fast transient response with approximate-constant switching frequency, solving the frequency variation problem of hysteresis current control. This makes it a good candidate for the current control loop of voltage source inverters to achieve a good system performance. Yet, parabolic current control is often implemented with digital-to-analog converters, analog comparators, and field-programmable gate array circuits where increasing switching frequency pushes update speed and bandwidth requirements. Concurrently, even if the transient response of parabolic current control is fast, it can still take up several switching cycles converging to steady state. In order to solve both problems, a new current control strategy, motivated by the convergence analysis of parabolic current control but with a convergence process that takes just one switching operation, is proposed: single-step current control. Since single-step current control samples two data points in a switching cycle instead of using continuous parabolic carriers, it can be easily implemented in a digital microcontroller then high switching frequency can be achieved. The small signal model, dead-time compensation, and stability analysis are also studied in this paper. The convergence speed of the algorithm is verified with experimental hardware prototype and the transient performance of the designed voltage source inverter meets expectation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an isolated LLC series resonant DC/DC converter with novel frequency adaptive phase shift modulation control, which suitable for wide input voltage (200–400 V) applications. The proposed topology integrates two half-bridge in series on the primary side to reduce the switching stress to half of the input voltage. Unlike the conventional converter, this control strategy increases the voltage gain range with zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) to all switches under all operating voltage and load variations. Adaptive frequency control is used to secure ZVS in the primary bridge with regards to load change. To do so, the voltage gain becomes independent of the loaded quality factor. In addition, the phase shift control is used to regulate the output voltage as constant under all possible inputs. The control of these two variables also significantly minimizes the circulating current, especially from the low-voltage side, which increases the efficiency as compared to a conventional converter. Experimental results of a 1-Kw prototype converter with 200–400-V input and 48-V output are presented to verify all theoretical analysis and characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a steady-state model of MMC for the second-order phase voltage ripple prediction under unbalanced conditions, taking the impact of negative-sequence current control into account. From the steady-state model, a circular relationship is found among current and voltage quantities, which can be used to evaluate the magnitudes and initial phase angles of different circulating current components. Moreover, in order to calculate the circulating current in a point-to-point MMC-based HVdc system under unbalanced grid conditions, the derivation of equivalent dc impedance of an MMC is discussed as well. According to the dc impedance model, an MMC inverter can be represented as a series connected R–L–C branch, with its equivalent resistance and capacitance directly related to the circulating current control parameters. Experimental results from a scaled-down three-phase MMC system under an emulated single-line-to-ground fault are provided to support the theoretical analysis and derived model. This new models provides an insight into the impact of different control schemes on the fault characteristics and improves the understanding of the operation of MMC under unbalanced conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a primary-side regulation constant current constant voltage (CC-CV) Flyback ac–dc converter characterized by high efficiency and high precision of constant current control. In CC mode, a novel ring detection and demagnetization portion control technique is proposed, with which the ending time of demagnetization can be accurately determined and the portion of demagnetization in switching periods remain precisely the same, which enable the accuracy of constant current output that can reach a level as high as ±0.8%. In CV mode, a power stage model based on steady-state analyzing method is established, according to which the expression of static power loss is first obtained. After that total power loss expression including switching loss is derived as well. By MATLAB simulation, power loss mechanism is revealed and analysis is made in detail. According to which, optimized parameters of Flyback converter system and an effective CV regulation strategy are obtained eventually. Simulation as well as experimental results verifies the efficiency of the ac–dc converter system after optimization that can be more than 84.7% at 5 V/1 A application. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recently, riding through grid faults and supporting the grid voltage by using grid-connected converters (GCCs) have become major requirements reflected in the grid codes. This paper presents a novel reference current generation scheme with the ability to support the grid voltage by injecting a proper set of positive/negative active/reactive currents by using four controlling parameters. Analytical expressions are proposed to obtain the optimal values of these parameters under any grid voltage condition. The optimal performances can be obtained by achieving the following objectives: first, compliance with the phase voltage limits, second, maximized active and reactive power delivery, third, minimized fault currents, and fourth reduced oscillations on the active and reactive powers. These optimal behaviors bring significant advantages to emerging GCCs, such as increasing the efficiency, lowering the dc-link ripples, improving ac system stability, and avoiding equipment tripping. Simulation and experimental results verify the analytical results and the proposed expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Grid-connected converters (GcCs) employ LCL filters instead of simple L filters in order to meet new grid codes and their on-going changes in the near future. Active damping methods, without power losses, are preferred to passive ones for solving the resonance problems of LCL-filter-based GcCs ( LCL-GcCs). However, large changes in the grid inductance (typically under weak grid conditions and in rural areas) may compromise the system stability. Moreover, the delay of digital controllers will change system phase-frequency characteristics and consequently will affect the system stability. In view of this, this paper proposes a systematic design procedure for the active damping of voltage-oriented PI control for LCL- GcCs. The procedure considers active damping methods based on capacitor current feedback and is aimed to ensure stable operation under severe grid inductance variations while taking into account the influence of digital control delay and LCL filter parameters changes on the system stability. Simulation and experimental results are presented and discussed in order to validate the proposed design procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper proposes a current-fed isolated bidirectional dc–dc converter (CF-IBDC) that has the advantages of wide input voltage range, low input current ripple, low conduction losses, and soft switching over the full operating range. Compared with conventional CF-IBDCs, the voltage spikes of the low-voltage (LV) side switches in the proposed converter can be eliminated without additional clamp circuits. The converter adopts the pulse width modulation plus hybrid phase-shift control scheme such that the bus voltage can match the output voltage by means of the transformer. Thus, the current stresses and conduction losses of the converter become lower. In addition, the practical zero voltage switching (ZVS) of the secondary-side switches can be realized by adjusting the phase-shift angle within the secondary side when in light load or no load condition. The operating principles and characteristics including the power transfer, root-mean-square (RMS) current, and soft switching are investigated in detail. Then the design guidelines of inductors are also given. Finally an experimental prototype with 30–60 V input and 400 V/2.5 An output is built to verify the correctness of theoretical analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper presents a new bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) topology, using a recently proposed controllable LCL filter, namely active virtual ground to achieve efficient power conversion, and high-frequency common mode voltage (CM) reduction. The proposed PFC circuit consists of high-frequency semiconductors for shaping inductor current and low-frequency semiconductors to form two different LCL structures for different conditions. This reduces grid differential mode current ripple or inductance. Besides, the PFC CM voltage, a main problem of bridgeless PFCs, is significantly reduced, since the capacitor in the LCL filter clamps the voltage between the grid and the converter ground. The performance of the proposed PFC is experimentally verified. The results show that the proposed PFC guarantees sinusoidal input current, low high-frequency common-mode voltage noise, and has a good agreement with the theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a feedback/feed-forward control strategy to improve the voltage balancing of modular multilevel converters (MMCs) under unbalanced grid conditions. The inclusion of a feed-forward compensation improves the disturbance rejection capability against asymmetrical faults and sudden voltage imbalances in the ac grid. The floating capacitor voltages of the MMC are controlled in two stages. The first one equally distributes the voltages in each arm, and the second one balances the energy among the six arms. This last control stage is also divided into the called horizontal and vertical balancing. Based on a detailed analysis of the power terms disturbing the MMC arm energies, the control strategy is tailored to improve the voltage transient response by adding feed-forward terms to both horizontal and vertical balancing controls. In addition, various approaches to manage the MMC under unbalanced grid conditions are compared regarding several aspects, such as capacitor voltage ripple, balancing performance, and negative-sequence current injection. Advantages and disadvantages of both the proposed and the conventional energy-based control schemes are also studied, showing that the voltage control performance can be improved by enhancing the existing MMC control systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The three-level flying capacitor (3L-FC) submodule significantly reduces the magnitude of circulating currents, voltage ripple, and footprint size and improves the efficiency of the modular multilevel converter (MMC). Due to the above advantages, the 3L-FC submodule becomes an alternative for the conventional half-bridge submodule in the MMC. Each 3L-FC submodule consists of two floating capacitors with different nominal voltage rating. The precharging of floating capacitors without inrush current is one of the major challenges in the 3L-FC-based MMC. This paper proposes a sequence of design steps to precharge the floating capacitors in the 3L-FC-based MMC. The proposed approach is highly effective to charge the outer and inner capacitors of each 3L-FC submodule to their nominal value. The superiority of the proposed approach is verified through the MATLAB simulations and dSPACE/DS1103 experiments on a laboratory prototype of the 3L-FC-based MMC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undesirable power oscillations take place in grid-connected voltage sourced converters (VSC) during unbalanced conditions. This problem becomes more difficult and pronounced during transients which include zero sequence content flowing through the ac/dc interface. This paper introduces a method especially designed to control the instantaneous power in voltage sourced converters operating under unbalanced transient scenarios with positive, negative, and zero sequence content. The control is based on an adaptive transformation that instantaneously adjusts itself to the dynamic voltage conditions. The method allows control over constant and oscillating terms of the instantaneous three-phase power. It is applied to grounded three-wire and four-wire schemes, especially accommodating zero sequence unlike previous approaches. The technique expands the application of the p-q theory, which is attached to the αβ0 transformation. The effectiveness of the proposed control approach and the proposed power conditioning scheme was demonstrated using electromagnetic transient simulation of a VSC connected to an ac system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In signal injection sensorless drives, the injection voltage cannot be reduced under a certain value. The lower limit of the injection voltage is mainly enforced by the inverter nonlinearity that causes distortion of the injection voltage and degradation of the position estimation performance. After analyzing the inverter nonlinearity during the voltage injection, it is revealed that parasitic capacitances of insulated-gate bipolar transistors have positive effects on inverter output linearity and sensorless control. Based on this analysis, this paper proposes a method to reduce the injection voltage by connecting additional capacitors to the output terminals of the inverter. Simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed idea. In the experiments, using the capacitor-integrated inverter, it is shown that the injection voltage can be reduced by more than half without degrading the position estimation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve some problems caused by the ac control method used for the existing modular multilevel dc–dc converter (MMDC), this paper has proposed a new MMDC topology with a wide range of output voltage by means of dc control. By reconstructing the submodule structure, the converter has a power branch and an auxiliary balance branch, which are used to transmit dc power and balance the capacitor voltage, respectively. Both dc analysis and control method are adopted to establish a mathematical model so as to deduce the mathematical relationships between the key electrical parameters. Moreover, what have been done include analyzing the self-balancing principle of the capacitor voltage and the mechanism of the auxiliary balance branch, calculating the related parameters of the capacitor voltage fluctuation, and presenting a dc closed-loop control strategy based on a small-signal model. The analyses of the steady and dynamic states in combination with simulation and experiment show that the proposed converter can stably operate in the mode of dc control, with a large adjustable range of output voltage, a small fluctuation in voltage of the capacitor, and the ability of the inductor to suppress the spike of the auxiliary balance current effectively so as to reduce the impact on the device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diode–capacitor-based dc–dc converters provide a simple and low cost solution for high step-up voltage regulation in solar and fuel cell generation. Transient modeling analysis reveals their worse influence of nonlinear and nonminimum-phase system characteristic due to right-half-plane (RHP) zero, especially in high voltage gain application. However, the process of energy transfer for diode–capacitor-based dc–dc converter is different from basic dc–dc converter. Based on the unique feature, this paper proposes an improved main circuit structure with parallel connection of resistive–capacitive damping network across the intermediate capacitor to achieve good dynamic performance. By optimal parameter design according to Routh–Hurtwitz criterion, all the RHP zeros in the transfer function of control-to-output voltage are eliminated completely. Then, by the case of diode–capacitor-based boost converter, the adaptive PI controller is designed to deal with nonlinear characteristic of voltage gain. It gets good dynamic performance under wide range output voltage. All the theoretical findings and design approaches are verified by simulation and experiment results. The existing diode–capacitor-based high step-up dc–dc converters with slight main circuit modification are more promising in renewable energy application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolated modular multilevel dc–dc converter (IMMDCC), which consists of two modular multilevel converters and a medium-frequency transformer, is attractive for medium-voltage applications because of the following features: the modular structure can handle higher voltage, and synthesizing square-wave voltages toward the alternating current (ac) link increases the dc voltage utilization ratio and achieves the zero-voltage switching operation. However, the asymmetry of arm impedance in practice inevitably leads to power imbalance and divergence of total capacitor voltages in the upper and lower arms of IMMDCC, thereby inducing large ripples in the common-mode arm current and adding a dc bias to the synthesized ac voltage. To compensate for the power imbalance and maintain the stable operation, the interarm phase-shift modulation (IAPSM) scheme and arm voltage-balancing control strategy based on this scheme are presented in this paper. Combining the IAPSM scheme with the intersubmodule phase-shift modulation scheme, deep rising and falling edges of the synthesized square-wave voltage in each phase leg are modified into staircase waveforms with 2N + 1 steps, dv/dt in the ac-link is thus significantly reduced. Simulation and experimental results validate the theoretical analysis and control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a variable-speed motion-sensorless control system for permanent-magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) connected to grid via back-to-back inverters for wind energy generation. The grid-side inverter control system employs proportional-integral (PI) current controllers with cross-coupling decoupling and line-voltage feedforward disturbance compensation. Also, a D-module filter is used to robustly extract the line voltage positive sequence followed by a phase-locked-loop (PLL) based observer to estimate the positive-sequence angle for control, including the case of asymmetric voltages and automatic seamless transfer method from grid connected to stand alone and vice versa. In stand-alone mode, a voltage control scheme with selective harmonic compensation is employed. The PMSG motion-sensorless control system uses an active power controller and a PLL-based observer to estimate the rotor position and speed without using the electromotive force (EMF) integration and initial rotor position. The paper investigates and validates the ride-through performance of this proposed system during asymmetric power grid-voltage sags, transition from grid connected to stand alone and vice versa and voltage harmonics compensation. While some of the aforementioned issues have been treated rather individually in previous conference publications of the authors, the present paper integrates them into a comprehensive control system of PMSG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several novel digital assistant power integrated technologies (DAPITs) for power management unit (PMU) to reduce the designing complexity, as well as to keep good performance in scaling CMOS process, are proposed in this paper. The DAPITs include segment power driving with pulse skip modulation/pulse width modulation and loop regulating with digital regulation circuit for dc-dcs in PMU, calibrating digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with resistance compensation network for dynamic voltage scaling (DVS), and separating phase clock for multi-dc-dcs in PMU. With these DAPITs, the efficiencies and output accuracies of dc-dcs are increased, the DVS signal sent by DAC is linear, and current ripples in PMU are reduced. In this paper, a PMU embedded into system-on-a-chip (SoC) is designed based on a 0.13-μm CMOS process. The designed PMU includes four dc-dc buck converters and two LDOs. This paper introduces the top structure of the PMU and the main proposed DAPITs. Simulation and test results show that the output voltages of the dc-dc converters in the PMU can be changed by external resistors and regulated from 0.7 to 1.8 V stepped with 25 mV by SoC load through interface. And the maximum efficiency of the dc-dcs with DVS in the PMU is more than 90%, while, with an external resistor, it can reach to 95%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Full-bridge single-stage (FBSS) ac-dc converters allow to regulate both the output voltage and the input current that achieves a near sinusoidal waveform using only the four bridge transistors. Independent of this feature, these converters still need to be optimized in order to become an interesting and attractive solution for modern switch mode power supplies with power factor corrector (PFC) function. One of the most important improvements needed is the downsizing of the dc bus capacitor C b with the inherent cost reduction. However, this action introduces complex issues in the regulation of the input current and it is also responsible for the generation of high output voltage ripple. The new contribution of this paper consists in the introduction of a set of power circuit optimizations and control techniques in a FBSS PFC converter that solves the referred issues in order to enable the reduction of the dc bus capacitor's size and cost. These procedures are based in the use of a free wheeling circuit that improves the light load operation and in the application of one shot nonlinear modulator, in order reduce the output voltage ripple even when the dc bus ripple is high. The possibility of using, in the proposed topology, a reduced ratio capacitance/watt lower than the typical values used in commercial applications (0.7-0.5 μF/W for 385-450 V, respectively), while maintaining the accurate input current regulation, is also theoretically proved. The developed concepts, solutions and design criteria are detailed described in the paper. The correspondent theoretical study is verified trough experimental results token in an optimized FBSS topology prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two-switch buck-boost (TSBB) converter is suitable for wide input voltage applications. In order to achieve high efficiency over the entire input voltage range, the TSBB converter is operated in buck mode at high input voltage and boost mode at low input voltage. Such operation is called the two-mode control scheme. The objective of this paper is to propose an input voltage feed-forward (IVFF) method to reduce the influence of the input voltage disturbance on the output voltage. The small-signal models of the TSBB converter are built, and based on which, the IVFF functions under different operating modes of the TSBB converter are derived. The IVFF function in boost mode is simplified for easy implementation. The two-mode control scheme with IVFF compensation is then proposed for the TSBB converter, which realizes automatic selections of operating modes and the corresponding IVFF functions. Besides, nearly smooth switching between buck and boost modes is also guaranteed. For exhibiting the advantages of the proposed control scheme clearly, comparisons between the two-mode control with and without IVFF compensation have been presented in this paper, including the output signal of the voltage regulator and input-to-output voltage transfer function. Finally, a 250-500-V input, 360-V output, and 6-kW-rated power prototype is fabricated to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme in the laboratory, and the experimental results show that the TSBB converter has an improved input transient response and high efficiency over the entire input voltage range with this proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The five-level active neutral-point-clamped (5L-ANPC) converter has been widely studied for its excellent performance in high-power medium-voltage applications. This paper analyzes the space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) strategy of the 5L-ANPC converter in the virtual coordinate, and presents an optimized control strategy which can balance the neutral point (NP) voltage and avoid the dead-time effects for the first time. In this strategy, on one hand, the 125 space vectors are combined by 96 triangles in the seven-segment vector synthesis method, then the triangles are divided into seven categories which have different characteristics of balancing the NP voltage, and every category has its own principles to choose the vector sequence and compute the vector durations. On the other hand, the dead-time effects of the 5L-ANPC converter are studied in detail and the transitions between different switching states are constrained in the optimized control strategy to avoid the dead-time effects that cannot be compensated by traditional pulse-based dead-time compensation methods. Finally, the optimized SVPWM strategy is experimentally verified in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to address the load sharing problem in islanding microgrids, this paper proposes an enhanced distributed generation (DG) unit virtual impedance control approach. The proposed method can realize accurate regulation of DG unit equivalent impedance at both fundamental and selected harmonic frequencies. In contrast to conventional virtual impedance control methods, where only a line current feed-forward term is added to the DG voltage reference, the proposed virtual impedance at fundamental and harmonic frequencies is regulated using DG line current and point of common coupling (PCC) voltage feed-forward terms, respectively. With this modification, the impacts of mismatched physical feeder impedances are compensated. Thus, better reactive and harmonic power sharing can be realized. Additionally, this paper also demonstrates that PCC harmonic voltages can be mitigated by reducing the magnitude of DG unit equivalent harmonic impedance. Finally, in order to alleviate the computing load at DG unit local controller, this paper further exploits the band-pass capability of conventionally resonant controllers. With the implementation of proposed resonant controller, accurate power sharing and PCC harmonic voltage compensation are achieved without using any fundamental and harmonic components extractions. Experimental results from a scaled single-phase microgrid prototype are provided to validate the feasibility of the proposed virtual impedance control approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel technique to balance the voltage of the two split dc capacitors of a 3-Level neutral-point-clamped inverter using triangular carrier pulse width modulation is presented. This technique, suitable for reactive power compensation and for inverters operating with a relatively low switching frequency, consists in adding a square wave at six times the output frequency. Subsequently, this paper presents a comparison with two already known strategies in which a sinusoidal waveform at two and six times the output frequency are injected. The current contribution to the midpoint of the dc bus is then analyzed for different modulation indexes and operating conditions. Based on this analysis, a small-signal averaged model, suitable for control design purposes is presented. Finally, simulation and experimental results on a 690-Vac, 120-kVA test bench that validate the theory are shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A digitally controlled low-dropout voltage regulator (LDO) that can perform fast-transient and autotuned voltage is introduced in this paper. Because there are still several arguments regarding the digital implementation on the LDOs, pros and cons of the digital control are first discussed in this paper to illustrate its opportunity in the LDO applications. Following that, the architecture and configuration of the digital scheme are demonstrated. The working principles and design flows of the functional algorithms are also illustrated and then verified by the simulation before the circuit implementation. The proposed LDO was implemented by the 0.18-μm manufacturing process for the performance test. Experimental results show that the LDO's output voltage Vout can accurately perform the dynamic voltage scaling function at various Vout levels (1/2, 5/9, 2/3, and 5/6 of the input voltage V\bf DD) from a wide V\bf DD range (from 1.8 to 0.9 V). The transient time is within 2 μs and the voltage spikes are within 50 mV when a 1-μF output capacitor is used. Test of the autotuning algorithm shows that the proposed LDO is able to work at its optimal performance under various uncertain conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various applications, like in underground mines and oil and gas industries, require remote operation of vector-controlled medium-voltage variable speed drives via a long motor feeder. The use of voltage source inverters in such cases leads to motor overvoltage and harmonic quality problems. The current source inverter (CSI) is ideally matched to these applications because of its motor-friendly voltage output. Speed sensorless operation is mandatory due to the long motor feeder. Although the model reference adaptive system (MRAS) is a powerful and proven speed estimation tool, its implementation in long motor feeder drives faces many challenges. Among them, and addressed in this paper, are inherent dc offset in its stator model, the need for actual motor voltage and current values, and oscillations in the estimated speed due to errors in the motor current measurement signals. In this paper, a sensorless CSI vector-controlled drive, suitable for long motor feeder applications, is studied. Improved speed estimation is achieved by proposing 1) a modified dc-offset eliminator for an MRAS speed estimation and 2) a compensation technique for motor current's measurement errors. Intensive experimental results, for a low-voltage scaled model, along with simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With series insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) operation, well-matched gate drives will not ensure balanced dynamic voltage sharing between the switching devices. Rather, it is IGBT parasitic capacitances, mainly gate-to-collector capacitance Cgc, that dominate transient voltage sharing. As Cgc is collector voltage dependant and is significantly larger during the initial turn-off transition, it dominates IGBT dynamic voltage sharing. This paper presents an active control technique for series-connected IGBTs that allows their dynamic voltage transition dVce/dt to adaptively vary. Both switch ON and OFF transitions are controlled to follow a predefined dVce/dt. Switching losses associated with this technique are minimized by the adaptive dv /dt control technique incorporated into the design. A detailed description of the control circuits is presented in this paper. Experimental results with up to three series devices in a single-ended dc chopper circuit, operating at various low voltage and current levels, are used to illustrate the performance of the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high performance digital systems as well as in RF systems, voltage scaling and modulation techniques have been adopted to achieve a more efficient processing of the energy. The implementation of such techniques relies on a power supply that is capable of rapidly adjusting the system supply voltage. In this paper, a pulsewidth modulation multiphase topology with magnetic coupling is proposed for its use in voltage modulation techniques. Since the magnetic coupling in this topology is done with transformers instead of coupled inductors, the energy storage is reduced and very fast voltage changes are achieved. Advantages and drawbacks of this topology have been previously presented in the literature and in this paper, the design criteria for implementing a power supply for the envelope elimination and restoration technique in an RF system are presented along with an implementation of the power supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a method of mitigating the transient overshoots of dc-dc converters undergoing large load disturbances. The method involves a small power auxiliary circuit which exists as an energy buffer to provide a smooth absorption and release of excess energy from and to the main dc-dc converter during transients. In the method, the regulation of the current magnitude of the converter and energy storage of the auxiliary circuit are guaranteed by the relevant control schemes. The cost and size of the auxiliary circuit will be relatively small as it only operates intermittently. In this paper, the voltage deviation analysis and the auxiliary circuit design guideline are provided. Experimental results validating the approach are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an approach to dc power delivery that reduces power loss by minimizing redundant energy conversion. Existing power distribution techniques tend to increase the number of cascaded conversion stages, which limits overall efficiency. Differential power processing enables independent load regulation, while processing only a small portion of the total load power. Bulk power conversion occurs once. Load voltage domains are connected in series, and differential converters act as controllable current sources to regulate intermediate nodes. This enables independent, low supply voltages, which can reduce system energy consumption, especially in digital circuits and solid-state lighting. Since differential voltage regulators process a fraction of the load power, decreased size, cost, and conversion losses are attainable. Under balanced load conditions, secondary differential converters do not process any power. This paper analyzes several differential power delivery architectures that can be applied to homogenous and heterogeneous loads at various levels: chip, board, blade, etc. A variety of operating conditions for a test system with four series voltage domains are examined in simulation and verified with experimental hardware. Results in a reference application show a 7–8% decrease in input power and 6–7 percentage points increase in overall conversion efficiency as compared to a conventional cascaded approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper experimentally investigates the performance of three-phase voltage source pulsewidth modulation (PWM) converter, with the grid interfaced photovoltaic energy conversion system being the main application. In such applications the ground leakage current [common mode current (CMC)] should be much less than an ampere and this is difficult to obtain in transformerless (direct) connected systems. With the target being the reduction of the common mode voltage (CMV) and CMC, the converter performance is investigated thoroughly. Conventional PWM methods [space vector PWM (SVPWM) and discontinuous PWM (DPWM)] and recently developed reduced common mode voltage PWM (RCMV-PWM) methods [active zero state PWM (AZSPWM) and near state PWM (NSPWM)] are considered. The performance of a 1-kW rated PWM rectifier with additional common-mode capacitor emulating a PV system has been experimentally investigated. It is shown that the CMV and CMC of the tested RCMV-PWM methods is significantly less than conventional methods. In particular, NSPWM yields the best overall performance including low ground leakage current, low inverter output (phase current) and input (dc-link current) ripple, and low switching losses. Accounting for the parasitic capacitance effect, the resonant frequency of the common-mode circuit is identified and it is used in the converter design for the purpose of avoiding resonances involving large CMV-CMC. This paper aims help the design engineer select the appropriate PWM method for grid-connected applications and provides some design rules of thumb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indirect matrix converter (IMC) is an alternative for ac/ac energy conversion, usually operated with a voltage stepped-down gain of only 0.866. For applications like distribution generation where voltage-boost functionality is required, the traditional style of operating the IMC is therefore not appropriate. Like most power converters, the operation of the IMC can surely be reversed to produce a boosted gain, but so far its relevant control principles have not been discussed. These challenges are now addressed in this paper with distributed generation suggested as a potential application. Simulation and experimental results for validating various performance aspects of the proposed control schemes can be found in a later section of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new emulator topology for a high-temperature (HT) proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell (FC). Emulators are used to predict FC behavior and facilitate development of the power-conditioning subsystems. In this paper, the high-temperature system is modeled and emulated both in the steady state and transient domains. The model is tailored to operate effectively in real time on the emulator hardware and to deliver acceptable performance during steady-state and dynamic conditions. In particular, a two-stage approach is applied to the design of the emulator hardware. The first stage is based on a multiphase interleaved converter, capable of maximizing ripple cancellation, while ensuring rapid dynamic performance through the use of reduced filter components. These benefits are only apparent by operating the converter at its critical duty ratio. This is achieved through the introduction of a power-stage converter, which tracks the steady-state behavior of the FC, allowing the multiphase converter to account for the rapid transient behavior. This operating principle improves the quality of the output dc voltage and dynamic performance beyond that achieved by conventional emulator topologies. The experimental results of the FC stack, HT PEM FC model and emulator are presented to confirm the performance of the proposed system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel voltage-based charge balance control algorithm is presented, which is suitable for both digital and analog implementations for buck converter to achieve near-optimal dynamic performance. First, this paper presents a new derivation of practical charge balance equations based on simplified differential equations. This deviation is applicable to both fast input voltage and load step transients. The final algorithm does not require complex calculations and accurate knowledge of the output filter LC parameter. Second, the proposed voltage-based charge balance controller does not require accurate current sensor or fast analog-to-digital converter. Instead, to detect the critical time instant when the inductor current equals the new load current, a practical extreme voltage detector is introduced to capture the output voltage peak/valley information. Third, this algorithm is simple to be implemented by either low-cost digital signal processing devices (such as microcontroller unit) or analog circuits. Both digital and analog experimental prototypes are built to verify the feasibility and advantages of the new method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A synchronous rectification buck converter in parallel with a Class AB linear amplifier is presented in this paper to construct an envelope-tracking (ET) power supply. To eliminate the influences of the output voltage on the linear amplifier output current, a full feedforward of the output-voltage scheme with two feedforward terms is proposed in this paper, which can counteract all the two load admittances of the linear amplifier, respectively, consequently decreasing the linear amplifier output current substantially. An ET power supply prototype with 100-kHz sine-wave tracking, 5-15 V output voltage, and 75-W-peak output power is fabricated and tested in the lab. The experimental results are well in agreement with the theoretical analyses, and the system efficiency is improved significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a transformerless static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) system based on hybrid multilevel H-bridge converter with delta configuration. This hybrid multilevel STATCOM is characterized by per-phase series connection of a high-voltage H-bridge converter operating at fundamental frequency and a low-voltage H-bridge converter operating at 5 kHz without any other circuit for dc voltage control. A new control strategy is proposed in this paper with focus on dc voltage regulation. Clustered balancing control is realized by injecting a zero-sequence current to the delta-loop, while individual voltage control is achieved by adjusting the fundamental content of ac quasi-square-waveform voltage of high-voltage converter. A downscaled experimental prototype rated at 100 V and 3 kVA is constructed in author's laboratory. Experimental results show that the hybrid multilevel STATCOM performs satisfactory not only improving efficiency and waveform quality, but also compensating reactive power and negative-sequence current while maintaining dc voltage at the given value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel inverters are receiving more attentions nowadays as one of preferred solutions for medium- and high-power applications. As one of the most popular hybrid multilevel inverter topologies, the five-level active-neutral-point-clamped inverter (5L-ANPC) combines the features of the conventional flying-capacitor type and neutral-point-clamped (NPC) type inverter and was commercially used for industrial applications. In order to further decrease the number of active switches, this paper proposes a seven-switch 5L-ANPC (7S-5L-ANPC) topology, which employs only seven active switches and two discrete diodes. The analysis has shown a lower current rating can be selected for the seventh switch under high power factor condition, which is verified by simulation results. The modulation strategy for 7S-5L-ANPC inverter is discussed. A 1 kVA single-phase experimental prototype is built to verify the validity and flexibility of the proposed topology and modulation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a modified proportional resonant (PR) based control scheme for a three-level Vienna rectifier that reduces the input current harmonic distortion [total harmonic distortion (THD)] for harmonic contaminated and unbalanced supply voltage conditions. Low-order current harmonics that are present in the source side currents can be selectively eliminated using this proposed control strategy. In addition, the complete control technique includes the proportional integral (PI) based voltage balancing technique to balance the output voltages of the Vienna rectifier. This method includes the advantages of both hysteresis-based current control (fast transient response) and PI-based vector control (fixed frequency operation) methods. Various computational blocks such as space vector modulation (SVM) block, current/voltage transformation blocks, etc., are not necessary to implement this control method. Therefore, this scheme is relatively easy to implement using inexpensive digital controllers. A 1-kW prototype of the rectifier is built and tested in the laboratory environment using the proposed control method. The converter provides a unity power factor operation with low-current THD at the input side, balances the capacitor voltages, and tracks the voltage reference at the output side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variable-on-time (VOT) control scheme for a critical conduction mode (CRM) integrated buck–flyback power factor correction (PFC) converter with high power factor (PF) and low total harmonic distortion (THD) is proposed in this paper. By utilizing the input and output voltage to modulate the on-time of both buck and flyback switches, the input current harmonics can be eliminated and high PF will be obtained. The operating principles of both the conventional constant-on-time (COT) control and VOT control for the CRM buck–flyback PFC converter are analyzed. A 100-W prototype has been built and tested in the lab. The experimental results demonstrate that the THD and PF of the converter with VOT control are greatly improved compared to those with COT control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inductor current ripple under hysteresis current control is sensitive to system as well as controller parameters, which often deviates from the desired band. Thus, a phase-locked-loop (PLL) is employed to regulate the switching frequency over the operating range. Digital platform drastically simplifies this using an all-digital PLL (ADPLL) and offers the controller-tuning flexibility for improved performance. However, the use of uniform voltage-sampling often leads to multilimit cycle instability. This paper proposes a mixed-signal hysteretic current controller (MSHCC) with the digital voltage-loop and the analog current-loop. A digital-to-analog converter is sufficient to generate time-multiplexed current references. This achieves robust stability and parameter-insensitive current ripple by sampling the error-voltage at the rising edge of the high-side gate signal. Stability analysis is carried out using discrete-time models. The proposed MSHCC can be configured to either of the peak, average, or valley current-mode techniques along with the flexibility to adjust the switching frequency using an ADPLL for real-time energy-optimization. The proposed scheme is implemented using an FPGA device and tested on a buck converter prototype. The MSHCC scheme can be extended to a multiphase buck converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a small signal model is proposed for the new unidirectional three-phase T-type rectifier topology known as five-level T-Rectifier (5L T-RECT). The proposed model is obtained starting from the large signal analytical representation of the 5L T-RECT configuration. The derived equations have been simplified using the synchronous reference frame transformation; to this purpose, the average values over the fundamental period T0 are considered for the input phase voltages. After that, the converter steady-state and dynamic models are derived by means of the local linearization around the desired operating point. The transfer functions related to the inputs and outputs of the system are, therefore, obtained and depicted. The achieved 5L T-RECT model has been first verified using the linear analysis tool in the matlab/Simulink environment starting from the detailed switching model. Theoretical results exhibit a very good accuracy between the small-signal, the large-signal, and the switching models. Then, experimental activity is depicted to further validate the proposed small-signal model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]