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The current error is hard to avoid for finite control set model predictive current control (FCS-MPCC) in nine-phase open-end winding permanent magnet synchronous motors. To overcome this problem, an online virtual voltage vector (V $^{3}$) synthesis strategy is proposed in this article. First, a group of V $^{3}$ s without harmonic voltage components are designed as the basic vectors for online synthesis. Then, two adjacent basic V $^{3}$ s and a zero vector are used to synthesize a new V $^{3}$ , which can output arbitrary amplitude and phase angle in the fundamental space. The two basic V $^{3}$ s are directly selected from the located sector of the predicted reference voltage vector (RVV), and their duration ratio can be simply calculated according to the angle of the RVV in the sector. In this way, the zero error is realized between the new V $^{3}$ and RVV. Moreover, an online pulse generation algorithm corresponding to the new V $^{3}$ is proposed, which can calculate the symmetrical pulse sequences in real-time for the multiphase OW drive system without the space vector modulator. Finally, experimental results have verified the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed strategy, in comparison to existing FCS-MPCC in multiphase OW motor drive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a low computational burden model predictive control (MPC) strategy without weighting factor is proposed for the single-phase cascaded H-bridge CHB converters. To reduce the switching state candidates, a hierarchy control algorithm is proposed. The grid current is controlled by selecting a subregion from the designed 2-D control plane, instead of the entire area. Two vectors are chosen in one sampling period for more accurate tracking. Then, the voltage balancing is achieved by selecting the optimal switching state from the subregion candidates to form the above two vectors. The cost function can be constructed of one variable: load voltage. Therefore, the weighting factor can be eliminated. No tuning or retuning processes are required in the proposed method. To reduce the computational time further, the principle of eliminating the switching state candidates operating the same voltage balancing performance is proposed. Conventional and proposed MPC methods are verified by experimental tests via a laboratory setup of a three-cell connected CHB converter. Steady-state and transient operations demonstrate that the proposed method guarantees less distortion grid current and shorter execution time (reduced from 15 to 3 $\mu s$). Fast response speed to variations in voltage reference and load resistance can be achieved t. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a simplified pulsewidth modulation (PWM) strategy is proposed for open-winding flux modulated doubly-salient reluctance motor (FMDRM) drives for switching action minimization and common-mode voltage (CMV) reduction. Conventionally, the open-winding converter topology is utilized to achieve the zero-sequence current flow path and dc-biased sinusoidal current excitation for the FMDRM, where the switching actions of power switches are doubled compared to the conventional modular three-phase converter, leading to higher switching losses. Different from the conventional space vector PWM scheme, the reference voltages of converter legs are directly calculated by the reference phase voltages in the proposed PWM scheme. In addition, a rotor-position-based sector division method is proposed to deal with the sector imbalance caused by the distorted back electromotive force (back EMF). Furthermore, different leg voltage clamping methods are respectively developed in odd and even sectors for switching action minimization, which can achieve voltage stress balance and CMV reduction. With the proposed scheme, the switching actions in each switching cycle can be reduced by half, which effectively increases the system efficiency of the FMDRM drive. Experiments are carried out on a three-phase 12/8 FMDRM prototype to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a postfault control technique is proposed for a rotor field-oriented induction motor (RFO-IM) drive fed from a cascaded H-bridge multilevel (CHB-ML) converter. The control strategy is to vary the magnitude and phase shift of the injected fundamental common mode voltage (FCMV) according to the motor’s operating condition. The addition of the proposed FCMV with the reference phase voltages, not only ensures maximum line voltage in the postfault operating condition but also shares equal power among the remaining healthy cells of the converter. Moreover, in the postfault operation, a detailed analysis is performed on both motor and converter, and an integrated control is presented to maintain the command speed and load torque of the RFO-IM. This includes the mathematical equation explaining the new operating point of the motor for different fault configurations, traversal of operating point, and the variation in power factor of each leg of the converter in postfault conditions. From the above analysis, the dynamic FCMV is calculated from the new operating point of the stator current components in the current dq-plane and the fault configuration of the CHB-ML converter. The proposed control technique is validated using simulation and experimental results conducted on a 3-hp IM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space vector pulsewidth modulation (SVPWM) algorithms for cascaded H-bridge multilevel (CHB ML) inverter usually provide the possibility of using several combinations of active voltage vectors to generate the same output voltage vector. For preselected H-bridges, some of them may generate output voltages opposite to the assumed direction. This results in the change of the dc-link voltages of these H-bridges in the opposite direction to the assumed direction in the ordering algorithm. Consequently, these algorithms are characterized by undue constraints and narrow possibilities of dc-link voltage balancing. In the proposed control algorithm, CHB ML inverter is treated as groups of successively activated three-level inverters; depending on the length of the reference voltage vector. These three-level inverters consist of three H-bridges selected from each phase. The proposed extended selection method enables firm-grip control of the dc-link voltages. For a given direction of phase currents, the possibility of using H-bridges with lowest and highest dc-link voltages is simultaneously analyzed. Additionally, each of the three-level inverters is controlled by one of three proposed alternative modulation methods for which both the attainable output voltage vectors and unbalanced dc-link voltages are predicted. Simulation and experimental results confirm the correctness of the algorithm execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear modulation techniques (LMTs) of an asymmetrical six-phase machine (ASPM) with two isolated neutral points synthesize the desired voltage vectors by applying at least five switching states. Different choices of applied voltage vectors, sequences in which they are used, distribution of dwell-times among the redundant switching states give rise to a large number of possible LMTs. It is desirable that these LMTs avoid more than two transitions of a particular inverter leg within a carrier period. Only a subset of existing LMTs of ASPM follows this rule. Through an innovative approach, this article finds a way to account for all possible infinitely many LMTs that follow the rule of at most two transitions per leg. Another important criterion for the selection of an LMT is its current-ripple performance. Therefore, through numerical optimization, this article finds optimal LMTs among the above infinite possible LMTs for all reference voltage vectors in the linear range and for the whole feasible range of a machine parameter. This parameter is related to the leakage inductance of the machine and impacts the current ripple performance of ASPM. An optimal hybrid strategy is proposed with these optimal techniques, which outperforms all existing techniques in terms of the current ripple. The theoretical analysis is validated through simulation in MATLAB and experiments performed up to 3.5 kW on a hardware prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the problem of controller design for dc microgrids that feed constant power loads. To design the proposed controller, first by the use of the exact feedback linearization approach, the linear model of Brunovsky's canonical representation of the system has been obtained to address the nonlinearity problem of the system. Then, the desired control technique is developed by a combination of sliding mode and backstepping control approaches in which a nonlinear disturbance observer is utilized to estimate the disturbance. The overall stability of the system is analyzed based on the Lyapunov approach. A suitable and practical sliding surface is one of the controller strengths that allow the bus voltage to track the reference voltage with high accuracy and fast transient response. Finally, to prove the mentioned claims, an experimental setup has been constructed and the proposed controller is implemented. The experimental results have been analyzed and error analysis is performed. The results confirm the superiority of the proposed controller compared to state-of-the-art controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two-level voltage source inverter fed dual three-phase motor (DTPM) induces the high-frequency common-mode voltage (CMV) and generates the unwanted adverse effects. As one of the effective common-mode suppression methods, the conventional CMV elimination (CMVE) pulsewidth modulation (PWM) schemes are generally based on the voltage-balance mode for DTPM systems which suffer from the parameter asymmetry induced phase current imbalance. This article proposes two current-balance mode unified CMVE PWM schemes which has no restriction on the reference voltages and angle displacement between the two sets of three-phase windings. Thus, the proposed methods can be utilized in different types of DTPMs with different angle displacements between the two winding sets, and the CMVE effect can be retained both in the conditions of symmetrical and asymmetrical system parameters which is more practical than conventional CMVE schemes in real application. The function and performance of the proposal is proved by simulations and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-phase four-wire grid-forming (GFM) inverters are promising to interface distributed energy resources into low-voltage networks. However, these inverters are prone to overcurrent under grid faults. Physically increasing the inverter current capacity is not cost-effective to cope with complicated fault conditions. In this article, an adaptive fault ride-through (FRT) scheme based on instantaneous saturators and virtual negative- and zero-sequence resistances is proposed. It features not only overcurrent limitation by modifying voltage references, but also seamless transition between normal and grid fault conditions. The proposed FRT scheme is first analyzed from different aspects, including the virtual sequence resistances, grid short-circuit ratio, fault types, and fault levels. The virtual sequence resistances are then designed to be adaptive to ensure high voltage quality at the healthy phase. The proposed FRT scheme is verified by MATLAB/Simulink simulations under asymmetrical faults. A laboratory platform with a grid-connected 3kW GFM inverter is further constructed to demonstrate its effectiveness (a video of the experimental results under three asymmetrical faults is attached). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a novel pulsewidth modulation (PWM) modulation algorithm for multiphase conventional matrix converters, with three inputs and $k$ outputs, using the transfer function of the load angle. The proposed approach extends the range of power angle control at the input during the operation with a maximum voltage transfer ratio. The proposed concept is based on the direct analytic voltage PWM modulation with an elliptical trajectory of reference load voltages. The proposal has been verified using the circuit simulation in PSIM software, symbolic analysis using MATLAB, and finally through an experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to improve the control performance of conventional finite-control-set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) method and keep the balance between the steady-state performance and switching frequency of the system, this article proposes an improved MPC method based on the conventional MPC method. First, the reference voltage vector of the next control instant is predicted to determine the candidate voltage vectors of the next two control instants. Then, an optimal vector selection way is proposed, in which candidate voltage vectors selected by the reference voltage vector and designed cost function structure in series. Moreover, the selection process of optimal voltage vector from the candidate voltage vectors is analyzed. Finally, the comparison experiments between the conventional FCS-MPC method and the proposed MPC method are conducted. And experimental results show the validity of the proposed control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the proposed method in this article, to minimize the burden on the switches of the multifunctional grid-connected voltage-source inverter (MFGCVSI), the voltages of dc-link split capacitors are adjusted according to power injection from the MFGCVSI. The MFGCVSI is used to control the active power injection from solar photovoltaic (SPV) power generation to the main grid and loads, load reactive power compensation, harmonic mitigation, and main grid current total harmonic distortion within 5 $\%$. In such a case, the voltages of split capacitors depend on the rated power injection from the MFGCVSI. The power generated from the SPV system and the loads that are connected at the point of common coupling vary with respect to time. It is observed that the selection of rated dc-link voltages during low power injection from the MFGCVSI leads to additional switching stress and higher switching losses. Therefore, to reduce the burden on inverter switches and switching losses, the reference dc voltage is reduced under low power injection from the MFGCVSI. A model predictive controller with a multiconstraint technique is used in the proposed method for balancing the dc-link capacitor voltages and average switching frequency reduction. The proposed method is validated through simulation and hardware setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capacitor condition monitoring is an important issue for the reliable operation of modular multilevel converters (MMCs) in high-voltage applications. The numerous capacitors make the monitoring for the capacitor condition complex and computation-consuming. This paper proposes a hierarchic capacitor condition monitoring strategy to assure the reliability of high-voltage MMCs. In the strategy, the switching times of the switching signals are counted to detect the condition of the capacitor in each submodule (SM). Then, the subsequent capacitance calculation method is only conducted to the abnormal capacitors indicated by the above condition detection algorithm. Meanwhile, the variations of the measured and reference capacitor voltages are employed to calculate the capacitance in the proposed method. The condition detection algorithm shrinks the scope where the abnormal capacitors locate, which avoids calculating the total capacitances in MMCs. In the proposed capacitance calculation method, the complex operations are further saved. Both the two measures reduce the computation burden effectively. The implementation of the whole monitoring strategy is simple and fit for high-voltage MMCs. Moreover, the strategy has no adverse influence on the normal operation of MMCs. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified by the simulation studies with the professional tool Matlab/Simulink. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conventional sliding mode control, the four-leg distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) currents are controlled based on a current error in each phase. However, the four currents in a four-wire system can not be independently controlled variables and hence one of the four controllers is redundant in conventional schemes. Further, the current dynamics of a DSTATCOM converter are coupled through converter pole voltages in the natural reference frame. This leads to cross-coupling in the sliding variable equations with respect to four manipulated input variables. Considering the above points, in this paper, the current due to Thevenin’s equivalent load neutral-point voltage is considered as a fourth independent controlled variable and the corresponding system dynamic equations are presented. To get a decoupled feature, a new sliding surface function is structured. The performance of a DSTATCOM with the proposed control scheme under various operating conditions is validated through a detailed simulation study and experimental results, obtained from a laboratory prototype of four-leg DSTATCOM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, online short-circuit estimation of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) are presented, which is essential for postfault ac drive operations. For this purpose, initially, the PMSM model with interturn short-circuit fault (ITSC) is extended to cover motors with saliency. By utilizing ITSC model voltage equations and voltage reference equations, the amplitude and phase relationship between short-circuit current and the phase reference voltage is established. In the next step, second harmonics in the reference voltage and feedback current are used to extract the short-circuit current information. In order to efficiently use ac drive microcontroller bandwidth, the proposed short-circuit current estimation method is executed after the ITSC fault is detected, not continuously. Instead of running the proposed short-circuit current estimation continuously, it is reasonable to run it after an ITSC fault detection to efficiently use ac drive microcontroller bandwidth. Therefore, two intermediate steps, a simple ITSC fault detection and severity estimation algorithms are proposed as well. The proposed technique can estimate the fault current and severity without the knowledge of fault location and valid for all PM motors. The findings are experimentally tested using two PMSMs to demonstrate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed estimation technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overmodulation strategy plays an important role in the field weakening control for high-speed permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. However, the voltage jumps between the output voltage vectors (OVVs) in high overmodulation regions result in the deterioration of both current performance and loading capability. In order to solve this problem, a novel overmodulation strategy based on the voltage vector space division is proposed. The overmodulation regions are divided by the amplitude and the phase of reference voltage vectors to guarantee the continuity of OVVs. When the overmodulation region changes, the voltage jump can be efficiently suppressed, which contributes to eliminating current ripples. In addition, the proposed parallel projection replaces the traditional center projection to increase the modulation index, which can also improve the fundamental voltage amplitude, and make a reduction of the field weakening current and its current overshoot. By improving the utilization of the dc bus voltage, the higher capability of the output torque can be achieved in the field weakening region. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified on a high-speed surface-mounted PMSM platform by the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum electrolytic capacitors (AECs) and power semiconductor devices (PSDs) are typically identified as weak links in the reliable design of power converters. To eliminate the AECs from the design, active power decoupling (APD) circuits are preferred in single-phase power converters. However, in an attempt to eliminate AECs, this approach introduces the latter weak link in the design, i.e., PSDs in the APD circuit. This article proposes an active thermal control technique to improve the reliability of PSDs in the buck APD circuit. The proposed technique reduces the swing in junction temperature of PSDs using noninvasive power loss modulation. The power loss in PSDs is changed by varying the average voltage across the buffer capacitor. Further, a control technique is suggested to synthesize the reference for average voltage across buffer capacitor. This controller accounts for nonlinearities and minimum/maximum limits of power loss modulation. Further, the additional energy loss due to power loss modulation is restricted to a predefined limit. The proposed technique is validated with the help of circuit simulations and experimental studies with a 500 W laboratory prototype. For the selected mission profile, an increase of 28.5% in the lifetime of PSDs in buck APD circuit is estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate synchronization and harmonics control are keys to achieve a distortionless zero-cross of currents in active unity power factor rectifiers. This article proposes a method to achieve optimal operation: 1) by settling a synchronization path that feeds the phase-locked loop with the output voltage reference that sets the theoretical unity power factor operation, and 2) low-order harmonics control with zero-cross driven antiwindup to reduce distortion further. Controller design is detailed and supported by theoretical analysis; the key performances are proved by experimental verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a versatile shunt-based current sensor for battery management applications. It digitizes the current-induced voltage drop across an external shunt resistor with the help of a 2nd-order delta-sigma ($\Delta \Sigma $) ADC, whose summing node is implemented as a low-noise capacitively coupled amplifier. To compensate for the shunt’s finite temperature coefficient (TC), the TC of the ADC on-chip voltage reference can be tuned. As a result, the sensor maintains high accuracy when used with low-cost high TC shunts, such as PCB traces, as well as with more expensive low TC shunts, such as metal-alloy resistors. Optimal gain flatness over temperature is achieved by a two-current room-temperature TC tuning scheme, which exploits the shunt’s self-heating at high current levels. Fabricated in a standard 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ CMOS process, the current sensor occupies 0.36 mm2 and draws 265 $\mu \text{A}$ from a 1.8-V supply. Over the industrial temperature range (−40 °C to 85 °C) and a ±25-A current range, it achieves the state-of-the-art gain error (±0.25%) with both PCB (1.6 $\text{m}\Omega $) and metal-alloy (2 $\text{m}\Omega $) shunts. With these shunts, it achieves 5.3-mA/4.3-mA (rms) resolution in a 10-kHz bandwidth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the three-level T-type inverters (3LT2Is) are widely employed in applications with high-performance requirements. The 3LT2Is commonly suffer from neutral point voltage (NPV) unbalance and common-mode voltage (CMV) variation. The medium vector pulse width modulation (MVPWM), which generates the reference voltage using medium and V0[OOO] zero voltage vectors, eliminates the CMV variation in 3LT2Is. However, it cannot keep the NPV balance, negatively affecting power quality. This article proposes a hybrid method to simultaneously eliminate CMV variation and guarantee the NPV balance without topological change or extra hardware. The proposed method uses MVPWM when NPV is balanced, eliminating CMV variation. If NPV goes unbalanced, it utilizes novel high/low triangle PWM (H/LPWM) and MVPWM in a hybrid manner to balance the NPV. The H/LPWM, similar to MVPWM, synthesizes voltage using medium and V0[OOO] voltage vectors to maintain the CMV elimination advantage during the NPV balancing process. However, the difference between H/LPWMs and MVPWM switching patterns adjusts the average neutral point current to balance the NPV. Noteworthy that the proposed method provides NPV balancing ability for the entire power factor range. As a result, it is usable for various applications of 3LT2I, such as photovoltaic inverters and motor drives. The proposed method is carrier-based, which reduces the execution time and simplifies the practical implementation. The simulation study and experimental evaluation have been accomplished, and their results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An overmodulation method is proposed for an in-wheel system where two motors are coupled to a sum gear. In the dual-motor dual-inverter single shaft systems, the output voltage magnitudes of two inverters are not the same in the overmodulation range due to the angle offset between two motors. In this article, to maintain torque balance in the overmodulation region, holding vectors are defined between adjacent vertices of two voltage hexagons. Around these vectors, the holding region is also defined by the holding angle. If a reference voltage vector is in the holding region, it is modulated to the holding vector; otherwise, it is modulated to the vector on the arc of inscribed circle. For a given the modulation index (MI), the holding angle is obtained based on the Fourier series expansion. The proposed method keeps the output voltages of two inverters the same even if two motors have the angle offset. Further, it has the characteristic of maintaining the linearity between the reference and output MI to the maximum MI. The proposed overmodulation method is demonstrated by simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to ever-increasing power demand and high renewable energy penetration, the power system's harmonics and voltage unbalancing have become significant power quality issues. In this aspect, because of the multifunctioning ability of the power electronic converters, the grid-connected power electronic converter-based distributed generations are expected to provide desired compensation whenever required. Especially in a weak grid environment, the compensation draws more attention due to constricted coupling between the voltage and current at the point of common coupling as a consequence of high grid impedance. Therefore, this article presents a feedback-based flexible compensation strategy for a weak-grid-tied distributed generation (DG) to enhance the compensation of harmonics and voltage unbalance in the system. The main uniqueness of the proposed work is to seamlessly embed a flexible harmonic loop with a fundamental current control loop for achieving three control targets: voltage harmonic compensation, DG line current harmonic rejection, and voltage unbalance compensation. Achieving control targets require voltage feedback and no need to measure nonlinear load current. In order to execute flexible harmonic compensation (i.e., from voltage harmonic compensation to DG line current harmonic rejection) through the harmonic loop, the proposed strategy generates a harmonic reference from voltage feedback and inherent current feedback. The delay introduced by the harmonic compensators is accurately compensated distinctly to improve the performance of the harmonic loop. The voltage unbalance compensation is achieved through the fundamental current control loop by improving the fundamental positive sequence voltage and decreasing negative sequence components concurrently. To enhance the flexibility between two different targets (i.e., flexible harmonic compensation and voltage unbalance compensation), the harmonic and unbalanced compensations are executed on an individual target basis, subjected to the converter's maximum current and system voltage constraints. The proposed compensation strategy offers better harmonic suppression and voltage unbalance compensation than conventional methods. Because it exactly acts upon modulation signals and directly regulates sequence components and voltage harmonics. Furthermore, the proposed control's detailed design and stability analysis is presented, and its superiority is validated through simulations and real-time experimentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, two kinds of finite control set-model predictive voltage control (FCS-MPVC) methods have been proposed for linear induction machine to eliminate the cumbersome selection of the weighting factor (WF), achieve lower ripples of both thrust and flux, and reduce the heavy calculation steps. The first method, FCS-MPVC I, uses one voltage vector (VV) during the whole control period, and the second method, FCS-MPVC II, uses two VVs. Moreover, the proposed methods use a single cost function without any WF. This function consists of the errors between primary voltage references with their predicted values in the αβ-axis. Depending on the distance between the reference VV (RVV), as calculated using the deadbeat control method, and all candidate VVs (CVVs), the first proposed method, FCS-MPVC I, can select the nearest VV to the RVV as the optimal VV (OVV), which can reduce the redundant evaluation work greatly. Meanwhile, the second proposed method, FCS-MPVC II, applies two VVs, active VV and null VV, to adjust the duty ratio effectively. To avoid the iterated evaluation for all CVVs, one simplified search order excluding unsuitable CVVs has been proposed to determine the optimal OVV, which selects only one active VV from the two adjacent active VVs in the sector owning the RVV. Afterward, based on a prototype of 3-kW arc induction machine with a large radius, extensive simulation and experiments have fully demonstrated that the proposed methods can get much lower thrust ripples and less calculation steps effectively, compared with those of conventional finite control set-model predictive thrust control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bayesian optimization (BO) is popular for a analog circuit sizing problem recently. However, BO can only work well in small-scale circuit. Scaling BO to common circuit optimization (typically dimension > 10) is difficult due to the curse of dimensionality. In this article, we proposed a new BO algorithm (cBO), which can scale BO to more larger scale circuit and improve the optimization result. First, according to the fact that a specification of the analog integrated circuit is mainly determined by a few transistors, dropout strategy is adopted in our algorithm. At each iteration, only a subset of selected variables to be optimized. A variables selection strategy based on mutual information analysis and a new fill-in strategy are proposed. Second, the $g_{m}/I_{D}$ methodology-based optimization strategy is proposed. Optimization variables are not width and the length of transistors, but $g_{m}/I_{D}$ , $I_{D}$ and length. $g_{m}$ , $I_{D}$ and $g_{m}/I_{D}$ have a direct relationship to circuit performance. This is equivalent to search in circuit feature space, which could achieve better performance and handle constraints more easily. Four commonly used circuits, including low dropout regulator, two stage amplifiers, Bandgap voltage reference (VR), and VR are used for validation. Compared with other high-dimensional BO, common BO, and commercial tools (Cadence ADE_GXL), the proposed algorithm is found to produce the best optimization result and best stability. And, the ablation study shows the effectiveness and efficiency of two ingredients of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a novel and easily implementable overcurrent suppression control for voltage-controlled virtual synchronous generators (VSGs). The VSG is vulnerable to grid voltage disturbances, such as voltage dip/recovery, because it consists of voltage source inverters (VSIs). In the worst case, the overcurrent caused by the voltage disturbance damages the VSI. The proposed VSG control can suppress the overcurrent caused by not only symmetrical but also asymmetrical voltage dip/recovery. The key idea is to use novel virtual grid voltages for the VSG reference output voltage. The proposed VSG control requires no complicated analysis/tuning for the implementation and no additional equipment, such as a fault-current limiter. Because of these advantages, the overcurrent in the VSG can be suppressed without increasing the cost and the tuning effort. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through simulations and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the analytical derivation of the minimum dc link capacitance in single-phase front ends with active power factor correction (PFC) without hold-up time requirements. Such systems typically employ boost-type rectifiers; operate under restricted total harmonic distortion (THD) of the grid-side current. Moreover, PFC rectifiers must be capable of tolerating step-like zero-to-rated load power variations. It is well known that these two constraints contradict each other, posing nontrivial design challenges. The revealed value of minimum capacitance is expressed by an explicit function of grid voltage and frequency, converter rated power, dc link voltage reference, and grid current THD and voltage loop phase margin set points. Experimental results validate the proposed methodology, closely matching corresponding analytical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The on–off controlled very-high-frequency Class E dc–dc converter has been extensively investigated for achieving high power density and fast dynamic response. However, the basic on–off control cannot limit the output current at overload or short-circuit condition. In this letter, we propose an on–off control with a current limitation function by adding an output current closed loop for reducing the output voltage reference when overload or short circuit occurs. The design considerations for the output current regulator are given. A prototype of a 30-MHz, 10-W Class E dc–dc converter is fabricated and tested in the lab, and the experimental results are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a space vector pulsewidth modulation using space voltage vector mapping and the midpoint-voltage self-balancing strategy to overcome the shortcomings of the existing active neutral-point-clamped five-level inverter modulation. Through multispace mapping, the five-level topology is converted into multiple two-level topologies for calculation. It greatly simplifies the computational burden. By adopting the midpoint-voltage self-balancing strategy, the midpoint-voltage self-balance is achieved, since the switching sequence of different sectors compensates each other for balancing the midpoint voltage. Therefore, this algorithm realizes that there is no or only a minimum number of switch tube actions when the reference voltage vector swaps different sectors. It reduces the switching loss and effectively avoids equipment damage caused by the simultaneous switching of multiphase switches. In addition, it also realizes the floating-capacitor voltage control by reasonably distributing the redundant switch states. Simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, a voltage reference circuit based on amorphous InGaZnO-based (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) is reported for the first time. Both enhancement-mode and depletion-mode TFTs in the circuit were fabricated by the use of local hydrogen doping. The 1-V reference voltage ($\text{V}_{\text {REF}}$) was achieved with an operating voltage ranging from 1.2 V to 5 V, where the line sensitivity of $\text{V}_{\text {REF}}$ was 0.9%/V and the quiescent consumption was as low as 90 nW. The proposed voltage reference circuit was able to generate complementary- to-absolute temperature coefficients, resulting in stable temperature characteristics. The temperature coefficient (TC) of $\text{V}_{\text {REF}}$ and $\text{I}_{\text {REF}}$ was studied experimentally, where the TC of $\text{V}_{\text {REF}}$ was 2.3 mV/° at a temperature spanning from 27 ° to 77 °. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In DC distribution networks, the uncertainties of renewable energies and loads cause frequent voltage fluctuations. In this paper, a voltage regulation strategy based on the combined coordination of centralized optimal control (COC) and adaptive droop control (ADC) is proposed for droop-controlled DC distribution networks. In the COC strategy, the operation reference power of voltage source converters (VSCs) is optimized using the bus injection power measurements to improve the voltage profile and balance the power loading rates of different VSCs. The VSC capacity margin constraint is established to ensure that the capacity margin of each VSC is sufficient to cope with the unexpected fluctuation of loads and renewable energies. Then, an ADC strategy is adopted to handle voltage fluctuation between adjacent two COCs. In the ADC strategy, the operation reference power of the VSCs is further adjusted to recover the voltages. The voltage regulation is achieved based on the relationship among the VSC voltages and the minimum/maximum voltages of the whole network, which does not depend on the information of each nodal voltage and thus real-time network communication is avoided. The simulation results show that the proposed voltage regulation strategies can effectively improve the voltage profile under various uncertain environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a dual-layer modulation technique that combines two- and three-level modulation techniques to control the average neutral-point current (ANC) in neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converters. In the proposed technique, two modulation layers are employed to independently synthesize the desired ac-side voltage reference and ANC reference. The first (outer) modulating layer operates at a lower frequency and synthesizes the ANC reference from the three-phase currents. It determines the duration of applying each modulation technique, based on the ANC reference and the maximum ANC injection limits of the converter. The second (inner) modulating layer operates at the switching frequency and synthesizes the three-phase voltages of the NPC converter from the common dc voltages by comparing the calculated duty cycles and a carrier waveform. The proposed dual-layer modulation technique has advantages of faster dynamics and reduced mathematical computations compared to the conventional approach. The feasibility of the proposed modulation technique is demonstrated experimentally on a laboratory prototype. A detailed performance comparison among different modulation techniques is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A photovoltaic based distribution static compensator (PV-DSTATCOM) is one of the leading approaches to deal with the energy demand shortage and power quality issues in the modern power system. This article achieves the improved performance of PV-DSTATCOM to establish the grid integration and power quality enhancement. In the proposed system, during the PV-DSTATCOM state, photovoltaic array power is used to maintain the dc-link voltage by extracting the maximum power based on the perturb and observe algorithm and supplying the excess power into the grid. During the DSTATCOM state, a reference dc-link voltage control scheme is proposed based on the connected load on the point of common coupling, which thus regulates the dc-link voltage and enhances the PV-DSTATCOM performance. The control signals for the voltage-source inverter are generated based on the modified synchronous reference frame control scheme. The effectuality of the proposed system is validated by the MATLAB simulation results. A hardware prototype is developed to verify the usefulness of the proposed system compared to the control technique in the literature. Finally, the results presented in this article convey how the improved performance of PV-DSTATCOM has been accomplished while guaranteeing power quality improvement and grid integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The service of grid voltage regulation is required nowadays from inverter-based resources (IBRs) particularly at the lower voltage level. In the transmission network, this is easily managed by leveraging solely the reactive power (Q) capability of the IBR, but in distribution networks that are mix of $L$ and $r$ the voltage magnitude is coupled with both active (P) and reactive power injection. There are methods in the literature designed for these cases that utilize both P and Q in voltage regulation, but they usually require network and load data, which may not be readily available. Furthermore, they often disregard an apparent nonmonotonic relation between the inverter terminal voltage and the P/Q ratio risking instability. To fill this gap, this article introduces a network-agnostic P–Q adjustment technique for photovoltaic (PV) systems or other IBRs. The proposed technique tracks in a step-like manner the reference voltage set point if it is feasible, or the maximum grid voltage otherwise. This allows identification of the critical P/Q ratio without any prior information at the cost of limited voltage ripple due to a variable step-size strategy implemented. The superior performance of the proposed scheme is validated through simulations in MATLAB-Simulink in a reduced UKGDS 95-bus system and through lab experiments on a scaled down laboratory grade prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The five-level active neutral-point-clamped (5L-ANPC) inverter has been applied to increase the power capacity of photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, this type of configuration requires to balance neutral point (NP) voltage and flying capacitor (FC) voltage properly. For the operation of the transformerless five-level inverter, another requirement is to suppress the leakage current associated with the common-mode voltage (CMV) vectors. Due to the mutually coupled issues, the conventional model predictive control (MPC) methods reported so far cannot deal with them properly at the same time. To address these problems, a novel double-vector MPC (DV-MPC) strategy with zero CMV vector is proposed in this article. First, 19 voltage vectors with zero CMV are implemented as candidate vectors. Then, for the purpose to reduce output current ripples, two voltage vectors are penalized by the cost function without weighting factors to track the reference voltage. In addition, the dwell times are optimized to further mitigate current ripples. Finally, to avoid the sharply increasing computational burden of the online iteration caused by the introduction of the second vector and its corresponding redundant switching states, a voltage-balance strategy is presented for the DV-MPC method, which can determine the suitable switching combinations directly and adapt them to the selected vectors to balance the voltages of the NP and FCs together. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the simulation and experiment at the end of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual synchronous generator (VSG)-based control approaches for AC machine drivers have attracted much attention in recent years. The contradiction between the strong motor loading capacity and the small DC voltage fluctuation is disregarded in previous studies. A larger virtual inertia is required to raise the torque gain and drive the motor with heavier loads, thus resulting in greater DC voltage variations. A systematic method is proposed for the optimal design of the virtual inertia for VSG-based motor starting systems to achieve the maximal motor loading capacity and the low DC voltage fluctuation in this paper. Firstly, the relationship between the virtual inertia and the loading capacity is revealed on the basis of the closed-loop analysis. Considering the DC voltage variation, the constraint on the maximal value of the virtual inertia is proposed from the energy-balance perspective despite the unknown contribution of the DC capacitors to the virtual inertia. To fully exploit the energy storage capacity of the DC capacitors and raise the upper limit of the virtual inertia under the same permitted DC voltage variation, a modified DC voltage reference is introduced. Extensive simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finite-control-set model predictive current control (FCS-MPCC) always has large steady-state fluctuation and computational burden. In this paper, a novel FCS-MPCC without a modulator to drive permanent magnet synchronous hub motors (PMSHMs), which combines virtual vectors expansion scheme and duty cycle control was proposed. The lack of a modulator reduces the complexity of the control system. The virtual vectors are synthesized by using active vectors, which improve the accuracy of voltage selection, and further improve PMSHM's steady-state performance and reduce current harmonics. The duty cycle control uses a zero vector to obtain better steady-state performance. However, the duty cycle of the virtual vectors is limited by the synthesis method, and further analysis is needed. A new calculation process is proposed to reduce the amount of calculation. The deadbeat principle is used to get reference voltage which determines sectors. Then, the best voltage vector in the selected sector is determined by the predetermined cost function. The traditional MPCC and the duty cycle MPCC (DCMPCC) are used as a comparison item to compare with the proposed method to illustrate its effectiveness. Results confirm that improved MPCC has good steady-state performance while maintaining a fast dynamic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a finite set modelpredictive current control scheme for traction permanent magnet synchronous motors for railway application. For the rail transit drive system, it is necessary to realize the six-step operation. A method based on voltage vector clamping is presented to realize overmodulation including six-step operation and maximize the utilization ratio of dc voltage. The essence of voltage vector clamping is to gradually reduce the space of action of the closed-loop regulation mechanism until it enters six-step operation. This method is simple and feasible, which does not need to add controllers or switch the control framework. An ideal voltage vector reference coordinate system is established to analyze the current trajectory under different modulation ratios. Thus, an optimal control strategy in the ideal voltage reference coordinate system is proposed. Experiments are conducted to prove that six-step operation can be achieved and this strategy has an obvious effect on switching frequency index in the overmodulation area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nonlinearity of the voltage source inverter (VSI) leads to the error between output voltage and reference voltage, and causes the phase current harmonics. It is necessary to compensate its influence in the fields such as parameter identification, sensorless control, and servo drives. In this article, an industrial solution for VSI nonlinear compensation method based on lookup table (LUT) is introduced. The characteristics of semiconductor devices, equivalent dead-time and influence of parasitic capacitance effects are calculated quantitatively though injecting increase and decrease current during self-commissioning process. The critical current value for parasitic capacitor and the variation of equivalent dead time are verified through different distorted voltage curves. Considering dc-link voltage variation is irresistible for industrial products, 3-D linear interpolation is adopted to compensate the variation of VSI nonlinearity under different voltage conditions. Proposed LUT method does not require VSI datasheet and complicated calculation formula during implementation. Experiments are carried out on a commercial permanent magnet synchronous motor drive system to verify the proposed LUT method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the temperature rise and thermal control issues of power devices in H-bridge converters under conventional pulsewidth modulation (PWM) methods, a novel PWM method of H-bridge converter with temperature rise balancing and minimization based on periodically alternating employment of power devices is proposed. In the proposed method, two novel operation mechanisms of power devices are alternately applied into the eight regions with the identical and opposite polarities of reference voltage and input current, which are composed of two fundamental frequency periods. All active switches and antiparallel diodes in H-bridge converters are made to work alternately in these eight regions, each of them is designed to keep in on-state in one region, operate in switching state in another two regions, and inactive in the left other five regions. This way, the power dissipation and temperature rise of all the devices are balanced and minimized, and H-bridge converters no longer suffer from the dead-time effect on current quality and dc-bus voltage utilization. The implementation strategy of the proposed modulation method is discussed in detail. Simulation and experimental results are presented that verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and the corresponding implementation strategy at different operating points. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a continuous control set predictive speed control (CCS-PSC) strategy for surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (SPMSM) drives, where the prediction horizon is short and the computational complexity is low. The optimization problem of the proposed CCS-PSC is formulated and analyzed. The current and voltage constraints are transformed into incremental voltage constraints, which can be updated in real-time. A reduced-order incremental model of SPMSM is adopted for the prediction, where integrators are naturally embedded. Hildreth’s quadratic programming algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem, where the active constraints are identified and the reference voltage is calculated. The performance of the proposed strategy is validated through comparative experiments with finite control set predictive speed control (FCS-PSC), cascaded CCS-PSC and field-oriented control. The results demonstrate the superb dynamic performance of the proposed CCS-PSC strategy, while the phase current total harmonic distortion is relatively low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A picowatt programmable CMOS-based voltage reference (VR) for wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) is proposed in this work. It uses a pMOS current source and an nMOS current sink to generate a temperature-independent output voltage. A body bias potential is used to control the threshold voltage of the nMOS current sink to generate programmable output voltage. The architecture can achieve temperature compensated reference voltages for different temperature characteristics of body bias with the help of digital trimming. The body bias is generated on-chip using a dedicated body bias generation block. The prototype circuit is fabricated in the 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ CMOS process with deep-n-well (DNW) and occupies a total area of 0.022 mm2 including the body bias block and a 10-pF decoupling MIM capacitor. The circuit provides output voltages from 250 to 370 mV. A total of ten chips from two different wafers (five chips per wafer) were measured. The average temperature coefficient (TC) is measured to be 72.17 ppm/ $^\circ \text{C}$ over $- 40\,\,^\circ \text{C}$ to 80 $^\circ \text{C}$ for a reference voltage of 349.7 mV. The average line sensitivity (LS) obtained is 0.093%/V with a power supply rejection (PSR) of −39 dB at 100 Hz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the characteristics that the amplitude of active-current vector in the rectifier stage is zero when the zero-voltage vector is used in the inverter stage, and any one from the six active-current vectors can be selected, a novel discontinuous pulsewidth modulation (DPWM) strategy for the indirect matrix converter is proposed in this article to reduce the common-mode voltage (CMV). In this DPWM strategy, the reference current vector in the rectifier stage is synthesized by two adjacent active-current vectors, and the reference voltage vector in the inverter stage is synthesized by two adjacent active-voltage vectors and one zero-voltage vector. When zero-voltage vectors are used in the inverter stage, an appropriate active-current vector with the lowest input phase voltage among the two adjacent active-current vectors is used to produce a lower CMV. Under the same switching loss, the proposed strategy has a better input performance and better output performance in high voltage transfer ratio than conventional SVM. Finally, the effectiveness of the modulation strategy is verified by simulation and experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phase-frequency modulation is an effective soft-switching technique for a dual-bridge series resonant converter (DBSRC). In the literature, the DBSRC topology is investigated with phase-frequency control to increase the soft-switching region and to reduce the reactive power circulation in the high-frequency link. However, behavior of the circuit during transient was not addressed, especially when multiple input variables are involved. This article proposes a small-signal model for the DBSRC considering phase shift and switching frequency as the control parameters. The proposed model studies the dependence of the control variables. Therefore, a compensator design is proposed, which helps the two control loops to operate independently. Transient response of the DBSRC is extensively studied by providing a step load and a step change in output voltage reference. Proposed modeling accurately predicts the transient behavior of the circuit. The beat-frequency phenomenon, which is often found in resonant converters, can also be predicted in this model. The design of resonant tank parameters is also addressed in this article. Finally, the proposed model and the control method are verified in a 2.7 kW hardware prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from typical circuit breakers, breakers used to switch AC filters in convertor stations have to operate frequently according to the real-time operation mode and daily load changes. Therefore, the performance of filter breakers decreases very quickly, which leads to frequent accidents. Both preinsertion resistors and controlled switching devices can suppress switching transients. In this paper, a comparative analysis of whether a controlled switching device and preinsertion resistor should be adopted is carried out using PSCAD. The transient is calculated as the combined result of the switching angle and preinsertion resistor value, and the optimal configurations are proposed. After determining the resistor value and whether a controlled switching device should be included, the reference voltage of the arrester should be reevaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a combined control scheme that consists of two complementary control strategies, namely hierarchical control and autonomous control to handle contingencies in a multi-terminal high voltage direct current (MTDC) system. The proposed hierarchical control considers three optimal targets, i.e., equal or proportional power sharing, minimizations of transmission loss and total DC voltage variation. The primary control layer implements the droop control for voltage source converters (VSCs). While in the secondary control layer, voltage reference setpoints of the VSCs in droop control scheme are calculated by the proposed optimal power flow method with the equal or proportional power sharing as equality constraints. As the hierarchical control relies on communication system, the autonomous control for power sharing can be activated during communication system malfunctioning or rapid power variation caused by renewable energy sources. The combined control strategy can greatly increase the reliability of the MTDC system. The simulation results of a five-terminal MTDC network conducted in the MATLAB/Simulink software verify the performance of the proposed combined control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmonic currents always exist in a five-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine due to some disturbances. This letter proposes a unique modulation scheme to synthesize the control voltage in the harmonic subspace, xy-space, to suppress harmonic currents actively. The advantage of the proposed modulation scheme is that it is decoupled from the modulation process in the αβ-space, thereby not affecting the torque output or dq-axis currents. First, according to the αβ-space control voltage reference, the action time ranges of two large and two middle voltage vectors adjacent to the control voltage reference are determined. Second, the ranges are divided into several segments equally. Then, the best action time is selected from these segments to generate a proper control voltage in xy-space. Finally, the switching pattern of the inverter is designed with the selected action time. Experiments have been implemented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed modulation scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an adaptive dynamic reference (ADR) control for power converters in a microgrid. Conventionally, two separate controllers are required to control the input current and the dc bus voltage. The proposed ADR control eliminates the need for an additional controller by utilizing a simple discrete-time model to generate appropriate input current reference for the dc bus voltage regulation. The proposed technique is easy to design and guarantees a dynamic convergence of the dc bus voltage to its nominal reference even during nonidealities in the system, such as model parameter uncertainties, sensor imperfections, and unmodeled dynamics. A simple design procedure of the control parameters for the desired converter response is also provided based on a theoretical analysis. Unlike traditional linear controllers, the control parameter design of the proposed model is independent of the converter’s operating point. Finally, the performance of the proposed technique is validated experimentally by using a finite control set model predictive control of a typical grid-connected application and is compared with both conventional dynamic reference control and traditional linear controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heavy computational burden and the complexity in pulse generation based on multivector synthesis represent serious challenges for applying finite control set model-predictive control (FCS-MPC) in multiphase open-end winding (OW) drive systems. In this article, a low-complexity model-predictive control with dead-time compensation is proposed for the nine-phase OW permanent magnet synchronous machine drive system. First, to simultaneously eliminate voltage vectors on the third, fifth, and seventh harmonic planes, three vectors in the same direction are selected to synthesize the virtual vector (VV). In addition, a multivector synthesis algorithm is designed to generate a symmetrical pulse sequence. Then, in order to suppress the harmonic voltage vector caused by the dead time, an additional voltage vector was added to the VV. Finally, the deadbeat principle was introduced to calculate the reference voltage vector, and the optimal voltage vector is determined according to the position of the reference voltage vector, which reduces the computational burden successfully. The proposed method is studied and compared with traditional FCS-MPC schemes. Simulation and experimental results have verified the effectiveness of the proposed method, which reduces the computational burden and complexity and enables the use of FCS-MPC for multiphase OW drive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most existing voltage optimization approaches of low voltage distribution networks (LVDNs) assume users follow the regulations unconditionally, which is not always true. To tackle this, we propose a real-time peer to peer flexibility trading scheme for LVDNs. Besides distributed optimization, our scheme offers a way to let users trade their flexibility, in case some users do not want to follow the system regulations at some point. The scheme consists of flexibility allocation and trading. Player compatibility equilibrium and Bernoulli trials are employed to approximate the Pareto optimum in flexibility allocation, while consensus and voltage reference are used to provide real-time offers for flexibility trading. The proposed scheme is computationally tractable and can work with limited communication in a decentralized manner. All the user data is used locally so that privacy is well protected. A network based on a real Belgian semiurban LVDN is employed to validate the proposed scheme with three different scenarios. Besides, the flexibility allocation is benchmarked with a centralized ACOPF algorithm. The case studies result clearly prove the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With massive integration of solar photovoltaics (PVs) in the distribution networks, the voltage regulation problem has become one of the serious concerns for distribution network operators. This article proposes a model predictive-based voltage control that optimally coordinates the reference voltage of distribution static synchronous compensator and on-load tap changer, and PV inverters’ active and reactive power set points to maintain network voltages within the operating limits. The two functionalities of the active distribution management system are demand response (DR) and conservation voltage reduction (CVR), which are further explored in the voltage control methodology to enhance energy efficiency of the distribution networks. The proposed methodology is implemented in a 33-bus distribution network to verify its effectiveness for different cases. Furthermore, simulation results demonstrate the benefits of CVR and DR on the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]