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Design, Hardware implementation and

Control of a 3-phase, 3-level Unity Power

Factor Rectifier

A Project Report

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of

Requirement for the Degree of

Master of Engineeringin

Electrical Engineering

By

Krishna Kumar M J

Department of Electrical Engineering

Indian Institute of Science

Bangalore - 560 012

India

June 2012

Acknowledgements

I feel fortunate to have done my M.E project with Dr. Vinod John as my project guide. I

thank him for letting me work on this challenging and thought provoking project through

which I have been able to gain valuable knowledge and insight about the working of power

electronic systems. His timely and valuable suggestions on solving the problems that I en-

countered during project work or whenever I was stuck have been extremely helpful through-

out the project time-line. I am thankful for his constant interest in my work and encourage-

ment. His organised way of getting things done has been a constant source of inspiration for

me. The course on ‘Topics in Power Electronics and Distributed Generation’ taught by him

gave me a new perspective about the analysis and design of power electronic systems.

I thank Prof. G Narayanan whole heartedly for his excellent teaching of Power electronics,

Electric drives and PWM courses. The insight he offered in each of his lectures made his

courses very interesting. His lab courses helped a great deal in getting hands on experience

on hardware equipment and knowing about the multiple problems that one can encounter

while working on practical systems.

I thank Dr. Joy Thomas of HVE and Dr. G.V. Mahesh of CEDT for their knowledge-

able, insightful and practically oriented courses on HV Engineering and Electronic systems

packaging respectively.

I thank all the professors at IISc who have taught and shared their valuable expertise

with me.

I thank my friends Rajendra Prasad (RP), Amit, Akshay, Vikash, Arun for the fruitful

discussions on academic and non-academic subjects ranging over a variety of topics. I thank

my friends Saichand, Vamshi, Satish, Gopal and other members of the badminton gang for

their support and the all the fun we have had during those badminton games. I thank

Sudarshan and Anand for the various discussions we have had and also for their help on

i

ii Acknowledgements

various computer issues. A special thanks goes out to the A-mess group who have been a

constant source of support throughout the duration of my stay at IISc. I thank all my M.E

friends for helping me in one way or the other.

I thank Abhijit and all members of the PEG for the useful academic discussions I have

had with them and for the valuable inputs received from them. I am thankful to all my M.E

seniors for their warmth, help and academic inputs.

I thank the members of workshop especially Mr. Ramachandra and Mr. Ravi for their

timely help in my project. I thank Silvi madam for her kind help. I thank Mr. H.N

Purushottam, Mr. D.M Channegowda, Mr.Kini for providing excellent administrative help.

I thank the authorities, cooks and workers of A-mess for providing nutritious/good food

and ambience. I thank the administration of IISc and the hostel authorities for providing

me with good accomodation. I thank the doctors at the health centre for helping me stay

in good health throughout my course duration.

I thank MHRD for its financial assistance.

All the credit for everything good in me goes to my family. Their constant encouragement,

love and faith in me is the main reason for what I am or for what I have achieved till this

day. I thank them for standing by my side and supporting me at all times.

I thank all my past teachers, and finally I thank the all-powerful supreme being for giving

me strength at all times.

Abstract

Usage of conventional bridge type rectifiers for obtaining DC power from AC grid results

in injection of unwanted current harmonics into the grid. Due to standards such as IEEE

519-1992 [1] which limit the amount of harmonic injection into the mains, the bridge type

rectifiers are being replaced by improved power quality converters which have reduced har-

monic injection into the mains along with a host of other advantages.

This project deals with the hardware development and control of a 3-phase, 3-level UPF

rectifier which is a variant of an improved power quality converter named vienna rectifier [2].

The 3-phase, 3-level rectifier is characterised by its input currents being almost sinusoidal,

reduced input current ripple, controllable output DC voltage, high power density and UPF

operation. Further, reduced losses and a lesser component count of the 3-phase, 3-level

rectifier compared to the vienna rectifier indicate a greater scope for reduction in the size of

the rectifier along with reduced packaging effort.

In this work, the necessary hardware for the 3-phase, 3-level UPF rectifier has been

developed, assembled and tested for a power level of 2kW and a DC bus voltage of 750V.

A carrier based control strategy has been proposed for the control of the rectifier and its

operation is validated on the hardware setup. Based on the results obtained from simulation

and hardware implementation, a comparison has been done between the already existing

hysteresis based control strategy [2] and the proposed carrier based control strategy.

Overall, the project work involves the building of the 3-phase, 3-level UPF rectifier setup,

design of the controller parameters, validation of the proposed carrier based control strat-

egy both in simulation/hardware and comparison of the proposed control strategy with an

originally existing hysteresis based control strategy.

iii

Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract iii

List of Tables vii

List of Figures viii

Nomenclature xi

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Project Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2 Organization of the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Operating Principle of the 3-phase, 3-level Rectifier 5

2.1 Three level characteristic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.2 Basic functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Hardware Design 8

3.1 Specifications of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.2 Device selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.3 Capacitor Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.3.1 Capacitor ripple current calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.4 Inductor design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.5 Heat sink design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.5.1 Semiconductor power loss calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

iv

Contents v

3.5.1.1 Conduction loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.5.1.2 Switching loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.6 Auxiliary Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3.7 Power Circuit PCB development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4 Control of the Rectifier 20

4.1 Hysteresis based control of the rectifier [2] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.2 Design of controller parameters for Hysteresis based control strategy . . . . . 22

4.3 Proposed carrier based control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4.4 Design of controller parameters for proposed carrier based control strategy . 25

4.5 Phase locked loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.6 Digital implementation of control blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4.6.1 PI controller implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4.6.2 Per-unit Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5 Simulation Results 31

5.1 Parameters used in Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

5.2 Results for Hysteresis based control strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

5.3 Results for carrier based control strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

6 Experimental Results 37

6.1 Operation of the rectifier at reduced voltage level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

6.1.1 Hysteresis based control strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

6.1.2 Carrier based control strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

6.2 Comparision between the hysteresis based and carrier based control strategies 41

6.3 Operation of the rectifier at rated voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

7 Conclusions 46

A Vienna Rectifier 48

A.1 Power circuit of the Vienna rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

B Semiconductor loss comparison 49

vi Contents

C Main Circuit Board 51

C.1 Schematics of the rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

D PCB Layout 53

E Testing of Power Circuit PCB 58

E.1 Testing of Diodes on the PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

E.2 Diode test circuit waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

E.3 Testing of Mosfets on the PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

E.4 Mosfet test circuit (b) waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

F Pictures of the Hardware Setup 62

References 64

List of Tables

3.1 Ratings of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.2 Ratings of chosen semiconductor devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.3 Capacitor current components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.4 Capacitor data table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.5 Inductor data Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.6 Semiconductor Losses (Fig.3.5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3.7 Heat sink data table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

3.8 Current and Voltage sensor card gains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4.1 Voltage controller parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4.2 Voltage balance loop controller parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4.3 PLL specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4.4 Per Unit values used in the DSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

6.1 Hysteresis vs Carrier based control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

C.1 Bill of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

vii

List of Figures

1.1 AC-DC Power Converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 Input currents of a Diode bridge rectifier with C filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.3 Power circuit topology of the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2.1 Single phase equivalent circuit of the rectifier [2] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.2 Phasor diagram for UPF operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.1 Power circuit topology of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.2 Single phase equivalent circuit of Fig. 3.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.3 Duty ratio variation of the switches Sa, Sb, Sc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.4 Switching functions and expressions for iprms−k and ipavg−k . . . . . . . . . . 13

3.5 Thermal calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.1 Control unit based on Hysteresis controller [2] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.2 Voltage control loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4.3 Bode plot of the open loop transfer function of voltage control loop (Fig. 4.2) 23

4.4 Control diagram for the proposed carrier based control strategy . . . . . . . 25

4.5 Current control loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4.6 Bode plot of the open loop transfer function of the current loop . . . . . . . 26

4.7 PLL control structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.8 Locking feature of the PLL (Experimental result) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4.9 θ generation of PLL (Experimental result) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5.1 Input currents Ia [I(L1)], Ib [I(L2)] of the rectifier (Hysteresis based control) 32

5.2 Frequency spectrum of Input current Ia of the rectifier (Hysteresis based control) 32

viii

List of Figures ix

5.3 Input phase voltage Va [V(vr)] and Input current Ia [I(L1)] (Hysteresis based

control) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.4 Voltages across the DC bus capacitors Vc1, Vc2 (Hysteresis based control) . . 33

5.5 Input currents Ia [I(L1)], Ib [I(L2)] of the rectifier (Carrier based control) . . 34

5.6 Frequency spectrum of Input current Ia of the rectifier (Carrier based control) 34

5.7 Input phase voltage Va [V(vr)] and Input current Ia [I(L1)] (Carrier based

control) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

5.8 Voltages across the DC bus capacitors Vc1, Vc2 (Carrier based control) . . . . 35

6.1 Input currents Ia [Ch.1, Scale: 0.58A/1V], Ib [Ch.2, Scale: 0.59A/1V] of the

rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

6.2 Input current Ia [Ch.1, Scale: 2A/div] and Input phase voltage Van [Ch.2,

Scale: 50V/div] indicating UPF operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

6.3 Voltages across the DC bus capacitors Vc1 [Ch.1, Scale: 46.2V/1V], Vc2 [Ch.2,

Scale: 44.8V/1V] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39


rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

6.5 Input current Ia [Ch.1, Scale: 2A/div] and Input phase voltage Van [Ch.2,

Scale: 50V/div] indicating UPF operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40


Scale: 44.8V/1V] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

6.7 Duty ratio variation da and line current Ia [Ch.2, Scale: 2A/div] . . . . . . . 41


rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

6.9 Input current Ia [Ch.1, Scale: 0.58A/1V] and Input phase voltage Va [Ch.2,

Scale: 38.5V/1V] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43


Scale: 44.8V/1V] and Vdc (Vc1 + Vc2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

6.11 Line-line voltage [Scale: 250V/div] (Vra−Vrb) (Fig. 1.3) at the rectifier input

terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

6.12 Phase voltage at the rectifier input terminal Vra [Scale: 250V/div] w.r.t to the

neutral point of the AC grid. (Fig. 1.3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

x List of Figures

A.1 Power circuit topology of the Vienna rectifier [2] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

B.1 Semiconductor loss comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

C.1 Schematic of the 3-Phase, 3-level rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

D.1 Component positions in bottom layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

D.2 Bottom layer of the PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

D.3 Component positions in top layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

D.4 Top layer of the PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

E.1 Circuit for testing of diodes on the PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

E.2 Voltage across diode Da2 and input current ia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

E.3 Voltage across diode Da2 and DC bus voltage Vdc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

E.4 Circuits for testing of mosfets on the PCB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

E.5 Gate-source voltage Vgs and Drain-source voltage Vds of the switched mosfet 60

E.6 Voltages across capacitors C1 and C2 when mosfets are not switched . . . . . 61

E.7 Voltages across capacitors C1 and C2 when mosfets are switched . . . . . . . 61

F.1 Front view of the rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

F.2 Back view of the rectifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

F.3 Complete Hardware setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Nomenclature

Symbols : Definitions

Vdc : DC bus voltage

Vri−M : Rectifier input terminal voltage (i=a,b,c) w.r.t DC bus neutral point M

Sa, Sb, Sc : The three active switches of the rectifier

ω0 : Grid frequency in rad/s

Vm : Peak value of the per-phase input voltage

Im : Peak value of the fundamental component of input current

Ton : ‘ON’ period of the switch within a time period Ts (Ton ≤ Ts)

Ts : Time period of one switching cycle

imavg : Average current injected into DC bus neutral point in a switching cycle

Idc, ipdc : Output DC current flowing through the load

M0 : Modulation index - Ratio of modulating signal peak to carrier wave peak

ipfsw : Switching frequency current ripple in the DC bus

ip150 : 150 Hz current ripple in the DC bus

Fs : Frequency of the carrier wave

δipk−pk : Peak to peak current ripple in line current

δipk−pk−max : Worst case switching frequency current ripple in line current

h : Width of the Hysteresis band

Kpv, Kiv : Gains of PI controller (outer voltage loop)

Kpb, Kib : Gains of PI controller (voltage balance loop)

Kpc : Gain of the proportional controller (current controller)

Vcpk : Peak value of the triangular carrier wave

Ia, Ib, Ic : The three input line currents of the rectifier

xi

Chapter 1

Introduction

Conversion of three phase AC to DC by means of an AC-DC power converter (Fig. 1.1) finds

it application in various areas of power electronics such as Electric drives, UPS systems,

Battery management systems and Telecom power supplies to name a few. Conventionally,

the diode bridge or the thyristor bridge has been the most commonly used AC-DC power

converter for obtaining DC power from the AC grid. The use of these bridge topologies is

mainly motivated due to their advantage in size, control, reliability, structural simplicity and

economics.

Figure 1.1: AC-DC Power Converter

However, usage of such bridge circuits is quite disadvantageous from the viewpoint of the

AC grid, as they inject unwanted current harmonics (Fig. 1.2) of relatively high amplitudes

(depending on the power level of the bridge) into the grid. Consequently this results in

the distortion of the grid voltage, which can cause undesirable disturbances and hence poor

power quality in the neighbouring loads connected to the grid.

In view of limiting this utility pollution due to power converters, standards (IEEE 519,

IEC 61000-3-6)[1] have been drafted limiting the direct use of diode and thyristor bridges,

with more emphasis being laid on the use of power converters which have lesser harmonic

influence on the grid.

1

2 Chapter 1. Introduction

Figure 1.2: Input currents of a Diode bridge rectifier with C filter

A reduction in current harmonic injection into the grid can be achieved by using effective

control strategies on pulse width modulated (PWM) rectifiers such as the vienna rectifier

[2], [3], [4], force commutated three level boost type rectifier [5] or many other improved power

quality converter topologies that exist in literature. An exhaustive review of such topologies

can be found in [6].

1.1 Project Work

This project deals with the hardware design, development and control of a 3-phase, 3-level

UPF rectifier whose power circuit is shown in Fig. 1.3.

Figure 1.3: Power circuit topology of the project

1.2. Organization of the thesis 3

As part of the project, literature on improved power quality converters [6] was looked

into. Particularly, literature on vienna rectifier and force commutated boost rectifier were

studied. [2] discusses the vienna rectifier topology. [3] presents a space vector based analysis

of the control strategy proposed in [2]. Papers [4] and [7] discuss about the neutral point

current handling capability of the rectifier and development of a semi-conductor module for

each leg of the rectifier. [5] discusses about the force commutated boost rectifier topology

and its control.

The power circuit topology (Fig. 1.3) used in the project is a variant of the vienna

rectifier [2], [3] (Refer Appendix Fig. A.1). The reduced component count in the power

circuit topology compared to the vienna rectifier offers a scope for reduction in the size of

rectifier (reduced PCB size) and eases packaging effort (Refer Appendix B.1). The 3-phase,

3-level rectifier is characterised by its input currents being almost sinusoidal, reduced input

current ripple, reduced filter requirement, high power density, high reliability, controllable

output DC voltage and UPF operation.

A broad overview of the project tasks is as follows:

• Hardware design and development of the power circuit (Fig. 1.3) for the required

specifications (Table 3.1).

• Control of the rectifier

– Rectifier control using Hysteresis based control strategy proposed in [2].

– Proposal of a control strategy based on carrier comparison and its validation on

the hardware setup.

1.2 Organization of the thesis

Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction about the project followed by chapter 2 which dis-

cusses the operating principle of the UPF rectifier used in the project.

Chapter 3 discusses the hardware design in detail. The selection of switches, DC bus

capacitors, filter inductors, heat sinks and the development of main circuit board is discussed.

Chapter 4 includes the details of the control system design and implementation of the

same in digital domain for hysteresis based control strategy as well as the proposed carrier

based control strategy.

4 Chapter 1. Introduction

In chapter 5, simulation results of the hysteresis and carrier based control strategy are

included. The simulations are carried out using LT-Spice [8].

Chapter 6 contains all the experimental results with pertinent waveforms, along with a

comparison between the proposed and existing control strategies. Conclusion and Future

work are discussed in chapter 7.

The schematics of main circuit board, PCB layout and the pictures of the hardware setup

along with test circuits for testing of power circuit PCB are provided in Appendix.

Chapter 2

Operating Principle of the 3-phase,

3-level Rectifier

This chapter discusses the three level characteristic of the rectifier (Fig. 1.3) along with its

basic functionality regarding the control of input current [2]. The analysis has been restricted

to quantities only at fundamental frequency.

2.1 Three level characteristic

The power circuit of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier is shown in Fig. 1.3. From the power circuit

it can be seen that the rectifier input terminal voltage Vra−M is clamped to the neutral point

of the DC bus (M) when the switch Sa is ‘on’. When Sa is ‘off’, Vra−M can take a value of

±Vdc

2depending on the polarity of the current ia i.e.

Vra−M =

sign(ia)

Vdc

2if Sa = ON

0 if Sa = OFF(2.1)

Thus the pole voltage Vri−M(i=a,b,c) of each leg of the converter can have 3 discrete values

depending on the state of the switch Si(i=a,b,c) and the direction of input current. Accordingly

the system is called a 3-level PWM rectifier.

2.2 Basic functionality

The single phase equivalent circuit of the rectifier (Fig. 1.3) can be represented as shown in

Fig. 2.1 where Vi represents the single phase grid voltage and Vri represents the per-phase

rectifier input voltage.

5

6 Chapter 2. Operating Principle of the 3-phase, 3-level Rectifier

Figure 2.1: Single phase equivalent circuit of the rectifier [2]

Restricting the analysis to quantities at fundamental frequency alone, the rectifier input

voltage can be written as,

Vri = Vi − jω0LIi (2.2)

Where,

Vi = Vmcos(ω0t) (2.3)

The current through the inductor is defined by the voltage difference across it and for

the case of UPF operation, the current can be written as,

Ii = Imcos(ω0t) (2.4)

The control of this current is done by controlling the voltage difference across the inductor

which is given by the difference of the grid voltage Vi and the rectifier input voltage Vri. The

voltage Vri is controlled at the required phase and magnitude by appropriate switching of the

bi-directional switches Si (using a suitable PWM strategy) at high frequencies. The current

ripple at these high switching frequencies is attenuated to a great extent by the line and

filter inductances resulting in the input current mainly containing the fundamental current

component at 50Hz along with switching frequency ripple.

Figure 2.2: Phasor diagram for UPF operation

From the phasor diagram in Fig. 2.2, it can be seen that the magnitude of the rectifier

input voltage Vri is greater than the input grid voltage, illustrating the ‘boost’ nature of the

2.2. Basic functionality 7

rectifier. Thus the DC output voltage that can be obtained from the rectifier can only be

greater than the peak value of the input line-line voltage.

The DC power delivered to load under UPF operation is given by power balance as

(neglecting the system losses),

Pdc = VdcIdc =3

2VmIm (2.5)

The details about the space vector representation of the rectifier and its operating region

can be referred to in [2], [5].

Chapter 3

Hardware Design

The hardware design of the power circuit (Fig. 3.1) is explained in this chapter. It includes

the selection of switches, DC bus capacitors, design of filter inductors and heat sinks. Loss

calculations for the semiconductor devices is also presented along with the development of

printed circuit board (PCB) for the power circuit.

3.1 Specifications of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier

Figure 3.1: Power circuit topology of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier

Table 3.1 lists the specifications for which the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier has been designed

and built. Assuming the input current to be a pure sinusoid and the rectifier to be operating

at UPF with an efficiency of 90%, the input current variation can be calculated as, Ia =

2.92− 3.56A(rms) (Eqn. (2.5)). The choice of switching frequency is done based on the size

of the filter inductor and is dealt with in the section pertaining to inductor design.

8

3.2. Device selection 9

Table 3.1: Ratings of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier system

Quantity Rated value

Output DC power 2kW

Input 3φ AC line-line voltage 360− 440V

Frequency of input voltage 50Hz ± 5%

Output DC voltage, Vdc 750V

Switching frequency, Fs 20kHz

Controller platform TMS320LF2407A

3.2 Device selection

From Fig. 3.2 it can be seen that the diodes Da1, Da2 should have a voltage blocking

capability of 750V , and should be able to conduct a peak current of 5.03A. Similarly the

mosfets T1, T2 should be able conduct a peak current of 5.03A with voltage blocking capability

of 375V . Accordingly, the devices chosen are shown in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2: Ratings of chosen semiconductor devices

Device Avg. forward current Blocking voltage

MUR8100 (Diode-FRED) 12 A 1000 V

IRF840 (Mosfet) 8 A 500 V

Figure 3.2: Single phase equivalent circuit of Fig. 3.1

10 Chapter 3. Hardware Design

3.3 Capacitor Design

The design of capacitors is done for the nominal input line-line voltage (400 V (rms)) and

nominal input current (3.21 A(rms)) rating of the circuit. The circuit is assumed to be

operating at UPF and the input currents are assumed to be sinusoidal in nature,

ia = 4.54cos(ω0t)

ib = 4.54cos(ω0t−2π

3) (3.1)

ic = 4.54cos(ω0t+2π

3)

The switches Sa, Sb, Sc are switched at high frequency employing a PWM technique so

that the voltage Vra (Fig. 3.2) contains the required fundamental frequency component at

50Hz with its remaining frequency components close to the switching frequency.

Assuming that the switches are switched using sine-triangle modulation technique the

duty ratios (Ton/Ts) of the switches Si are given by,

da = 0.5 +M0cos(ω0t)

db = 0.5 +M0cos(ω0t−2π

3) (3.2)

dc = 0.5 +M0cos(ω0t+2π

3)

Where, di(i = a, b, c) is the duty ratio corresponding to the switch Si and M0 is the

modulation index which is the ratio of modulating signal peak to the peak of triangular

carrier signal.

From Fig. 3.2 it can be seen that the average current (imavg) injected into the neutral

point of the DC bus over a switching cycle is given by,

imavg = daia + dbib + dcic (3.3)

From Equations (3.1), (3.2) and (3.3) it can be seen that,

imavg = 6.81M0 (3.4)

It can be inferred from Eqn. (3.4) that a direct application of the sine-triangle modulation

strategy will not work for the rectifier as it results in constant injection of DC current into

3.3. Capacitor Design 11

the neutral point of the capacitors in every switching cycle, leading to an uneven voltage

build up across the individual capacitors of the DC bus and hence an unstable system.

Hence for the sizing of capacitor bank, a change is made in the type of modulation signal

used so that there is no net DC current flow into the neutral point of the capacitors over a

fundamental cycle.

It can be seen from Fig. 3.2 that,

when ia > 0

Sa = on(1) ⇒ Vra−M = 0

Sa = off(0) ⇒ Vra−M = +Vdc/2.(3.5)

and, ia < 0

Sa = on(1) ⇒ Vra−M = 0

Sa = off(0) ⇒ Vra−M = −Vdc/2.(3.6)

Accordingly, the duty ratio variation of the switches Sa, Sb, Sc are selected as (Fig. 3.3),

da = 1−M0|cos(ω0t)|

db = 1−M0|cos(ω0t−2π

3)| (3.7)

dc = 1−M0|cos(ω0t+2π

3)|

Where, di(i = a, b, c) is the duty ratio corresponding to the switch Si and M0 is the

modulation index which is the ratio of modulating signal peak to the peak of carrier signal,

which, for the nominal rectifier specifications is found to be,

M0 =2Va(peak)Vdc

= 0.867 (3.8)

Selection of above duty ratios for the switches results in no net DC current injection into

the neutral point of the DC bus over a fundamental cycle (50Hz).

3.3.1 Capacitor ripple current calculation

For the purpose of capacitor selection it is essential to know the amount of ripple current

flowing through the capacitor [9]. Hence the computation of different frequency components

of the positive DC bus current ip (Fig. 3.2) is essential. Computation of ip by analytical

methods and by simulation indicates that ip mainly consists three components - the dc


Figure 3.3: Duty ratio variation of the switches Sa, Sb, Sc

current component ipdc, the switching frequency current component ipfsw and the 150Hz

current component ip150. It is assumed that the dc current component flows through the

load and other frequency components of ip entirely flow into the capacitor. Hence knowing

the value of ipfsw and ip150, the capacitor can be appropriately sized.

The DC component of current ipdc is found from the Eqn. (2.5) for output power as,

ipdc = Idc =3

2

VmImVdc

= 2.96A (3.9)

For the purpose of finding the switching frequency current component ipfsw, frequency

components of the current greater than the switching frequency are assumed to be lumped at

the switching frequency. This simplifies the calculation of ipfsw as the current components in

each switching cycle can be split into a DC component and a switching frequency component.

The switching frequency component of current over each switching cycle is then summed over

a cycle of fundamental frequency (50Hz) to obtain ipfsw which is given by,

ipfsw =

√√√√ 1

N

N∑k=1

(i2prms−k − i2pavg−k) (3.10)

Where, N = Fs

50, Fs = Frequency of the carrier wave, iprms−k and ipavg−k are the rms and

average values of ip in the kth switching time period.

3.3. Capacitor Design 13

The expressions for iprms−k and ipavg−k change with θ(= ω0t) over a fundamental cycle

and are shown for a range of 0 ≤ θ ≤ 120o in the Fig. 3.4. Exploiting the symmetry of

the duty ratios (Fig. 3.3) the expressions for iprms−k and ipavg−k found over a period of

0 ≤ θ ≤ 120o can be extended to the entire cycle and the switching frequency component of

the current ipfsw can be computed from Eqn. (3.10).

Figure 3.4: Switching functions and expressions for iprms−k and ipavg−k

Once the DC component of current ipdc and the switching frequency component ipfsw

have been computed, the other frequency component at 150 Hz (ip150) is computed using,

ip150 =√i2prms − i2pdc − i2pfsw (3.11)

Where, iprms is the rms value of ip over a fundamental cycle and is given by,

iprms =

√√√√ 1

N

N∑k=1

i2prms−k (3.12)


Table 3.3: Capacitor current components

Switching Frequency iprms ipdc ipfsw ip150

10 kHz 3.32 A 2.65 A 1.7 A 1.04 A

20 kHz 3.32 A 2.65 A 1.7 A 1.04 A

Table 3.3 indicates the various capacitor current components for two values of carrier

frequency. Based on the obtained data, the capacitor ELH477M450AT6AA having rated

voltage 450 V and capacitance 470µF with a ripple current rating of 2.5 A (at 85oC and 120

Hz) is chosen. From the parameters of the chosen capacitor, its core temperature, life and

power loss are estimated as shown in Table 3.4 [9].

Table 3.4: Capacitor data table

Capacitor Arcotronics ELH477M450AT6AA

Number of capacitors in DC bus 2

Total power loss in Capacitors 1.06 W

DC bus ripple voltage 0.88 V (10kHz)

Thermal resistance (Junction to ambient) 35.18oC/W

Core temperature 122.8oC

Capacitor life 171 kHours at Tambient = 40oC

85.4 kHours at Tambient = 50oC

3.4 Inductor design

The value of filter inductor L (Fig. 3.2) is decided by limiting the voltage drop across it

and also from the switching frequency current ripple. The voltage drop across the inductor

is limited to 10% of the per phase input voltage (230V ) and the peak to peak switching

frequency current ripple (δipk−pk) is limited to 5% of the nominal peak value of ia (4.54A).

Assuming a purely sinusoidal input current it can be seen that the voltage drop across the

inductor is given by,

ωLIa = 23V (3.13)

⇒ L = 22.8mH

3.5. Heat sink design 15

Which means that an inductance of value less than 22.8mH has to be chosen to limit the

voltage drop across the inductor to 10% of the input voltage. Further, for the appropriate

choice of the inductance value, an analytical expression is found relating the worst case peak-

peak current ripple δipk−pk−max [10], frequency of the carrier wave and the inductor value as

(the duty ratio variation is assumed as per Fig. 3.3),

δipk−pk−max =87.5

LFs

(3.14)

From the above expression it can be seen that a trade-off has to be done between the

inductor value and the choice of carrier frequency. An increase in inductance value makes the

filter inductor more bulkier and expensive whereas an increase in carrier frequency results

in greater losses and hence a bigger and more expensive heat sink. The trade off is done by

choosing an inductor from the list of available inductors while trying to reduce the carrier

frequency. The chosen values for inductance and carrier frequency are L = 20.26mH and

Fs = 20kHz.

For the chosen values of L(20.26mH) and Fs(20kHz), δipk−pk−max is seen to be less than

5% of the peak value of ia. The data for chosen inductors is shown in Table 3.5

Table 3.5: Inductor data TableInductor Glastronix GX171/45

Current Rating 10 A(rms)

Number of turns 210

Frequency of Operation 50 Hz - 500 Hz

3.5 Heat sink design

3.5.1 Semiconductor power loss calculations

3.5.1.1 Conduction loss

The conduction loss for a diode is given by the expression,

Pdc = (Vd +Rdi)i (3.15)


Where Vd is the forward voltage drop, Rd is the on-state resistance and i is the cur-

rent flowing through the diode. Similarly the conduction loss in a mosfet is given by the

expression,

Pmc = i2Rds(on) (3.16)

Where i is the current flowing through the mosfet and Rds(on) is the static drain-source

ON resistance.

3.5.1.2 Switching loss

For switching loss computations, turn-on loss for diode is neglected and only turn-off loss is

considered. The turn-off energy loss of the diode is given by,

Ed =QrrVr

2(3.17)

Where, Qrr is the reverse recovery charge and Vr is the voltage blocked by the diode

after turn-off. Similarly, switching energy loss for a mosfet (assuming inductive switching)

is found from the expression,

Em =V i(tr + tf )

2(3.18)

Where, V is the voltage being blocked by the mosfet, i is the current through the mosfet,

tr and tf are the rise and fall times.

From the Equations (3.15)-(3.18) and the duty ratio variation as in Eqn. (3.7), the total

semiconductor power loss over the fundamental cycle is calculated for the selected semicon-

ductor devices (Refer Table 3.2) at nominal ratings of the rectifier. The losses computed are

shown in Table 3.6 for different carrier frequencies.

Heat sink design is done by calculating the required thermal resistance of the heatsink

assuming an ambient temperature Ta = 40oC and the junction temperature of the semicon-

ductors as Tj = 100oC at a switching frequency of 20 kHz.

Thermal resistance Rth =Tj − TaP

(3.19)

Where, P is the power loss in the semiconductor device.

Two diodes of the same leg, e.g. Da1, Da2 (Fig. 3.5) are mounted on a single heat sink

and the two mosfet modules of the same leg are mounted on a single/separate heat sink,

resulting in the use of 6 heat sinks for the rectifier and eliminating the requirement of fan

for cooling. Details of the heat sinks selected are shown in Table 3.7.

3.5. Heat sink design 17

Table 3.6: Semiconductor Losses (Fig.3.5)

Carrier

Freq.

(kHz)

Conduction Losses (W) Switching Losses (W) Mosfet

Module

Loss (W)

Total Semicon-

ductor Loss of

rectifier (W)

Diode

Da1

Mosfet

T1

Diode

D2

Diode Da1 Mosfet T1

1 2.19 1.16 0.74 0.04 0.01 1.91 24.84

5 2.19 1.16 0.76 0.23 0.03 1.95 26.22

10 2.19 1.16 0.76 0.46 0.06 1.98 27.78

20 2.19 1.16 0.76 0.93 0.12 2.04 30.96

30 2.19 1.16 0.76 1.41 0.18 2.1 34.2

40 2.19 1.16 0.76 1.87 0.24 2.16 37.32

Figure 3.5: Thermal calculations

Table 3.7: Heat sink data tableHeat sink Experimentally measured value

of thermal resistance

Heat sink for Diodes 5oC/W

(2 Diodes per heat sink)

Heat sink for Mosfets 3.2oC/W

(2 Mosfets per heat sink)


3.6 Auxiliary Hardware

Auxiliary hardware includes isolated gate drive cards for the switches, voltage sensor cards

current sensor card, PD (protection and delay) card and annunciation card [11]. All the

auxiliary hardware systems have been tested according to the procedures in [11]. Since the

rectifier (Fig. 3.1) only requires 3 PWM signals for its 3 bi-directional switches (Mosfet

pairs), the complementary PWM signals from the PD card have not been used. Also, the

dead time logic of the PD card has not been used as the rectifier switches do not have the

requirement of dead time.

The gains of current and voltage sensor cards used as a part of auxiliary hardware is shown

in Table 3.8. The two current sensors have been used to measure two input currents (Ia and

Ib). Among the voltage sensors, voltage sensors 3,4,5 have been used for the measurement of

input AC voltages and the other two voltage sensors (1,2) have been used for measurement

of DC bus voltage.

Table 3.8: Current and Voltage sensor card gains

Current sensor Gain (Vout

Iin) Voltage sensor Gain (Vout

Vin)

Current sensor 1 0.575 V/A Voltage sensor 1 21.66 mV/V

Current sensor 2 0.566 V/A Voltage sensor 2 22.3 mV/V

Voltage sensor 3 26 mV/V

Voltage sensor 4 26.76 mV/V

Voltage sensor 5 26.7 mV/V

3.7 Power Circuit PCB development

The power circuit of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier (Fig. 3.1) is developed on a PCB and the

salient features of the PCB layout design are indicated below,

• Two layer PCB.

• Component mounting is provided on both sides of the PCB to reduce the size of the

rectifier.

3.7. Power Circuit PCB development 19

• Track widths, clearances and copper foil thickness (70µm) has been chosen based on

the IPC-2221 standard [12]. (Current density ≈ 12.5A/mm2)

• Vias have been used for equalization of current distribution in the PCB tracks.

• Thermal reliefs have been used on all points connected to the copper pour areas.

• Zener card [11] for the switches has been included in the PCB.

• Physical dimensions of the PCB : 26.2 cm X 16.5 cm.

• Physical dimensions of the Rectifier power circuit : 26.2 cm X 17 cm X 7.5 cm.

• Power density (Output power per unit volume) ≈ 600W/dm3

The circuit schematic and PCB layout diagrams are given in the appendix.

Chapter 4

Control of the Rectifier

This chapter discusses the control of the rectifier based on hysteresis controller along with

proposal of a control strategy based on carrier comparision method. The design of con-

trollers, phase locked loop (PLL) is discussed along with digital controller specifications and

implementation of the the controllers in digital domain.

4.1 Hysteresis based control of the rectifier [2]

The Hysteresis based control strategy proposed for the vienna rectifier [2], [3] is also imple-

mented for the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier. A brief discussion of the control strategy is given

below.

The control of the rectifier input voltage Vri (Fig. 1.3) and the wave-shaping of input

currents can be performed by the use of individual hysteresis controllers for each of the

phase currents. The generation of current reference for UPF case is done by multiplying the

output of the voltage controller with sine waves of unit amplitude and in phase with the

input voltages as (Fig. 4.1),

I∗i = INVi(i=a,b,c)

Vm(4.1)

While generating the control signals si for the mosfets, the dependency of the rectifier

input voltage on the sign of the input current (Equation (2.1)) also has to be taken into

consideration by an inversion as,

si =

s′i if i∗i ≥ 0

NOT s′i if i∗i < 0(4.2)

20

4.1. Hysteresis based control of the rectifier [2] 21

Figure 4.1: Control unit based on Hysteresis controller [2]

s′i =

0 if ii ≥ i∗i + h

1 if ii < i∗i − h(4.3)

Where, h is the width of the hysteresis band.

As mentioned earlier in Chapter 2, the control of mains current is done by control of the

voltage difference across the inductor L. The control error of the current control loop i.e.

the maximum current ripple error in the phase currents is limited to the twice the value of

the hysteresis band (2h).

Along with the control of mains current, it is also essential to balance the DC bus voltage

across the capacitors C1 and C2 (Fig. 1.3). The imbalance in the DC bus voltages can be

caused by the loading of DC bus neutral point M by a DC current or by low frequency AC

current and it can be characterised by the difference in voltage across the capacitors as,

vM =1

2(Vc1 − Vc2) (4.4)

The balance of these partial voltages (Vc1, Vc2) across C1 and C2 can be achieved by ad-

dition of a zero sequence component to the current references by a voltage balance controller

F (s) as shown in Fig. 4.1,

22 Chapter 4. Control of the Rectifier

i∗a = I∗a + i0

i∗b = I∗b + i0 (4.5)

i∗c = I∗c + i0

The addition of a zero sequence component i0 has no direct influence on the mains current

shape (as the mains current amplitude and shape is set by current controller and the output

voltage controller) but influences the duration of the switching states and hence the current

iM (Fig. 3.2) flowing into the neutral point of the DC bus [3].

4.2 Design of controller parameters for Hysteresis based

control strategy

The outer voltage controller G(s) and the voltage balance controller F (s) (Fig. 4.1) are both

realized as PI controllers and are designed on the basis of bode plots for the system.

G(s) = Kpv +Kiv

s(4.6)

F (s) = Kpb +Kib

s(4.7)

The system can be modelled as shown in Fig. 4.2 for determining the voltage controller

parameters (here the current controller is modelled as having unity gain with a bandwidth

equal to half the sampling frequency (= 20kHz)). The bandwidth of the voltage loop should

be much less than that of the current controller as the voltage loop has to be much slower

than the current controller loop. Hence the bandwidth of the voltage loop is chosen to be

30 times lesser than the bandwidth of the current controller. Accordingly, the zero of the

voltage controller is placed at ω = 1.22rad/s and the parameters for the voltage controller

are shown in Table 4.1. The bode plot of the open loop transfer function (OLTF) of the

voltage control loop with the controller is shown in Fig 4.3.

4.2. Design of controller parameters for Hysteresis based control strategy 23

Figure 4.2: Voltage control loop

Table 4.1: Voltage controller parameters

Parameter Value

Kpv 313

Kiv 382

Figure 4.3: Bode plot of the open loop transfer function of voltage control loop (Fig. 4.2)

The parameters of the voltage balance controller F (s) are chosen in the similar manner as

done for the outer voltage loop. The bandwidth of the voltage balance loop is kept 10 times

the bandwidth of the outer voltage loop. The chosen parameters for the voltage balance

loop are shown in Table 4.2.


Table 4.2: Voltage balance loop controller parameters

Parameter Value

Kpb 62.6

Kib 764

4.3 Proposed carrier based control

Though hysteresis based carrier control is advantageous due to its simplicity, and good

dynamics it has the following disadvantages -

• The rectifier switching frequency to a large extent depends on the load parameters and

the hysteresis band.

• Switching frequency is not constant, which can produce unpleasant acoustic noise.

• The current error is not strictly limited. Double the current error magnitude permitted

by the hysteresis controller can occur at maximum value of current.

Hence a carrier based control approach is proposed in which a modulating signal is

compared with a triangular carrier of fixed frequency. This method eliminates the drawbacks

of varying switching frequency of the hysteresis controller as the carrier based approach

results in the input currents of the rectifier with well defined harmonic contents.

The control diagram for the carrier based control is shown in Fig. 4.4.

The general structure of the control loop (Fig. 4.4) is similar to the loop structure of the

hysteresis based controller (Fig. 4.1). The current control loop of the proposed controller

consists of a current controller H(s), whose output is sent to an absolute value finder (|abs|)followed by the generation of di which is compared with a triangular carrier (similar to

sine-triangle comparison) to generate the switching signals si for the mosfets.

di = 1− |m∗i | (4.8)

The essential idea is to generate modulation signals of the type shown in Fig. 3.3 from

the error between the reference current and the feedback current. The generated modulation

signal is then compared with the triangular carrier to generate the switching pulses for the

mosfets.

4.4. Design of controller parameters for proposed carrier based control strategy 25

Figure 4.4: Control diagram for the proposed carrier based control strategy

As mentioned in the section on capacitor design, the variation of duty ratios according to

Eqn. 3.7 does not result in injection of net DC current into the neutral point of the DC bus

eliminating the need of a control loop to ensure voltage balance across capacitors of the DC

bus. However, a control loop is necessary in a practical set-up due to the presence of offsets

in sensors, offset in ADC of the digital controller, slight imbalance in the input grid voltage,

etc., which will result in a small amount of net DC current flowing into the neutral point of

the DC bus resulting in unequal voltages appearing across the individual capacitors.

4.4 Design of controller parameters for proposed car-

rier based control strategy

The current loop of the proposed controller can be modelled as shown in Fig. 4.5. Here the

current controller H(s) is implemented as a proportional controller, i.e.

H(s) = Kpc (4.9)

In the Fig. 4.5, G is the gain of the rectifier given by,

G =Vdc

2Vcpk(4.10)


Where, Vdc is the DC bus voltage and Vcpk is the peak value of the carrier wave. L and R

represent the inductance and resistance of the inductor. K2 is the gain of the current sensor.

Td is the delay time of the rectifier equal to half the time period of the carrier wave. Here

the modelling of the converter is made under the assumption that an inversion between the

current error and actual current takes place (due to the usage of |abs| block) eliminating the

need to consider dependency of voltage generation on input current polarity.

Figure 4.5: Current control loop

Figure 4.6: Bode plot of the open loop transfer function of the current loop

The bandwidth of the current control loop is kept ≈ 20 times1 lower than the switching

1The value of controller parameter Kpc used in the practical set up is slight varied for better system

performance.

4.5. Phase locked loop 27

frequency (20kHz) accordingly, the value of Kpc is selected as 0.5. The bode plot of the open

loop transfer function of the current control loop is shown in Fig 4.6.

The controllers for outer voltage loop and the voltage balance loop have been realized as

PI controllers and their design is done in the same manner as in the case of the hysteresis

based control strategy.

4.5 Phase locked loop

Generation of current references in both hysteresis and carrier based control strategy re-

quires multiplication of DC voltage controller output by unit amplitude sine waves which

are synchronised with the input voltages of the grid. The generation of these sine waves can

be done by using voltage sensors as shown in Figures 4.1 and 4.4. But the usage of voltage

sensors in generation of unit sine waves can result in the transfer of grid disturbances into

the control circuit resulting in increased current harmonic injection into the grid. Hence a

phase locked loop (PLL) is used to generate sine waves of unit amplitude, synchronised with

the grid and free of any grid disturbances.

The structure of the implemented PLL is shown in Fig. 4.7. The implementation of PLL

is done based on the dq transform method discussed in [13].

Figure 4.7: PLL control structure

The design specifications of PLL is shown in Table 4.3. The locking feature of PLL is

shown in Fig. 4.8 and the generation of θ (Fig. 4.7) is shown in Fig. 4.9.


Table 4.3: PLL specifications

Parameter Value

Kp 0.84

Ki 2098

Settling time ≈ 60ms

Figure 4.8: Locking feature of the PLL (Experimental result)

Figure 4.9: θ generation of PLL (Experimental result)

4.6. Digital implementation of control blocks 29

4.6 Digital implementation of control blocks

The digital controller used in this project is texas instruments based DSP TMS320LF2407A

[16] which has an internal clock rate of 40 MHz. It is programmed using assembly level

language. The controller board has on-board ADCs, DACs and PWM generation units. The

controller board is used to obtain the voltage and current signals through the ADC and

output PWM signals to the gate-drive cards which are used to drive the active devices of

the rectifier.

In this section the implementation PI controller in the digital domain is discussed.

4.6.1 PI controller implementation

The equation for PI controller in continuous time domain is

y(t) = kpe(t) + ki

∫ t

0

e(t)dt (4.11)

Discretization of Eqn. (4.11) is done as follows,

Let the discretized proportional part be yp(k). So,

yp(k) = kpe(k) (4.12)

Similarly let the integral portion be yi(k). It can be shown from Euler’s backward rect-

angle rule that

yi(k) = yi(k − 1) + kiTse(k) (4.13)

Where, Ts is the sampling period.

The final discretized output would be,

y(k) = yp(k) + yi(k) (4.14)

4.6.2 Per-unit Values

All the control blocks are implemented in 16-bit digital arithmetic. The per-unit values and

the equivalent hex code are listed in Table 4.4.


Table 4.4: Per Unit values used in the DSPpu value Hexadecimal representation

2pu 7FFFh

1pu 3FFFh

0 0000h

-1pu C000h

-2pu 8000h

Chapter 5

Simulation Results

In this chapter simulation results for hysteresis based control of rectifier [2] as well as the

proposed carrier based control are presented. The results indicate a well defined harmonic

spectrum of input currents and a significant reduction in the total harmonic distortion (THD)

of input current for carrier based control over the hysteresis based control strategy. The

simulations are performed using LTspice [8].

5.1 Parameters used in Simulation

Simulation is performed at the rated values of rectifier specifications (Output power = 2kW,

Vdc = 750V) for both the control strategies. The designed controller gains are chosen for

the simulation. The hysteresis band is set as h = ±0.075A. The results are shown for UPF

operation of the rectifier.

5.2 Results for Hysteresis based control strategy

The input line currents of the rectifier are shown in Fig. 5.1.

As seen from the frequency spectrum of Fig. 5.2, the spectrum does not have a dominant

component of switching frequency but rather a band of frequencies indicating the variable

switching frequency characteristic of hysteresis control.

Fig. 5.3 shows the UPF operation of the rectifier and Fig. 5.4 shows the balance of

voltage across the DC bus capacitors.

From the simulation results of Hysteresis based control it is found that the input current

THD is 2.6%.

31

32 Chapter 5. Simulation Results

Figure 5.1: Input currents Ia [I(L1)], Ib [I(L2)] of the rectifier (Hysteresis based control)

Figure 5.2: Frequency spectrum of Input current Ia of the rectifier (Hysteresis based control)

5.2. Results for Hysteresis based control strategy 33

Figure 5.3: Input phase voltage Va [V(vr)] and Input current Ia [I(L1)] (Hysteresis based

control)

Figure 5.4: Voltages across the DC bus capacitors Vc1, Vc2 (Hysteresis based control)


5.3 Results for carrier based control strategy

Figure 5.5: Input currents Ia [I(L1)], Ib [I(L2)] of the rectifier (Carrier based control)

Figure 5.6: Frequency spectrum of Input current Ia of the rectifier (Carrier based control)

From the frequency spectrum of Fig. 5.6 it can be seen that the spectrum has domi-

nant harmonics at the carrier frequency (20kHz) and its multiples unlike its hysteresis based

control counterpart (Fig. 5.2). It can also be seen that the amplitude of frequency com-

ponents below 20kHz for carrier based control are significantly lesser than their hysteresis

based control counterparts.

5.3. Results for carrier based control strategy 35

Figure 5.7: Input phase voltage Va [V(vr)] and Input current Ia [I(L1)] (Carrier based control)

Figure 5.8: Voltages across the DC bus capacitors Vc1, Vc2 (Carrier based control)

Fig. 5.7 shows the UPF operation of the rectifier with carrier based control strategy.

From Fig. 5.8 a 150Hz component of ripple can be observed in the partial voltages Vc1, Vc2,

which is due to the 150Hz current ripple flowing into the capacitor bank as explained in the

section on capacitor design.

From the simulation results for carrier based control it is found that the input current

THD is 2% which is ≈ 23% less than the input current THD of hysteresis based control

strategy (2.6%) at an average switching frequency of 20kHz. The simulation results indicate


that the proposed carrier based control strategy has a well defined harmonic spectrum (at

switching frequency and its multiples) and results in a substantial reduction of harmonic

current injection into the grid when compared to the hysteresis based control strategy.

Chapter 6

Experimental Results

This chapter presents the experimental results obtained by running the hardware setup of

the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier. Results for both hysteresis based control and carrier based

control strategy are presented along with a comparison between the two strategies. Results

are presented at two different DC bus voltage levels i.e. 400V and 750V.

6.1 Operation of the rectifier at reduced voltage level

Presented below are the experimental results that have been obtained for both carrier based

and hysteresis based control strategies for a reduced DC bus voltage of 400V, input line-line

voltages of 210 V(rms) and a power level of ≈ 450W . The carrier frequency used in carrier

based control is 10kHz and in the hysteresis based control a sampling frequency of 20kHz is

used with a hysteresis band h = ±0.3A. The results presented are for UPF operation of the

rectifier. The efficiency of the entire hardware setup is found to be ≈ 90% for both control

strategies.

6.1.1 Hysteresis based control strategy

Fig. 6.1 shows the input currents of the rectifier. The maximum peak-peak current ripple is

found to be ≈ 1A.

Fig. 6.2 shows the UPF operation of the rectifier and Fig. 6.3 shows the balance of

voltages across the DC bus capacitors.

37

38 Chapter 6. Experimental Results

Figure 6.1: Input currents Ia [Ch.1, Scale: 0.58A/1V], Ib [Ch.2, Scale: 0.59A/1V] of the

rectifier

Figure 6.2: Input current Ia [Ch.1, Scale: 2A/div] and Input phase voltage Van [Ch.2, Scale:

50V/div] indicating UPF operation

6.1. Operation of the rectifier at reduced voltage level 39

Figure 6.3: Voltages across the DC bus capacitors Vc1 [Ch.1, Scale: 46.2V/1V], Vc2 [Ch.2,

Scale: 44.8V/1V]

6.1.2 Carrier based control strategy


rectifier

Fig. 6.1 shows the input currents of the rectifier for carrier based control. The maximum

peak-peak current ripple is ≈ 0.4A.

Fig. 6.5 shows the UPF operation of the carrier based based control strategy.

Fig. 6.7 shows the duty ratio da variation , and the corresponding line current Ia of the

rectifier (Refer section 4.3).


Figure 6.5: Input current Ia [Ch.1, Scale: 2A/div] and Input phase voltage Van [Ch.2, Scale:

50V/div] indicating UPF operation


Scale: 44.8V/1V]

6.2. Comparision between the hysteresis based and carrier based control strategies 41

Figure 6.7: Duty ratio variation da and line current Ia [Ch.2, Scale: 2A/div]

6.2 Comparision between the hysteresis based and car-

rier based control strategies

It can be seen from Table 6.1 that the carrier based control strategy results in a significant

reduction (23%) in the input current THD compared to the hysteresis control strategy at

an average switching frequency of 20kHz. Thus a significant reduction in the size of filter

inductor can be achieved using carrier based control over hysteresis based control.

It is also observed that the carrier based control strategy has a well defined harmonic

current spectrum compared to the hysteresis based control strategy, which helps in better

design of magnetics, passive components and a better estimate of semi-conductor losses of

the rectifier. Due to the well behaved harmonic spectrum of the carrier based control it

is also possible to achieve greater reduction in input current THD by using higher order

filters at the input of the rectifier which may not be possible in the case of hysteresis control

strategy.

Also, it was observed during the hardware implementation of the control strategies on

the DSP, that, the hysteresis based control strategy requires a much higher sampling fre-

quency for achieving higher switching frequencies (and hence lesser current ripple). From the

experimental results of hysteresis based control strategy it was observed that the maximum

switching frequency was around 2.5kHz for a sampling frequency of 20kHz. In contrast it

was noted that the switching frequency of the carrier based control strategy was equal to its

sampling frequency.


The usage of carrier based control strategy was found to require a greater degree of rec-

tifier modelling (for the choice of appropriate current controller gains) than when compared

to a hysteresis based control strategy.

During hardware experimentation (at lower DC bus voltages) it was seen that the hys-

teresis based controller without the voltage balancing loop resulted in collapse of voltage

across one of the DC bus capacitor with the other capacitor supporting the entire DC bus

voltage. However in the case of carrier based control, non-usage of voltage balancing loop

did not lead to an entire collapse of the voltage across the capacitors but instead resulted in

a voltage unbalance across the DC bus capacitors with a voltage difference of ≈10% of the

total DC bus voltage.

Finally, the dependence of rectifier input voltage on the input current polarity (Eqn.

(2.1)) and usage of 3 independent current controllers used to result in input currents staying

zero for a short period during their zero crossings for both control strategies. In the case of

hysteresis based control strategy, it was observed that the presence of offsets in sensors/ADC

used to result in a greater zero cross over distortion.

Table 6.1: Hysteresis vs Carrier based control

Parameter Hysteresis based control Carrier based control

Input current THD (simulation) 2.6% 2.0%

Input power factor (simulation) 0.99 0.99

Max. current ripple (simulation) ≈0.25A ≈0.1A

6.3 Operation of the rectifier at rated voltage

In this section experimental results for the rated DC bus voltage of 750V, rated input line

voltage of 400V(rms) and power level of ≈ 1kW has been obtained only for the hysteresis

based controller. The hysteresis band h has been set to h = ±0.3A and the sampling

frequency is 20kHz.

Fig. 6.8 shows the input currents of the rectifier. Fig. 6.9 illustrates the UPF operation

of the rectifier and Fig. 6.10 illustrates the balance of voltages across the capacitors of the

DC bus.

6.3. Operation of the rectifier at rated voltage 43


rectifier

Figure 6.9: Input current Ia [Ch.1, Scale: 0.58A/1V] and Input phase voltage Va [Ch.2,

Scale: 38.5V/1V]

Fig. 6.11 shows the 5-level characteristic of the line-line voltage (Vra − Vrb) obtained at

the input of the rectifier (Fig. 1.3).

Fig. 6.12 shows the per phase input terminal voltage of the rectifier Vra w.r.t the neutral

point of the AC grid (Fig. 1.3).



Scale: 44.8V/1V] and Vdc (Vc1 + Vc2)

Figure 6.11: Line-line voltage [Scale: 250V/div] (Vra − Vrb) (Fig. 1.3) at the rectifier input

terminals

6.3. Operation of the rectifier at rated voltage 45

Figure 6.12: Phase voltage at the rectifier input terminal Vra [Scale: 250V/div] w.r.t to the

neutral point of the AC grid. (Fig. 1.3)

Chapter 7

Conclusions

The project was aimed at design and development of hardware for 3-phase, 3-level UPF

rectifier topology along with proposal of a control strategy based on carrier comparison.

Accordingly, the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier has been designed for the required specifications

and the necessary hardware has been developed, assembled and tested. The hardware setup

of the project consists of:

• The power circuit PCB of the 3-phase, 3-level UPF rectifier.

• Gate drive cards, Sensor cards, Protection and delay card, Annunciation card.

• DSP based controller platform.

The control of hardware has been implemented using a texas instruments based DSP

TMS320LF2407A platform. Closed loop control of the rectifier has been executed for both

control strategies i.e. the existing hysteresis based control strategy and the proposed carrier

based control strategy. Phase locked loop (PLL) has also been implemented for generation

of unit sine waves in synchronization with the fundamental frequency of the grid voltages.

It has been observed from semiconductor loss calculations, that the 3-phase, 3-level UPF

rectifier (a variant of vienna rectifier) offers a greater scope for reduction in the size of

rectifier along with reduced packaging effort in contrast to the originally proposed vienna

rectifier [2].

The simulation and experimental results indicate that the carrier based control strategy

(formulated by altering the modulation signals used for sine-triangle comparison), has been

found to result in a well defined harmonic spectrum for input line currents and lesser current

ripple compared to the control of rectifier using hysteresis based control strategy.

46

47

Distortions in the input line currents near their zero crossings were observed during the

hardware implementation of hysteresis based control of the rectifier. Sensor and ADC offsets

were identified as the main reason for such distortions and the problem was solved by nulling

the sensor offsets and by providing software compensation for the ADC offsets in the DSP.

In implementation of carrier based control of the rectifier the above issue was resolved by

inclusion (twisting) of a ground wire with wires carrying current sensor outputs and also by

addition of a small delay angle in the PLL outputs to generate slightly phase shifted current

reference signals.

As part of future work, the rectifier can be run at the rated DC bus voltage (750V) using

carrier based control strategy. A greater detail in the modelling of the rectifier would be

helpful for the design of effective controllers based on carrier based control. The possibility

of using a PR controller in the current loop for better controller performance can be looked

into. An analysis of the proposed carrier based control can be done in the space vector

domain to see if any improvements can be made to the control strategy. Carrier based

control strategies suggested in [14] and [15] can be implemented and comparisons between

the different carrier based control strategies can be done. The EMI issues with the hardware

setup can be studied and the setup can be made compliant with the EMI standards.

Appendix A

Vienna Rectifier

A.1 Power circuit of the Vienna rectifier

Figure A.1: Power circuit topology of the Vienna rectifier [2]

48

Appendix B

Semiconductor loss comparison

A comparison between the semiconductor losses of the vienna rectifier and the 3-phase,

3-level rectifier is done here. For the comparison of losses the fast recovery diode and

mosfet chosen are DSEP15-06A (IXYS-600V, 15A), IRF840 for the vienna rectifier and

DSEP12-12A (IXYS-1200V, 15A), IRF840 for the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier. The losses

for the both rectifier circuits have been computed in the same manner as discussed in the

section on heat sink design. Fig. B.1 shows the variation of total semiconductor loss of the

power circuits with carrier frequency.

Figure B.1: Semiconductor loss comparison

It can be observed from Fig. B.1 that the losses in the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier and the

vienna rectifier are quite close to each other, with the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier offering a

49

50 Appendix B. Semiconductor loss comparison

reduction in losses for switching frequencies less than ≈40kHz. The reduction in losses and

the reduced component count of the 3-phase, 3-level rectifier offer a scope for reduction in the

size of the rectifier (reduced PCB area) and ease of packaging (lesser number of mountings

on heat sinks) over the vienna rectifier at lower switching frequencies. Hence the usage

of 3-phase, 3-level rectifier topology (which is a variant of vienna rectifier) is seen to be

advantageous over the originally proposed vienna rectifier topology at higher power levels

as, high power converters generally employ lower switching frequencies.

Appendix C

Main Circuit Board

C.1 Schematics of the rectifier

Table C.1: Bill of MaterialsReference Type Part Quantity

1 C2,C1 Capacitor

Electrolytic

470µF, 450V 2

2 C3,C4,C5,C6,C7,C8 Capacitor Film 1µF, 450V 6

3 D1,D2,D3,D4,D5,D6 Diode MUR8100E 6

4 D7,D8,D9,D10,D11,D12 Diode MUR160 6

5 F1,F2,F3 Fuse holder Fuse 6A 3

6 JP1,JP2,JP3,JP4,JP5,JP6 4 pin RM conn. 6

7 JP7 5 pin PM conn. 1

8 JP8,JP9,JP10,JP11,JP12,JP13 3 pin test points 6

9 J1,J2,J3 2 pin PM conn. 1

10 Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4,Q5,Q6 Mosfet IRF840 6

11 R1,R2,R3,R4,R5,R6 Resistor 10kΩ,

0.25W

6

12 R7,R8 Resistor 50kΩ, 10W 2

13 TP1,TP2,TP3,TP4,TP5,TP6 Test points 6

14 ZD1,ZD2,ZD3,ZD4,ZD5,ZD6,

ZD7,ZD8,ZD9,ZD10,ZD11,ZD12

Zener diode Zener-18V 12

51

52 Appendix C. Main Circuit Board5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

DD

CC

BB

AA

Inpu

t

Title:3

-Pha

se,3

-Lev

elAC-DCCo

nverter

Autho

r:Krishn

aKu

mar

R7 50

k

R8 50

k

JP1

HE

AD

ER

4

1 2 3 4

JP3

HE

AD

ER

4

1 2 3 4

JP5

HE

AD

ER

4

1 2 3 4

JP2

HE

AD

ER

4

1 2 3 4

D9

MUR160

21

JP4

HE

AD

ER

4

1 2 3 4

Q3

IRF8

40

2

1

3 ZD5

21

R3

10k

Q4

IRF8

40

2

1

3

R4

10k

D10

MUR160

21

ZD6

21

JP6

HE

AD

ER

4

1 2 3 4

D1 81

00E

31

ZD7

21

ZD8

21

F3 Fuse1 2F2 Fuse1 2F1 Fuse1 2

Q1

IRF8

40

2

1

3

D3 81

00E

31

D4 81

00E

31

D5 81

00E

31

D6

8100

E

31

D2

8100

E

31

Q2

IRF8

40

2

1

3

D7

MUR160

21

+C2+C1

R2

10k

R1

10k

ZD2

21

ZD1

21

Q5

IRF8

402

1

3

R5

10k

D11

MUR160

21

R6

10k

ZD10

21

ZD9

21

ZD11

21

D12

MUR160

21

ZD12

21

Q6

IRF8

402

1

3

JP12

HE

AD

ER

3

1 2 3

JP13

HE

AD

ER

3

1 2 3

D8

MUR160

21

C3

CAPACITOR

C4

CAPACITOR

JP11

HE

AD

ER

3

1 2 3

JP7

LOA

D

1 2 3 4 5

ZD3

21

ZD4

21

J1R

1 2 J2Y

1 2 J3B

1 2

TP

2

TE

ST

PO

INT

1TP

1

TE

ST

PO

INT

1 TP

3

TE

ST

PO

INT

1

TP

4T

ES

TP

OIN

T1 T

P5

TE

ST

PO

INT

1

TP

6

TEST POINT 1

JP9

HE

AD

ER

3

1 2 3

JP8

HE

AD

ER

3

1 2 3

JP10

HE

AD

ER

3

1 2 3

C6

CA

PA

CIT

OR

C5 C

AP

AC

ITO

R

C8

CA

PA

CIT

OR

C7

CA

PA

CIT

OR

q31

q11

q32

q23

q13

q33

q21

q12

q12

q11

q13

q23

q21

q22

q22

q31

q33

q32

q42

q41

q43

q53

q52

q41

q43

q42

q52

q51

q53

q62

q62

q63

q51

q63

q61

q61

Figure C.1: Schematic of the 3-Phase, 3-level rectifier

Appendix D

PCB Layout

53

54 Appendix D. PCB Layout

Figure D.1: Component positions in bottom layer

55

Figure D.2: Bottom layer of the PCB

56 Appendix D. PCB Layout

Figure D.3: Component positions in top layer

57

Figure D.4: Top layer of the PCB

Appendix E

Testing of Power Circuit PCB

E.1 Testing of Diodes on the PCB

Figure E.1: Circuit for testing of diodes on the PCB

58

E.2. Diode test circuit waveforms 59

E.2 Diode test circuit waveforms

Figure E.2: Voltage across diode Da2 and input current ia

Figure E.3: Voltage across diode Da2 and DC bus voltage Vdc

60 Appendix E. Testing of Power Circuit PCB

E.3 Testing of Mosfets on the PCB

Figure E.4: Circuits for testing of mosfets on the PCB

E.4 Mosfet test circuit (b) waveforms

Figure E.5: Gate-source voltage Vgs and Drain-source voltage Vds of the switched mosfet

E.4. Mosfet test circuit (b) waveforms 61

Figure E.6: Voltages across capacitors C1 and C2 when mosfets are not switched

Figure E.7: Voltages across capacitors C1 and C2 when mosfets are switched

Appendix F

Pictures of the Hardware Setup

Figure F.1: Front view of the rectifier

62

63

Figure F.2: Back view of the rectifier

Figure F.3: Complete Hardware setup

References

[1] IEEE Standard 519-1992, IEEE Recommended Practices and Requirements for Harmonic

Control in Electrical Power Systems

[2] Kolar, J.W.; Zach, F.C.; , “A novel three-phase utility interface minimizing line current

harmonics of high-power telecommunications rectifier modules,” IEEE Transactions on

Industrial Electronics, vol.44, pp.456-467, August 1997

[3] Kolar, J.W.; Drofenik, U.; Zach, F.C.; , “Space vector based analysis of the varia-

tion and control of the neutral point potential of hysteresis current controlled three-

phase/switch/level PWM rectifier systems,” Proceedings of 1995 International Confer-

ence on Power Electronics and Drive Systems, vol.1, pp.22-33, February 1995

[4] Kolar, J.W.; Drofenik, U.; Zach, F.C.; , “Current handling capability of the neutral point

of a three-phase/switch/level boost-type PWM (VIENNA) rectifier,” 27th Annual IEEE

conference, Power Electronics Specialists Conference, vol.2, pp.1329-1336, June 1996

[5] Zhao, Y.; Li, Y.; Lipo, T.A.; , “Force commutated three level boost type rectifier,”

Conference Record of the 1993 IEEE Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, vol.2,

pp.771-777, October 1993

[6] Singh, B.; Singh, B.N.; Chandra, A.; Al-Haddad, K.; Pandey, A.; Kothari, D.P.; , “A

review of three-phase improved power quality AC-DC converters,” IEEE Transactions

on Industrial Electronics, vol.51, pp.641- 660, June 2004

[7] Kolar, J.W.; Ertl, H.; Zach, F.C.; , “Design and experimental investigation of a three-

phase high power density high efficiency unity power factor PWM (VIENNA) rectifier

employing a novel integrated power semiconductor module,” IEEE Conference Proceed-

ings 1996, vol.2, pp.514-523, March 1996

64

References 65

[8] LTSpice IV, Linear Technology corporation, http://www.linear.com/software

[9] Vinod John, “Course Notes on Topics in power electronics and distributed generation”,

Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 2011

[10] G Narayanan, “Course Notes on PWM Converters and Applications”, Department of

Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 2011

[11] PEG, “Hardware design, documentation of 3φ, 10kVA Inverter, Department of Electrical

Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, June 2003.

[12] IPC-2221, “Generic standard on printed board design”, The institute for interconnecting

and packaging electronic circuits, February 1998.

[13] Chung S K, “Phase locked loop for grid-connected three-phase power conversion sys-

tem”, Proc. IEE Electr. Power Appl., vol.147, pp 213-219, May 2000

[14] Drofenik, U.; Kolar, J.W.; , “Comparison of not synchronized sawtooth carrier and

synchronized triangular carrier phase current control for the VIENNA rectifier I,” IEEE

International Symposium on Industrial Electronics, vol.1, pp.13-19, 1999

[15] Hag-Wone Kim; Byung-Chul Yoon; Kwan-Yuhl Cho; Byung-Kuk Lim; Soon-Sang

Hwang; , “Single carrier wave comparison PWM for Vienna rectifier and consideration for

DC-link voltage unbalance of offset voltage effects,” IEEE Telecommunications Energy

Conference, pp.1-6, October 2011

[16] TMS320LF/LC240xA, “DSP Controllers Reference Guide”, Texas Instruments Inc.,

May 2006

[17] Internet, “Datasheets of various components and IC’s”

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