An area-time efficient FPGA-implementation of online finite-set model based predictive controllers for flying capacitor inverters

Recently there has been an increase in the use of model-based predictive control (MBPC) for power-electronic converters. Especially for flying-capacitor multilevel converters (FCC) this offers an interesting possibility to simultaneously control output current and the capacitor voltages. The computational burden however is very high and often restrictive for a good implementation. In this paper a time and resource efficient design methodology is presented for the FPGA implementation of FCC MBPC. The control is fully implemented in programmable digital logic. Due to a parallel processing for the three converter phases and a fully pipelined calculation of the prediction stage an area-time efficient implementation is realized. Furthermore, this is achieved by using a high-level design tool. The implementation aspects for 3, 4 and 5-level FC inverters are discussed, with a focus on the 4-level case

Self-precharge in single-leg flying capacitor converters

Flying Capacitor (FC) multilevel pulse width modulated (PWM) converters are an attractive choice due to the natural voltage balance property. During start-up of the converter, care has to be taken that the power switches are not exposed to voltage overstress due to uncharged capacitors. A flying capacitor self-precharge technique is proposed which, by making use of natural balancing and a DC-bus rate control, makes the capacitors balance with a zero average load current. The DC-bus rate control depends on the capacitor voltage balance dynamics. The regular PWM natural balancing technique gives good results for even-level single-leg converter self-precharge, for odd-level converters a special switching pattern is necessary

Flying-capacitor multilevel converter voltage balance dynamics for pure resistive load

Multilevel converters need voltage balancing to be able to generate an output voltage with high quality. Flying capacitor converter topology has a natural voltage balancing property. Voltage balance dynamics analytical research methods reported to date are essentially based on a frequency domain analysis using double fourier transform. These complicated methods are not truly analytical, which makes an understanding of parameter influence on time constants difficult. In this paper, a straightforward time domain approach based on stitching of switch intervals piece-wise analytical solutions to a DC modulated H-bridge flying capacitor converter is discussed. This method allows to obtain time-averaged discrete and continuous voltage balance dynamics models. Using small-parameter approximation for pure resistive loads, simple and accurate expressions for voltage balance time constants are deduced, revealing their dependence on load parameters, carrier frequency and duty ratio

On extended Kalman filters with augmented state vectors for the stator flux estimation in SPMSMs

The demand for highly dynamic electrical drives, characterized by high quality torque control, in a wide variety of applications has grown tremendously during the past decades. Direct torque control (DTC) for permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) can provide this accurate and fast torque control. When applying DTC the change of the stator flux linkage vector is controlled, based on torque and flux errors. As such the estimation of the stator flux linkage is essential. In the literature several possible solutions for the estimation of the stator flux linkage are proposed. In order to overcome problems associated with the integration of the back-emf, the use of state observers has been advocated in the literature. Several types of state observers have been conceived and implemented for PMSMs, especially the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) has received much attention. In most reported applications however the EKF is only used to estimate the speed and rotor position of the PMSM in order to realize field oriented current control in a rotor reference frame. Far fewer publications mention the use of an EKF to estimate the stator flux linkage vector in order to apply DTC. Still the performance of the EKF in the estimation of the stator flux linkage vector has not yet been thoroughly investigated. In this paper the performance of the EKF for stator flux linkage is studied and simulated. The possibilities to improve the estimation by augmenting the state vector and the consequences of these alterations are explored. Important practical aspects for FPGA implementation are discussed

On the stator flux linkage estimation of an PMSM with extended Kalman filters

The demand for drives with high quality torque control has grown tremendously in a wide variety of applications. Direct torque control (DTC) for permanent magnet synchronous motors can provide this accurate and fast torque control. When applying DTC the change of the stator flux linkage vector is controlled. As such the estimation of the stator flux linkage is essential. In this paper the performance of the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) for stator flux linkage estimation is studied. Starting from a formulation of the EKF for isotropic motors, the influence of rotor anisotropy and saturation is evaluated. Subsequently it is expanded to highly isotropic motors as well. In both cases the possibilities to add parameter estimations are evaluated

Mitigation of cross-saturation effects in resonance-based sensorless switched reluctance drives

The stator and rotor yoke in a switched reluctance motor form magnetic circuit parts that are typically shared by different phases. If these parts saturate due to the excitation of one phase, this will lead to a change of the magnetic characteristics of all other phases sharing these parts. In several position-sensorless methods, cross-saturation leads to a load-dependent position estimation error. In this paper, the influence of cross-saturation on a resonance-based position estimation method is studied. The method extracts position information from electrical resonances triggered in an idle motor phase. A cross-saturation mitigation scheme is presented in order to reduce the commutation position error. The scheme uses only one additional parameter per phase which can be measured automatically during commissioning of the drive. Experimental results at low and medium speed show that the position estimation error remains smaller dan 2 mechanical degrees over the rated load range

FPGA implementation of online finite-set model based predictive control for power electronics

Recently there has been an increase in the use of model based predictive control (MBPC) for power-electronic converters. MBPC allows fast and accurate control of multiple controlled variables for hybrid systems such as a power electronic converter and its load. The computational burden for this control scheme however is very high and often restrictive for a good implementation. This means that a suitable technology and design approach should be used. In this paper the implementation of finite-set MBPC (FS-MBPC) in field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) is discussed. The control is fully implemented in programmable digital logic by using a high-level design tool. This allows to obtain very good performances (both in control quality, speed and hardware utilization) and have a flexible, modular control configuration. The feasibility and performance of the FPGA implementation of FS-MBPC is discussed in this paper for a 4-level flying-capacitor converter (FCC). This is an interesting application as FS-MBPC allows the simultaneous control of the output current and the capacitor voltages, yet the high number of possible switch states results in a high computational load. The good performance is obtained by exploiting the FPGA’s strong points: parallelism and pipe-lining. In the application discussed in this paper the parallel processing for the three converter phases and a fully pipelined calculation of the prediction stage allow to realize an area-time efficient implementation

Improved natural balancing with modified phase shifted PWM for single-leg five-level flying-capacitor converters

Flying capacitor converters (FCCs), as most multilevel converter topologies, require a balancing mechanism of the capacitor voltages. FCCs have the valuable property of natural voltage balancing when a special modulation technique is used. The classic methods, like Phase-Shifted Pulse Width Modulation (PS-PWM), result in very slow balancing for some duty ratio ranges. Previous work showed that for a single-leg five-level FCC one time constant is infinite for a zero desired output voltage. In this paper, a modified PS-PWM scheme for a single-leg fivelevel FCC is presented which results in faster balancing over the total duty ratio range. The modified PS-PWM scheme is studied, resulting in an averaged voltage balancing model. This model is verified using simulations and experiments. The modified PS-PWM scheme solves the slow balancing problems of the normal PS-PWM method for odd-level FCCs, while maintaining the passive control property, and it provides a self-precharge capability