Evaluation of a Trapezoidal Predictive Controller for a Four-Wire Active Power Filter for Utility Equipment of Metro Railway, Power-Land Substations

The realization of an improved predictive current controller based on a trapezoidal model is described, and the impact of this technique is assessed on the performance of a 2 kW, 21.6 kHz, four-wire, Active Power Filter for utility equipment of Metro Railway, Power-Land Substations. The operation of the trapezoidal predictive current controller is contrasted with that of a typical predictive control technique, based on a single Euler approximation, which has demonstrated generation of high-quality line currents, each using a 400 V DC link to improve the power quality of an unbalanced nonlinear load of Metro Railway. The results show that the supply current waveforms become virtually sinusoidal waves, reducing the current ripple by 50% and improving its power factor from 0.8 to 0.989 when the active filter is operated with a 1.6 kW load. The principle of operation of the trapezoidal predictive controller is analysed together with a description of its practical development, showing experimental results obtained with a 2 kW prototype

Additional information delivery to image content via improved unseen–visible watermarking

In a practical watermark scenario, watermarks are used to provide auxiliary information; in this way, an analogous digital approach called unseen–visible watermark has been introduced to deliver auxiliary information. In this algorithm, the embedding stage takes advantage of the visible and invisible watermarking to embed an owner logotype or barcodes as watermarks; in the exhibition stage, the equipped functions of the display devices are used to reveal the watermark to the naked eyes, eliminating any watermark exhibition algorithm. In this paper, a watermark complement strategy for unseen–visible watermarking is proposed to improve the embedding stage, reducing the histogram distortion and the visual degradation of the watermarked image. The presented algorithm exhibits the following contributions: first, the algorithm can be applied to any class of images with large smooth regions of low or high intensity; second, a watermark complement strategy is introduced to reduce the visual degradation and histogram distortion of the watermarked image; and third, an embedding error measurement is proposed. Evaluation results show that the proposed strategy has high performance in comparison with other algorithms, providing a high visual quality of the exhibited watermark and preserving its robustness in terms of readability and imperceptibility against geometric and processing attacks

A Modular AC-DC Power Converter with Zero Voltage Transition for Electric Vehicles

A study of the fundamental of operation of a three-phase AC-DC power converter that uses Zero-Voltage Transition (ZVT) together with Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM) is presented. The converter is basically an active rectifier divided into two converters: a matrix converter and an H bridge, which transfer energy through a high-frequency transformer, resulting in a modular AC-DC wireless converter appropriate for Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs). The principle of operation of this converter considers high power quality, output regulation and low semiconductor power loss. The circuit operation, idealized waveforms and modulation strategy are explained together with simulation results of a 5 kW design

Imperceptible–Visible Watermarking to Information Security Tasks in Color Imaging

Digital image watermarking algorithms have been designed for intellectual property, copyright protection, medical data management, and other related fields; furthermore, in real-world applications such as official documents, banknotes, etc., they are used to deliver additional information about the documents’ authenticity. In this context, the imperceptible–visible watermarking (IVW) algorithm has been designed as a digital reproduction of the real-world watermarks. This paper presents a new improved IVW algorithm for copyright protection that can deliver additional information to the image content. The proposed algorithm is divided into two stages: in the embedding stage, a human visual system-based strategy is used to embed an owner logotype or a 2D quick response (QR) code as a watermark into a color image, maintaining a high watermark imperceptibility and low image-quality degradation. In the exhibition, a new histogram binarization function approach is introduced to exhibit any watermark with enough quality to be recognized or decoded by any application, which is focused on reading QR codes. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can embed one or more watermark patterns, maintaining the high imperceptibility and visual quality of the embedded and the exhibited watermark. The performance evaluation shows that the method overcomes several drawbacks reported in previous algorithms, including geometric and image processing attacks such as JPEG and JPEG2000

Additional Information Delivery to Image Content via Improved Unseen–Visible Watermarking

In a practical watermark scenario, watermarks are used to provide auxiliary information; in this way, an analogous digital approach called unseen–visible watermark has been introduced to deliver auxiliary information. In this algorithm, the embedding stage takes advantage of the visible and invisible watermarking to embed an owner logotype or barcodes as watermarks; in the exhibition stage, the equipped functions of the display devices are used to reveal the watermark to the naked eyes, eliminating any watermark exhibition algorithm. In this paper, a watermark complement strategy for unseen–visible watermarking is proposed to improve the embedding stage, reducing the histogram distortion and the visual degradation of the watermarked image. The presented algorithm exhibits the following contributions: first, the algorithm can be applied to any class of images with large smooth regions of low or high intensity; second, a watermark complement strategy is introduced to reduce the visual degradation and histogram distortion of the watermarked image; and third, an embedding error measurement is proposed. Evaluation results show that the proposed strategy has high performance in comparison with other algorithms, providing a high visual quality of the exhibited watermark and preserving its robustness in terms of readability and imperceptibility against geometric and processing attacks

A New Approach for Approximate Solution of ADE: Physical-Based Modeling of Carriers in Doping Region

The electric behavior in semiconductor devices is the result of the electric carriers’ injection and evacuation in the low doping region, N-. The carrier’s dynamic is determined by the ambipolar diffusion equation (ADE), which involves the main physical phenomena in the low doping region. The ADE does not have a direct analytic solution since it is a spatio-temporal second-order differential equation. The numerical solution is the most used, but is inadequate to be integrated into commercial electric circuit simulators. In this paper, an empiric approximation is proposed as the solution of the ADE. The proposed solution was validated using the final equations that were implemented in a simulator; the results were compared with the experimental results in each phase, obtaining a similarity in the current waveforms. Finally, an advantage of the proposed methodology is that the final expressions obtained can be easily implemented in commercial simulators

Series RLC Resonant Circuit Used as Frequency Multiplier

Currently, the design of resonant power converters has only been developed while operating in the steady state, while the design operating in the transient stage has not been considered nor reported. This paper is interested in testing the performance of the resonant circuits operating in the transient stage and finding applications where benefits can be obtained from this form of operation. One application in which it is possible to obtain benefits from designing resonant circuits in the transient state is in the area of frequency multiplication. Usually, to achieve frequency multiplication, it is necessary to resort to complex methods and special devices that increase the complexity of the design and the total cost of the circuit. This paper evaluates the performance of a series RLC resonant circuit operating in the transient stage and with an underdamped response acting as a frequency multiplier, where the oscillation frequency of the current in the resonant tank is “n” number of times the switching frequency of the square voltage source at the input with a duty cycle of D = 50%. To validate the analysis, a circuit was designed to deliver an output power of 30 watts to a resistive load, where the switching frequency of the square voltage source at the input was 500 kHz. Since a multiplier value “n” equal to fifteen was chosen, the current in the resonant tank reached an oscillation frequency of 7.5 MHz. The design methodology was validated by simulations in SPICE, complying with the established design parameters

Series RLC Resonant Circuit Used as Frequency Multiplier

Currently, the design of resonant power converters has only been developed while operating in the steady state, while the design operating in the transient stage has not been considered nor reported. This paper is interested in testing the performance of the resonant circuits operating in the transient stage and finding applications where benefits can be obtained from this form of operation. One application in which it is possible to obtain benefits from designing resonant circuits in the transient state is in the area of frequency multiplication. Usually, to achieve frequency multiplication, it is necessary to resort to complex methods and special devices that increase the complexity of the design and the total cost of the circuit. This paper evaluates the performance of a series RLC resonant circuit operating in the transient stage and with an underdamped response acting as a frequency multiplier, where the oscillation frequency of the current in the resonant tank is “n” number of times the switching frequency of the square voltage source at the input with a duty cycle of D = 50%. To validate the analysis, a circuit was designed to deliver an output power of 30 watts to a resistive load, where the switching frequency of the square voltage source at the input was 500 kHz. Since a multiplier value “n” equal to fifteen was chosen, the current in the resonant tank reached an oscillation frequency of 7.5 MHz. The design methodology was validated by simulations in SPICE, complying with the established design parameters