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Loop Gain Measurement

Control Loop

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133 views

Loop Gain Measurement

Control Loop

Uploaded by

gubili
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bode 100 - Information

Loop Gain Measurement


Page 1 of 7

Loop Gain Measurement


The Voltage Injection Method using the
Bode 100 and the B-WIT 100

By Florian Hmmerle
2011 Omicron Lab V1.0
Visit www.omicron-lab.com for more information.
Contact [email protected] for technical support.

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Bode 100 - Information


Loop Gain Measurement
Page 2 of 7

1 Introduction
Negative feedback is commonly used for control systems.
The figure below shows a simple system with a negative feedback.

The output signal or voltage

follows the reference voltage

by the relation

This is denoted as the "closed loop transfer function".


is called the "loop gain" which is the product of all gains around the loop and equals
in this case to
.
Knowing the loop gain one can apply the Nyquist stability criterion to measure the gain
and phase margin and assess the overall stability of the closed loop system.
The loop gain of a system can e.g. be derived from a model of the system. Models
normally do not consider all parasitics and unwanted effects. Therefore it can be
advantageous to measure the loop gain of a feedback system during the design
process.

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Bode 100 - Information


Loop Gain Measurement
Page 3 of 7

2 Loop Gain Measurement


One practical method to measure the loop gain in electronic feedback systems like
DC-DC converters or voltage regulators is the voltage injection method (1). The
theoretical derivation of the voltage injection method is shown in the next section. In the
following is shown how the voltage injection method can be applied in practice and what
has to be considered to achieve correct results.
Using a suitable injection transformer (e.g. the B-WIT 100) one can inject a test voltage
at an appropriate injection-point in the feedback loop of the system. Then the response
of the loop can be measured using a vector network analyzer or a frequency response
analyzer like the Bode 100.
The following figure shows the principle measurement setup to measure the loop gain of
a feedback system. A resistor
is inserted in the feedback loop at an
appropriate injection-point. The injection transformer is connected in parallel to the
injection resistor to apply the test voltage
at the injection resistor. This enables the
injection of the test voltage without changing the DC-bias of the system.

The analyzers inputs are connected on both sides of the injection resistor using coaxial
cables or voltage probes. The loop gain is then measured by measuring the complex
voltage gain from point A to B.

Where

is the measured loop gain and

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and

are measured voltages.

Bode 100 - Information


Loop Gain Measurement
Page 4 of 7

The measured loop gain


equals approximately the "real" loop gain if the
impedance looking forward around the feedback loop
is much greater than the
impedance looking backwards from the injection point
.
Condition 1

The second condition that must be fulfilled to ensure that the measured loop gain equals
approximately the real loop gain is:
Condition 2
From this we see that it is important to choose a suitable injection point that fulfills both
conditions.
The first condition
is often fulfilled at the output of the voltage regulator
which is normally of low impedance characteristic. Further suitable points are generally
at high impedance inputs like operational amplifier inputs.
The second condition is more difficult to check. Especially small loop gain results, above
the crossover frequency need to be checked very carefully.
The magnitude of the injection voltage should be kept as low as possible to avoid large
signal effects as saturation or nonlinearities influence the measurement.
The size of the injection resistor does not directly influence the measurement result if it
is kept small enough. We recommend using a
resistor in combination with the
B-WIT 100 to ensure the use of the full measurement frequency range from
to
.

In the following the derivation of the two conditions


and
is shown according to (2).

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Bode 100 - Information


Loop Gain Measurement
Page 5 of 7

3 The Voltage Injection Method


In general the loop gain
of a feedback system as shown below can be measured by
breaking the feedback loop at a suitable point A where two blocks of the feedback
system are connected electrically.

Applying a test voltage


after the injection point A leads to the response
voltage
before the injection point.

The measured loop gain then equals

Lets have a closer look at the injection point A where the two blocks
and
are
connected electrically and lets extend our model. The output of the first block is
modelled with a dependent voltage source
including the source impedance
The input of the second block is modelled with an input impedance
:

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Bode 100 - Information


Loop Gain Measurement
Page 6 of 7

Using the model from above it can be seen that the input impedance of the second
block
loads the output of the first block. Considering this model which includes the
impedances
and
, the "real" loop gain
of the system can be calculated by:
(1)
The voltage injection is now included in the model as shown in the following figure

The injecting source is modeled with a voltage source and a series impedance

In order to measure the loop gain our vector network analyzer is connected to the
system and measures

All other inputs of the system (reference voltage and supply voltage) are considered to
be constant showing no AC variations.
According to this model the error voltage is then given by

Considering the current flowing from block 1 to block 2, the output voltage of block 1 can
be written as

Combining these two equations leads to


(2)

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Bode 100 - Information


Loop Gain Measurement
Page 7 of 7

The current

can be expressed by

Therefore expression (2) becomes

Hence the measured loop gain equals

Expressing the measured loop gain


leads to

in term of the acutal loop gain

The first term of this expression is proportional to the actual loop gain
approximately equal to
when

Which is the first condition necessary to fulfill

from (1)

and is

The second term limits the minimum loop gain that can be measured using the voltage
injection method. If this term is much smaller than the loop gain it can be ignored. Thus
we arrive at the second condition to ensure
:

The injection resistor respectively injection voltage does influence the loading from
block 2 on block 1. However, if condition 1 is satisfied and the test signal is kept small
comparing to the absolute signal, this effect is negligible.

References
1. Measurement of loop gain in feedback systems. Middlebrook, R.D. s.l. : International
Journal of Electronics, 1975, Bd. 38.
2. Erickson, Robert W. und Maksimovic, Dragan. Fundamentals of Power
Electronics. s.l. : Springer, 2001.

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