A Microcontroller Based Voltage Space Vector Modulator

Suitable for Induction Motor Drives

Grasa Minas Jlilio S.Martins Carlos Couto

University of Minho University of Minho University of Minho
Dept. of Industrial Electronics Dept. of Industrial Electronics Dep. of Industrial Electronics
Largo do Paqo Largo do Paqo Largo do Pago
4709 Braga Codex, Portugal 4709 Braga Codex, Portugal 4709 Braga Codex, Portugal
gminas @dei.uminho.pt [email protected] ccouto @dei.uminho.pt

Abstract -
Pulse width modulation techniques (PWM), The main objectives pursued in the PWM modulator
introduced two decades ago, are the most used methods to described in this paper were:
control the voltage and frequency supplied to electrical AC 0 to implement a three-phase modulator capable of
machines. This paper describes a pulse width modulator synthesising waveforms of good quality for a wide
based on the voltage space vectors technique that accepts range of frequencies and magnitudes and with a good
voltage demands in dq coordinates and generates three-phase
resolution;
PWM waveforms to drive a variable frequency
0 to get a software based solution (the hardware
voltage-source inverter. A scheme based on a high
performance 16-bit standard microcontroller with minimum required should be minimum);
of additional hardware is used, which allows a flexible and to build a scheme suitable for field oriented control;
economical solution. The output frequency of the modulator 0 to design the software so that it could be easily
can be varied in a large range and with a good resolution. integrated in different applications.
Experimental data obtained from an induction motor drive
will be presented.
11. DESCRIPTION OF THE MODULATION
TECHNIQUE
I. INTRODUCTION
The pulse width modulation technique used is based on
The continuous efforts to increase industry productivity the voltage space vectors method, which was originally
and to reduce energy costs in a market more and more introduced in [ 2 ] . The space vectors diagram of
demanding in terms of product quality, are some reasons line-to-neutral voltages of a voltage-source inverter is
that led, in the last two decades, to a great effort in the shown in Fig. 2. The vectors are presented in the per-unit
development of AC motor drives. The development was format where U,, (voltage in the DC bus) is used as base
made in several areas, such as: microelectronics, allowing value. They correspond to all the possible states of the
the use of software instead of hardware to solve complex inverter output (Fig. 3) and can be designed by integer
control problems for an affordable price; power numbers in the 0 to 7 range. One cycle of the output
semiconductors technology, providing powerful, fast and voltage requires one revolution of the reference vector U
easy to drive switches; control algorithms with, for in the d-jq complex plane. To. synthesise a perfect sine
example, the development of very sophisticated and wave, the geometric place of U should be a circle whose
cheaper modulation techniques. As a result of those radius corresponds to the desired magnitude. But, when the
efforts, AC motor drives are today a very interesting output voltage is generated by an inverter, only the vectors
alternative to DC motor based systems. U, to U, can be produced at a given instant. Thes: vectors
In order to vary the speed of an AC electrical machine, are called base vectors. Therefore any vector U desired
efficiently and in a wide range, both the supply voltage
must be represented as an average rather than an
and frequency must be modified [l]. In the solution that instantaneous qufntity. The average of the base vectors
nowadays is accepted as standard, these two parameters used to produce U is taken over a switching interval of the
are adjusted in the DC-AC conversion stage, by means of a inverter, corresponding to the shaded area in Fig. 2 [31.
PWM voltage-source inverter (Fig. 1). The reference vector located in a given sector can be
synthesised as a linear combination of the two adjacent
I DC 1 DC I base vectors (U, and uy) and one of the two zero vectors

U,
4-, [-+*yq-J
f, constant
(Q:
U' = d p , +d p , + d p , 9

where d,, d, and d, are the duty cycle of the states X, Y and
Z, respectively, within a switching interval. The duty cycle
Fig. 1. AC drive system. is defined as the ratio between the duration of the state and
the switching interval. So, dx+d,+dz = 1.

0-7803-5662-4/99/$10.00 01999 IEEE 469 ISIE'99 - Bled, Slovenia

 The vector U' can also be written, in polar coordinates,
as:
u* =maiU,, xej', (2)
where mu is the modulation index (O<maS100%), U,, is
= U,
-d the maximum voltage of U * and LY its angular position
inside the sector. For the example illustrated in Fig. 2,
where U' belongs to the sector 0 and a denotes the angular
distance between vectors U * and ux,we have:
U, = u 4 = 1 + j0

Fig. 2. Voltage space vectors PWM technique. (3)

m U, = U o = U , =o
After some calculations the duty cycle of the X, Y and Z
states can be given by (4). The same rules apply to the
other sectors, since the d-jq reference frame can be aligned
with any base vector.
000, = 0, 100, = 4d d , = ma xsin(6W-a)
d , = ma x sin(a) (4)
d , =l-d,-d,

If the U, and U, quantities produced by the controller

are written in stator coordinates, as it is usually the case
when a field oriented controller is used, d, and d, can be
easily computed. In contrast to other methods, there is no
110, = 6, 010, = 2,
need for coordinate transformations or even tables with
samples of sinusoidal references. For sector 0, the duty
cycle of the states X and Y is:

d, = U ,
011, = 3, 001, = 1,
The Z state can be defined by two different base vectors,
due to the freedom of choice of the zero vector state, i. e.,
' r n l C +
u,=(OOO) and u,=(lll). In order to assure that the
switching from one active state ( X or Y) to the Z state
involves only the switching of one leg of the inverter, is
LI_I
0
preferable to choose U, when the previous state is U,,U, or
U,,and U, will be chosen after U,,U, and U,.
101, = 5, 111, = 7, If, for example, the vector U* is in sector 0,one possible
solution for the pulsewidths for the three-phases is
Fig. 3. Possible states of an inverter. presented in Fig. 4.
For all sectors and in order to keep the sum of d,, d, and
In order to avoid low-order harmonics resulting from d, equal to 1 , the switching sequence and the time of each
the non-circular shape of the envelope, the geometrical state ( U , U, and ut) within a switching interval can be
position of the synthesised vectors is limited to the circle
inside the hexagonal envelope (corresponding to the linear
modulation in the sinusoidal PWM method). As a result,
the maximum magnitude of the reference vector is
(&/2)UDc. To obtain, in the three-phase system, the
corresponding line-to-neutral fundamental voltage, this
value must be divided by 312, giving U , =U,,/&. This
value equals the obtained using the sinusoidal pulse width
modulation (SPWM) with harmonic addition, as proved
in [4].

470
 devices have bit, byte, word and 32-bit operations. The
Motion Control family has peripherals that are optimised
for three-phase AC induction motor control and power
inverter applications. These devices have a unique
peripheral, the Waveform Generator (WFG), which greatly
simplifies the control software and external hardware used
for generating three-phase pulse width modulation
waveforms. The WFG generates three complementary
non-overlapping PWM pulses with resolutions of 125 ns or
250 ns (with a 16 MHz oscillator). Once initialised, the
WFG requires CPU intervention only to change PWM
duty cycles. The WFG features programmable switching
(or carrier) frequency up to 32 kHz, duty cycle and dead
time. The dead time generator (included in the WFG
peripheral) prevents the complementary outputs from
l I being turned on at the same time, in order to avoid a short
r,= r, _____cI circuit in one leg of the power inverter. This peripheral
also has two programmable high drive capability outputs
Fig. 4. Synthesis of pulsewidths for the sector 0. for each phase. The outputs have programmable polarity,
or may be forced high or low [5,6].
Table 1 summarises the states sequence for one fycle of Fig. 6 shows how the WFG produces the PWM
the output voltage, i. e., one revolution of vector U in d-jq waveforms. The WG-RELOAD register determines the
plane (the states sequence are designed by binary numbers switching frequency. The WG-COUNTER register is a
which is equivalent to the integer numbers of Fig. 2) 16-bit counter which is clocked every state machine. When
the counter is running, it continuously counts up and down
TABLE I between OOOlH and the WG-RELOAD value. When the
STATE SEQUENCE WITHIN A REFERENCE PERIOD
counter equals the WG-COMP values (there are three
Sector
WG-COMP values, one for each phase) the outputs are
0 complemented, so, this register set the pulse width. Each
Q time the WG-COUNTER register reaches the
0 WG-RELOAD value, an interrupt is generated
8 (PI-Interrupt). This interrupt is used to change,,the
0 WG-COMP register values (if needed).
d

WG-COUNTER /WG-RELOAD \
111. DESCRIPTION OF THE MODULATOR \A WG-COMP 1
/: I \A:
A. Hardware Design d :
; T, ;
A version of the modulator suitable for the field oriented PI-interrupt
control, accepts as inputs the voltage demand in dq stator
coordinates (U, and U,), and generates, on-line, the : WG output pulse i
three-phase PWM digital waveforms, which drive the
power stage (Fig. 5). In the proposed solution, the
1 r----l
modulator hardware is just a 16-bit microcontroller with Fig. 6 . Carrier and one phase of the output waveform.
minimum additional logic, which provides the interface

1-
with power stage.

Controller
outputs
&ti INTERFACE
INVERTER Lip
INVERTER
B. Software Design

The general flowchart of the modulator software is

shown in Fig. 7. There are basically two concurrent tasks:

-
the CALC-ST and PI-Interrupt routines, Fig. 7 (a) and (b),
(U, U,)
I
Waveforms respectively. In the CALC-ST routine the outputs U, and
80196MC U, (inputs to the modulator), produced by the controller,
d
+ “D,
b. are used, firstly, to determine the sector number of the U’
vector (using the division of U, by U,,).After that, the duty
Fig. 5 . Block diagram of the used system to test the modulator.
cycles d,, d, and d, must be computed. Depending on the
sector, the equations to compute these duty cycles ( 5 ) must
The microcontroller is a standard INTEL MCS-196
be slightly changed, according the sequence given on table
microcontroller from the Motion Control family
1. Then, the values that must be loaded to the WG-COMP
(80C196MC), specially designed for complex, real-time
registers are the switching times, t,, tz and r3 (Fig. 4),
control applications. It shares a common, register-based
calculated as in (7).
architecture core that eliminates the accumulator
Note that, only the first three switching times must be
bottleneck and enables fast context switching. Although
computed. The WFG produces the remaining switching
the MCS-196 microcontrollers are a 16-bit architecture, all
times (t4 to 1,) without CPU overhead.

47 1
 PI-Interrupt higher the carrier frequency, the worst the pulse width
resolution.
I The carrier frequency used in the experiments was about
16 kHz, which allows a pulse width resolution of 1/512,
Cont = NCarrier? perfectly acceptable for most applications. With this
frequency the switching times are updated within four
carrier periods. The modulator synthesises a frequency in
the range of 0 Hz to 100 Hz (with speed inversion) with a
resolution of 0.003 Hz.
Load the WG-COMP
registers with
Calculate switching
time t,, t2 and t3 IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
1

The Fig. 8 presents the hardware arrangement used to

test the modulator. A personal computer can be connected
to the system through the microcontroller serial port to set
the speed reference (input to the controller) and to monitor
Fig. 7. Flowchart of the modulator software. and adjust some parameters related to the motor operation.
The user can choose which parameters he wants to
monitor.
t, =-dz The implemented modulator was tested with a 1 CV
4 three-phase induction motor, wye-connected (without
4 neutral), fed by an IGBT voltage-source inverter
t, = t, f - (7) producing the results presented in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10. The
2 phase-to-middle point of the DC bus (Fig. 9(a) and
dY Fig. 10(a)) and the phase current (Fig. 9(c) and Fig. lO(c))
t3 = t 2 +2 were acquired on-line. Their corresponding harmonic
spectrum (Fig. 9(b), 10(b), 9(c) and IO(c)) were computed
The PI-Interrupt routine is executed within each carrier with a graphical signal processing tool called Dadisp.
period (as shown in Fig. 6) and it is the task with higher From the figure it can be seen that the voltage spectrum
priority. It just loads the WG-COW registers with the is similar to the one obtained for sinusoidal modulation
switching times computed by the CALC-ST routine. with triple harmonic addition, in which the most
For high carrier frequencies the microcontroller may not significant harmonic components appear as sidebands
be fast enough to compute the switching times for each centred around the switching frequency and its
carrier period. In this case the same switching times are multiples [7].
used for more than one carrier period (set by Ncarrier With the carrier frequency used, both the current
value in the flowchart of Fig. 7(b)). harmonic content and the machine audible noise are very
The minimum pulse width resolution is 250 ns, low.
independently of the WG-RELOAD value. The actual
resolution depends on the carrier frequency selected: the
Rectifier
Bridee

Power
Supply

Microcontroller Board
(Modulator t Controller)

Fig. 8. Hardware arrangement used to test the modulator.

472
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Fig. 9. Voltage space vector modulation (f=5.1 Hz; f , = 15.6 Wz): Fig. 10. Voltage space vector modulation (f= 50 Hz; f , = 15.6 kHz):
(a) voltage waveform; (b) voltage spectrum; (c) current (a) voltage waveform; (b) voltage spectrum; (c) current
waveform; (d) current spectrum. waveform; (d) current spectrum.

V. CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES

A voltage space vector PWM modulator, suitable for B. K. Bose, ed. lit., Modern power electronics: evolution.
field oriented control, was presented and tested with a technology, and applications. New York: IEEE Press, 1991.
H. W. Broeck, H. Skudelny, G. V. Stanke, "Analysis and
1 CV three-phase induction motor fed by an IGBT realization of a pulsewidth modulator based on voltage space
voltage-source inverter. vectors," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 24,
The proposed solution was based on a high performance no 1, JanJFev. 1988, pp. 142-150.
16-bit microcontroller with a minimum of additional A. M. Trzynadlowski, ThePeld orientation principle in control of
induction motors. Boston, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994.
hardware. The implemented algorithm is very efficient, G. Minas, Ticnicas de modulapZo de largura de impulso para
leaving enough time to implement other tasks with the accionamento de mdquinas eltktricas de corrente alfernada.
same microcontroller, like, for instance, simple motor Braga, Universidade do Minho, 1998. MSc thesis.
control schemes. High switching frequencies can be Your guide to Intel's entire line of embedded products and
services. Intel Corporation, 1996.
achieved with fine resolutions within a large output M. Doi, G. Hanis, Application examples using the
frequency range. 8XCI 96MC/MD microcontroller. In "AP-483". Intel Corporation,
1993.
M. H. RASHID, Power electronics: circuits,. devices, and
appilcations. 2"ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993.

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