The Journal of CPRI,

Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2016 pp. 91-96

Multiple feedback-control-loops for single-phase full-bridge PWM inverter

Jora M Gonda* and Londhe Apurva A**

This paper presents a multiple feedback-loop-control technique for a single-phase full-bridge PWM
inverter with output LC filter. The main challenge for an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is to
maintain a high quality sinusoidal voltage under non-linear load conditions as most of the electronic
loads are non-linear in nature and for that it needs to be controlled. Multiple feedback consists of two
control-loops; one for capacitor voltage and other for inductor current-control. Output voltage and
load curren-feedforward-control is used. This technique reduces the distortion in the inverter output
voltage and brings it closer to a sine wave. The control concept has been verified using Matlab/
SimulinkTM toolbox and the simulation results are obtained with different types of loads.

Keywords: UPS, analog control, feed forward control

1.0 INTRODUCTION control techniques are available to control

the inverter output voltage [2]-[6]. This paper
Uninterruptible power supplies are widely used for presents a voltage and current-control scheme for
the continuity and quality in the supply of electric the inverter stage of the UPS. Two control-loops
power to sensitive loads, like computer systems, are included in this controller, an inner inductor
medical equipments, telecommunication systems, current-control-loop and an outer capacitor
in power line problems [1]. The main aim of the voltage-control-loop.
UPS system is to provide a high quality sinusoidal
output voltage with low total harmonic distortion.
A clean sinusoidal output voltage is achieved 2.0 OPEN LOOP INVERTER
by using a Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation
(SPWM) technique and LC filter at the output side The basic topology of the single-phase full-bridge
of the inverter. But, with non-linear load, the PWM PWM inverter with LC filter and load is shown
scheme does not guarantee low distortion in the in Figure 1. The system variables and parameters
load voltage. There is significant increase in the are defined in Table 1.
utility voltage distortions because of the growing
use of non-linear loads by industrial, commercial Unipolar SPWM scheme is used to create
and residential consumers. To mitigate the effects proper gating signals for the inverter switches
caused by non-linear loads on the utility system, as this method effectively doubles the switching
feedback controllers are used. frequency of the inverter voltage, making the
output LC filter smaller and cheaper. The output
There are many control topologies for the single voltage of the bridge can be +VDC, -VDC or zero
phase UPS inverters. At present, many feedback depending on how the switches are controlled.

*Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore – 575 025
E-mail: [email protected]
** PG Student, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal,
Mangalore – 575 025, E-mail: [email protected]
92 The Journal of CPRI, Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2016

The output voltage is switched either from +VDC desirable sinusoidal voltage with low THD for
to zero or form -VDC to zero. any kind of load. So, we are using feedback
controller to regulate the output voltage of the
inverter.

FIG. 2 INVERTER OUTPUT VOLTAGE AND LOAD

CURRENT FOR 1500 W NON-LINEAR LOAD

3.0 VOLTAGE AND CURRENT

FIG. 1 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF FULL BRIDGE
INVERTER CONTROLLER

TABLE 1
DEFINITION OF SYSTEM VARIABLES AND
PARAMETERS
Var. Definition
VDC DC Bus voltage
CO DC link capacitor
iL Current through filter inductor
iL* Reference inductor current
vc Voltage across filter capacitor
vc* Reference capacitor voltage
ic Current through filter capacitor
FIG. 3 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF PWM INVERTER WITH
ic* Reference capacitor current
FEEDBACK CONTROLLER
iLOAD Load current
m* Reference signal to PWM modulator
Figure 3 shows the block diagram of the inverter
vI Full-bridge output voltage with controller. The controller used here is a PI
Kinv Inverter gain controller. The function of the voltage-control-
loop is to set the output voltage to the output
Figure 2 shows the inverter output voltage and voltage reference value. The actual output voltage
current waveform in case of non-linear load is compared with the reference output voltage
i.e. diode rectifier with capacitor filter with 80 and the error signal is given to the PI voltage
% modulation index. We can see that the load controller. The controller processes this error. If
current of the inverter deviates significantly from the actual output voltage is less than the reference
the sinusoidal nature. This distorted current leads voltage, it will increase the current limit reference
to distortion in the inverter output voltage which as the voltage controller output is used as inductor
is not desirable at all. It is necessary to get the current reference [7-11].
The Journal of CPRI, Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2016 93

The current controller minimizes the error between

the measured inductor current and the reference
current. The output of the current controller is the
reference signal to the PWM modulator required
for the generation of gating signals to the inverter
switches. If the feedback current is less than the
reference current, the controller increases the
reference signal i.e. duty of the switches till it
meets the required current value. For a given
voltage control, the inner current-control-loop
will execute till iL=iL*. So the inner control-loop FIG. 5 OUTPUT VOLTAGE FEEDFORWARD CONTROL

should be faster than the outer control-loop.

The complete plant and controller modeling

block diagram of the inverter is shown in
Figure 4. Here, the inverter gain is assumed as
unity so that m* = vI.

FIG. 6 SIMPLIFIED CURRENT-LOOP

The closed loop transfer function of the current

loop is given as:

....(1)
Comparing this with standard 2nd order system,
we get,

and
FIG. 4 MODELING DIAGRAM OF INVERTER WITH
....(2)
CONTROLLER
5.0 DESIGN OF VOLTAGE-LOOP

4.0 DESIGN OF CURRENT-LOOP Now, consider the voltage-loop of the inverter.

Let the current-loop is ideal (iL = iL*). The
Let us consider only current-loop of the inverter. voltage controller controls the output voltage
The current controller controls iL by controlling vL. vc by controlling ic. Here, the load current acts
Here, vc acts as disturbance. The current controller as disturbance. The voltage controller needs to
has to unnecessarily generate vc. The output unnecessarily generate iLOAD. The load current
voltage disturbance vc is compensated through disturbance is compensated through load current-
output voltage feed forward as shown in Figure 5 feedforward as shown in Figure 7 so that the
so that the controller needs to generate only vL*. controller needs to generate only ic*. The
Figure 6 gives the simplified current-loop which simplified voltage-loop of the inverter is given in
shows that the current-loop is independent of the Figure 8 which shows that it is free from the load
output voltage disturbance. current disturbance.
94 The Journal of CPRI, Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2016

FIG. 7 LOAD CURRENT FEEDFORWARD CONTROL

FIG. 9 INVERTER OUTPUT VOLTAGE WITH

CONTROLLER FOR 1500 W NON-LINEAR
LOAD

FIG. 8 SIMPLIFIED VOLTAGE-LOOP

The closed loop transfer function of the voltage-

loop is given as:

....(3)
FIG. 10 INVERTER OUTPUT VOLTAGE WITH
Comparing this with standard 2 nd
order system, CONTROLLER FOR 1500 W RESISTIVE LOAD

we get,

and
....(4)
We have to tune these parameters till the
actual waveform exactly follows the reference
waveform. The values of ξ and ωn depend on the
system's required settling time and the allowable
peak overshoot.
FIG. 11 INVERTER OUTPUT VOLTAGE WITH
6.0 SIMULATION RESULTS CONTROLLER FOR 1500 W 0.8 LAG LOAD

The design parameters for the inverter are L =

580 mH, C = 4.7 µF, Switching frequency, fsw =25
kHz. The simulation is done using MATLAB/
SimulinkTM toolbox. The solver used is ode4
(Runge-Kutta) with fixed step size of 0.1 µs. The
results are obtained with 1500 W load.

The output voltage waveforms of the inverter for

non-linear (diode bridge rectifier with capacitor
filter) as well as linear (R, RL and RC) loads are FIG. 12 INVERTER OUTPUT VOLTAGE WITH
CONTROLLER FOR 1500 W 0.8 LEAD LOAD
shown in Figure 9 to Figure 12.
The Journal of CPRI, Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2016 95

[4] M J Ryan, W E Brumsickle and Robert

D. Lorenz, Control Topology Options
for Single-Phase UPS Inverters, IEEE
Transactions On Industry Applications,
Vol. 33, No. 2, MARCH/APRIL 1997
[5] N M Abdel-Rahim and John E. Quaicoe,
Analysis and Design of a Multiple
Feedback Loop Control Strategy for Single-
phase Voltage-Source UPS Inverters, IEEE
FIG. 13 INVERTER OUTPUT VOLTAGE WITH Transactions on power electronics, Vol. 11,
CONTROLLER WHEN LOAD IS SWITCHED No. 4, JULY 1996.
FROM RESISTIVE TO NON-LINEAR LOAD FOR
1500 W [6] S N Ambekar and V A Deodhar- Kulkarni,
Comparison Of UPS Inverter Using PI
7.0 CONCLUSION Controller And NN Controller, International
Journal of Computational Engineering
The output voltage waveform of the inverter Research, Vol. 03, Issue 5, May 2013.
with non-linear load is significantly improved [7] A Kawamura, T Haneyoshi and Richard G.
when the controller is used. For any kind of load, Hoft, Deadbeat Controlled PWM Inverter
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output voltage of the inverter remains constant Voltage Sensor, IEEE Transactions On
at the desired voltage with low THD value if the Power Electronics, Vol. 3, No. 2, April 1988.
controller is used.
[8] K P Gokhale, A Kawamura And Richard
G. Hoft, Dead Beat Microprocessor Control
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96 The Journal of CPRI, Vol. 12, No. 1, March 2016