Development of a soft-core based power electronic conversion controller

Abstract

The application of digital control techniques has become dominant in power electronics owing to several advantages they present, when compared to analogue solutions. Their development is based on the use of microprocessors and microcontrollers, such as Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), Digital signal processors (DSP), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), or a combination of these devices. This thesis presents an investigation of a soft-core based FPGA control system as a solution for power electronic applications. The aim was the development and implementation of a conversion controller, which purpose is to supply control inputs in the form of digital Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals, to a number of power electronic applications, such as single half and full bridge DC-DC converters, three phase and multicell inverters. The PWM control technique is achieved via their power semiconductor switching devices. These PWM control signals are necessary for the high frequency conversion of an analog input voltage (AC, DC or unregulated) to an analog output voltage of another level (AC or DC). This was intended to be achieved by exploiting and combining the advantages that FPGA and embedded processors provide such as high reconfigurability and multipurpose ability. This controller’s digital outputs, namely PWM switching signals, can be directly delivered to an analog signal amplification circuit to create an adequate voltage level before being processed by the converters’ switches.