CHAPTER 4

H-BRIDGE
4.1 DEFINITION
H-bridge is the circuit which controls the motion of the motors in all four directions.
“It is a circuit diagram which resembles the letter "H". The load is the horizontal line,
connected between two pairs of intersecting lines. It is very common in DC motor-
drive applications where switches are used in the "vertical" branches of the "H" to
control the direction of current flow, and thus the rotational direction of the motor.”

Figure 4.1 H-Bridge

In above figure load is replaced with motor which we want to drive and transistors or
mosfets or relay can be used according to the requirement.

4.2 H bridge circuit

The concept behind the H bridge is same as rectifiers as in rectifiers any two of the
diodes conducts every cycle similarly in H bridge we apply a PWM signal to the

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bridge and depending on the signal applied the transistors used in bridge will allow
the current to pass.
4.2.1 Why H bridge?
Why this circuit is called as h bridge is because the
circuit mainly consist of four transistors connected
in the form of H the following figure will explain
the concept.

The input signal is applied at both ends of the

bridge and those input signals control the whole

Figure 4.2.1 H-Bridge
functionality of motor following explanation will
explain you how those input signals control the motors.

High time

Low time

The signal shown above is the digital signal this signal have high time and some low
time now consider that during high time the signal have voltage equal to 5 volts and
during low time the signal have voltage equal to 0 volts
Now we apply this signal to a 5 volt motor

MOTO
R
Now as long as the input signal stays at 5 volts the motor will rotate but when the
signal value falls to zero the motor stops rotating as like you are switching the motor
on and off now if we increase the high time of the input signal the motor will stay on
for longer time as shown in figure below

High time

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Low time
Now the signal high time is more than its low time so you are turning motor on for
longer time and turning it off for short time now the motor will speed up because it
finds more time to gain speed in previous case the when the motor is about to gain
speed you turn motor off and when turn it on it again struggles to gain speed so it
can`t find enough time to gain much speed but now you are allowing motor to work
more so it can now gain more speed in this way by changing the high time of the
motor input signal you control the speed of motor but that’s not all you have to
reverse the rotation of motor and to stop the motor even if the motor is turned on for
these tasks H-bridge will help you . The h-bridge allows you to apply two input
signals to the motor simultaneously with the help of those two signals all functionality
of motor can be controlled i.e
 Stop the motor or halt the motor
 Rotating the motor clockwise
 Rotating the motor anti clockwise

Stop the motor or halt the motor

The following figure will explain the concept

MOTO
R
The two signals applied to the motor are same but invert of each other, as shown in
the figure both signals tends to control the direction of rotation of motor and speed of
motor. The signal shown above has 50% duty cycle. Duty cycle means high time over
low time
Duty cycle = High time/low time
It is the ratio of two same quantities. When the input signals have 50% duty cycle
then it will halt the motor no matter the motor is on because signal at the right tends to
rotate the motor clockwise and the signal at the left tends to rotate it in anticlockwise
direction but both signals have same high time so the motor will not rotate in either
direction rather it stays still.

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Rotating the motor clockwise

MOTO
R
Now the signal applied to the left of the motor have more high time and the signal
applied to the right have less high time so the motor will rotate in clockwise direction
and by changing the high time of both signals we can control the speed of the motor
spinning in clockwise direction.
Rotating the motor anti clockwise

MOTO
R
In this figure the signal applied to the right of the motor have more high time and the
signal applied to the left have less high time so the motor will now rotate in
anticlockwise direction and by changing the high time of the signal applied we can
change the speed of the motor

Now the whole operation can be explained with following graph

CLOCKWISE ANTICLOCK
WISE

DUTY DUTY
CYCLE CYCLE
ROTATION ROTATION
SPEED SPEED
There are two regions of operation
Clockwise
Anticlockwise

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As the duty cycle increases in a specified region the rotation speed increase and the
boundary line between both regions is the halt point where both signals have 50%
high time and the rotation of motor is halted.
The above discussion explained how we can control the motor speed and direction by
PWM signal generated from Microcontroller. H-bridge also helps us to control
motors having high voltage and current ratings. PWM is provided to the H bridge
circuit and that circuit in response control the motor as shown in the figure below.

H Bridge Motor

Actually in h bridge the transistors operate as a switch they turn on and off and
control the motor direction of motion following figure will explain the concept.

Input Input
A B

M
Input
Input
A
B

INPUT OUTPUT
A B
0 0 STALL MOTOR
0 1 ROTATE CLOCKWISE
1 0 ROTATE ANTICLOCKWISE
1 1 STALL MOTOR

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4.3 Our Design of H-bridge Using L298

Figure 4.3 L298 design

4.4 The design

The concept of circuit design is the result of failure of all other design techniques as
we need PWM waveform.We tried so many circuits but in most of the circuits, the
components got burned while soldering and In some designs the current ratings are
satisfactory but the output waveform was too distorted to operate a motor. While in
some designs the circuit complexity increase to an extent that they are difficult to test
and debug.
So we come up an idea that why don’t use an already available h-bridge to minimize
the complexity and cost. So with this we can get benefit of the perfect waveforms of
L298.

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4.4.1 L298 h-bridge IC
L298 Dual Full Bridge Driver is very common h-bridge IC available in the market.

DESCRIPTION
The L298 is an integrated monolithic circuit in a 15-lead Multiwatt and PowerSO20
packages. It is a high voltage, high current dual full-bridge driver designed to accept
standard TTL logic levels and drive inductive loads such as relays, solenoids, DC and
stepping motors. Two enable inputs are provided to enable or disable the device
independently of the input signals. The emitters of the lower transistors of each bridge
are connected together and the corresponding external terminal can be used for the
connection of an external sensing resistor. An additional supply input is provided so
that the logic works at a lower voltage.

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Block Diagram

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4.4.3 The circuit board

Here are the technical specs of our h-bridge circuit board

Symbol Parameter Value Unit

Vs Max Supply Voltage 46 V

Imax Maximum Current 5 A

Fop Operation Frequency 2 KHz
VL Logic Voltage 5 V

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Figure 4.4.3 H-Bridge original

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 Circuit Connections

Up till now the things we have discussed are enough to move robot straight or to
perform some random movements. But still it needs more components to perform its
desired task. Details about the project and controller will be discussed in next
chapters.

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