Power Electronics : MTS-447

(3-3-0)

Lecture 38-39: DC–AC Converters (Inverter)

Chapter-6
Dr. Hafiz Zia Ur Rehman
hafizzia@mail.au.edu.pk

Department of Mechatronics Engineering

Air University, Islamabad

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 Recap
◼ What is an inverter/dc-Ac converter?
◼ Performance parameters
◼ Principle of operation
◼ Single phase half bridge inverter
◼ Single phase full bridge inverter

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 What are Inverters?
◼ Dc-to-ac converters are also known as inverters.
◼ The function of an inverter is to change a dc input voltage to a
symmetric ac output voltage of desired
◼ Magnitude
◼ Frequency.
◼ The output voltage could be fixed or variable at a fixed or variable
frequency.
◼ A variable output voltage can be obtained by:
◼ Varying the input dc voltage and maintaining the gain of the inverter constant
◼ Varying the gain of the inverter using e.g. using pulse-width-modulation (PWM)
control within the inverter, if the dc input voltage is fixed.

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 Performance Parameters
◼ Output Power: It is defined as:
𝑷𝒂𝒄 = 𝑰𝒐𝑽𝒐𝒄𝒐𝒔𝜽
= 𝑰𝒐𝟐𝑹
where 𝑽𝒐 and 𝑰𝒐 are the rms voltage and load current, 𝜽 is the angle of the load
impedance and 𝑹 is the load resistance.
◼ AC input power: It is defined as:
𝑷𝒔 = 𝑰𝒔𝑽𝒔
where 𝑽𝒔 and 𝑰𝒔 are the average input voltage and current.
◼ RMS Ripple: The rms ripple content of the input current is
𝑰𝒓 = 𝑰𝟐𝒊 − 𝑰𝟐𝒔
where 𝑰𝒊 and 𝑰𝒔 are the rms and average values the dc supply current.
◼ Ripple factor: The ripple factor of the input current is
𝑰𝒓
𝑹𝑭𝒔 = 4
𝑰
 Performance Parameters
◼ Power efficiency: It is the ratio of the output power to the input power, will
depend on the switching losses, which in turn depends on the switching
frequency of the inverter.
◼ Harmonic factor of nth harmonic (HFn): The harmonic factor (of the nth
harmonic), which is a measure of individual harmonic contribution, is defined
as:

where Vo1 is the rms value of the fundamental component and Von is the rms value of
the nth harmonic component.

◼ Total harmonic distortion (THD): The total harmonic distortion, which is

a measure of closeness in shape between a waveform and its fundamental
component, is defined as:

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 Performance Parameters
◼ Distortion factor (DF): The DF indicates the amount of Harmonic Distortion
that remains in a particular waveform after the harmonics of that waveform
have been subjected to a second-order attenuation (i.e., divided by n2).
◼ Thus, DF is a measure of effectiveness in reducing unwanted harmonics
without having to specify the values of a second-order load filter and is
defined as:

◼ The DF of an individual (or nth) harmonic component is defined as:

◼ Lowest order harmonic (LOH): The LOH is that harmonic component

whose frequency is closest to the fundamental one, and its amplitude is
greater than or equal to 3% of the fundamental component.
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 Principle of Operation
◼ The inverter circuit consists of two choppers.
◼ When only transistor Q1 is turned on for a
𝑻
time 𝟎, the instantaneous voltage across the
𝟐
𝑽𝒔
load v0 is .
𝟐
𝑻𝟎
◼ If only transistor Q2 is turned on for a time ,
𝟐
𝑽𝒔
− appears across the load.
𝟐
◼ The logic circuit should be designed such that
Q1 and Q2 are not turned on at the same
time.
◼ Figure 6.2b shows the waveforms for the
output voltage and transistor currents with a
resistive load.
Fig. 6.2 7
 Principle of Operation
◼ Figure 6.2c shows the load current and conduction intervals of
devices for a purely inductive load.
◼ It can be noticed that for a purely inductive load, a transistor conducts
only for T0/4 (or 90°).

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 Principle of Operation
◼ This inverter is known as a half-bridge inverter.
◼ The root-mean-square (r.m.s) output voltage can be found from:
(6.9)

◼ The instantaneous output voltage can be expressed in Fourier

series as:

◼ Due to the quarter-wave symmetry along the x-axis, both a0 and an

are zero. We get bn as:

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 Principle of Operation
◼ This gives the instantaneous output voltage vo as:

where ω = 2πf0 is the frequency of output voltage in rad/s.

◼ Due to the quarter-wave symmetry of the output voltage along the

x-axis, the even harmonics voltages are absent.
◼ For n = 1, Eq. (above) gives the r.m.s value of fundamental
component as:

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Example 6.1

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Example 6.1

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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters
◼ A single-phase full-bridge voltage-source inverter (VSI) is shown in
Figure 6.3a.
◼ It consists of four choppers.

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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters
◼ When transistors Q1 and Q2 are turned on simultaneously, the input
voltage Vs appears across the load.

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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters
◼ If transistors Q3 and Q4 are turned on at the same time, the
voltage across the load is reversed and is -Vs.
◼ The waveform for the output voltage is shown in Figure 6.3b.

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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters
◼ Table 6.1 shows the five switch states.
◼ Transistors Q1, Q4 in Figure 6.3a act as the switching devices S1 and S4
respectively.
◼ If two switches: one upper and one lower conduct at the same time
such that the output voltage is ±Vs , the switch state is 1, whereas, if
these switches are off at the same time, the switch state is 0.

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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters
◼ The r.m.s output voltage can be found from:

◼ Equation (6.10) can be extended to express the instantaneous

output voltage in a Fourier series as:

◼ and for n = 1, Eq. (6.16) gives the r.m.s value of fundamental

component as:

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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters
◼ Using Eq. (6.12), the instantaneous load current i0 for an RL
load becomes:

◼ When diodes D1 and D2 conduct, the energy is fed back to the

dc source; thus, they are known as feedback diodes.

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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters
◼ Figure 6.3c shows the waveform of load current for an inductive load.

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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters
◼ Dc supply current. Neglecting any losses, the instantaneous power
balance gives,

◼ For inductive load and relatively high-switching frequencies, the load current
io and the output voltage may be assumed sinusoidal. Because the dc supply
voltage remains constant vs(t) = Vs, we get:

◼ It can be simplified to find the dc supply current as:

where Vo1 is the fundamental r.m.s output voltage;

Io is the r.m.s load current;
θ1 is the load impedance angle at the fundamental frequency.
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 6.4 Single-phase Bridge Inverters

◼ Eq. (6.19) indicates the presence of a second-order harmonic of the

same order of magnitude as the dc supply current.
◼ This harmonic is injected back into the dc voltage source.
◼ Thus, the design should consider this to guarantee a nearly constant
dc-link voltage.
◼ A large capacitor is normally connected across the dc voltage source
and such a capacitor is costly and demands space; both features are
undesirable, especially in medium to high power supplies.

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Example 6.2

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 Example 6.2

Note: The peak reverse blocking voltage of each transistor and the quality of output voltage for half-bridge
and full-bridge inverters are the same. However, for full-bridge inverters, the output power is four times
higher and the fundamental component is twice that of half-bridge inverters.
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 Key Points of Section 6.4
◼ The full-bridge inverter requires four switching devices and
four diodes.
◼ The output voltage switches between +Vs and -Vs.
◼ The rms fundamental component V1 of the output voltage is
0.9Vs.
◼ The design of an inverter requires the determination of the
average, rms, and peak currents of the switching devices and
diodes.

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 Reference and Reading Assignment

Reference
❑ Muhammad H Rashid, Power Electronics Circuits, Devices, and
Applications, 4th Edition is also available), Prentice-Hall Inc.
Reading Assignment
❑ Art. 6.1 - 6.4

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