IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics & Vision

Design and Construction of Single Phase

Pure Sine Wave Inverter for Photovoltaic
Application
Rafid Haider, Rajin Alam, Nafisa Binte Yousuf, Khosru M. Salim
School of Engineering and Computer Science
Independent University, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
rafid-haider@hotmail.com

power consumption. Our main objective is to design and

Abstract-This paper discusses the design and construction
scheme of an inverter system which converts the DC voltage
collected from a photovoltaic (PV) array into AC voltage. The
output is a pure sine wave, with the voltage and frequency of
the standard grid output. The system consists of a Switch
Mode Power Supply (SMPS) and full bridge inverter circuit
with a passive filter. The power supply supplies the DC voltage
needed to activate the optocouplers, which are connected to the
switches of the full bridge circuitry. The optocouplers work as
an isolation for the full bridge circuit. High frequency Pulse
Width Modulated (PWM) pulses are generated by
microcontroller (PIC18F4431) and provided to the switches of
full bridge connection. The full bridge inverter outputs a PWM
sine which is later conditioned to pure sine by an L-C filter.
Finally, the output voltage and current is measured and
displayed on an LCD (Liquid Crystal Diode) display.
Keywords- SPWM; pure sine wave; single phase inverter;
photovoltaic; microcontroller
I. INTRODUCTION
Renewable energy is one of the fastest growing trends in
post-industrialized societies as they face growing energy
demands and actively seek cost effective solutions. Solar
develop a cost-effective inverter system to provide pure sine
wave AC voltage at maximum efficiency.
II. METHODOLOGY
The system uses SPWM (Sinusoidal Pulse Width
Modulation) technic to produce sine wave output from DC
input. Pulse Width Modulation is the process of varying the
width of pulse or pulses to control the output voltage of
inverter. In SPWM, the width of each pulse of a pulse train
a
is varied in proportion to the amplitude of a sine wave
evaluated at the center of the same pulse [2].
The sine wave is considered as reference signal, while a
triangular wave is treated as the carrier wave. The frequency
of reference signal determines the inverter output frequency,
and its peak amplitude controls the modulation index. The
idea is to change the output state at the intersecting point of
the two waves [3]. Fig. 1 shows SPWM generation in above
mentioned method.
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energy is one of the potential sources, which is preferred

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over others due to availability, simplicity, lower
maintenance and reliable operation [1]. Photovoltaic (PV) . . .. . .. ' f . . . .. .. .. . .

arrays drastically reduce energy expenses and dependency

on non-renewable energy sources. Given a reasonable
location and a well-designed application, photovoltaic
arrays can provide an excellent, cost saving solution for
users requiring large amounts of power. For these reasons,
solar powered electricity can be an excellent solution for the
power crisis of Bangladesh.
A DCIAC power inverter is needed to convert the DC
voltage gathered by photovoltaic cells into AC voltage. In
Bangladesh, mainly square wave power inverters are used. While
the square wave inverters have a simpler circuitry and are
cheaper, they lag behind in terms of performance and
reliability in comparison with the sine wave inverters. The
sine wave inverters give a pure sine wave output. They
operate in near perfect efficiency, maximizing the output.
Use of inefficient square wave inverters put additional strain
on our already crippled power sector. So, while using a
renewable energy source, the aim should be to maximize the
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Figure 1. SPWM Generation
PIC18F4431 has a power PWM module which generates
PWM counter. It can be configured to up-down counter
mode, making it equivalent to an isoscele triangular wave.
A sine look up table serves as the virtual sine reference
wave. These two are compared and corresponding PWM
signals are generated from the microcontroller.
For single phase sine wave geneartion, two PWM pulses are
needed. The reference sinusoids of these two pulses have a
mutual phase shift of 1800 and both of them are of same
frequency [4].
A DC-DC boost converter works as the Switch Mode Power
Supply (SMPS) for the optocouplers, which works as

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 IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics & Vision

electrical isolation for the full-bridge circuit. The PWM
pulses and their complements are fed to the switches of the
full bridge circuit. Fig.2 shows how the DC voltage output
from solar PV array is supplied across the full bridge
circuitry.
Monitoring and display circuit.
A. Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS)
The optocoupler isolation drive circuit requires 18V DC to
operate. To provide this DC voltage, a DC-DC converter
circuit converts the 12V DC supply generated from a DC
source into 18V DC by high frequency switching. An
SG3525 IC acts as 'push-pull' converter in the SMPS
circuit.

B. Full Bridge Circuitry and Isolation

Figure 2. Full Bridge Circuit
The output of the inverter circuit is a PWM wave, with a
switching frequency of 20 kHz. An L-C filter is attached
parallel to the load, which attenuates the PWM and
produces pure sine wave. Fig. 3 represents the overall
system architecture.
The Full Bridge inverter circuit consists of four IGBTs,
acting as high frequency switches. MBH15D-060 IGBTs
have a maximum voltage rating of 600V and maximum
current rating of 30A. A3120 optocoupler ICs isolate the
IGBTs from the controlling circuit unit. Four optocouplers
are connected with the four IGBT switches.

PW�,[ pu.lses &om PIC1 8F4431

Op1oooupler Switch Mode

holation Power Supply
Cirmit

DC
Input
(PV
A my) Figure 4. SMP S, Isolation and Inverter circuit

C. Filter Circuit

The filter used over here is an L-C passive filter, consisting

of a ferrite core inductor and a capacitor. Ferrite core
Figure 3. System Block Diagram
component was used instead of iron core because the high
switching frequency (20 kHz) incites considerable heat on
III. INVERTER SPECIFICATION
the iron core. The capacitance of the capacitor is 0.04 IlF
The characteristics of the proposed inverter system IS
and the inductor's inductance was 1.13 mH approximately.
showed in table 1. The resonant frequency of the combination can be
determined from the equation,
TABLE 1: INVERTER SPECIFICATION

Input Voltage Range 250 - 400 Volts (DC) f= 1/2][>/ (LC) ......... (1)
Maximum Input Current 10 A (DC)

Maximum Output Power 1000 W

Output Voltage 220 Volts (AC)

Frequency 50Hz

Output Waveform Type Pure Sine

IV. HARDWARE DESIGN

The hardware for this project can be divided into four main
phases; (a) Switch Mode Power Supply for drive circuit, (b)
Full bridge circuitry and isolation, (c) Filter circuit and (d)
Figure 5. L-C Filter

191 ICIEV 2012

 IEEE/OSA/IAPR International Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics & Vision

Replacing L and C in (1) by the inductance and capacitance

values given above,

f= 1I2n�(1.13 mH * 0.04 flF)= 23.67 kHz

So, the cutoff frequency of the filter is approximately 23.67

kHz, which is close to the PWM switching frequency of 20
kHz. As 400 PWM samples complete a sine wave
Initialize ADC ports, set interrupt
(detennined by the microcontroller programming, explained
in the next section); the frequency of the resulting sine wave
will be,

F= 20 kHz/400 = 20000 Hz/400 = 50 Hz

D. Monitoring and Display Circuit

The monitoring and display unit is completely separate from
the other parts of the inverter. It intakes the output voltage Sine look up Table = Modulation Index
and current of the system and measures them before * Values from Sine look up Table

displaying on an LCD display. The monitoring circuit uses a

voltage sensor and a current sensor to measure output
voltage and current of the system. An NNC-l OGFP current
transducer works as the current sensor and a step down
transformer coupled with a full bridge rectifier measures
voltage. The voltage and current are shown in a 2x16 LCD
display. The LCD display is operated by a PIC16F877A
microcontroller. The PIC16F877A is fed with the outputs
from current and voltage sensors as analog inputs and
performs the mathematical conversion needed to show the
Figure 7. Program Flowchart for PWM generation
data on the LCD.

Fig. 7 shows the flowchart of the program. A look up table

is created at the beginning of the program, which stores a
fixed number of samples of a sinusoid at a predefined
frequency (50 Hz in this case). Then, by real time extraction
of data from the table using a pointer value, and updating
the duty cycle registers of PIC18F4431 microcontroller,
SPWM output pulses are created.

Another program for the PIC16877A was developed to

retrieve output voltage and current values from sensors and
to show them on the display device. It reads and converts
the outputs from the sensors by multiplying with appropriate
values and puts the values on the LCD device.

VI. SOFT START MECHANISM

Figure 6. Monitoring and Display Unit
An analog port of PIC18F4431 intakes modulation index
value and by ADC (Analog to Digital Conversion) retrieves
the value, then accordingly revises the sine lookup table by
multiplying the modulation index with the peak values of
sine wave sample.

V. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT The modulation index is used to implement soft start

mechanism. Some electronic devices, such as motors,
The PIC18F4431 microcontroller has eight power PWM
consume 600-800% of its full load current to start. This
outputs. For single phase SPWM generation, four PWM
initial current is called the inrush current, which can have
outputs are needed; two independent and their two
hazardous effect on the inverter system and appliances
complements. From fig. 2; switches A and B are
connected to it. To prevent this inrush current, soft start is
independent, and switch D is complement to switch A and
needed.
switch C is complement to switch B.

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VIII. SYSTEM OUTPUT

For testing and verification, a makeshift DC power supply
was used as the input to the inverter, which amplified and
converted the AC voltage from grid to variable DC inputs
with help of a variable and an isolation transfonner. Fig. 9
shows the pulse width modulated sine signal produced by
the full bridge inverter circuit.

ModuUtIon Index .In<remtnt + ModlJbtJoo

nt look up TaIM Modulition Indo

• •

V,/uts from Sint look up T.bIt Figure 9. Pulse Width Modulated Sine Wave

The PWM sine is then applied across the L-C filter. The
filter attenuates the signal and prodeces pure sine wave. Fig.
10 shows the sine output across a resistive load.The
frequency of the sinusoid was calculated SOHz by a stoage
oscilloscope.

Yts

Figure 8. Program Flowchart for Soft Start

To implement soft start, the voltage across the load is

notched by gradually increasing the modulation index,
Figure 10. Pure Sine Wave Output
instead of letting it jump to the full voltage. This is done by
creating a nested loop in the program, which increases the
For inductive load, output remains similar, save for a few
modulation index in several stages. Fig. 8 shows the
ripples (fig. 11). The display device also works well; fig. 12
flowchart of implementing the soft start.
shows the LCD display, demonstrating the output voltage
VII. OUTPUT FREQUENCY CALCULA nON and current.
The number of samples in the sine lookup table is 400. The
clock frequency is 20MHz. The PWM time base period for
up-down counter mode is 128. The time period,

TpWM = 2*PTPER*PTMRPS I (Fosc/4) ..........(2)

Equation(2)[S] shows the time elapsed to process one

sample. Here, Fosc= 20MHz, PTPER = 128 and PTMRPS
= l. So, from Eq.l, TpWM = Sl.2us. As it takes 400 samples
to complete a full cycle of the output sinusoid, the
frequency will be,

1/(TrwM*400)= 1/(400*S1.2us)= 1/0.02s= SO Hz

Figure 11. Sine Wave Output for Inductive Load

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IX. LIMITATIONS

To get maximum power from solar or photovoltaic

inverters, a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT)
system is needed. A closed loop control system to
implement MPPT will greatly improve the system. An
MPPT algorithm can be developed to find the maximum
voltage point VMAX; and by maintaining it maximum power
can be harnessed from the system [6].

Also, more experimental data is needed to assess the

Figure 12. LCD Display product for commercial usage. Circuit insulation is needed
for the safety of users.
The efficiency of the system was calculated from the input
and output power of the inverter for a resistive load. The X. CONCLUSION
input and output voltages and currents of the system were
measured, and the input and output powers were calculated This paper discusses the design and development of a pure
from them. Table 2 shows the efficiency of system for sine wave inverter. The main objective of this project was to
different inputs. find an efficient power conversion system to use
TABLE 2: INPUT AND O UTP UT DATA photovoltaic energy to meet the increasing power demands
of residential and industrial sector. While designing the
Total Inpnt Power AC circuit and selecting the components, the main objective
DC Input rcalculating the Output was to keep the power losses to a minimum. And the data
Power loss in drive Power System
(W) circuit] (W) (W) Efficiency gathered testify that the system is efficient enough. From the
35 36.4 27.27 74.92%
experimental results, the efficiency of the inverter is
relatively low for lower input power (75-85% for inputs
48 49.4 38.85 78.64%
lower than 100W). As the input power increases, the
63 64.4 56.16 87.20%
efficiency increases as well. The efficiency reaches 96% for
80 81.4 68.6 84.28%
840W input. The output sine wave for inductive load shows
99 100.4 90.56 90.20%
minimal fluctuations and stays almost identical to the one
120 121.4 105.91 87.24% observed for resistive load. The inverter works perfectly
143 144.4 124.2 86.01% well and has met every goal set at the commencement of
168 169.4 150 88.55% this venture, though more experimental data is needed to be
195 196.4 172.2 87.68% gathered and a closed loop MPPT system is required to be
224 225.4 204.7 90.82% installed before applying it at residences or in industries.
255 256.4 228 88.92%
REFERENCES
288 289.4 265.2 91.64%
323 324.4 299.75 92.40%
[I] G . J . Vander Metweet ai., " 150W Inverter - an optimal design for use
360 361.4 334.95 92.68% in solar home system", International Symposium on Industrial
399 400.4 369 92.16% Electronics, VoU, page 57-62. 1998
440 441.4 404.775 91.70% [2] T . Ohnishi, H . Okitsu, "A novel PWM technic for three-phase
inverter/converter", International Power Electronics Conference,
483 484.4 448.8 92.65% 1983, pp . 384-395
528 529.4 488.175 92.21% [3] Hart. D, "Introduction to Power Electronics", Prentice Hall,
575 576.4 540 93.68%
1997, pp. 308-312
[4] M. H. Rashid, "Power Electronics Circuits, Devices and
624 625.4 585 93.54%
Applications", 3rd edition, Prentice Hall, 2007, Chapter
675 676.4 639.6 94.56% 6, pp. 254
728 729.4 680 93.23% [5] PIC I8F 233112431143311443I Datasheet, Microchip Technology
Inc., 2003
783 784.4 747.6 95.31%
[6] D .H . Hohm, M. E . Ropp, "Comparative study of Maximum Power
840 841.4 809.6 96.22% Point Tracking Algorithms Using an Experimental, Programmable,
Maximum Power Point Tracking Test bed", 281h IEEE Photovoltaic
From table 2, it is evident that the inverter works best from Specialists Conference, Anchorage, Alaska, 2000
around 300W to I kW, as the efficiency is more than 92%
for this range.

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