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Analytical Technique For Calculating The Output Harmonics of An H-Bridge Inverter With Dead Time
Analytical Technique For Calculating The Output Harmonics of An H-Bridge Inverter With Dead Time
Analytical Technique For Calculating The Output Harmonics of An H-Bridge Inverter With Dead Time
Abstract—An analytical technique for calculating the harmonic and its harmonic spectrum is obtained by applying the Fourier
characteristics of the output voltage of an H-bridge inverter analysis. However, these methods cannot show the detailed
with dead time is presented. The analysis is based on a three- composition of the harmonic structure. In [7] an analytical
dimensional (3-D) model derived for generating the pulsewidth-
modulated (PWM) pulse train. By applying double Fourier anal- technique based on a three-dimensional (3-D) model, together
ysis, a generalized and elegant mathematical function for describ- with a double Fourier series, has been developed to calculate
ing the harmonic components of the output voltage is formulated. the modulation products. Similar approaches have been used
The function can be divided into two parts: an ideal part rep- in [8] and [9] to analyze the harmonic characteristics of an
resenting the PWM signal without dead time and a correction H-bridge converter. A general expression for the harmonic
part representing the dead-time effect. The function provides
detailed composition of the fundamental component, signal har- components of the PWM pulse train has been derived and
monics, carrier harmonics, and cross-modulated harmonics. The the information of the position and width of each PWM pulse
proposed technique has been verified using examples and the are implicitly described by the Bessel functions, nevertheless,
theoretical predictions are confirmed with the results obtained their methods have not considered the dead time. Recently, the
from simulations using PSpice. dead-time effects on the harmonics have been reported in [10]
Index Terms—Dead time, harmonic analysis, pulse width mod- using a modified 3-D model together with a double Fourier
ulated inverters. series.
This paper presents an analytical method for calculating the
I. INTRODUCTION harmonic characteristics of the output voltage of an H-bridge
inverter with the consideration of dead time. The 3-D model
Manuscript received January 11, 1997; revised March 19, 1998. This paper II. THE 3-D MODEL FOR
was recommended by Associate Editor J. Suykens. GENERATING THE PWM PULSE TRAIN
C. M. Wu was with the Department of Electronic Engineering, City
University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. He is now with This section describes the formulation of the 3-D model
the Department of Electric Power Engineering, South China University of for generating an ideal PWM pulse train without considering
Technology, Guangzhou, China. the dead time. The basic configuration of an H-bridge PWM
W-h. Lau and H. S-h. Chung are with the Department of Electronic
Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. inverter with supply voltage is shown in Fig. 1. The output
Publisher Item Identifier S 1057-7122(99)03881-7. voltage of one leg is denoted by The typical method for
1057–7122/99$10.00 1999 IEEE
618 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 46, NO. 5, MAY 1999
(b)
Fig. 3. (a) 3-D Model of the SSNS PWM. (b) Its 2-D representation.
Fig. 2. The conventional representation of the PWM signal.
Fig. 3(a) shows the 3-D model and how the PWM signal
generating an ideal single-sided and natural-sampled (SSNS)
is generated. The projection of the intersections between the
PWM waveform with modulation signal is
3-D function and plane on the plane
shown in Fig. 2. The time axis can also be represented by two
forms the PWM signal. The generation process can also be
different angular abscissas and where and
illustrated in a two-dimensional (2-D) plane, as shown in
are the angular frequencies of the carrier and modulation
Fig. 3(b). The curves represented by (4) in each carrier cycle
signal respectively. The ratio between and is denoted
and the line defined by (2) can be plotted on the plane,
by , i.e.,
as shown in Fig. 3(b). The projection of the intersection points
(1) between these curves on the axis clearly represents the PWM
pulse train. In fact, this 2-D representation is equivalent to
and is also given by present Fig. 2 in angular domains and For reasons of
simplicity, this 2-D representation will be used to illustrate
(2) the derivation of the harmonic characteristics of the PWM
signal in Section III.
The PWM pulse width projected on the axis for a This method can also be applied to the double-sided and
particular cycle of the carrier signal can be expressed as natural-sampled (DSNS) PWM signal and the 3-D function
is defined in (7) within the region and
(3)
(a)
Fig. 5. The dead-time effects. (a) Modulation signal vs . (b) Ideal PWM
waveform, upper switch drive signal. (c) Upper switch drive signal. (d) Lower
switch drive signal. (e) Polarity of the current ia . (f) Output voltage va .
(12)
and for
(a) (b)
(13)
Fig. 6. The 2-D representations of the 3-D model for (a) SSNS and (b)
DSNS PWM with dead time. where
Fig. 6(b) shows the 2-D representation of the 3-D model
for DSNS PWM with dead time.
(14)
Fig. 7. The relationship between
() and
():
0
where
For within the range from to , curve is
replaced by the straight line with slope This new
curve is used to replace the corresponding portion
of to indicate the gain of output voltage, as shown in (15)
Fig. 6(a). Since is much greater than (i.e., for
most applications, the line can be considered in parallel By substituting (10)–(13) into (15) or can be
with axis and, consequently, is given in (10) within expressed as the sum of an ideal part which is for the case
the region without dead time and a correction part to describe the effects
of the dead time. Using the SSNS PWM as an example
can be written as
(10)
and the correction part represents the distortion due to the dead
time. For SSNS PWM is given by (16) and (17)
(16)
where is the -order Bessel function of the first kind, i.e.,
(18)
(17)
where
(19)
where
(20)
622 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 46, NO. 5, MAY 1999
TABLE I TABLE II
M M
THE HARMONIC CHARACTERISTICS OBTAINED BY BOTH THE HARMONIC CHARACTERISTICS OBTAINED BY BOTH
SIMULATIONS AND ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR R = 80 SIMULATIONS AND ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS FOR R = 8
Fig. 8. Dead-time pulse trains obtained from both simulation and analytical solution (Np = 16; M R = 16):
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 9. Dead-time pulse trains for different Np and MR combinations. (a) An odd N p = 15 for an even M R = 16. (b) An even N p = 16 for an
odd MR = 17. (c) An even Np = 18 for an odd MR = 17.
For an inverter operated with the following dc component from the sixth term of (19). A dc component can
conditions: Hz, Hz, S, only be generated by the fifth term of (19) and it is given by
V, the results are shown in
Fig. 8 and the positive pulses and negative pulses correspond (21)
to the gain and loss of voltage, respectively. It can be seen
that the position and width of dead-time pulse trains obtained
from both simulation and analytical solution are consistent. However, it should be noted that is affected by a
Since only a limited number of cross-modulation harmonics number of parameters, e.g., and and it can either be either
a positive or a negative value. will equal zero if the
are used for calculating the analytical solution, discrepancies
summation term is zero. For instance, the operating conditions
in pulse amplitude are observed.
for the example shown in Fig. 8 produce an even
The number of pulses within one signal cycle in the dead-
for an even and this implies a zero dc component.
time pulse train, is of particular concern, and it is generally However, if we only change the load to for
agreed that [2]. With our method we have found the same operating conditions, becomes an odd
that is not necessarily In fact, the value of the direct number, as shown in Fig. 9(a), and this implies a nonzero dc
current (dc) component in (19) gives an indication of To component. These two examples show that is very sensitive
obtain a dc component from (19) we must have the cross- to the operating conditions.
modulation frequency equal to zero, i.e., or When is an odd number, there is no combination of
and to produce a dc component from both the fifth and sixth
Considering the situation when is an even number and terms of (19). This implies that may either be or
, there is no combination of and to produce a and is not possible to be an odd number. Fig. 9(b)
624 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 46, NO. 5, MAY 1999
and (c) show two examples with the same operating conditions
Hz, Hz, S,
V), but with a different load. One is
and the other is It can be seen
from both figures that is equal to 16 and 18
respectively, implying a zero dc component.
(22b)
(24)
Considering when and becomes
negligible, (22b) can be written as then and, consequently, the fundamental com-
ponent will disappear, according to (23b). In fact, when
(22c) is close to the value given by (24), the output voltage is
dominated by higher order harmonics and the output current
It can be seen that is proportional to and indepen-
enters the NTEC mode. This shows that our analytical solution
dent of and Hence, decreases as decreases
can only be applied to an inverter operated in TEC mode,
whereas remains unchanged, which implies that one
as mentioned in Section III-A. The boundary value of for
cannot suppress by changing
which the output current will change from the TEC mode to the
With the aid of the proposed analytical method, the rela-
NTEC mode or vice versa is difficult to describe analytically.
tionship between and the load angle , corresponding
Fig. 11 shows the simulation results for two different values
to the signal frequency, can easily be derived. In contrast,
of with the following operating conditions:
it is difficult to obtain this relationship precisely with other
Hz, Hz, S, V.
numerical methods since is unknown and is always assumed
For the output current is operated in the TEC mode,
to be same as [5]. With the assumptions that the load is
as shown in Fig. 11(a), whereas the output current is operated
inductive, the output current is sinusoidal. Fig. 10 shows the
in the NTEC mode for [i.e., the value given by
detailed composition of the fundamental component When
(24)], as shown in Fig. 11(b).
, we can obtain the following relationship [2]:
The relationship between the normalized and the load
angle for different is shown in Fig. 12 and is given
(23a) as the ratio between the dead time and the carrier period. The
operating conditions of the inverter are as follows:
or, alternatively, we can write Hz, Hz, It can be seen that increases
as increases for nonzero However, if becomes too
small, the output current will enter the NTEC mode from the
TEC mode and the curves obtained from the analytical solution
(23b) inside this region become invalid. The boundary value of
WU et al.: CALCULATING OUTPUT HARMONICS OF H-BRIDGE INVERTER WITH DEAD TIME 625
(a)
(b)
Fig. 14. Cmn(ideal) and Cmn(COR) for (a) m = 1 and (b) = 2
m :
(b)
(a) Fig. 17. The effects of M to (a) C mn(ideal) and (b) mn(COR) for
C m = 1:
V. CONCLUSIONS
A modified 3-D model incorporated with dead time for
both SSNS and DSNS PWM inverters with an inductive load
has been developed. An analytical method for calculating the
harmonic characteristics of the output voltage of an inverter
(b)
is presented. An elegant function is derived with the aid of
Fig. 16. The effects of the dead time to C mn(COR) for (a) m = 1 and the modified 3-D model and a double Fourier series. The
(b) m = 2:
solution shows the detailed composition of the fundamental
component, signal harmonics, carrier harmonics, and cross-
modulated harmonics for the situations with and without dead
decaying rate for the correction part is smaller than that of the time. In particular, the validity of the solutions for the DSNS
ideal part. If is small enough, these harmonics become the PWM inverter is confirmed by simulations using PSpice.
low-order even harmonics with relatively large magnitudes. The analytical method described is under the constraint that
From (20) and (25), it can be seen that is the output current must operate in the TEC mode. The solution
dependent on , which is affected by since reveals that the output current will operate in the NTEC mode
will be slightly varied with for when the modulation index less than a boundary value: a
as becomes very small. This situation is condition that is difficult to describe analytically.
illustrated in Fig. 15 with the following operating conditions: From the analytical solution, the dominant effects of the
Hz, s, dead time can be summarized as follows.
The relationship between the value of dead time and 1) The dead time can generate a fundamental component
is also of concern and is given by (20) and which cannot be controlled by This component
(25). Fig. 16 shows an example with the following operating influences the normal control of the output voltage of
conditions: Hz, Hz, the inverters by means of adjusting
It can be seen that is approximately 2) The dead time produces odd harmonics of the signal
proportional to , which is similar to the situation of the signal frequency which cannot be generated by an ideal natu-
harmonics of the correction part, as shown in the forth term ral sampling PWM process. The magnitudes of these
of (19). harmonics are proportional to the dead time and
Fig. 17 illustrates the variation of and inverse proportional to the harmonic order In addition,
against under the following operating conditions: the lower order harmonics of this kind will degrade the
Hz, Hz, s, and performance of the inverters.
It can be seen that both and increase 3) The dead time can produce carrier harmonics and cross-
as increases except for , which represents the modulation harmonics which coincide with those gener-
WU et al.: CALCULATING OUTPUT HARMONICS OF H-BRIDGE INVERTER WITH DEAD TIME 627
ated by the ideal natural sampling PWM. From the case Wing-hong Lau (M’88) received the B.Sc. and
studies, it is shown that the magnitudes of the harmonics Ph.D. degrees in electrical and electronic engineer-
ing from the University of Portsmouth in 1985 and
caused by the dead time is approximately proportional 1989, respectively.
to the dead time He joined the Microwave Telecommunications
and Signal Processing Research Unit of the Uni-
versity of Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1985 as a
REFERENCES Research Assistant. In 1990, he joined the City
University of Hong Kong, where he is currently an
[1] N. Mohan, T. M. Undeland, and W. P. Robbins, Power Electronics.
Associate Professor in the Department of Electronic
New York: Wiley, 1995.
Engineering. His current research interests are in
[2] Y. Murai, T. Watanabe, and H. Iwasaki, “Waveform distortion and
the area of digital signal processing, digital audio engineering, audio signal
correction circuit for PWM inverter with switching lag-time,” IEEE
restoration and speech signal processing.
Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 23,pp. 881–886, Sept./Oct. 1987.
[3] D. Leggate and R. J. Kerkman, “Pulse-based dead-time compensator Dr. Lau is a Committee member of the IEEE Hong Kong Section and the
for PWM voltage inverters,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 44, pp. IEEE Hong Kong Signal Processing Chapter. He is also a member of the
191–197, Apr. 1997. International Steering Committee for APCCAS. He was the Chairman of the
[4] Poon, W. H. Lau, and H. Chung, “A ZVS PWM converter for a full IEEE Hong Kong Joint Chapter on CAS/COM for 1997 and 1998. He was
audio band amplifier,” in Proc. 27th IEEE Power Electronics Specialists the registration Co-chairman of ISCAS’97.
Conf., Baveno, Italy, June 1996, pp. 1261–1265.
[5] P. D. Evans and P. R. Close, “Harmonic distortion in PWM inverter
output waveforms,” Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng.-Elect. Power Appli., vol. 134,
pt. B, no. 4, July 1987. Henry Shu-hung Chung (S’92–M’95) received the
[6] J. A. Taufiq and J. Xiaoping, “Fast accurate computation of the DC- B.Eng. (with first class honors) degree in electrical
sided harmonics in a traction VSI drive,” Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng., vol. engineering and the Ph.D. degree from the Hong
136, pt. B, no. 4, July 1989. Kong Polytechnic University in 1991 and 1994,
[7] W. R. Bennett. “New results in the calculation of modulation products,”
respectively.
Bell Syst. Tech. J., vol. 12, pp. 228–243, 1933.
Since 1995 he has been with the City University
[8] H. Mellor, S. P. Leigh, and B. M. G. Cheetham, “Reduction of spectral
of Hong Kong, where he is currently an Associate
distortion in class D amplifiers by an enhanced pulse width modulation
Professor in the Department of Electronic Engi-
sampling process,” Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., vol. 138, pt. G, no. 4, pp.
neering. His research interests include time- and
441–448, Aug. 1991.
[9] J. Shen, J. A. Taufiq, and A. D. Mansell, “Analytical solution to frequency-domain analysis of power electronic cir-
harmonic characteristics of traction PWM converters,” Proc. Int. Elec. cuits, switched-capacitor-based converters, random-
Eng., vol. 144, no. 2, pp. 158–168, Mar. 1997. switching techniques, and soft-switching converters. He has authored over 85
[10] C. M. Wu, W. H. Lau, and H. Chung, “Analytical solution to harmonic technical papers in his current research area.
characteristics of PWM H-bridge converters with dead time,” in Proc. Dr. Chung was the recipient of the China Light and Power Prize and was
IEEE ISCAS’98, June 1998, pp. VI-462–465. awarded the Scholarship and Fellowship of the Sir Edward Youde Memorial
Fund in 1991 and 1993, respectively. He is currently Chairman of the Council
of the Sir Edward Youde Scholar’s Association and an IEEE student branch
counselor. He was the Track Chair of the Technical Committee on Power
Electronics Circuits and Power Systems of the IEEE Circuits and Systems
C. M. Wu was born in Guangdong, China. He Society for 1997 and 1998. His name has appeared in Marquis Who’s Who
received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from South in the World.
China University of Technology, China, in 1983 and
1988, respectively.
He is currently an Associate Professor at the
South China University of Technology. From 1997
to 1998 he was a Research Assistant in the De-
partment of Electronic Engineering, City University
of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. His research
interests include cycloconverters, PWM converters
with test quantities output, digital amplifiers, and the
analysis of the nonideal effects in power devices switching.