IEEE/OSA/IAPR Interational Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics Vision

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Rafd Haider, Rajin Alam, Nafsa Binte Yousuf, Khosru P. Salim
School of Engineering and Computer Science
Independent University, Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
rafd-haider@hotmail.com
5lr0cl1hS 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 flter. 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 a
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 flter.
Finally, the output voltage and current is measured and
displayed on an LCD (Liquid Crystal Diode) display.
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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
energy is one of the potential sources, which is preferred
over others due to availability, simplicity, lower
maintenance and reliable operation [1]. Photovoltaic (PV)
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 DCI AC power inverter is needed to convert the DC
voltage gathered by photovoltaic cells into AC voltage. H
Bangladesh, mainly square wave power inverters ae used. While
the squ 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 efciency, maximizing the output.
Use of inefcient 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
978-1-4673-1154-0/12/$31.00 20 12 IEEE
power consumption. Our main objective is to design and
develop a cost-effective inverter system to provide pure sine
wave AC voltage at maximum efciency.
II. METHODOLOGY
The system uses SPWM (Sinusoidal Pulse Width
Modulation) technic to produce sine wave output fom 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
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 fequency
of reference signal determines the inverter output fequency,
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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Figure 1. SPWM Generation
PIC18F4431 has a power PWM module which generates
PWM counter. It can be confgured 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 fom the microcontroller.
For single phase sine wave geneartion, two PWM pulses are
needed. The reference sinusoids of these two pulses have a
mutual phase shif of 1800 and both of them are of same
fequency [4].
A DC-DC boost converter works as the Switch Mode Power
Supply (SMPS) for the optocouplers, which works as
ICIEV 2012
IEEE/OSA/IAPR Interational 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
fll bridge circuit. Fig.2 shows how the DC voltage output
fom solar PV array is supplied across the fll bridge
circuitry.
Figure 2. Full Bridge Circuit
The output of the inverter circuit is a PWM wave, with a
switching fequency of 20 kHz. An L-C flter is attached
parallel to the load, which attenuates the PWM and
produces pure sine wave. Fig. 3 represents the overall
system architecture.
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Figure 3. System Block Diagram
III. INVERTER SPECIFICATION
The characteristics of the proposed inverter system IS
showed in table 1.
TABLE 1: INVERTER SPECIFICATION
Input Voltage Range Z50- 400Volts (DC)
Maimum Input Current
Maimum Output Power
Output Voltage
Frequency
Output Waveform Type
IV. HARDWARE DESIGN
10 A (DC)
1000W
220 Volts (AC)
50Hz
Pure Sine
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)
191
Monitoring and display circuit.
. 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 fom a DC
source into 18V DC by high fequency switching. An
SG3525 IC acts as 'push-pull' converter in the SMPS
circuit.
B. Full Bridge Circuitr and Isolation
The Full Bridge inverter circuit consists of four IGBTs,
acting as high fequency switches. MBH15D-060 IGBTs
have a maximum voltage rating of 600V and maximum
current rating of 30A. A3120 optocoupler ICs isolate the
IGBTs fom the controlling circuit unit. Four optocouplers
are connected with the four IGBT switches.
Figure 4. SMP S, Isolation ad Inverter circuit
L Filter Circuit
The flter used over here is a L-C passive flter, consisting
of a ferrite core inductor and a capacitor. Ferrite core
component was used instead of iron core because the high
switching fequency (20 kHz) incites considerable heat on
the iron core. The capacitance of the capacitor is 0.04 IF
and the inductor's inductance was 1.13 mH approximately.
The resonant fequency of the combination can be
determined fom the equation,
f= 1/2]> (LC) ......... (1)
Figure 5. L-C Filter
ICIEV 2012
IEEE/OSA/IAPR Interational 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 fF) = 23.67 kHz
So, the cutoff fequency of the flter is approximately 23.67
kHz, which is close to the PWM switching fequency of 20
kHz. As 400 PWM samples complete a sine wave
(detennined by the microcontroller programming, explained
in the next section); the fequency of the resulting sine wave
will be,
F = 20 kHz/400 = 20000 Hz/400 = 50 Hz
D. Monitoring and Displa Circuit
The monitoring and display unit is completely separate fom
the other parts of the inverter. It intakes the output voltage
and current of the system and measures them before
displaying on an LCD display. The monitoring circuit uses a
voltage sensor and a current sensor to measure output
voltage and curent of the system. An NNC-l OGFP current
transducer works as the current sensor and a step down
transformer coupled with a fll bridge rectifer measures
voltage. The voltage and curent are shown in a 2x16 LCD
display. The LCD display is operated by a PIC16F877A
microcontroller. The PIC16F877A is fed with the outputs
fom curent and voltage sensors as analog inputs and
performs the mathematical conversion needed to show the
data on the LCD.
Figure 6. Monitoring and Display Unit
V. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
The PIC 18F4431 microcontroller has eight power PWM
outputs. For single phase SPWM generation, four PWM
outputs are needed; two independent and their two
complements. From fg. 2; switches A and B are
independent, and switch D is complement to switch A and
switch C is complement to switch B.
192
Initialize ADpors, set interrupt
Sine look up Table Modulation Index
* Values from Sine look up Table
Figure 7. Program Flowchart for PWM generation
Fig. 7 shows the fowchart of the program. A look up table
is created at the beginning of the program, which stores a
fxed number of samples of a sinusoid at a predefned
fequency (50 Hz in this case). Then, by real time extraction
of data fom the table using a pointer value, and updating
the duty cycle registers of PIC18F4431 microcontroller,
SPWM output pulses are created.
Another program for the PIC 16877 A was developed to
retrieve output voltage and current values fom sensors and
to show them on the display device. It reads and converts
the outputs fom the sensors by multiplying with appropriate
values and puts the values on the LCD device.
VI. SOFT START MECHANISM
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.
The modulation index is used to implement sof start
mechanism. Some electronic devices, such as motors,
consume 600-800% of its fll load current to start. This
initial current is called the inrush current, which can have
hazardous effect on the inverter system and appliances
connected to it. To prevent this inrush curent, sof start is
needed.
ICIEV 2012
IEEE/OSA/IAPR Interational Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics Vision
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Figure 8. Program Flowchart for Sof Stat
To implement sof start, the voltage across the load is
notched by gradually increasing the modulation index,
instead of letting it jump to the full voltage. This is done by
creating a nested loop in the program, which increases the
modulation index in several stages. Fig. 8 shows the
fowchart of implementing the sof start.
VII. OUTPUT FREQUENCY CALCULA nON
The number of samples in the sine lookup table is 400. The
clock fequency is 20M Hz. The PWM time base period for
up-down counter mode is 128. The time period,
TpWM = 2*PTPER*PTMRS / (Fosc/4) .......... (2)
Equation(2)[S] shows the time elapsed to process one
sample. Here, Fosc= 20MHz, PTPER = 128 and PTMRPS
= l. So, fom Eq.l, TpW = Sl.2us. As it takes 400 samples
to complete a full cycle of the output sinusoid, the
fequency will be,
1/(Trw*400)= 1/(400*S1.2us)= 1/0.02s= SO Hz
193
VIII. SYSTEM OUTPUT
For testing and verifcation, a makeshif DC power supply
was used as the input to the inverter, which amplifed and
converted the AC voltage fom 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.
Figure 9. Pulse Width Modulated Sine Wave
The PWM sine is then applied across the L-C flter. The
flter attenuates the signal and prodeces pure sine wave. Fig.
10 shows the sine output across a resistive load. The
fequency of the sinusoid was calculated SOHz by a stoage
oscilloscope.
Figure 10. Pure Sine Wave Output
For inductive load, output remains similar, save for a few
ripples (fg. 11). The display device also works well; fg. 12
shows the LCD display, demonstrating the output voltage
and current.
Figure 11. Sine Wave Output for Inductive Load
ICIEV 2012
IEEE/OSA/IAPR Interational Conference on Infonnatics, Electronics Vision
Figure 12. LCD Display
The effciency of the system was calculated fom the input
and output power of the inverter for a resistive load. The
input and output voltages and currents of the system were
measured, and the input and output powers were calculated
fom them. Table 2 shows the efciency of system for
different inputs.
TABLE 2: INPUT AND OUTPUT DATA
Total Inpnt Power AC
DC Input r calculating the Output
Power loss in drive Power System
() circuit] () () Efciency
35 36.4 27.27 74.92%
48 49.4 38.85 78.64%
63 64.4 56.16 87.20%
80 81.4 68.6 84.28%
99 100.4 90.56 90.20%
120 121.4 105.91 87.24%
143 144.4 124.2 86.01%
168 169.4 150 88.55%
195 196.4 172.2 87.68%
224 225.4 204.7 90.82%
255 256.4 228 88.92%
288 289.4 265.2 91.64%
323 324.4 299.75 92.40%
360 361.4 334.95 92.68%
399 400.4 369 92.16%
440 441.4 404.775 91.70%
483 484.4 448.8 92.65%
528 529.4 488.175 92.21%
575 576.4 540 93.68%
624 625.4 585 93.54%
675 676.4 639.6 94.56%
728 729.4 680 93.23%
783 784.4 747.6 95.31%
840 841.4 809.6 96.22%
From table 2, it is evident that the inverter works best fom
around 300W to kW, as the efciency is more than 92%
for this range.
194
IX. LIMITATIONS
To get maximum power fom 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 fnd the maximum
voltage point VMA; and by maintaining it maximum power
can be haressed fom the system [6].
Also, more experimental data is needed to assess the
product for commercial usage. Circuit insulation is needed
for the safety of users.
X. CONCLUSION
This paper discusses the design and development of a pure
sine wave inverter. The main objective of this project was to
fnd an effcient power conversion system to use
photovoltaic energy to meet the increasing power demands
of residential and industrial sector. While designing the
circuit and selecting the components, the main objective
was to keep the power losses to a minimum. And the data
gathered testif that the system is efcient enough. From the
experimental results, the efciency of the inverter is
relatively low for lower input power (75-85% for inputs
lower than 100W). As the input power increases, the
efciency increases as well. The efciency reaches 96% for
840W input. The output sine wave for inductive load shows
minimal fuctuations and stays almost identical to the one
observed for resistive load. The inverter works perfectly
well and has met every goal set at the commencement of
this venture, though more experimental data is needed to be
gathered and a closed loop MPPT system is required to be
installed before applying it at residences or in industries.
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