IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 45, NO.
5, OCTOBER 1998
Guest Editorial
Special Section on PWM Converter Current Control
T HERE IS NOW a general preference in ac/dc and dc/ac
conversion to use voltage-source (VS) rather than current-
source (CS) converters. This trend, which grew in the last
two decades, is mainly justified by the introduction of power
devices with turn-off capability and by the advantages of
a capacitive dc storage, over an inductive one, in terms of
weight, cost, and efficiency. Additional advantages include
the facts that this kind of converter is well matched with the
inductive characteristic of usual ac loads, without the need
of ac-side filter capacitors, and that the majority of modern
power devices have antiparallel freewheeling diodes, deriving
from their physical structure or included in the package. As a
result, VS converters (VSC’s) have also become a simple and
reliable solution for bidirectional power flow.
On the other hand, motors and other ac loads which are usu-
ally fed by converters exhibit, in general, better performance
and faster response if they are current fed rather than voltage
fed. In ac motors, current control (CC) reduces the dependence
on stator parameters and allows an immediate action on the
flux and torque developed by the machine. In other ac loads,
such as in the cases of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS’s)
and ac power supplies, CC results in an increased stability
of the control loop and in intrinsic short-circuit and overload
protection.
CC is also needed when converters are used as rectifiers (i.e.,
as ac/dc converters) or as active filters. In these important and
relatively new applications, current must be regulated to obtain
the desired active and reactive power and to minimize and/or
compensate for line power factor and current harmonics.
These requirements can be fulfilled, while keeping the
advantages of the VSC power structure (typically, three-
phase bridge topology), by a closed-loop regulation of the
ac-side currents produced by the converter. This solution
ensures several additional advantages. Among them, it gives
the control of the current waveform within the ac period, which
also compensates for load transients and nonlinearities and for
commutation delays. The feedback loop also results in some
limitations, in that fast-response voltage modulation techniques
must be employed, such as pulsewidth modulation (PWM) or
discrete pulse modulation (DPM). Optimal techniques, which
use precalculated switching patterns within the ac period,
cannot be used, as they are not oriented to ensure current
waveform control.
A number of CC methods have been developed, which
differ as to the kind of modulation and the type of control
technique used. As regards the modulation, except for DPM,
which is used mainly in the case of resonant dc-link (RDCL)
Publisher Item Identifier S 0278-0046(98)07014-2.
689
converters, PWM is generally used. For the latter, fixed-
or variable-frequency or random modulation can be success-
fully employed. As regards the control, two main categories
can be considered, linear and nonlinear. The first includes
proportional integral (PI) and state feedback controllers and
predictive techniques with constant switching frequency. The
second comprises hysteresis and predictive controllers with
on-line optimization. Alternative and innovative kinds of CC,
however, have been adopted, such as delta and sigma–delta
modulation and neural networks and/or fuzzy logic controls.
For each of these categories, a variety of modifications and
improvements of the basic principles have been developed,
due to extensive work done and to the large interest in the
application of this kind of converter.
In today’s practice, VSC’s with CC are employed in every
application where fast response, high accuracy, and a high
level of performance are needed. As these features are required
more and more, the interest in cheap, reliable, and high-quality
current control techniques is increasing.
To help the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELEC-
TRONICS readership explore the possibilities in VSC-PWM
current control, this “Special Section on PWM Converter
Current Control” has been prepared. An internationally rec-
ognized group of authors has described some of the novel
ideas, problems, and their solutions associated with current-
controlled PWM converters. These papers, covering all groups
of PWM current control techniques, will give an impression
of the present state of this technology.
The Guest Editors would like to take this opportunity to
thank all of the authors of this Special Section for their valu-
able contributions and cooperation. Also, we are grateful to
the reviewers, who endeavored to ensure that the papers to be
included in this Special Section are of high quality. Finally, we
wish to thank the Editor-in-Chief of this TRANSACTIONS, Prof.
Joachim Holtz, for his continued support, encouragement, and
patience.
MARIAN P. KAZMIERKOWSKI, Guest Editor
Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics
Warsaw University of Technology
00-662 Warsaw, Poland
LUIGI MALESANI, Guest Editor
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Padova
35131 Padova, Italy
690 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 45, NO. 5, OCTOBER 1998

Marian P. Kazmierkowski (M’89–SM’91–FM’98) received the M.Sc., Ph.D., and Dr. Sc.
degrees in electrical engineering from the Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics,
Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland, in 1968, 1972, and 1981, respectively.
From 1967 to 1969, he was with the Industrial Research Institute of Electrotechnics (IEl),
Warsaw, Poland, and from 1969 to 1980, he was with the Institute of Control and Industrial
Electronics, Warsaw University of Technology, as an Assistant Professor. From 1980 to 1983,
he was with RWTH Aachen, Aachen, West Germany, as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.
During 1986–1987, he was a Visiting Professor at NTH Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway. Since
1987, he has been a Professor and Director of the Institute of Control and Industrial Electronics,
Warsaw University of Technology. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, in 1990, at the Aalborg University Centre, Aalborg, Denmark, in 1990 and 1995,
and at the University of Padova, Padova, Italy, in 1993. He is also currently a Coordinating
Professor in the International Danfoss Professor Programme 1997–2000, Aalborg University.
He is engaged in research and theoretical work on electrical drive control and industrial electronics. He is the author or coauthor
of over 90 technical papers and reports, as well as 11 books and textbooks. His latest book, with Dr. H. Tunia, is Automatic
Control of Converter-Fed Drives (Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier, 1994).
Dr. Kazmierkowski was Chairman of the 1996 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics held in Warsaw,
Poland. He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, a member of the Executive Board
of the IEEE Poland Section, and the IEEE Industrial Electronics and IEEE Power Electronics Societies Joint Chapter Chairman.

Luigi Malesani (M’63–SM’93–F’94) was born in Lonigo, Vicenza, Italy, in 1933. He received
the Doctor degree, with honors, in electrical engineering from the University of Padova,
Padova, Italy, in 1962.
From 1963 to 1964, he was a Researcher with the Centro Gas Ionizzati of CNR. In
1964, he joined the University of Padova, where, until 1975, he was Assistant Professor of
Electrical Engineering. From 1968 to 1975, he was also an Associate Professor of Electronic
Components. Since 1975, he has been a Professor of Applied Electronics. His interests include
power electronics, circuit design, electrical machines, and automatic control. He is the author
of numerous papers on these subjects.
Prof. Malesani is a member of the Italian Association of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
(AEI).