Electrical Engineering in Japan, Vol. 183, No.

3, 2013
Translated from Denki Gakkai Ronbunshi, Vol. 131-D, No. 6, June 2011, pp. 811819

A Carrier Phase Control Suitable for Conducted EMI Noise Reduction in a Multiple-Converter System
MICHIO TAMATE,1 AKIO TOBA,1 YASUSHI MATSUMOTO,1 KEIJO WADA,2 and TOSHIHISA SHIMIZU2
1 2

Fuji Electric Holdings Co., Ltd., Japan Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan

SUMMARY The conducted EMI noise flowing from power converters to an AC utility line is regulated by international commissions such as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Adherence to the IEC regulations requires that EMI filters should be used in power electronics equipment. This paper proposes a method for analyzing conducted EMI noise in multiple power converters connected to the same power line. In this method, the phase difference between subharmonic modulated carrier signals at each power converter is taken into account. The phase difference among the power converters determines the EMI noise level in a multiple converter system, as is evident from the analysis of the waveform of the common mode current. In addition, EMI noise suppression using carrier phase control is proposed. In order to reduce the size of the EMI filter effectively, the phase difference should be set to 360/nN, where n is a high-order harmonic component near 150 kHz and N is the number of power converters. Therefore, the conducted EMI noise can be reduced effectively with the help of the proposed phase control. 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 183(3): 5666, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.21305

Key words: conducted EMI noise; inverter; parallel operation; carrier frequency; carrier phase control.

1. Introduction In recent years there have been reports [1] on various forms of electromagnetic interference (EMI) due to electromagnetic noise (conducted or emitted) generated by power converter systems, and EMI has become a focus of regula-

tion by the Comit International Spcial des Perturbations Radiolectriques (CISPR; Special international committee on radio interference) and the Voluntary Control Council for Interference by Information Technology Equipment (VCCI) [2]. Conducted EMI noise is being measured and evaluated as terminal voltage noise, and regulation across a wide range of frequencies from 150 kHz to 30 MHz is being implemented. A variety of research is under way to reduce conducted EMI noise effectively. The majority of such evaluations are analyses of conducted EMI noise generated by one power converter system [38]. However, when the great spread of power converter systems in recent years is taken into consideration, systems in which several electric power conversion circuits are installed in the same AC power source are expected to increase in number, and reports on the analysis of conducted EMI noise and its reduction in such systems are starting to appear [911]. We previously evaluated a suppression method using an EMI filter and a method to analyze conducted EMI noise generated when operating several inverters at the same time in an AC module system for grid linkages composed of a combination of 100-W grid-linked inverters [9]. It is known that when generating a PWM reference in a power converter, the frequency spectrum (conducted EMI noise) of the harmonic component with the carrier frequency as the fundamental component can be varied by regulating the phase difference in the propagation wave (carrier) for each power converter to a constant level (carrier phase control) [911]. For instance, it has been reported that switching ripple can be effectively reduced by setting a value of 2/N (rad) for N power converters, with the frequency of generation of conducted EMI noise being the harmonic component at N times the carrier frequency [10]. In contrast, in order to reduce the size of an EMI filter for reducing terminal voltage noise, a carrier phase control method focusing on the harmonic component of the con 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 56

ducted EMI noise near the regulated lower frequency bound (150 kHz) has also been proposed [11]. In this paper we first describe a carrier phase control method that has previously been proposed. Next, we explain that in order to effectively reduce the terminal voltage noise, merely reducing a particular harmonic component near the lower frequency limit (150 kHz) is insufficient, and that a wide frequency range including the neighborhood of the lower frequency bound must be reduced. Further, we evaluate a method that simplifies harmonic leak current waveform, and based on the simplified waveform obtained from this result, we analyze the frequency spectrum of the conducted EMI noise harmonic component generated when using carrier phase control. Based on the results of this analysis, we propose a method of determining the carrier phase differential used to reduce the terminal voltage noise, and present experiments demonstrating its effectiveness. Finally, we show that by using a simple design for an EMI filter based on the cutoff frequency and the proposed carrier phase control method, the inductance of a common mode choke coil used as a countermeasure for terminal voltage noise can be reduced, and the size of the EMI filter can be reduced effectively. 2. The Carrier Phase Control Method 2.1 A system composed of several power converters Figure 1 shows the system for evaluating the conducted EMI noise generated by several power converters. Figure 1(a) represents a block diagram of the system, composed of N power converters with identical specifications connected in parallel to a shared AC power source vin. Here, the half-bridge inverter in Fig. 1(b) is used in each power converter, and power is supplied to the load using PWM control. Conducted EMI noise in two forms, with different paths for the common mode component with the harmonic leak current iE flowing via the stray capacitance CE as a noise source and the differential mode component with the voltage ripple in the DC middle capacitor Cdc0 as a noise source, flows from the half-bridge converter. In order to measure and evaluate this conducted EMI noise, we connected a line impedance stabilization network (LISN) for evaluating conducted EMI noise to the grid, and measured the conducted EMI noise that reached the LISN by means of a spectrum analyzer (interference intensity meter). It is known that when operating several power converters at the same time, the conducted EMI noise increases compared to the operation of a power converter singly. However, because the regulation values for the conducted EMI noise do not change, an EMI filter with a high attenuation level must be used. Fig. 1. System for evaluating conducted EMI noise. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

2.2 The carrier phase control method The operation of the power converters in question here is explained below. The power converters are controlled by subharmonic modulation. Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of the PWM signals supplied to each power converter in the system running in parallel. Figure 2 represents an example with two power converters. By using two carrier waves (triangular waves) with a phase differential for the same modulation wave (sine wave), the respective PWM references are generated (in Fig. 2, a phase difference of rad). The phase difference of this carrier is known to change the frequency spectrum of the conducted EMI noise. A method of reducing the noise by appropriately regulating the phase difference of the carrier (in this paper referred to as carrier phase control) has been proposed [10, 11]. 2.3 Evaluation of the conventional carrier phase control method The power converter system shown in Fig. 1 was created and the effect of using the conventional carrier phase control method was evaluated. We operated the half-

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Table 3. Circuit parameters of EMI filter

Fig. 2. PWM signals applied to each converter. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Fig. 3. EMI filter configuration.

Table 1. Circuit parameters of half-bridge inverter

Table 2. Operating conditions of half-bridge inverter

bridge inverter using PWM control, then measured and evaluated the conducted EMI noise generated as terminal voltage noise. We also connected the EMI filter shown in Fig. 3 to the grid [point A in Fig. 1(a]), and evaluated the possibility of reducing its size. Table 1 lists the circuit parameters of the half-bridge inverter that was built. Table 2 lists its operating conditions, and Table 3 gives the circuit parameters of the EMI filter. In the experimental system that was built, the load (Lload and Rload) and the grounding electrode were set up separately, and the stray capacitance CE noted in Fig. 1(b) was the stray capacitance [5] formed in the IGBT module. Given the load capacity of the apparatus, the input voltage was lower than in the device used, but is unlikely to have been an impediment to evaluating the relationship between the carrier phase difference and the noise, as described later. The carrier phase control method that regulates the phase difference of the carrier frequency to 2/N (rad) based on the number N of power converters running in parallel has been known for some time and is used for reducing the size of the LC filter for ripple reduction [10]. For a system that operates three power converters at the same time, measurements of the terminal voltage noise when using carrier phase control are shown in Fig. 4. The results of setting the phase difference to 0 rad and the results of setting the phase difference to 2/3 rad are shown. Measurements were performed using peak value detection, which is suitable for understanding the trends in the noise level in the frequency overall. The VCCI Class B limiting values (quasi-peak value QP and average value Ave.) are also noted. The peak value and quasi-peak value at less than 1 MHz agree well, and as a result the peak value is a measure of whether or not the regulations are met. From Fig. 4 we can see that when the carrier phase difference is regulated to 2/3 rad, the conducted EMI noise is generated only at harmonics that are multiples of the third harmonic component (42 kHz, 84 kHz, 126 kHz, ...) of the carrier frequency of 14 kHz, and operation is consistent with the conventional proposed method. We now consider whether or not the conventional carrier control method is suitable for reducing the size of the EMI filter that is required in order to reduce the terminal voltage noise below the regulation value. Because the attenuation level of the EMI filter is a characteristic of the low-pass filter, and becomes smaller as the frequency becomes lower, circuit parameters based on a noise level near the regulation lower bound frequency (150 kHz) can be designed for the EMI filter. That is, the external dimensions

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Fig. 4. Measured results of the conducted disturbance by applying conventional carrier phase control. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

of the EMI filter are determined by the noise level at the lower limit of the regulation frequency (150 kHz).* Figure 4(b) is a magnified view of the interval from 100 kHz to 1 MHz in Fig. 4(a). By regulating the carrier phase difference to 2/3 rad, the noise level at 154 kHz can be greatly reduced. In contrast, the noise level at 168 kHz is the same as at a carrier phase difference of 0 rad. Thus, the margins (approximately 5 dB) for the regulation of the 154-kHz component when operating at 0 rad and of the 168-kHz component when operating at 2/3 rad are about the same, and consequently the required circuit parameters for the EMI filter do not change. As can be seen from the example above, merely reducing the conducted EMI noise near 150 kHz reduces the circuit parameters of the EMI filter excessively and makes size reduction difficult.

EMI filter, the conducted EMI noise must be reduced over a wide frequency range above 150 kHz. Consequently, in this paper we propose a carrier phase control method that satisfies this requirement. 3.2 Simplification of the harmonic leak current waveform The common mode component, that is, the harmonic leak current, is often a cause of conducted EMI noise problems, and thus in this paper the harmonic leak current is analyzed. Figure 5 shows the results of measuring the harmonic leak current iE flowing when the one half-bridge inverter shown in Fig. 1(b) is operating. The harmonic leak current flows when charging the stray capacitance CE, and due to the effect of the inductance component in the conducting path, a waveform with a resonant component superimposed on a pulse-shaped waveform is obtained. However, based on the complex measured waveform shown in Fig. 5, evaluating the carrier phase control method

3. Carrier Phase Control Method Using Terminal Voltage Noise Reduction

3.1 Requirements of the carrier phase control method The conducted EMI noise is generated in a frequency range above the carrier frequency. As can be seen in Fig. 4, even if the conducted EMI noise near 150 kHz is reduced, if the conducted EMI noise of the neighboring harmonic components cannot be reduced, then the EMI filter cannot be made smaller. Thus, in order to reduce the size of the
In the measured results shown in Fig. 4, a high noise level with respect to the regulation is obtained in the frequency range above 10 MHz. However, the conducted EMI noise in this frequency range varies significantly depending on the placement and wiring pattern of the EMI filter and main circuit, and thus a design based on the component characteristics of the EMI filter cannot be established. Consequently, conducted EMI noise at frequencies above 10 MHz is excluded from the evaluation here.
*

Fig. 5. Measured waveform of the leak current from the half-bridge inverter. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

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Hence, the harmonic leak current waveform flowing in one switching cycle is analyzed by simplification to a rectangular wave pulse. (b) Simplification of the effects due to PWM control Fig. 6. Simplified waveform of the leak current from the power converter. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.] Figure 8 shows the leak current waveform iE in one switching cycle when using PWM control. A current with different polarity in the turn-on and turn-off timing flows with the on-duty varying over time, and is complex compared to the waveform in Fig. 6. However, the leak current waveform in Fig. 8 can be analyzed using the simplification in Fig. 6 for analysis of the terminal voltage noise. The reason is as follows. In order to take into consideration the effect of the on-duty , the harmonic leak current waveform is subjected to Fourier series expansion, and the amplitude of the harmonic component is found: (1) Figure 9 represents the results of using Eq. (1) to find the amplitude when varying the on-duty (rad) in the period T (2 rad), pulse current amplitude I (1 A) and pulse width tpulse (0.17 103 rad). As can be seen in Fig. 9, the amplitude of the harmonic component n fluctuates periodically depending on the on-duty (rad). But the maximum value of the harmonic component at each order is approximately 0.11 A, confirming that it is constant. Thus, if the terminal voltage noise is measured using peak value detection during PWM control, then the maximum values (dotted line in Fig. 9) for each harmonic component are observed. Because the results of peak value detection as described above give an indication of whether or not the regulations are satisfied, the maximum value of the noise

is not sensible. Thus, we simplify the harmonic leak current as shown below. (a) Simplification of the pulse waveform The harmonic leak current waveform flowing in one switching cycle shown in Fig. 5 is simplified to the rectangle wave pulse with period T, amplitude P, and pulse width shown in Fig. 6. Next, the difference in the harmonic spectrum in Figs. 5 and 6 is considered based on the results of Fourier series expansion. The simplified waveform in Fig. 6 is matched with the measured waveform, giving a period of T = 35 s, an amplitude of P = 0.09 A, and a pulse width of = 1.7 s. Figure 7 shows the results of Fourier series expansion of the measured waveform and the simplified waveform. Below 4.5 MHz, the error is 2.5 dB, representing good agreement. At higher frequencies, differences appear, but as described above, reducing the conducted EMI noise near 150 kHz is an effective way to reduce the size of the EMI filter. As a result, the ability to simulate noise near 1 MHz is sufficient for the evaluation in this paper.

Fig. 7. Spectrum comparison of the leak current. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Fig. 8. Leak current iE from the power converter with PWM control used.

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The harmonic spectrum of the harmonic leak current when running a power converter singly can be obtained by subjecting the simplified waveform of the harmonic leak current in Fig. 6 to Fourier expansion and finding the amplitude of the n-th harmonic component. The result is shown in Fig. 6. (2) (2) Analysis when operating an odd number of power converters simultaneously Fig. 9. Amplitude of the leak current depending on the duty . [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.] Figure 10(a) shows a schematic diagram of the leak current waveform during carrier phase control when operating an odd number of converters. Here, the carrier phase differences between each power converter are all regulated to odd. At this point, the amplitude of the n-th order harmonic component of the harmonic leak current waveform shown in Fig. 10(a) can be found by Fourier expansion as follows: (3) where k is a variable that depends on the number of power converters. Next, finding the amplitude ratio when operating the reference power converter singly results in (4)

detected for the peak value should be analyzed in detail without considering the effect of PWM control. Figure 8 is simplified with consideration of the above. First, with the on-duty = rad in Fig. 8, the odd-numbered harmonic component is always a maximum value. Next, if we assume that the leak current flowing toward the negative in the turn-on timing is inverted and the current flows toward the positive at all times, then the even-numbered harmonic component also represents a maximum value, but in this waveform, the period T is halved. Thus, if the leak current with the amplitude doubled is set to flow only in the turn-on timing, then a pulse waveform with a maximum value in all harmonic components results. This pulse waveform is the simplified waveform in Fig. 6. Therefore, below we analyze in detail the conducted EMI noise level based on the simplified waveform in Fig. 6 without taking into consideration the effect of PWM control as shown in Fig. 8. 3.3 Waveform analysis based on the number of converters running in parallel In this section we analyze the harmonic spectrum of the harmonic leak current waveform based on the carrier phase difference and the number of operating power converters. (1) Analysis when operating a power converter singly The detailed characteristics of the conducted EMI noise level when using carrier phase control are clarified by comparing the harmonic vector under carrier phase control with the harmonic spectrum of the harmonic leak current when operating a power converter singly as a reference.

Fig. 10. Simplified waveforms of the leak current in a multiconverter system. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

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(3) Analysis when operating an even number of power converters simultaneously Figure 10(b) shows a schematic diagram of the leak current waveform during carrier phase control when operating an even number of converters. Here, the carrier phase differences between the power converters are all regulated to even. At this point, the amplitude of the n-th order harmonic component of the harmonic leak current waveform shown in Fig. 10(b) by Fourier expansion can be found as follows: (5) Here, as when running an odd number of converters, the amplitude ratio when operating the reference power converter singly is given by (6)

(4) and (6) hold regardless of the harmonic leak current waveform. (3) The terminal voltage noise for a carrier phase difference with an amplitude ratio of zero can be reduced If the carrier phase difference is set so that the amplitude ratio is zero for a particular n-th order harmonic component, then the conducted EMI noise for the n-th order harmonic component can be reduced. 3.4 Carrier phase difference method suitable for reducing terminal voltage noise In order to reduce the terminal voltage noise in the 150-kHz component, the number n of the harmonic component near 150 kHz and the number N of controllers are substituted into Eq. (4) or Eq. (6), and the carrier phase difference (odd or even) should be set so that Eqs. (4) and (6) equal zero. However, because there are several carrier phase differences that satisfy this condition, a condition in which the carrier phase difference is not suitable for reducing the terminal noise voltage and cannot reduce the side of the EMI filter is present, as shown in Fig. 4. Thus, we evaluate the carrier phase difference most suitable for reducing the terminal voltage noise during carrier phase control. For instance, suppose that a sixth-order or higher harmonic component is at a regulation frequency (150 kHz to 30 MHz) in a system running two power converters at the same time. In this case, if N = 2 and n = 6 are used in Eq. (6), then three carrier phase differences (even = /6, /2, 5/6) at which Eq. (6) equals zero can be found. If these three carrier phase differences are set, then the 150-kHz terminal voltage noise can be reduced. Figure 11 shows the results of calculating the amplitude ratio |n-even / n0| from the first to the twelfth order harmonic components for the three carrier phase differences at which the amplitude ratio

Based on the analytical results thus far, the following is suggested. (1) The noise level when operating at a carrier phase difference of 0 rad is at a maximum Finding the amplitude ratio [Eqs. (4) and (6)] for the higher-order harmonic component by using = 0 rad results in all cosine functions being 1. Thus, the conditions operating at a phase difference of = 0 rad generate the most conducted EMI noise. The solution for the amplitude ratio[Eqs. (4) and (6)] is N, and as a result, the maximum value of the noise level rises in proportion to the number of power converters.* (2) The amplitude ratio when using carrier phase control is not dependent on the harmonic leak current waveform Based on the amplitude ratio [Eqs. (4) and (6)], we eliminate the pulse amplitude (rad) and the amplitude P (A) that determine the shape of the simplified waveform for the harmonic leak current shown in Fig. 6. The variable related to the waveform does not exist, and as a result, Eqs.

Without a filter in Figs. 12(a) and 12(b) in the results of the experiments described later, if this assertion is confirmed, then it is also confirmed that three converters are 2 to 3 dB higher overall at frequencies below 2 MHz (for instance, at a high noise level of 0.5 MHz, two converters reach 89.9 dB and three converters reach 92.4 dB), and the maximum value of the noise level is roughly proportional to the number of converters running in parallel.

Fig. 11. Amplitude ratio of the harmonic order (n) suitable for reduction of the sixth-order harmonic. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

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is zero under the condition n = 6. Based on Fig. 11, we confirmed that if the three carrier phase differences are set, then all of the sixth harmonic components reach zero, and the results are consistent with the analysis. However, in order to reduce the size of the EMI filter, an effective condition is that the amplitude of the harmonic components above the sixth be reducible as well. In the conditions shown in Fig. 11, the amplitude ratio is approximately double for the seventh order harmonic at a carrier phase difference of 5/6 and the eighth-order harmonic component at a carrier phase difference of /2, but an effective reduction of conducted noise EMI cannot be achieved. In contrast, an effective reduction of more than 10% can be obtained up to the tenth harmonic component at a carrier phase difference of /6. Thus, we see that for the carrier phase difference, the condition /6 can reduce the noise most broadly in the regulation frequency range, and the noise terminal reduction is most effective. As shown in Fig. 11, at each order the amplitude ratio shifts along the envelope of the absolute value of the cosine function in Eq. (6) with respect to the n-th order of the harmonic component. The smaller the carrier phase difference becomes, the longer the repeat period of the amplitude ratio |n-even / n0| (or |n-odd / n0|) with respect to the higher-order harmonic component n, and thus the conducted EMI noise near 150 kHz can be substantially reduced, indicating effective performance as a countermeasure against terminal voltage noise. The same is true regardless of the number of operating converters. The lowest carrier phase difference at which Eq. (4) or Eq. (6) is zero is given by (7) Consequently, the terminal voltage noise can be effectively reduced by determining and regulating the carrier phase difference based on Eq. (7) for the desired harmonic component of order n when running N converters at the same time. The conventional carrier phase difference control method is equivalent to a particular solution to reduce the noise level for the fundamental component n = 1.

Table 4. Operating conditions using the proposed phase control

operating conditions of the proposed carrier phase control method for two and three controllers. Figure 12 shows the results of operational verification of the proposed carrier phase control method under conditions in which an EMI filter is not connected. Figure 12(a) shows the results of measurements of the terminal voltage noise when operating two converters at the same time, and Fig. 12(b), the results when operating three converters at the same time. In Figs. 12(a) and 12(b), the terminal voltage noise near 150 kHz, the regulated lower bound for the voltage, is at a minimum in both, confirming that the desired operation can be achieved. If the conditions when operating at a phase difference of 0 rad are compared, the conducted EMI noise can be reduced in the frequency range of 65 to 250 kHz for two converters, and of 80 to 400 kHz for three converters.

4. Results of Experiments

4.1 Results of operational verification We verified the effect of the proposed carrier phase control method through experiments. We set the carrier phase difference to reduce the terminal voltage noise most effectively with respect to the 150-kHz component of the regulated lower bound of the frequency. Table 4 lists the

Fig. 12. Measured results for validation of the proposed method. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

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Fig. 13. Measured results of the conducted disturbance when using the proposed carrier phase control. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

4.2 Reduction in size of the EMI filter Figure 13 shows the results of measuring the terminal voltage noise when the EMI filter shown in Fig. 3 and in Table 3 is connected to the grid [point A in Fig. 1(a)] when using three converters. Compared to operation at a carrier phase difference of 0 rad, operation at a carrier phase difference of 0.19 rad can reduce the noise level over a wide frequency range of 80 to 400 kHz. Figure 13(b) gives a magnified view of the results for 100 kHz to 1 MHz. Operation at a carrier phase difference of 0.19 rad, for which the margin is high with respect to the value limited by regulation, can reduce the size of the EMI filter. Thus, we consider the viability of reducing the size of the EMI filter by deriving [12] the maximum filter cutoff frequency (below referred to as the filter corner frequency) that can satisfy the regulations proposed as a method for basic EMI filter design. Because the minimum number of EMI filter components is determined by the filter corner frequency, it is a metric for evaluating the viability of size reduction. Figure 14 shows a magnified view of the measured terminal voltage noise when not using the filter shown

in Fig. 12(b). We designed an EMI filter under conditions in which the highest noise level matched the mean value of the Class B regulation level. Figure 14 confirms that the noise must be reduced to 34 dB at 150 kHz in the presence of a carrier phase difference of 0 rad, whereas the noise should be reduced to 29 dB at 225 kHz with a carrier phase difference of 0.19 rad. Figure 15 shows the results of deriving the filter corner frequency. The filter corner frequency in Fig. 15 is derived from the slope (40 dB/dec) of the attenuation characteristics for an EMI filter consisting of the most common single-stage LC filter. As can be seen in Fig. 15, there is a two-fold difference in the filter corner frequency before and after the application of carrier phase control. Based on this result, the circuit parameters for the EMI filter can be calculated. For the EMI filter shown in Fig. 3, the filter corner frequency is equivalent to the resonant frequency of the stray capacitance CE in the device and the common mode choke coil LC. Because the stray capacitance CE cannot be varied, the filter corner frequency should be tuned by altering the inductance in the common mode choke coil LC. Under the condition of a carrier phase difference of 0.19 rad, the inductance of the common mode

Fig. 14. Required attenuation in the EMI filter. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Fig. 15. Calculated result for the filter corner frequencies. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

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coil LC can be reduced to one-fourth (by a factor of 1/22) of that at a carrier phase difference of 0 rad. Because the largest component in the EMI filter is the common mode choke coil, it can be seen that reducing the inductance of the common mode choke coil is effective for reducing the size of the EMI filter. 5. Conclusions We have proposed a carrier phase control method suitable for reducing the terminal voltage noise targeted for regulation in a system with several power converters operated in parallel. We demonstrated that the proposed method can reduce the conducted EMI noise of any harmonic component with any number of converters in operation, and that EMI filter can be reduced in size as required to meet the terminal voltage noise targets. The proposed carrier phase control method is an effective method for either the common mode or the differential mode, and can directly reduce the frequency range in which electromagnetic interference is generated. As a result, this technology can be used effectively for EMI noise countermeasures in a variety of fields. REFERENCES 1. Joint Committee on Electromagnetic Interference in Semiconductor Electric Power Converters. Electromagnetic noise in power electronics equipment. Tech Rep IEE Japan, Vol. 545, 1995. 2. CISPR 16-1-2: Specifications for radio disturbance and immunity measuring apparatus and methods Part 1-2: Radio disturbance and immunity measuring apparatus Ancillary equipment Conducted disturbances.

3. Ogasawara S, Fujita H, Akagi H. Modeling and analysis of high-frequency leakage currents caused by voltage-sourced PWM inverter. Trans IEE Japan 1995;115-D:7783. (in Japanese). 4. Azuma S, Kimata M. Reduction of normal and common mode conducted EMI noise with active noise filter. Trans IEE Japan 2004;124-D:893900. (in Japanese) 5. Shimizu T, Kimura G, Hirose J. High frequency leakage current caused by the transistor module and its suppression technique. Trans IEE Japan 1996;116-D:758766. (in Japanese). 6. Miyashita J, Mitsuzawa M, Karube T, Yamasawa K, Sato T. A quantitative analysis of common-mode noise of a switching power supply. Trans IEICE Japan 2001;J84-B:643646. (in Japanese) 7. Morita K. Ultra low-noise soft switch-mode power supply. Trans IEICE Japan 1999;J82-B:15151522. (in Japanese) 8. Tamate M, Sasaki T, Toba A. Quantitative estimation of conducted emission from an inverter system. IEE Japan Trans IA 2008;128:193200. (in Japanese) 9. Wada K, Ishitsuka T, Shimizu T. Reduction of conducted EMI on parallel operation for AC module inverters. IEE Japan Trans IA 2005;125:911918. (in Japanese) 10. Ayano H, Inaba H, Ogasawara S. Reduction effect of EMI in parallel matrix converter system. IEE Japan Trans IA 2008;128:184192. (in Japanese) 11. Wang C, Xu M, Lee FC, Lu B. EMI study for the interleaved multi-channel PFC. Power Electronics Specialists Conference 2007, PESC 2007, IEEE, p 13361342. 12. Shih FY, Chen DY, Wu YP, Chen YT. A procedure for designing EMI filters for AC line applications. IEE Japan Trans Power Electron 1996;11:170181.

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AUTHORS (from left to right)

Michio Tamate (member) received a bachelors degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1999, completed the M.E. program in electrical engineering in 2001, and joined Fuji Electric (now Fuji Electric Holdings). He started the latter half of the doctoral program in electrical and electronic engineering at the Graduate School of Science of Tokyo Metropolitan University. He is primarily engaged in design and development of power electronics equipment. Akio Toba (member) received a bachelors degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1992, completed the M.E. program in electrical engineering in 1994, and joined Fuji Electric (now Fuji Electric Holdings). He was a visiting researcher at the University of Wisconsin in 19971999. He received the IEEJ Industrial Applications Division Award for Scholarship in 2004. He is primarily engaged in research on power electronics devices, variable speed drive systems, and permanent magnet electric motors. He holds a D.Eng. degree, and is a member of IEEE. Yasushi Matsumoto (senior member) completed the M.E. program in electrical and electronic engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1993 and joined Fuji Electric. He completed the doctoral program in electronic and information engineering at Yokohama National University in 2002. He is now affiliated with the Fundamental Technology Research Center of Fuji Electric Holdings. He is primarily engaged in research on large-capacity conversion devices and motor drive technology. He holds a D.Eng. degree, and is a member of IEEE. Keiji Wada (member) completed the doctoral program at Okayama University in 2000 and became a lecturer at Tokyo Metropolitan University. After serving as a lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Tokyo Institute of Technology, he became an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Tokyo Metropolitan University in 2006. He is engaged in research on power electronics. He holds a D.Eng. degree. Toshihisa Shimizu (senior member) completed the M.E. program at the Graduate School of Engineering of Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1980 and joined Fuji Electric. In 1993 he became an associate professor at the Graduate School of Engineering of Tokyo Metropolitan University, where he is now a professor. He is engaged in teaching and research in the field of power electronics. He received a 1993 IEEJ Prize for Outstanding Paper. He holds a D.Eng. degree, and is an IEEE Senior Fellow.

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