POWER INVERTER DESIGN

INTRODUCTION:
Power inverters are electrical devices designed to convert direct current (DC) to
alternating current (AC). DC is the power that is produced by batteries and solar panels while
AC is the standard power needed to run electrical equipment. A power inverter does the
opposite of a rectifier and is used in places and situations where AC power is not available. The
method in which the low voltage DC power is inverted, is completed in two steps. The first
being the conversion of the low voltage DC power to a high voltage DC source, and the second
step being the conversion of the high DC source to an AC waveform using pulse width
modulation. Another method to complete the desired outcome would be to first convert the
low voltage DC power to AC, and then use a transformer to boost the voltage to 120 volts.
TYPES
Power inverters produce one of three types of power wave signals. They
are basically classified as
Square Wave : This is one of the simplest waveforms an inverter design can
produce and is useful for some applications. Square Wave signals produced
power that was not reliable or consistent. Square Wave units could be harmful
to some electronic equipment, especially equipment with transformers or
motors. The square wave output has a high harmonic content which can lead
such equipment components to overheat! Square Wave units were the pioneers
of inverter development and, like the horse and buggy, are no longer relevant
for modern use.
Modified Sine Wave Inverter : A modified sine wave inverter can
adequately power some household appliances and power tools. It is cheaper, but
may present certain compromises with some loads such as computers,
microwave ovens, laser printers, clocks and cordless tool chargers. Virtually all
low cost inverters are "modified sine wave". A modified sine wave is easier and
cheaper to produce than a sine wave inverter. They usually lack many features
such as auto-start or any type of tweaking ability. The devices are usually about
70% efficient, so expect some significant power losses if you are using a modified
sine wave inverter in your system.

Pure Sine Wave Inverter : Pure sine wave inverters are used to operate sensitive
electronic devices that require high quality waveform with little harmonic distortion. In
addition, they have high surge capacity which means they are able to exceed their rated
wattage for a limited time. This enables power motors to start easily which can draw up
to seven times their rated wattage during startup. Virtually any electronic device will
operate with the output from a pure sine wave inverter. These devices are able to run
more sensitive devices that a modified sine wave may cause damage to such as: laser
printers, laptop computers, power tools, digital clocks and medical equipment. This
form of AC power also reduces audible noise in devices such as fluorescent lights and
runs inductive loads, like motors, faster and quieter due to the low harmonic distortion.


Inverter Design Formulas
The internal voltage reference is 1.245 volts
is the peak inductor current, is the maximum output
load current

t
on
and t
off
> 10 ms and t
on
+ t
off
< 50 ms


Timing capacitor
Minimum output filter capacitor
Converter efficiency
Input current
Inverter Design Example (AN711)
V
in
= 12 volts V
out
= -15 volts
I
out (max)
= 500 ma V
ripple
< 1%

Step 1 Calculate the peak current


Step 2 Calculate the current sense resistor

Step 3 Calculate the t
on
/t
off
ratio

Step 4 Calculate the values for t
on
and t
off

Since and
Let then
Step 5 Calculate the timing capacitor C
T


Step 6 Determine the inductor size

Step 7 Determine the minimum storage capacitor size

Step 8 Determine the feedback resistor sizes


Step 9 Determine the switching transistor bias resistors
Select
where ( current sense threshold voltage)
(of the external transistor)




















INVERTER PARAMETERS




Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation
In sinusoidal PWM the distortion factor and lower order harmonics are reduced.
The frequency of reference signal determines inverter output frequency and its
peak amplitude controls the modulation index M and and RMS output voltage.
Number of pulses per half cycle depends on carrier frequency. The rms output
voltage can be varied from 0 to Vs volts by varying the modulation index M from 0
to 1. A DC voltage source can be made to look like an AC signal across a load by
altering the duty cycle of the PWM signal.
PWM signal varies can be generated through simple analog components, a
digital microcontroller, or specific PWM integrated circuits.
We chose the microcontroller over the analog system for several reasons. First, it
would be simpler to adapt. With an analog system, it would be difficult to make
changes for the desired output. The second advantage of using a microcontroller
is that it can allow for easy feedback to control the power flowing through the
load.







BLOCK DIAGRAM
The block diagram shown below shows the various parts of the project what will
be addressed. The control block is simply the microcontroller. It generates both
the PWM and square wave signals needed in controlling the MOSFET drivers. The
signals from the drivers are then used to drive the four N-channel MOSFETs in the
H-bridge configuration. The output signal form the h-bridge is then sent through
an low-pass LC filter so that the final output is a pure sine wave.


For H Bridge
it is beneficial to use N-channel MOSFETs as the high side switches as
well as the low side switches because they have a lower ON resistance
and therefore less power loss. The MOSFET driver operates from a
signal input given from the microcontroller and takes its power from
the battery voltage supply that the system uses. In order to achieve the
extra voltage necessary to switch on the device, a MOSFET driver is
used with a bootstrap capacitor.





Figure 2 H Bridge Schematic
Figure 1a on & off time for PWM




The difficulty in this system however is that in the high side MOSFETs, the gate
voltage (12V) needs to be at least 10V higher than the drain to source voltage
(170V). To meet this requirement, a bootstrap capacitor is needed to maintain the
voltage difference approximately 10V above the drain to source voltage.






The formula for the minimum bootstrap capacitor values can be obtained from:




For Microcontroller
Pulse width modulation (PWM) is a technique of controlling the amount of power
delivered to an electronic load using an on-off digital signal. The fraction of the
period for which the signal is on is known as the duty cycle. The average DC value
of the signal can be varied by varying the duty cycle. PIC16F628A has a built-in
hardware, called Capture/Compare/PWM (CCP) module, to generate a PWM
signal. The Capture and Compare features integrate closely with the 16-bit TMR1
and the PWM feature uses the third timer, the 8-bit TMR2. The CCP module has
two 8-bit registers, called CCPR1L and CCPR1H. In PWM mode, the RB3/CCP1 pin
can output a 10-bit resolution periodic digital waveform with programmable
period and duty cycle. To operate in PWM mode, the CCP1 pin must be
configured for output.

Code for PWM


For the Output filter
The final component necessary to output a pure sine wave signal is an output
filter. For our circuit we need a basic LC lowpass filter.



The Transformer