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DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A PWM BASED 50Hz 12VDC/220VAC

1.5kVA INVERTER

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 JOURNAL OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING VOL. 13, NO. 1, ISSN 1118 – 5058
MARCH 2016
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A PWM BASED
50Hz 12VDC/220VAC 1.5kVA INVERTER
Osaretin C. A.1 and Edeko F. O.2
1,2,
Department of Electrical/Electronic Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, University of Benin, Benin City. Nigeria.
E-mail: charles.osaretin@uniben.edu1, edeko@uniben.edu2

ABSTRACT 1.0 INTRODUCTION

The aim of this work is to design and construct The increasing demand and epileptic supply of
a 12V-DC/220V-AC 1.5kVA inverter. The power supply in Nigeria, has increased demand
inverter consists of four stages which include for alternative sources of electrical energy. Due
the transformation stage (implemented with a to unreliable power supply, the need for
1,500VA transformer), oscillator stage alternative sources of electricity supply is on
(implemented with SG3524 Pulse-Width- the increase [Omoregie et al, 2014]. The most
Modulator (PWM) IC), driver stage common alternative source of power supply
(implemented with MOSFET IRF150) which widely deployed is electromechanical means;
controls the switching, and a feedback stage the alternator (generator) [Omitola et al, 2014].
that monitors the output voltage to ensure it Power instability has translated into high cost
does not fall below IEEE recommended value of production of goods and services. The cost
of ±2.5% the nominal value. of fuelling and maintaining heavy plants and
The circuit incorporated supervisory circuits generators, to power critical business processes
such as low battery detection, delay before makes business overhead inconveniently high
shutdown, etc. Indicators LED were and prohibitive for the survival and growth of
incorporated to monitor the inverter. new businesses and strangles the economy
Open-circuit and load tests were carried out [Ekpenyong, 2012]. Power electronic solutions
.The efficiency and output power were also such as inverters which convert direct current
estimated. A 1kW pressing iron was connected (obtainable from renewable energy sources:
as load and inversion lasted for 54mins before solar and wind) to alternating current for
shutdown. Overall, the circuit performed domestic, commercial and industrial use are
satisfactorily. gaining increasing attention [Akpan, 2012].

Keywords: Inverter, Oscillator, Pulse width 2.0 INVERTERS

modulator, Transformer, Feedback. An inverter is an electrical device that converts
direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC).
[Theraja, 2005]. The resulting AC can be at any

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required voltage and frequency with the use of
appropriate transformers, switching, and control
units. Power inverters are circuits used to
convert Direct Current (DC) to Alternating
Current (AC). The input of the inverter may
come from a DC source or from rectified AC
input. There are two main categories for switch
mode voltage source inverters: square wave
[Abolarinwa et al, 2010] and pulse width
modulated (PWM) [Babarinde,2010]. The
difference comes from how each switch gets
turned on. Square wave inverters are the
simplest to implement. The simplicity of the
square wave inverter comes along with the
disadvantage of harmonics close to the
fundamental frequency. PWM inverters
function by comparing a sinusoidal control
signal at the desired output frequency with a
triangular carrier signal at switching frequency.
The harmonics of PWM inverters are located at
multiples of the carrier signal frequency which
is typically in the kHz range. This simply
means the output waveform of PWM appears
more sinusoidal than a square wave inverter.
Also, higher frequency harmonics are easier to
filter than harmonics near the fundamental
frequency. The pulse width inverters can be
broadly classified as analog bridge and digital
bridge PWM inverters. The advantage of
analog based PWM inverter controller is that,
the level of inverter output voltage can be
adjusted in a continuous range and the
throughput delay is negligible. The
disadvantages of analog based PWM inverters
26
are as follows: Analog component output
characteristics changes with the temperature
and time. They are also prone to external
disturbances. Analog controller circuitry is
complex and bulky. They are non-
programmable, hence not flexible. On the other
hand, Microcontroller based PWM inverter
controller (Digital bridge PWM inverter) makes
the controller free from disturbances and drift,
but the performance is not very high due to its
speed limitation [Prasad et al, 2009]. The
inverter device has 2 modes of operation:
charging mode (rectification) and discharging
mode (inversion) .The complete circuit is a
combination of inverter circuit, charger circuit
and a battery. When mains supply is available,
the charger circuit rectifies AC to DC to charge
the battery. During AC power outage, the
inverter circuit converts DC power stored in the
battery to 220V/50Hz AC supply, which can be
used to power any common electronic
equipment or computer systems [Omitola et al,
2014]. Most electrical equipment work with the
220V AC supply but internally, their circuitry
requires DC supply. Hence the external AC
supply is converted into DC supply by the
power supply unit on these equipment [Omitola
et al, 2014].
An inverter therefore uses rechargeable
batteries to power devices that requires AC
power for normal operation
[Usman et al, 2014].
 JOURNAL OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING VOL. 13, NO. 1, ISSN 1118 – 5058
MARCH 2016

Figure1: Block diagram of a basic inverter system [Edeki et al, 2012]

3.0 DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS the primary winding and 220V at the secondary
winding, air cooled, frequency 50Hz.Taking the
This section deals with the actual
magnetic flux density to be 1.4T, constant of
calculation/computations used to obtain
proportionality (K) = 1.0, current density J =
parameters required for the design. All
3.0A/mm2 and window factor Kw = 0.35
components used in the construction were
sourced locally and adequate adjustments were
3.1.1 Design of Core:
made on all available substitute components in
(a)Voltage per turn Et √ (1)
order to achieve the best results for the device
Where S = Output KVA (1.5kVA)
under construction.
Choosing K=1, for shell type single phase
The circuit design incorporates several circuits
Et = 1.22Volts per turn
and their collective specifications are:
 Power rating : 1.5kVA
(b) Net Core Area Ai (2)
 Frequency: 50Hz
 Number of Phases: Single Et = 1.22V/N, f = 50Hz, Bm = 1.4,
2
Ai = 3925
 Input Voltage: 12V DC(Inverter), 220V
AC(Mains)
(c) Magnetic Flux Ai (3)
 Output Voltage: 220V AC
3.925 Wb.
 Circuit Supervisory Indicators: Low
battery Charge, Inversion, Mains (d) Window space factor Kw
supply. Kw = 0.1 + 0.07
 Energy sources :Deep cycle
Kw = 0.314
rechargeable batteries
3.1 Transformer Section: (e) Window Area (Aw)
The transformer design involves the core, and S = 2.22fBm Ai Aw KwJ (4)
coil design. The transformer is a single phase
step up transformer of 1.5KVA, 12V-0-12V, at Aw =
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2
Current density J = 3A/mm2, Aw = 2610.6 2
For the primary winding A1= = 41.67

Window Length is given by:

Aw = LxW, where L = 3W, d1= √ =√ = 7.28 2
(gauge 18)
2
W=√ = , L = 3( 2
For the secondary winding A2 = = 2.27
Ai = 0.9Ag (stacking factor = 0.9) (5)

Ag = = 4361 2 d2 = √ =√ = 1.69 2
(gauge 10)

Ag (gross core cross sectional area)

(d) Winding height:
Stack height =
The height occupied by the winding coils is
2
= = 81 approximately 5% less than window length
= 0.95L= 0.95 = 84mm
(f) Lamination pieces (n) =

(6) (e) Turns/layer = (11)

For a thickness of 0.5, n = 162 laminations For secondary = = 37 turns/layer

3.1.2 Design of Coil Total number of layers =

(a) Number of turns: Number of layers in primary = = 4 Layers

Primary turns N1 = = = 10 turns (7) Number of layers in secondary = = 6 Layers

Secondary turns N2 = = = 180 turns (8)

(f) Mean Length of Turn = 2 x (width of central
Since the winding is wound twice on the limb + stack height+ window width) =
primary side for both halves of the switching 2(29.5+29.5+81+29.5) = 339mm
period, the total primary winding will be N1=
(g) Total Length of Winding TL = mean Length
2 turns
of turns total number of turns
Total number of turns = 20 +180 = 200 turns
For primary L1= 339 20 = 6780mm
For secondary turns L2 = 339 180= 61020mm
(b) Winding calculations:
Total length = L1+ L2 = 6780 + 61020
Primary Current = = =
=67800mm
125A (9)
Secondary Current = = 6.82A

(c) Conductor size:

Conductor cross sectional area A = (10)

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3.2 Oscillator Section with a capacitor (0.22μF) to form the RC
time constant network.

3.2.1 Calculation of Component Values:

(i) Choosing: Frequency of Oscillation =

50Hz, and Timer Capacitor ( ) = 0.22μF
Timer resistor can be estimated using the

relationship 57.5k (12)

(ii) Input voltage Vin for the pulse width

Figure 2: SG3524 PWM IC pin configuration
To generate the required frequency 50Hz, an
oscillator is used (astable multivibrator IC
SG3524, a dedicated pulse width modulator).
The oscillator circuit is shown in Fig. 2. It is
also known as “free-running relaxation
oscillator” and it has no stable state, but two
half-stable states between which it keeps
oscillating continuously on its own without any
external excitation [Abolarinwa and Gana
,2010]. This versatile PWM controller can be
used in a variety of isolated and non-isolated
switching power supplies such as inverters.
By supplying a constant 12Volt DC through a
modulator is taken from the battery source
(12V DC)
(iii) The chip is powered with 9V through a
7809 voltage regulator.
(iv) Pin 16 is connected to an internal +5V
regulator and it was used to set the voltage
reference of 2.5V for the pulse-width control
through voltage divider resistors to pin 1.
R1 (5k and R2 (4.7k were used as the
closest available value and connected to form a
voltage divider, C1 (47µF) was connected for
stability.
(v) Pin 1 was used as the feedback control
input from the opto-coupler stage.
(vi) C2 and R3 were used for compensation
to cancel a pole at frequency f = 200Hz, as
recommended by the data sheet for stability. C2
is chosen as 100nF and R3 is calculated from
(13)

voltage regulator to the IC SG3524 PWM, the Hence R3 = 50,000Ω. A value of 47kΩ was
frequency of the oscillating signal was used as the closest available standard.
determined using R3, comprising a 20kΩ (vii) A voltage divider comprising resistors
variable resistor, connected in series with a R4 (fixed resistor) and R5 (variable resistor)
56kΩ resistor and both connected in parallel

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forms a voltage divider to aid manual pulse- 3.3 Low Battery Indicator/Shutdown
width variation through compensation pin 9. The battery status monitor circuit is designed to
Given a reference voltage give a visual indication using a LED and a
Vin = 5V and taking R4 = 4.7kΩ, V0 = 3.4V, buzzer for audio indication of low battery
V0= ( )Vin (14) condition during operation. The circuit in Fig 4
will delay shutdown of the system after
= ( ) ,
60seconds. The circuit consists of a comparator
(viii) Diode D2 is a diode type IN4004 was
and a voltage reference set by a Zener diode
connected to prevent R4 and R5 from affecting
and a passive delay circuit. LM358 op-amp was
compensation by R3, C2.
used for the comparator IC. It compares the
3.2.2 Design of Driver Section battery charge coupled to it by variable resistor

The MOSFET stage is shown in Fig 3. R15.

It conducts the load current through the

centre-tapped, step up transformer.
(i) MOSFET used in the design is
IRF 150 N-Channel
(ii) Fixed resistors of 10kΩ were connected
Figure 4: Low Battery Indication and Shutdown
between the gate and source to aid fast
The reference voltage is determined by the
switching by discharging any residual charge at
zener diode ZD1. zener diode rating is:
the gate.
Power rating = 300mW,
(iii) A total of 10 MOSFETs were used for
Breakdown voltage = 6.2V.
the design of the MOSFET driver. 5 for each
half of the full period. Thus I = 48.3mA,

R14 = = = 128Ω,

A value of 120Ω is chosen as the closest

standard value.
IC2 and R17, C7 and D2 form a passive delay
circuit which creates a delay or time lag from
the time of low battery detection, to final
shutdown.
Diode D2 prevents C7 from discharging into IC1.
Time delay T = 0.7 R17 C7 (15)
T = 60s and C7 = 100µF, hence
Figure 3: MOSFET Drivers
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R17 when mains power is restored, thus

The limiting value for the LED can be determined

providing automatic changeover action.

thus,

R16 (16)

where RL = R16 = Limiting resistance,

IF = Forward conducting current
VF = Forward voltage drop,
Vcc = comparator output
For the LED, VF = 2.2V, IF = 8mA,

R17 = 850Ω (a value of 850 was used as the
closest standard)
TR1 is the buzzer driver and it is enabled
whenever there is an output from IC1 indicative
of low battery condition R8 is a base resistor
Figure 5: Voltage Detection and Changeover
Switch
The circuit uses a half wave rectifier circuit.
The MOSFET bank drain-to-source diode was
used for the rectification, and has the same
specification as the MOSFET. Since this is a

 For a base current of 1mA, the resistor PWM system, calculations for the value of the
output filter capacitor will be done at the
R18 = (17)
chosen frequency since the ripple voltage will
 Where I =base current, Vcc = Supply Voltage
be greatest at this frequency. Since capacitor
 R18 = 11.4kΩ (10 kΩ was chosen as the
values are determined by the output current. A
standard value)
capacitor of 35V, 4700µF rating was used in
3.4 Voltage Detection/Changeover Unit the design, as a higher value is preferable for
better ripple rejection.
An automatic changeover switch was designed
for this work. This is shown in Fig 5. 3.5 Optocoupler Feeedback Section

 A 220V operating relay was connected to The voltage feedback section is made up of the
serve as mains voltage detector and opto-coupler, R11 and R13. R11 and R13 form a
switchover. voltage divider and they serve to sample the
When mains power is interrupted, this output dc of the battery to IC1 PWM that will in
activates the relay switch contact to turn affect the pulse width modulation of drive
changeover the supply from mains to pulses. The circuit is shown in Fig. 6.
inverter mode supply. The action reverses Their chosen values are 10kΩ each. R13 was
made variable for tuning purpose.

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The Opto-coupler used in the design is 4N35. R7 = (18)
The chip is shown in Fig.6.
for = 220V, = 2V, = 1mA, R7
iii. For the pulse width control, pin 2 is used for
the reference voltage (2V).

4.0 THE PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

Figure 6: Pin configuration of 4N35 Opto-
coupler
i. The Led has a forward current of 5mA and
the photo-transistor has a maximum.
ii. A bridge rectifier provides dc input to the
LED of the opto-coupler. For a conducting
current of 1mA, the limiting resistor would
be:
Fig. 7 shows the complete circuit diagram of
the PWM inverter circuit. IC3 (SG3524) is the
pulse-width modulator IC and its function is to
generate the 50Hz alternating pulses from pin
14 and 11, needed to drive the MOSFET banks
(M1 and M2).

Figure 7: Complete Circuit Diagram of the 12V, 1.5kVA Inverter Circuit

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MARCH 2016
R4 and C3 are for compensation while R3 and C2
determine the frequency of oscillation.
Resistors R1 and R2 set the reference voltage of
2.5V for pulse width modulation control,
through pin 2 of the IC. This reference is
constantly compared with the voltage at pin 1
from the opto-coupler to determine the trend of
the pulse-width variation but it works in inverse
relation, so as to balance the change in output
voltage. When the output voltage tends to
increase, the pulse width reduces and vice versa
to keep the output voltage constant within a
tolerance range.
The MOSFET banks M1 and M2 make up the
power drivers. The alternating pulse output
from IC3 is fed to MOSFETS banks M1 and M2.
M1 and M2 switch the DC voltage at the
primary of centre-tapped transformer T1, which
is serving as the step-up transformer to create
the alternating voltage effect and flux change
needed for transformation by the transformer.
The transformer then would step up the now
converted 12V DC to 220V AC. Opto-coupler,
bridge rectifier D1-D4, R7 and R8 make up the
feedback network. The output voltage is
rectified to DC. Resistor R8 helps
appropriately adjust the error voltage for
effective control. The source of the feedback
voltage is taken from the output of the auxiliary
winding. When the output voltage increases, the
auxiliary winding output voltage increases and
this causes increase in output from R8. This
change is detected by IC3 through pin1 and the
consequence is that the pulse-width of the
pulses generated is gradually reduced in
proportion to the change. This is so that the
output voltage that was initially high would
begin to drop to the nominal value and Vice-
versa
The supervisory stage comprises: low battery
detection and switch/change over.
The changeover switch is the relay. The coil of
the relay serves as the mains voltage detector,
as it energises when there is mains supply. The
relay controls the load (output) to mains supply
whenever mains supply is restored. IC3 is
instantly shutdown by cutting off power to it by
relay RLY2 switching contact. LED3 comes on
to indicate mains supply while LED2 indicates
inversion. The shutdown of IC3 stops inversion
process. This inversion stoppage enables the
transformer to now function as a step-down
transformer T2, stepping down 220V from
mains to 12VACwhich is then rectified to DC
by MOSFETs M1 and M2 which will now serve
as diodes to charge up the battery.
The next supervisory circuit is the low battery
charge detector. IC1 is a comparator (LM358)
that detects the low battery charge by
to comparing a sampled DC charge voltage set by
zener diode ZD1. When the low voltage limit is
reached, the comparator output goes positive
and LED1 comes on, to indicate low battery
charge.
IC2 (LM358), R17, C7 and D2 form a passive
delay circuit. The function is to create delay
before shutdown, from the time low battery
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charge is detected, to when inverter shuts down. 6.1 Open Circuit
Diode D2 prevents C7 from discharging into The 12V sealed and rechargeable battery was
IC1. R9 is a limiting resistor to 7809 (a 9V IC connected to the inverter circuit. The positive
voltage regulator) terminal of the battery was connected to the
centre-tapped transformer, while the negative
R14 limiting resistance to zener diode ZD1.
terminal was connected to the overall ground of
R16, R19, R20 are limiting resistances to LEDs.
the inverter circuit. The inverter was switched
M1 and M2 represent separate bank of 5
on, and the variable resistor R5 in the control
MOSFETs connected in parallel to handle the
circuit was adjusted until the output voltage of
load current for each side.
220V was recorded.

5.0 CONSTRUCTION 6.2 On Load Test

The circuit was designed and simulated with This was achieved by connecting a 1kW
Proteus. It was then implemented on a printed pressing iron as load to the output of the
circuit board. Except the batteries, the complete inverter. The result is shown in Table 1. The
unit in Fig 7 was housed in a metallic casing open circuit voltage was set to 220V and thus
measuring with good was also the no load voltage. The test was done
aesthetics for marketability. to ensure that the inverter was working as
expected.
6.0 TESTING
The test helped to ascertain the behaviour of the
Tests were carried out to confirm that the
inverter under load condition, with respect to
design performed as expected. The two tests
output voltage stability.
were carried out are :
(i) Open circuit test/No Load Test
(ii) On Load test

7.0 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS

Table 1: Test Results

DESIRED VALUE MEASURED VALUE SYSTEM

TYPE OF
S/N EFFICIENCY
TEST V(volt) I(Amp) P(KVA) V(volt) I(Amp) P(KVA)
(%)

1 No Load Test 220 0.35 1.5 220 0.41 1.463 98.5

2 Load Test 220 4.5 1.5 220 4.8 1.463 97.53

Battery power rating = 12Volts, 75 Amp-hours,

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Duration = [5] Babarinde, O. O., Adeleke, B. S.,Adeyeye,
A. H., Ogundeji, O. A.
(a) When total load = 100watts,
“Design and Construction of 1kVA Inverter”
Duration hours
International Journal of Emerging Engineering
(b) When total load = 1,000watts, Research and Technology Volume 2, Issue 3,
Duration = hours June 2014, pp 201-212

8.0 CONCLUSION [6] Omitola O.O., Olatinwo S. O. and T. R.

Oyedare “Design and Construction of 1KW
The circuit worked satisfactorily as expected
(1000VA) Power Inverter” Innovative Systems
and demonstrated voltage stability on load,
Design and Engineering, Vol.5, No.2, 2014, pp
providing an alternative source of power.
2.
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