64

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 16, NO. 1, JANUARY 2001

A Soft-Switched Current-Controlled Converter for

Induction Machine Drives
Darizon Alves de Andrade, Member, IEEE, Roberto Mendes Finzi Neto, Luiz Carlos de Freitas, Member, IEEE,
Joo Batista Vieira, Jr., Member, IEEE, and Valdeir Jos Farias

AbstractThe paper proposes a current controlled inverter operating in zero voltage switching (ZVS) mode for an induction machine drive. Operation with no voltage stress in the dc link bus is
achieved. Together with the soft switching operation, a fixed frequency bang-bang current control technique is also implemented
to allow for an accurate shaping of sinusoidal currents to feed the
motor. As a result, a ripple free torque profile in steady state operation is achieved. With the soft switching technique it is possible to
operate conventional IGBTs at 40 kHz.
A detailed analysis of the circuit operation is presented. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is experimentally verified on a prototype.
Index TermsAC motor drives, induction motors, insulated gate
bipolar transistors, lossless circuits.

Fig. 1. DC voltage notching circuit.

II. CONVERTER TOPOLOGY

I. INTRODUCTION

HE EVOLUTION of variable frequency ac drives has

grown enormously in the last few years. For rotating
field ac machines, a requirement for good torque profile and
dynamic control is the presence of sinusoidal currents in the
stator windings. This is the reason for the great effort being
made over the years by the research community, in order
to develop switching strategies which reduce the harmonic
contents of the voltages and currents in a machine drive. It
is well known that the increase of switching frequency is a
good way to improve sinusoidal shape of ac load current and
voltage waveforms driven by static converters. This however
pays the price of increased losses in the semiconductors as
well as is a source of EMI with its undesirable consequences
[1], [2]. A recent trend in ac machines drive systems is the
use of soft switching strategies. It allows for the reduction of
semiconductor switching losses, for the increase of switching
frequency of typical static devices used in power ac machines
drive systems such as IGBTs, and the reduction of EMI. Hence
it makes it easier for the implementation of the respective
control systems.
This paper presents a proposal of a soft-switched current controlled inverter, capable of imposing a quite good sinusoidal current waveform to an induction machine. We present the converter topology, principle of operation and simulation results
obtained from the SABER simulator. Experimental results are
presented to confirm theoretical analysis.
Manuscript received September 28, 1999; revised October 4, 2000. Recommended by Associate Editor P. C. Luk. This paper was presented at APEC99,
Dallas, TX, March 1, 1999.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Uberlndia, Uberlndia MG 38400-902, Brazil.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8993(01)00970-X.

Fig. 1 shows the complete converter topology. It comprises

a full bridge three phases IGBT inverter, which is fed through
a dc notching circuit. The resonant dc link utilizes a dc voltage
notching circuit similar to that presented in [4].
The dc voltage notching circuit allows for the dc link voltage
of any polyphase inverter to be brought to zero on command to
facilitate zero voltage switching (ZVS) of the inverter switches.
In the process, the input dc voltage is disconnected, providing
the voltage zero switching conditions for the inverter switches.
This scheme of parallel resonant dc link (PRDCL) is suitable
for PWM inverters, since the dc link can be brought to zero on
command. Some advantages of this topology can be outlined.
1) DC notching circuit can be activated on command. This
allows for different PWM strategies to be used on the
inverter.
2) Switches of the notching circuit are switched at either
zero current and or zero voltage, providing lossless operation. This makes the use of IGBTs very suitable when
the switches operate in a zero current switching (ZCS)
way.
A. Operating Modes of the dc Voltage Notching Circuit and
Condition for Functioning
The dc voltage notching circuit and the inverters representation, for one switching cycle, ( ), are shown in Fig. 2. For each
resonant cycle of the notching circuit, the inverter input current,
, can be considered constant. The operation of the voltage
notching circuit can be divided into seven stages. The stages of
operation and respective waveforms can be seen in Fig. 3, respectively.

08858993/01$10.00 2001 IEEE

DE ANDRADE et al.: SOFT-SWITCHED CURRENT-CONTROLLED CONVERTER

65

Fig. 2. Operating stages.

Fig. 4. Phase plane for i

and V

The peak voltage and current in

(2)

can be found from (3) and

(4)
(5)

Fig. 3. Capacitor current and voltage waveforms.

For all stages, the resonant frequency is defined as

(1)
: At
,
is turned-on in a ZCS
Stage 1
way.
continues to conduct the load current
and the resbranch charging the
onant current pulse flows through the
resonant capacitor . This stage ends when
falls to zero
stop conducting in a ZCS and in a ZVS way. The curand
rent on the
branch and the voltage across the capacitor are
given by
(2)
(3)
where,

is the initial voltage across the capacitor

:
is turned-off and
start conStage 2
. When capacitor current,
, falls to zero
ducting in
can be turned off in a ZCS way. At this point the capacitor
. The
current reverses its direction and flows through diode
decreases as
increases through
.
current through
branch and the voltage across the capacThe current on
itor are given by
(6)
(7)
:
is turned-off and D starts conStage 3
. Remaining current,
, flows
ducting in
back to the source. This stage ends when
through diode
again at
. The capacitor current and voltage
in the
equations are the same of stage 2. The voltage across
.
end of this stage is

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 16, NO. 1, JANUARY 2001

Fig. 5. Bang-bang hysteresis current controller implemented.

Fig. 6.

Current and voltage across the resonant capacitor.

During the time

,
can be turned off in a ZCS
must be bigger than
to get ZCS in
.
way and
Stage 4
:
stops conducting in
. As the
inverter input current is considered constant during the resonant
cycle, the resonant capacitor continues to discharge in a constant
current mode. The voltage across the capacitor can be seen on
is directly pothe dc Bus at this point, because the diode
can not conduct due to the positive voltage on
.
larized.
The current on LC branch and the voltage across the capacitor
are given by
(8)
(9)
:
starts conducting in
. When
Stage 5
voltage across the resonant capacitor goes to zero and the
voltage on dc Bus falls to zero too. To avoid the existence of
another operating stage the inverter switches are not turned-off
. They are turned-off only when
falls to zero
in
.
at
and
feed the load with
. Since
and
Diode
are conducting,
and
can continue the resonance.
and D gets reversed biased.
This stage ends when
branch and voltage across the capacitor are
The current on
given by
(10)

(11)
: The inverter switches are turned-off by
Stage 6
. Diode D
the controller and D stops conducting at
conducts the resonant current until
. The capacitor
if no inverter switch
voltage starts to increase to a positive
is conducting.
must be turned on at
to avoid a possible discharge
will begin conducting in a hard switching manner.
of Cr.
This is the only time that soft switching is not obtained.
branch and voltage across the capacitor
The current on
are given by

Stage 7
:
stops conducting and
is
. At this point, the source feeds the inverter
turned on at
to the initial
again. The resonant current continues to charge
. The capacitor current and voltage equations are
voltage
.
the same of stage 6. This stage ends when
and
Some considerations about the switching of
must be outlined.
switches in a ZCT (Zero Current Transition, both
1)
turn-on and turn-off) way and it is turned-off in a ZVS

DE ANDRADE et al.: SOFT-SWITCHED CURRENT-CONTROLLED CONVERTER

Fig. 7.

Switching detail of

Fig. 8.

Switching detail of

67

Fig. 9. Switching detail of an inverter switch.

way too.
is maintained on the
branch until
. Since
is turned-off in
,
operates in a
ZVS way too.

2)

is turned off in ZCS way and in a ZVS way too.

is maintained on the
branch until
. Since
is turned-off in
,
operates in a ZVS way too.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 16, NO. 1, JANUARY 2001

Fig. 10.

Imposed three phase induction motor currents.

Fig. 11.

Voltage BUS in the dc link and the resonant current.

Conditions for Functioning: The conditions for the converter works in soft-switched mode can be easily verified using
phase plane analysis. Fig. 4 shows the phase plane for resonant
voltage and current.
To verify if the converter is operating in soft-switching mode
and . So, from Fig. 4, (12) can be
the variables used are
extracted
(12)

Fig. 12.

Simulated harmonic spectrum of the imposed current.

applying (13) into (14)

where

(15)
(13)
.
using
Then, the condition to work is

and
satisfy (15) the converter
If the values used for
works in soft-switched mode. Otherwise, other value for
must be chosen.
III. CONTROL STRATEGY

(14)

The strategy used for the inverter current control is the PWM
bang-bang current control [3]. That strategy uses a sawtooth

DE ANDRADE et al.: SOFT-SWITCHED CURRENT-CONTROLLED CONVERTER

Fig. 13.

Simulated rotor currents.

Fig. 14.

Simulated torque.

waveform added to a reference signal and compared with the

imposed current of one of the phases to perform the switching
with variable duty cycle. The output of the comparator generates switching signals for the power switches of the inverter.
Each phase has one of these controllers as shown in Fig. 5.
The last block set, in Fig. 5, performs the timing between the
notching circuit and the inverter switches.
With the same sawtooth added to the references all the inverter switches can be turned-off at the same time and in a ZVS
way and the dc voltage notching circuit needs to be activated
only once to perform the operation.
The notching circuit controller uses 2 timers to monitor
and
). The inverter
the turn-off of its own switches (
switches are allowed to turn-off by one timer of the controller.
IV. DIGITAL SIMULATION
In order to study the system operation, digital simulation
was carried out. Simulation program was implemented using
the SABER simulator. The induction machine was represented
by the three axis (ABC) model with no transformations. The
switches employed in the dc voltage notching circuit were
, and IGBC20U, for
) and the
IGBTs (IRGBC30U, for
inverter switches were IRGBC20U, the resonant components
H and
nF. The inverter
values used were

69

switches switching frequency was 40 kHz. The load was a

2.2 kW three-phase induction motor.
Fig. 6 shows the current through the resonant elements and
the voltage across the capacitor. Fig. 7 shows the switching detail of
. It is observed that the switching turn-off occurs in a
. It
ZCS and ZVS way. Fig. 8 shows the switching detail of
is observed that the switching occurs in a ZCT way and it turned
off in a ZVS way too. Fig. 9 shows the switching detail of an inverter switch. Its observed that the switching turn-off occurs in
a ZVS way. All the inverter switches operate in this way. Fig. 10
shows the three-phase imposed load current waveform.
Fig. 11 shows the voltage waveform in the dc link. It can be
seen that there is no voltage stress. The oscillations found in the
voltage bus are due to the switches capacitances. The harmonic
spectrum, of the imposed currents, is presented in Fig. 12. The
total harmonic distortion (THD) is 2.2%. Fig. 13 shows the rotor
currents. Since the stator currents are nearly sinusoidal the rotor
currents are also sinusoidal. Fig. 14 shows torque developed by
the machine. It can be seen that the torque oscillation is minimal.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A prototype was build using the following parameters:
H and
nF, the power switches employed in the dc
, and
voltage notching circuit were IGBTs (IRGBC30U, for

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 16, NO. 1, JANUARY 2001

Fig. 15. Current through the resonant elements [i

capacitor [V cr ].

Fig. 16.

Switching detail of S

Fig. 17.

Switching detail of S

(t)], voltage across the

IGBC20U, for
) and the inverter switches were IRGBC20U.
and
are different to those used in digital
The values of
simulation due to convergence problems with the SABER simulator. The tolerance (10% to 20%) of the commercial components is another point of discrepancy. A 2.2 kW three-phase involtage was apduction motor was used as load and a 200
plied to the bus.
Fig. 15 shows the current through the resonant elements and
the voltage across the capacitor. The resonant current in stage 4
is not totally constant due to parasitic capacitances and induc-

Fig. 18. Switching detail of an inverter switch: current (anode) and voltage
across it.

Fig. 19.

Imposed three phase induction motor currents.

Fig. 20.

Voltage BUS in the dc link and resonant current.

tances found in the practical circuit. Fig. 16 shows the switching

. It turns off soft and turns on hard. Fig. 17
detail of
. It switches totally soft. The
shows the switching detail of
voltage on the switch is not totally equal to that shown in the
digital simulation due to the parasitic capacitances and inductances. Fig. 18 shows the switching detail of an inverter switch.
These switches turn off soft and turn on hard. Fig. 19 shows the
three-phase imposed load current waveform. Fig. 20 shows the
bus voltage with the resonant current. The linear decreasing in

DE ANDRADE et al.: SOFT-SWITCHED CURRENT-CONTROLLED CONVERTER

71

Roberto Mendes Finzi Neto was born in Brazil,

on January 31, 1974. He received the B.S. degree
in electrical engineering and the M.S. degree from
the Federal University of Uberlndia, Brazil, in
1997 and 1999, respectively, where he is currently
pursuing the Ph.D. degree.
He has published around seven papers. His
research interest areas include high-frequency power
conversion, modeling and control of converters,
power factor correction circuits, and new converters
topologies.

Fig. 21.

Experimental harmonic spectrum of the imposed current.

the voltage bus expected in stage 4 is not obtained due to the oscillation in the resonant current during this stage. Fig. 21 shows
the harmonic spectrum of a phase current. The THD is 2.62%.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
This paper showed the study of the behavior of a
soft-switched bang-bang current controlled three-phase
inverter. The main purpose was to develop a strategy of current
control for ac machines drives which allows for the achievement of the closest sinusoidal current waveform.
Contributions of the work are as follows.
1) The use of the technique of bang-bang current control
strategy for the three-phase inverter, leading to a reduction
in the resonant dc link frequency switching in order to
obtain ZVS operation in the inverter switches.
2) The development of a simulation program using the
SABER simulator.
3) The use of IGBTs at 40 kHz.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Chen and T. A. Lipo, A novel soft switched PWM inverter for ac
motor drives, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 11, July 1996.
[2] V. V. Deshpande and S. R. Doradla, A new topology for parallel resonant dc link with reduced peak voltage, in Proc. APEC94, 1994, pp.
260266.
[3] R. Toffano, Jr., L. C. Freitas, J. B. Vieira, Jr., and V. J. Farias, A self
resonant PWM boost converter with unit power factor operation by using
a bang-bang current control with fixed switching frequency, in Proc.
APEC97, 1997, pp. 4.4544.457.
[4] D. A. Andrade and R. M. Finzi, A study of a soft switched bang-bang
current controlled inverter, in Proc. APEC99, Dallas, TX, Mar. 1999,
pp. 12661271.

Darizon Alves de Andrade (M87) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from
the University of Uberlndia, Brazil, in 1980 and 1987, respectively, and the
Ph.D. degree from the University of Leeds, U.K., in 1994.
He was a Visiting Scholar at the Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
(VTEC), in 2000. From 1980 to 1985, he was a Lecturer with the School
of Electrical Engineering, Ituiutaba Engineering Faculty, Ituiutaba, Brazil.
He joined the School of Electrical Engineering, University of Uberlndia, in
1985, where he has been a Lecturer and carried out research. His teaching and
research interests are in design, modeling, simulation, electronic converters,
and control techniques associated with motion control of electromechanical
energy converter devices.

Luiz Carlos de Freitas (M92) was born in Brazil,

on April 1, 1952. He received the B.S. degree in
electrical engineering from the Federal University
of Uberlndia, Brazil, in 1975 and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees from the Federal University of Santa
Catarina, Brazil, in 1985 and 1992, respectively.
Presently he is a Titular Professor of the Electrical Engineering Faculty, Federal University of
Uberlndia, Brazil. He has published around 150
papers and he has two Brazilian patents pending.
His research interest areas include high-frequency
power conversion, modeling and control of converters, power factor correction
circuits, and new converters topologies.
Dr. Freitas is member of the SBA and the Brazilian Society of Power Electronics (SOBRAEP).

Joo Batista Vieira, Jr. (M87) was born in

Panam-Go, Brazil, on March 23, 1955. He received
the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the
Federal University of Uberlndia, Brazil, in 1980
and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Federal
University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 1984 and
1991, respectively.
He began work as Instructor of the Electrical
Engineering Department, Federal University of
Uberlndia (UFU), in 1980. Presently, he is a Titular
Professor of the Electrical Engineering Faculty,
Federal University of Uberlndia, Brazil. He has published around 150 papers.
His research interest areas include high-frequency power conversion, modeling
and control of converters, power factor correction circuits, and new converters
topologies.
Dr. Vieira is member of the SBA and the Brazilian Society of Power Electronics (SOBRAEP).

Valdeir Jos Farias was born in Araguari-MG,

Brazil, on November 18, 1947. He received the B.S.
degree in electrical engineering from the Federal
University of Uberlndia (UFU), Brazil, in 1975, the
M.S. degree in power electronics from the Federal
University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, in
1981, and the Ph.D. degree from the State University
of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, in 1989.
He is a Titular Professor of the Electrical Engineering Faculty, Federal University of Uberlndia,
Brazil. He has published around 150 papers.
His research interests areas include power electronics in general, specially
soft-switching converters and active power filters.
Dr. Farias is member of the SBA and the Brazilian Society of Power Electronics (SOBRAEP).