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Comparison of Switching Strategies for an

Ultrasonic Cleaner

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Chankit Buasri
King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang
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 Comparison of Switching Strategies for an
Ultrasonic Cleaner
Chankit Buasri and Anuwat Jangwanitlert
Department of Electrical Engineering, King Mongkuts Institute of Technology Ladkrabang

Abstract - This paper presents the comparison of Control Signal removed. The cavitation and implosion as a result of ultrasonic
Patterns in ultrasonic cleaner by using the microcontroller for activity displace and remove loosely held contaminants such as
generating Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM), Phase-Shift PWM
dust from surfaces depicted in Figure 1B. For this to be
control (PS-PWM) and Pulse Density Modulation (PDM) patterns.
These control patterns are fed in the full-bridge inverter to drive effective, it is necessary that the coupling medium be capable
the ultrasonic transducers. The resonant frequency of 30 kHz is of wetting the particles to be removed [5].
tested in order to find the efficiency of ultrasonic cleaner which The configuration of ultrasonic cleaner is shown in Figure 2.
one should be the best. Ultrasonic transducer can generate The switching signal pattern generates from dsPIC
ultrasonic wave to transfer electrical energy to mechanical energy. microcontroller at resonant frequency of 30 kHz for ultrasonic
Cavitation and implosion are occurred in liquid when ultrasonic transducer. It is fed in the full-bridge inverter to drive the
wave travels through liquid medium in the process of cleaning.
ultrasonic transducer. Main equipment to generate ultrasonic
wave is ultrasonic transducer. Ultrasonic transducer transfer
I. INTRODUCTION electrical energy to mechanical energy.
Ultrasonic cleaners have favorite in present because cleaner The piezoelectric transducer is used at ultrasonic cleaner.
methods have efficacy, fast and environment friendly. Transducers convert alternating electrical energy directly to
Ultrasonic cleaner is a method of immersion cleaner which is mechanical energy by the use of piezoelectric effect. While
able to remove dirty and small particle purely. The transducer certain materials change dimension, an electrical charge is
is essential equipment to generate vibration from ultrasonic applied to them. Electrical energy at the ultrasonic frequency is
wave. The vibration is sent to all under the tank. The
cavitation and implosion are occurred in liquid when ultrasonic
wave travels through liquid medium in the process of cleaning.
Scrubbing is occurred from cavitation and if cavitations are
many and fine, cleaning is the best [1]. Switching strategies use
in the current ultrasonic cleaner that is PWM to generate
continue ultrasonic wave travel through liquid medium in the
process of cleaning. This paper is tested by supplying
discontinuous ultrasonic wave (PS-PWM and PDM) [2, 3] and
comparison 3 switching strategies which patterns are best with
flat equipment or rough equipment under cleaning conditions. Figure 1A Figure 1B
Previous research focuses on the clean medical equipment or
lab equipment which is flat equipment. This paper concentrates Figure 1 Ultrasonic cleaning by dissolution.
on the electronic circuit board which is rough equipment.
Liquid medium used is not break electronic circuit equipment
(WD40) [4].
DSPIC MICROCONTROLER Ground Sepalate

II. ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCER +15V

-15V

The cleaner system by the ultrasonic wave includes 30 kHz

transducer, signal drive, tank, and liquid medium. Transducer

generates vibrate from ultrasonic wave. The vibration is sent to
Main Supply
all under the tank. The cavitation and implosion are occurred in
liquid when ultrasonic wave travels through liquid medium in Rectifier Inverter Ultrasonic

the process of cleaning. Some contaminants comprise insoluble Transducer

particles loosely attached and held in place by ionic or

cohesive forces shown in Figure 1A. These particles need only
Figure 2 Configuration of ultrasonic cleaner.
be displaced sufficiently to break the attractive forces to be
supplied to the transducer by the ultrasonic generator. This 26.81 by measuring ultrasonic transducer at frequency rank
electrical energy is applied to piezoelectric element(s) in the 20 kHz 100 kHz with the impedance analyzer (HP 4194A).
transducer by vibrating. These vibrations are amplified by the The result is shown in Figure 5. The peak point at 30 kHz and
resonant masses of the transducer and directed into the liquid 50 kHz are selected because it can provide the maximum
through the radiating plate. Early piezoelectric transducers power in (1).
were utilized such piezoelectric materials as naturally This test selected at the peak point of 30 kHz is resonant
occurring quartz crystals and barium titanate which were frequency because reduce equipment stress and the same of
fragile and unstable. Early piezoelectric transducers were, recommendation of ultrasonic transducers data sheet [6].
therefore, unreliable. Today's transducers incorporate stronger, The resonant frequency of 30 kHz is generated by dsPIC
more efficient and highly stable ceramic piezoelectric materials 30F2010 with C language program (MPLAB C30) [7]. The
which were developed as a result of the efforts of the US Navy
microcontroller has 4 outputs shown in Figure 6. Each signal
and its research to develop advanced sonar transponders in the
1940's. The vast majority of transducers used today for
ultrasonic cleaning utilize the piezoelectric effect. Ultrasonics P = I2 R (1)
is the science of sound waves above the limits of human
audibility. The frequency of a sound wave determines its tone C1
or pitch. Low frequencies produce low or bass tones. High
frequencies produce high or treble tones. Ultrasound is a sound
with a pitch so high that it cannot be heard by the human ear. L
C2 R
Frequencies above 18 kilohertz are usually considered to be
ultrasonic. The frequencies used for ultrasonic cleaning range
from 20,000 cycles per second or kilohertz (kHz) to over
100,000 kHz. The most commonly used frequencies for Figure 4 Equivalent Electrical Circuit.
industrial cleaning are those between 20 kHz and 50 kHz.
Frequencies above 50 kHz are more commonly used in small
tabletop ultrasonic cleaners such as those found in jewelry
stores and dental offices.

III. EXPERIMENTATION

This test is used ultrasonic transducer at resonant frequency

of 30 kHz, 70 W, 10 quantities parallel thorough under the tank
fill liquid medium shown in Figure 3.
Equivalent electrical circuit of ultrasonic transducer shown
in Figure 4 has C1 = 37.625 nF, C2 = 24.1 nF, L = 460 H, R =

Figure 5 Ultrasonic Transducer measured by impedance analyzer.

+5V

0.1 F

20
R 10k
1 +5V
R 10k
RESET 15
Output A
MCU +5V
dsPIC 30F2010 R 10k
11
Output B
+5V
R 10k
25
Output C
+5V
R 10k
2
Output D
8
12

9 10

22 pF 22 pF

Figure 3 Ultrasonic transducer under the tank. X 7.3728 MHz

Figure 6 The dsPIC 30F2010 microcontroller.

from output sends to gate drive circuit shown in Figure 7 and
feed to Full-bridge inverter shown in Figure 8 in order to drive
ultrasonic transducers. The process of cleaning is occurred.
This test uses switching strategies of 3 patterns at PDM,
PWM, PS-PWM shown in Figure 9 to drive ultrasonic
transducer and comparison in process of cleaning.
+15V
1N4748
IV. EXPERIMENTATION RESULTS
The load voltage and current at Ultrasonic Transducer are
measured by Digital Storage Oscilloscope (YOKOGAWA
DL1620) shown in Figure 10.
From Figure 10, the load current is not sinusoidal waveform.
The output power can be calculated from math function in
oscilloscope follows as (2).

T
1
T 0
1N4148
15
G
PO = vOiO dt (2)
1N4742A
1N4728 1N4728
10k
4.7 uF 50
250V Where vO is instantaneous output voltage and iO is
1N4742A
EE16 instantaneous output current. Then, measurement of the output
120:120
S power and input power is used for calculating the efficiency of
ultrasonic cleaner as shown in Figure 11.
A,B 10
IRF530 In addition, voltage and current harmonics are measured by
Fluke 43B as shown in Figures 12 and 13.

Figure 7 Gate drive circuit.

S1 D1 S3 D3
V= 50V/Div V= 50V/Div
I= 10V/Div I= 10V/Div

IRFP 450 IRFP 450

(a) (b)
DC
50V
OUTPUT

S2 S4
D2 D4

V= 50V/Div
I= 10V/Div
IRFP 450 IRFP 450

(C)
Figure 8 Full-bridge inverter.
Figure 10 Load voltage and current waveforms due to switching patterns
(a) PWM (b) PS-PWM (c) PDM.

v
PDM
-v 1
0.9
v
0.8
PWM 0.7
Efficiency

-v 0.6 PWM
v 0.5 PS-PWM
PDM
PS-PWM 0.4
0.3
-v 0.2
0.1
0
200 300 400 500 600 700

Figure 9 Switching output to drive ultrasonic transducers by using 3 patterns. Po (W)

Figure 11 Efficiency of ultrasonic cleaner due to switching patterns.

 120 TABLE I
CLEANNESS MEASUREMENT
100
Equipment Dirty Area Dirty Area Cleanness
80
Area Before Cleaning After Cleaning
PDM
THDv%

60 PS-PWM (cm2) %
PWM
Rough Side
40
PS-PWM 159.5 159.5 33 79.3
20
PWM 152.25 152.25 73.12 52
0 PDM 159.5 159.5 6 96.23
1 3 5 7 9 11
Flat Side
PS-PWM 159.5 52 3 94.23
Figure 12 Voltage harmonics.
PWM 152.25 67 3 95.52

120
PDM 159.5 146 3 97.94

100
From figure 14 and table 1 in test time 10 minutes, when we
80 observe the use of PWM pattern, the deep-dirty is still in
PDM
equipment. Also, the use of PS-PWM and PDM patterns, a
THDi%

60
40
20
0
1 3 5 7
Figure 13 Current harmonics.
From the results, % Total Harmonic Voltage Distortion
(THDv) of PWM pattern is equal to 100, 0.8, 5.3, 6.2, 1.9, 4,
and %THDV of PS-PWM pattern is equal to 100, 2.8, 2.2, 1.8,
1.2, 0.4, and that %THDV of PDM is equal to 100, 1.4, 1.1, 1.1,
0.9, 0.2 at harmonic number n= 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11,
respectively. Moreover, %THDI of input current of PWM is
equal to 100, 90.1, 71.2, 48.6, 28.1, 11.6, and % THDI of PS-
PWM is equal to 100, 86.8, 64, 38.9, 17.5, 4.6, and that %
THDI of PDM is equal to 100, 89.9, 72.6, 51.7, 29.7, 14.5 at
the harmonic number n = 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, respectively.
PS-PWM
PWM little dirty is left.
V. CONCLUSION
From the test by fed signal to generate continuous ultrasonic
9 11
wave (PWM) and discontinuous (PS-PWM and PDM), the
process of cleaning, in case of PWM and PS-PWM, for liquid
medium is oscillated, but in case of PDM it is not oscillated.
The cavitation bubble in case of PWM and PS-PWM is
occurred about 30 minutes but in case of PDM it is occurred
approximately 5 minutes and has much fine bubble. Then,
referring to the introduction and process of cleaning by using
ultrasonic wave, PDM switching strategy is the best for
cleaning rough equipment. However, PWM and PS-PWM
strategies are the best for cleaning flat equipment.
REFERENCES
[1] A. Jangwanitlert, P. Paisuwana and T. Vijaktakul, Ultrasonic cleaner,
Proc. in EECON 22, Kasetsart University, Vol 22, 2542.
[2] H. Kifune, Y. Hatanaka and M. Nakaoka, Cost effective phase shifted
pulse modulation soft switching high frequency inverter for induction
heating applications, Proc. IEE Electrical Power Appl., 2004, Vol. 151,
pp. 19-25.
[3] H. Fujita and H. Akagi, Control and Performance of a Pulse-Density-
Modulated Series-Resonant Inverter for Corona Discharge Processes,
IEEE Trans. on Industry Application, 1999, Vol. 35, pp. 621-627.
[4] http://www.wd40.com, WD-40 company co., Ltd. , California USA, 2007
[5] http://www.caeblackstone.com/technical.html, CAE Blackstone co.,
Ltd. , Jamestown NY, 1998.
[6] Belincourt, don. Ultrasonic transducer materials. New-York, Plenum
press, 1971.
[7] N. Pakdeechart, N. Wongsuntornchai and C. Reimpornjitwirai, Basic
dsPIC Microcontroller with C Programming (MPLAB C30), Innovative
experiment co., Ltd. , 2004.

Figure 14 Equipment before using ultrasonic cleaner.

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