An Integrated High Power Factor Three-phase AC-DC-AC
Converter for AC-machines Implemented in one Microcontroller
Frede Blaabjerg & John K. Pedersen
Aalborg University
Institute of Energy Technology
Pontoppidanstraede 101
DK-9220 Aalborg East, Denmark
Abstiact - A high power factor three-phase AC-DC-AC converter
for AC-machines has been designed and tested. The AC-DC-AC
converter is controlled by one single l6-bit microeontroller. The
converter has two PWM-VSIbridges with common snubber- and
drivecircuit topologies. The high power factor rectifier is space
vector controlled and the inverter controls an AC-induction
machine by an energy optimized strategy. Common software
tasks are utilized in order to m i n i memory demands in the
microcontroller. Measurements show a high power factor of the
converter, as well as the converter very rapidly can change from
motor to generator operation during reversing of the AC-
machine. It is concluded that the AC-DC-AC converter works
well, can be designed very compact and it representssome of the
stahf-theart integration and performance in three-phaseAC-
DC-AC converters.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the last decades more and more speed controlled
electrical machines are based on an squirrel cage induction
machine controlled by a PWM-VSI inverter. Much efforts are
done in improving the performance of the inverter-machine
but less efforts are done in investigating the disturbances on
the line side. For the present new standards appear for the
electrical equipment which demand the benefit of acting as a
high power factor load. These standards can easily be a
limiting factor for the power electronic equipment in the
future. In a number of applications it is also beneficial to
have regenerating capabilities in order to achieve a minimum
of energy consumption. This can also be solved by using a
rectifier with a high power factor function.
The development in power electronic devices and micro-
controllers has been very rapid [l] which in PWM-VSI
inverter driven AC-machines have caused higher switching
frequencies and the possibility to achieve a more complex
control strategy. -New inverters are highly integrated
(Smartpower) and this gives a reliable design. Some micro-
controllers which are special designed for AC-machine
control gives also a high dynamical performance.
Different topologies for AC-DC-AC converters have been
demonstrated. [2] and [3] demonstrate a complete AC-DC-
AC converter system for AC-machines with a single phase
supply. [2]has a low input power factor and [3] has a high
0 1993 IEEE
0-7803-1243-0/!33$03.00
285
input power factor but with no regenerating capability. [4]
shows a three-phase GTO-based AC-DC-AC converter with
a high performance but with the use of a lot of signal
processors and it operates with a low switching frequency.
The goal of this paper is to demonstrate a highly integrated
three-phase high power factor AC-DC-AC converter control-
led by only one microcontroller. The converter has especially
the benefit to conduct power in two directions which can be
special useful in some applications. It has also the possibility
to generate fully voltage on the machine output terminals.
Finally, a single microcontroller solution gives a possibility
to use some common software tasks like the modulation task
and controller task and a lot of a priori information exist in
the system. The information can be used for special control
strategies of AC-machines like energy optimized strategies.
This paper will first explain the overall system including
signal flow and transducers. Secondly, the hardware is
described like the used snubbers and drive circuits. A control
strategy for the rectifier and the AC-machine is developed as
well as the implemented software structure is described.
Finally, tests are performed to show some of the benefits in
the developed system like line current, FFT-analysis of the
line current, power factor measurements and dynamical
measurements when the AC-machine is reversing.
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The AC-DC-AC converter system has a rectifier-module as
AC-DC converter which is connected to the AC-line and an
inverter-module as DC-AC converter which is c o ~ e c t e dto
the AC-machine. It has also transducers, drivers and a 16-bit
microcontroller. The system is shown in Fig. 1.
A three-phase inductance L, is placed between the rectifier
and the AC-line to "ize the current ripple. An inrush
circuit is built-in for control of the inrush current during
start-up. On the line side three-phase voltages and two phase
currents are measured. The DC-link voltage and current are
also measured. A tach0 generator is used for speed measure-
ment which is necessary for the energy optimized control
strategy of AC-machine. Twelve drive circuits which are
designed with decentralized overcurrent protection are the
only interface between the power-modules and the
microcontroller.
 Rectlfler- I nver ter -
module il.r.h. module
I ne FEEDBACK
"SH. I

AC
Lin
1

SAEBOC 166
/

Software Tasks

'Control of rectifier
*Control of AC-machine E
'Monitoring
-current
-voltage V-

-power Fig. 2. Drive circuit with reduced gate voltage during short circuit
'Modulation
'Communication
V + = 15 V, VR = 8 V, V = -15 V, VSH,, 20 A. -
The power devices are protected with two Undeland-snub-
Fig. 1 . System description of the AC-DC-AC converter. bers 181 to minimize dv/dt , di/dt and the overvoltage. Fig.
The AC-DC-AC converter is controlled by a 16-bit microcon- 3 shows one phase-bridge for the rectifier and the inverter
troller (SAB80C166) which serves many tasks. It serves as including the snubbers.
modulator and controller for the rectifier and inverter/AC- Rectifier Inverter
machine, it monitors the currents, the voltages, the power, ,-------------------------~
I I
the speed and finally, it communicates to a terminal. From I
I
L*l i I
I
I Ls 2 I

here it is possible on-line to change different parameters like

controller constants, DC-link voltage and speed. Some tasks
are common for the inverter and rectifier which reduce the
need for ROM in the system. The power rating of the AC-
DC-AC converter is 2.5 k W input power. The rectifier is
rated for 3 x 400 V, 50 Hz and the inverter has an output
capability of 3 x 0-400 V, 0 - 100 Hz. The switching
frequency is 4.8 kHz.
,-------------------------~
I I I
,-----------------------------I
I

111. HARDWARE DESCRIPTION

Fig. 3. Snubbers in the main circuit for both rectifier and inverter.
The hardware in the AC-DC-AC converter is kept to a b2= L,, = 15 a. = 30 pH.
C, = 3.3 nF. CO= 440 nF. R, = 1 1 n.
minimum and a high reliability is obtained. The rectifier and
inverter bridge are two integrated SIEMENS IGBT six-pack
A split-inductance snubber (Ls2, L,) is used on the
modules (lo00 V/15 A). Each transistor has decentralized
inverter side in order to minimize disturbances from the load
overcurrent protection in the drive circuit with a collector-
side [8]. It is possible to minimize the number of snubber
emitter voltage measurement [9]and with reduced gateemit-
components by omitting Ls3. Hereby can & and CObe com-
ter voltage VR during short circuit. The reduced gateemitter
mon for the two bridges and recovering of both snubber
voltage is kept constant in 10 p s and if the transistor is still
energy from inverter and rectifier is possible but the benefit
overloaded the transistor turns off and gives an error signal
of noise reduction is lost.
to the controller, otherwise the transistor tums fully on again.
Current measurements are performed by hall-sensors. AC-
Fig. 2 shows the principle of the drive circuit for one IGBT
line voltage transducers are done by voltage dividers and
transistor.
there after transformed to a 2-axis voltage vector. DC-link
The drive circuit with reduced gate voltage during short
voltage transducer is realized by a voltage divider and an
circuit is realized by discrete devices but can easily be
optocoupler. The speed is measured by a tacho generator.
implemented in an ASIC.

286
 IV. CONTROL STRATEGY

The control of the AC-DC-AC converter can be divided in

two parts, the rectifier control and the AC-machine control.
The rectifier control is based on a space vector control and
the AC-machine control is based upon an energy-optimizer.
R e c t i j k control
The basic control method of the rectifier is equivalent to a
synchronous machine operating together with a line which is
shown in Fig. 4a. Fig. 4b shows a phasor diagram for the
line voltage U,, the line inductance and the rectifier
voltage U,.
Controlling the current iL by so it is in phase with the
line voltage & the AC-DC-AC converter operates as a re-
sistive load and if the current l d a small total harmonic
distortion a high power factor is obtained. However, a
stationary model can normally not be used for achieving high
dynamic performance in the system. The rectifier is control-
led by space-vectors in a rotating d q axis system. Transfor-
mation of the system (a-0) shown in Fig. 4 into a d q axis
rotating system gives simplified expressions for control
purposes. Fig. 5 shows the coordinate transformation.

at

e = at
Fig. 5 . Coordinate transformationof line and rectifier voltage and cumnt
from fixed a-0coordinates to rotating d q coordites.
Fig. 4. Basic control strategy for the rectifier
a) Single-phase diagram of line and rectifier
b) Phasor diagram
By placing the line voltage vector on the d-axis of the rota-
ting coordinate-frame a simplified dynamical model can be
obtained in the rotating frame.
The stationary control algorithm is given by

-
U , = -Ur+ j w L , Ir. (4)
where
di,
3 = Line-zero voltage in the line 0 = Ri, + L, -
dt
+u ~ + ,jwL,id
~
U
-r = Line-zero voltage in the rectifier
w = Natural frequency in the line
lL = Linecurrent

(1) neglects the resistance in the system which can be done in

most systems.
id - 'DC iDC
1
The active power flow P and the reactive power Q into the
rectifier are given by

where
R = Resistance in the AC-line inductance Lsand the
switches
uDC = DC-link voltage
iDc = DC-linkcurrent

287
(6) is strongly unlinear and it is necessary to make a lineari- [7].-The easiest and most effective way is a direct decoupling
zation [7]. A first order Taylor expansion has been used. method by mearmring idand i,. The decoupling is obtained by
Following linearization is done.

2 2
'DC = "DC,O 'DC - 'DC,O (9)
where
UDc,o = Linearization point of DC-link voltage
where
Remark the linearization has a variable gain dependent on the Ud,& = Reference voltage of ud
working point. (4) - (9) give a block diagram as shown in uq,rc/ = Reference voltage of U,
Fig. 6.
Two PI-controllers serve as current controllers and a
simple P-controller controls the DC-link voltage. The
reference current iq,=f is 0 because the rectifier should have
a high power factor (Q = 0). A better dynamical perfor-
I I I I I
mance in the DC-link voltage is achieved by a feedforward
compensation by measuring the power in the DC-link. The
feedforward compensation current id,f can be obtained from
(7)

'DC iDC
id$ = zKI
3
'd,l

Fig. 6. Block diagram for rectifier in the AC-DC-AC converter.
Different methods exist for controlling such system [4]
where
K,, K2 : Proportional gains in the feedforward compn-
sation
Kz is chosen so the dynamic still is stable in the current loops
- and it is also dependent on the line voltage.

U U I U
DC,ref djef 1 d DC
X-F+ P-
Controller
PI-
Controtler
R+pLS

PI-
%ref , 1 q
Q= 0
- Controller ' R+PLs

Fig. 7. Final implementation of the rectifier control assuming complete decoupling. R=0.5 0. &= 18 mH. C= 1.65 mF.

28 8
AC-machine control AW = Wrcf - < (15)
A standarcl operation method for AC-machine control is
The ratio K, is controlled to a maximum value,K in the
with a constant voltage/frequency ratio. The basic operation
transient situation given by a change in speed reference uref
principle is
or a load change in order to enable fully torque development
Uf = K, + U, (13) in the machine. The o p t k t i o n starts again when (15) is
fulfilled. The machine speed is controlled by a PI-controller.
where
The speed controller and the adaptive controller are designed
U, = Output voltage at stand still so speed dynamic is much faster than the dynamic of the
uf = Output phase voltage
adaptive controller.
wS = Impressed stator frequency The adaptive controller is based on an iterative calculation
K, = Voltagelfrequency ratio of the voltage/fiequency ratio K, as illustrated in Fig. 9.

Km
This control strategy c a ~be~ improved by an energy
K,
optimized control strategy for the AC-machine which is based
upon measurement of input power [lo]. In this system it is
obvious to use the power in the DC-link because the DC-link
current and voltage are already known in the microcontroller. f Kstep
The strategy uses the power measurement to an on-line
adjustment of the voltage/frequency ratio so the power
consumption is kept to a minimum due to optimized mag- Km1n
nitisation of the induction machine.
The control strategy is shown in Fig. 8. The calculated
P
DC-link power Pdc,m is a mean value given as dc,m

where
fm = Integration time of DC-link power
t

Based on Pdc,m the adaptive controller calculates a new

fresuenCY ratio K, which Optimization
Of the neces-
Fig. 9 . nlumtion of the iterative calculation in the adaptive controller.
sary K, is only performed in a stationary situation identified
by

MICROCONTROLLER

I
I L
Inverter
I
I
I t module
I
I 1
Fig. 8. Energy optimized control strategy for AC-induction machine with on-line adaption of machine magnitization level based on Dc-link power
mearunment.

289
 The sampling period Tkfor the adaptive controller is divided shoyn in Fig. 10. The control task has a sampling frequency
into three parts. Firstly, a delay period td after each change of 2.4 kHz and the switching frequency is twice (4.8 Hz).
in K, in order to reach steady-state before calculation of Time critical calculations are implemented as look-up tables
Pdc,m in the second part of Tk.Finally, a new value for K, like trigeometric functions and square root.
is calculated based on Pd,.,,,. The change in voltage/frequency
ratio I(step is a constant value when Pdc,mis decreasing. After VI. TEST
an increase in Pdc,mthe change I& is made smaller but K
is still reduced until the power (Pdc,m- Pdc,m(-)) reach the Different tests have been performed on the system to show
value APdc so optimization at a local minimum in Pdc,m is some of the capabilities in the AC-DC-AC converter system.
avoided. The measurements are done both at steady-state and dyna-
This energy optimized control strategy for the AC-machine mical operation.
is easily implemented in the microcontroller. The necessary
parameters for the controller design are fm, td, Awmx, LX, Steady-state test
Ln, uo, Kstepand APdc. The presented strategy for the AC-
The first test is rectifier system operation when the AC-
machine will save energy due to the optimized adjustment of
machine operates as motor and as generator. Fig. 11 shows
the magnithtions which will be most distinct in applications
the measured line currents and line voltages.
with nonlinear torque-speed characteristics.

V. SOFTWARE 400

200
A single microcontroller performs all tasks for the AC-DC-
0
AC converter control. The tasks are modulation, control of
converter and AC-machine, monitoring current, voltage, -2 0 0
power and speed, communication to a console and data- I I 1 1-10
-400 I
acquisition. 0 10 20 30 40
Time (ms)
The modulation technique is for the inverter and rectifier
double-sided space vector modulation [3], (51, [6] which (4
Generator-operation
gives a minimum of current distortion to the line-side [5] and 400 1 , 10

gives a minimum of torque ripple in the AC-machine [3].

-
The reference modulation waveform is stored as a look-up
table and is common for both the inverter and the rectifier.
L

9
P
-
0
200

0 0
d

E
A special CAPCOM-register [3] in the microcontroller can -200 -5
U

easily control the PWM generation with double-sided modula-

tion for all six phase-bridges. A feedforward compensation
-400 0I 10 20 30
1 -10
40

techaique of the DC-link voltage is also utilized in the PWM- Time (m8)
(b)
modulator due to an a priori information is used in the
voltage controller to obtain ideally output voltages of the Fig. 1 1 . Line cumnt and line voltage at rectifier.
inverter and rectifier. Therefore, lower dynamical perfor- a) Motor operation. P = 2.2 kW.PF = 0.996
mance is necessary in the DC-link voltage control. b) Generator operation. P = -2.2 kW.PF = 0.995
A flowchart of the control task in the microcontroller is

CONTROL-TASK

PWM
um¶to
CAPCOM
-3
AlD~orrvorsion
L i n cwrent & voltagD
DC-lint c v ~ o n &
t voltage
-
%phase
P-aX,s -3 E s t h t o n of
eandlu I
I
twrdirate
transfa-
mation
Deco~pling
am
control
Speed Current

uwuation
DC c-satwnw m

Inverter h rectifkr

I I

yes Y I
oata-
aquisit mn
I

Fig. 10. Flow chart of the control task in the AC-DC-AC converter.

290

71
I, I I1
 Fig. 11 shows a high stationary performance both in motor Dyn-mica1 test
and generator operation.
The dynamical performance is also tested by reversing the
The power factor PF is higher than 0.99 at 90% load. The
AC-machine. Fig. 14 shows the line voltage and current.
harmonic content of the current is also measured at full load
and shown in Fig. 12. Rsrardq of AC-machins 10
4w
4 IiMT0lt.l. :
I
IEC-555
..................... , ..........................
l;
0 .

. o
.. 0

0 :
1-10
0.15 0.20 0.25
?
0 i o 0 :
0.w 0.05 0.10
Time (I)
0.30
A n - I A A B

Froqurncy (Hz) Fig. 14. Line voltage and line current when the AC-machine is reversing.
Fig. 12. Harmonic analysis of the line current. P = 2.2 kW.
Fig. 14 shows that the AC-DC-AC converter very rapid
Low harmonic currents exist in the line current. The
change from motor operation to generator operation. It also
maximum current specified in IEC-555 standard is also
shows the current instantaneously changes and the current
marked and the AC-DC converter fulfils these demands.
controllers works well. However, some of the poorer power
The power factor PF and the angle of the first harmonic
factor at low load (see Fig. 13) can be seen in the current
between the voltage and current (cos(+)) as a function of the
waveform. Aliasing phenomenon from the oscilloscope can
load is shown in Fig. 13.
also explain the waveform.
During the reversal of the AC-machine the speed and the
DC-link voltage is also measured. The waveforms are shown
1 .o ...
inFig. 15.
;+.: ..... 1 .....:.....i.....i ..... 1 I 1
h

. ;
../
Q
v Po+ tactor
B .. ... _;_ ....j . . .. _;_
.... I...._i_ ....; .... _;_ ....
g 0.8

-
b
*
0

U
L
....,.. ......... ...........
l I.......................

L
8 0.6 .... ,....

0.0 0.5 1 .o I .5 2.0

Input power (kW) 0 I 1 -1m
0 1 2 3
Fig. 13. Power factor PF and the angle (cos(+)) for the first harmonic h e (4
between the voltage and the cumnt a8 a hnction of the load.
Fig. IS. DC-link voltage and AC-machine speed during reversal.
Fig. 13 shows a very high cos(+) in the whole operating
Fig. 15 shows that the DC-link voltage is almost constant du-
area which means the control strategy works well (Q = 0).
ring the reversal of the AC-machine. This indicates a
The AC-DC-AC converter acts like a resistive load. The
reasonable chosen feedforward technique. A faster speed
power factor decreases at very low load which is explained
change can be allowed because the line current is not maxi-
by some unlinearities in the voltage transducers and in the
mum. In the case of the maximum allowable line current is
rectifier.
obtained during generator operation to the line it is beneficial
to allow a higher voltage increase in the DC-link to obtain a
faster AC-machine response.

29 1
 Finally, measurements are performed on the d- and q-axis
current in the rectifier during reversal of the AC-machine.
The AC-machine is loaded. The measurements are performed
by the microcontroller. Fig. 16 shows these currents.
-2 -2
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 I .o 1.2
Time (1)
Fig. 16. Measured d- and q-axis cumnt in the rectifier at reversal of the
AC-machine.
Fig. 16 shows that the controller very fast changes the d-axis
current at reversal of the AC-machine. The q-axis current is
kept approximately zero which indicates an acceptable
decoupling and very fast current loops.
VII. CONCLUSION
A high performance and integrated AC-DC-AC converter
controlled by one microcontroller has been designed and
tested. A 16-bit microcontroller controls the rectifier by space
vector control and the AC-machine is controlled by a speed
loop with a proposed energy-optimal control scheme which is
based upon an adjustment of the voltage-frequency ratio. The
converter has a power rating of 2.5 kW and is rated for 3 x
400V, 50 HZ input and 3 x 0-400V, 0 -100 HZ output.
Decentralized overcurrent protection is achieved on each
transistor by measuring the collector- emitter voltage. Two
Undeland snubbers protect and control the IGBT- transistors
in the rectifier and the inverter.
A direct decoupling method is used in the space vector
control for the rectifier and two PIcontrollers control the
active and the reactive power in the converter. The reactive
power is kept
to zero by the controller and a high power factor is obtained.
However, the control strategy opens an opportunity also to
compensate for reactive power. The DC-link voltage is
controlled by a simple Pcontroller and a power feed-forward
compensation technique is integrated in order to achieve a
high dynamic. The AC-machine has a simple control strategy
with an energy optimizing performance. The powerful
microcontroller will also be able to include field vector
control of the AC-machine if necessary in some special
applications. Both the rectifier and the inverter utilize double
sidqi space vector modulation because it gives a mini"
distortion and torque ripple.
Test results show stationary a high power factor both
motor and generator operation. Harmonic analysis shows as
expected that new standards are fulfilled.The tests show also
a high dynamid performance in the rectifier. The presented
converter represents the state-of-the-art of integration and
performance in three-phase AC-DC-AC converters.
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292