Lecture 10

Solution
PWM Inverters 2 – PWM and the Buck
• So we have to find k, the number of switching periods required to clump
In this lecture: together to make up a super-pulse, whose long duration makes the
discretization error tiny by comparison (0.1% or lower).
10.1. Direct PWM converter contd.
• A 10MHz clock provides a timing resolution of Tclock=100ns. It is not
• Example: choosing the super-pulse
possible to get a resolution finer than this. Then ∆t = 50ns.
• Advantages and disadvantages

10.2. PWM and the buck converter • A 100 kHz switching frequency gives a switching period, Tswitch=10µs. A
10%-90% modulation range means that the pulse width can range from
• Example: the maximum signal frequency
1µs to 9µs.
• Advantages & disadvantages
• As things stand, the expected error in the duty ratio D is maximum then
10.1 Direct PWM converter contd. ton is minimum:
Example: choosing the super-pulse ton 1
D= = = 0.1
Using direct PWM conversion, a PWM switching frequency of 100kHz is T 10
generated from a 10 MHz clock. Assuming that a 10% to 90% PWM t ± ∆t 1 ± 0.05
D' = on = = 0.1055 or 0.0945
modulation range is possible, what is the maximum signal frequency that T m ∆t 10 m 0.05
can be used with a voltage error of less than 0.1% (or 10 bits resolution)?
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The corresponding voltage uncertainty is 1k + 0.05

< 1.001 × 0.1
10k + 0.05
∆V D' (0.1055 or 0.0945) = ±0.055 = ±5.5%
= 1− = 1− k + 0.05 < (0.1001)(10k + 0.05)
Vout ( nom ) D 0.1
Boiling this down eventually gives us
That’s quite large! To decrease it to below 0.1%, we need to clump k
switching periods together, so that k > 44.50995

∆V D' So our samples are of length kTswitch, where Tswitch=10µs, and k>44.5.
= 1− < 0.1%
Vout ( nom ) D Let k=50. Then the switching period of our super-pulse is

In other words, we require k for which kTswitch=(10µs)(50) =500µs.

D' < 1.001D The corresponding switching frequency is reduced to a mere

kt on + ∆t t fswitch=1/kTswitch = 2000Hz=2kHz
< 1.001 on
kTswitch + ∆t Tswitch
So a switching frequency of 2kHz will produce an output with no more than
Inserting numbers gives 0.1% voltage error due to finite edge resolution. The highest signal frequency
of the resulting signal can be no more than this; depending on the filter, it can
be considerably less!

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Advantages and disadvantages of direct PWM 10.2. PWM and the buck converter
Advantages • A smoother output signal is achieved using a PWM signal to drive a
buck converter.
1. The load can act as a filter. The load may have sufficient capacitance
(e.g. charge-control device) or inductance (e.g. an electric machine) to • The smoothing inductor means that the output current transitions are
appear as a filter itself, avoiding the need for an explicit filter stage. ramps rather than square edges. This makes for lower harmonic noise
and a more easily-filtered output signal.
2. Speed Transistors can switch very fast and consume very low power,
up to quite high output powers. L

3. Flexibility By finely controlling the duty ratio it is easy to generate a

variety of waveforms (e.g. ramp, sine, square) at a range of frequencies
and phases.
+
Vin DIODE
Disadvantages
1. Hard transitions cause high-frequency noise and distortion; at high PWM
power, parasitic power losses in the switch can become very serious.

2. The switching frequency must be very high.

Figure 10. 1PWM-fed buck converter

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Vout desired (vout max)

vG TS 2TS 3TS t
5V

Iout TS 2TS 3TS t

TS 2TS 3TS t
Figure 10. 2 Case 1: vout desired constant
Figure 10.3 Case 2: vout desired varying
When the desired vout is constant, the buck converter maintains equilibrium
and has no problems (Figure 10.2)… • But the buck converter’s output can not rise or fall faster than a certain
rate, determined by L and R (Figure 10.3), so

when the vout is desired to vary quickly, the buck gets into trouble!

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Example: the maximum signal frequency Prologue to the solution
Recall from a previous example: the buck converter with Consider an easier question: how fast can vout change? To answer this,
• a 2mH inductor consider: the ramp-up and ramp-down rates depend very much on vout itself:
• a 1 ohm load
dv out R R
• a 15V supply Up : = (Vin − vout ) ≈ (Vin − v out )
• a switching frequency of 50kHz dt L L
• a pulse width of 6.67ms (D=1/3) dvout R R
Down : = (− v out ) ≈ − vout
produces a 5V average output. The current ramp-up rate is 5000A/s and dt L L
down is 2500A/s, when vout=5V. -- both approximately constant, for a given vout.
Find the maximum usable frequency for a 1Vpk-pk signal superimposed on Let’s assume the output voltage is 5V ± a smaller ripple: that vout doesn’t
the 5V dc signal.
change much over time. In the original PWM signal
If the amplitude was doubled, what effect would it have?
∆i L ∆v L ∆i L
• = 5000 A/s ⇒ =R = 5000 V/s
∆t max ∆t max ∆t max

• For example, a 1V change would take 1/5000 s = 200 µs. The switching
period is 20ms (=1/50kHz), so 200ms represents 10 switching periods.

This answers the easier question.

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The maximum achievable signal frequency can be calculated from the We already saw that at vOUT = 5 V the maximum rate of change in vout is
maximum rate of change of voltage. Assuming the same system as in the +5000V/s up and –2500 V/s down. Find the maximum permissible
previous example, we’ll estimate the maximum frequency possible. frequency, fmax, at which the maximum rate of change is exactly -2500 V/s:

dvout
= 2πf maxVm = 2500 V/s
Solution dt max

The D.C. input voltage is vin = 15 V and the output voltage is 5V D.C. with a Turning this upside down gives
1V sine-wave superimposed: 2500 2500
f max = = = 795.77 Hz
vout = DVin + Vm sin ωt 2πVm 2π (0.5)

where Vm = 0.5V. Then its rate of change is Not very high! Doubling the amplitude, Vm , halves the maximum frequency
to approximately 400 Hz.
dvout
= ωVm cos ωt
dt

This is a maximum when cosωt=±1:

dvout
= ωVm cos 0 = ωVm
dt max

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Advantages of PWM and the buck: P/P0 800 Hz
(not to scale)
0 dB
PWM+buck has all the advantages of direct PWM output conversion, PLUS
the changes are more smooth and gentle (Figure 10.4), causing less
harmonic distortion (compare Figure 10.5 with Figure 10.6)
0 50 100 150 200 250
Frequency (kHz)

Figure 10.5 Power spectrum, DIrect PWM conversion

Figure 10. 6 Power spectrum, PWM + buck

Disadvantages:
The smoothing inductor stiffens the output current, making the output more
sluggish.
Figure 10.4 Output voltage waveforms: PWM+direct conversion and PWM+buck END OF LECTURE

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