Comparing the Performance of Bipolar and Unipolar
Switching Frequency to Drive DC-AC Inverter
Ali Algaddafi 1*, Khalifa Elnaddab2, Abdullah Al Mamari 3, Abdelrahim Nasser Esgiar 4
1*, 4
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Sirte, Sirte-Libya
2
School of Engineering at Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, CF24 3AA
3
Mechanical Engineering, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, LE1 9BH
alisirte@yahoo.com, ElnaddabKA@Cardiff.ac.uk, mamariabdullah@gmail.com, anasser6474@yahoo.co.uk
Abstract The inverter is a device that is used as an interface
between the photovoltaic energy and the grid. The harmonic and
distortion of the output current, and efficiency of the inverter are
the main issues. This paper presents a model of Sinusoidal Pulse
Width Modulation (SPWM) methods of unipolar and bipolar
inverters in MATLAB and Psim software. A numerical model of
the LC filter is derived in order to design and test the DC-AC
inverter. The SPWM control is created by comparing triangle
signal (a carrier waveform) and a reference signal (a sine
waveform) whose frequency is the desired frequency. The simple
circuit is used to characterize the scheme of SPWM techniques in
order to obtain the pure output voltage and reduce the harmonic
component. Empirical results show that the unipolar switching
scheme is used in widespread a commercial PV inverter in order
to have the flexibility to choose a filter and reduce the harmonic
components. The switching frequency of the Sunny Boy inverter
is found around 15 kHz and its transformer is estimated.
Unipolar switching SPWM is very useful in low switching
frequency than bipolar switching SPWM. The output voltage and
current in both techniques have been analyzed in frequency and
time domains.
KeywordsInverter, bipolar and unipolar PWM switching
types, Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM), Cut-off
frequency.
I. INTRODUCTION
In general, the inverter achieves the task of converting DC
input voltage to an AC output voltage. The inverter is classified
based on the arrangement of the power electronic switch to half
bridge and full bridge inverter. The two legs are found in the
full bridge and each leg has two switches that have been
controlled by the Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM).
SPWM Techniques have received increasing attention in a
variety of applications in full bridge inverter for renewable
energy such as the AC motors and in the telecommunication
sector [1, 2]. SPWM can be achieved by comparing between
triangle carrier signals with a reference voltage or control
voltage, which is a sine wave. One leg of switching can be
used to obtain bipolar inverter. However, one leg cannot be
achieved the unipolar inverter, because the unipolar techniques
require two legs. Each leg is controlled independently from
another leg. In fact, the modulation techniques will affect the
dynamic of the system significantly [2, 3]. Therefore, the
performance of different modulation techniques such as
unipolar and bipolar switching frequency must be studied in
depth.
The bipolar SPWM is widely used in the full-bridge
inverter to its simple implementation [2, 4]. However, the
978-1-5090-5713-9/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE
bipolar SPWM requires a large filter. In general, two
significant factors must be considered when selecting an
inverter system. These factors are the efficiency and the output
current distortion [5]. The filter size and SPWM techniques are
related to efficiency.
The unipolar switching frequency technique has advantages
that need a small filter according to authors in [2]. Therefore,
the unipolar SPWM facilities the choice of the filter and has a
better output waveform [2]. No evidence studies the numerical
models of the LC filter in the frequency domain and
implements with DC-AC inverter and also comparing between
performance and quality of output of unipolar and bipolar
switching techniques in low and high switching frequency.
Thus, this paper investigates the mathematical model of the
LC filter and thereafter integrated with an inverter.
Furthermore, the comparison between the bipolar switching
frequency and unipolar switching frequency to drive DC-AC
inverter is presented and analyzed in low and high switching
frequency. The high switching frequency then is applied to
match the Empirical results of the commercial PV inverter. It is
organized as follows: a numerical model of LC filter is
presented as it is a critical element in pre-design the inverter.
Simulation of the inverter with an LC filter using bipolar
switching and unipolar switching techniques is compared. The
experimental setup to test a commercial PV inverter to confirm
the simulation result is verified. Finally, the conclusion and
future works are drawn after discussing the results.
II. SYSTEM CONFIGUARTIION
A. System Description
The system consists of three circuits, including LC filter
with power circuit, bipolar switching PWM circuit and
unipolar switching PWM circuit. Firstly, a derivative numerical
model of the LC filter is discussed and secondly the LC filter is
combined with inverters that are operated by a bipolar
switching SPWM. The same circuit is operated with a unipolar
SPWM inverter.
B. Determination of the values of LC filter components
Injected harmonics become a critical problem with
developing of inverters in distributed generation. An analytical
expression for the filter inductor and filter capacitor which is
depends on switching component injected into the grid. The
damping techniques are used to suppress resonance impact.
Also, in the stand-alone inverter, the LC filter has considered
the main issue of power quality. LC filter is shown in Fig. 1 . The derivative and depth analysis of the LC filter includes
The optimal value of L and C can be determined by [4, 6]: the Quality Factor (Q) and the Damping Ratio (), which gives
Transfer Function (TF) of the LC filter as:
(1)
2 10638297.8 (3)
1 (2) 6447.4 10638297.8
2 III. SIMULATION PART
Where: R is the resistive load of stand-alone inverter and
is the cut-off frequency of LC filter, which is chosen to be A. SPWM Techniques
520 Hz. The SPWM inverter can be configured in a single phase or
three phases. The single phase is classified into half bridge
inverters and full bridge inverters. The single phase full bridge
topology that is depicted in Fig.3 (A) is implemented in this
paper. Four switches of the inverter are G1, G2, G3 and G4.
G1 and G2 are on one leg, and G3 and G4 are in another leg.
Every leg is controlled independently from another leg. When
the G1 switches on, the G2 is switched off and vice versa. This
technique is called a unipolar switching inverter. The output
Fig. 1. LC filter circuit voltage in unipolar switching based on controlling switches can
be either-Vdc, +Vdc, or 0 Vdc [7, 8]. However, when the
switches are controlled diagonally is called bipolar switching
inverter as shown in fig 3 (B).
It can be noticed from fig 3 (B), four switches are G1, G2
G3 and G4, which configured to be G1G4 turned on, while
G2G3 turned off. In other words, when G1G4 is ON, the G2G3
is OFF and vice versa. As shown in fig 3 (B), the bipolar
technique is a similar procedure in unipolar technique, except
that one sine waveform is compared with triangular signals.
In this simulation, the unipolar and bipolar switching
SPWM inverter is running with switching frequency 1000Hz to
study the impact of low switching frequency on both models.
Fig. 4(A) displays the sine waveform and its inverse, and
carrier signal at 1000Kz. The PWM that is generated is shown
in Fig. 4(B). This PWM is used to turn the switches on or off
based on the state value of PWM and type of switches.
PWM is generated by comparing the voltage control
(sinusoidal waveform) with the carrier signals (triangular
waveforms). The Bipolar can be used as the same techniques
except, it uses only one sine wave signal without inverse it.
The next section will discuss the acquired results.
Fig. 2. Bode diagram of LC filter that represents the gain and the shift of LC
filter

(A) Unipolar switching scheme (B) Bipolar switching scheme

Fig. 3. Circuit diagram of inverter with different SPWM techniques as in (A) and (B)
 PWM
1

0.8

0.6
Voltage (V)

0.4

0.2

0.6 0.605 0.61 0.615 0.62 0.625 0.63 0.635 0.64

Time (S)

(A) Unipolar SPWM (B) Generated PWM by using the unipolar technique
Fig. 4. Single-phase full bridge inverter with switching at 1000Hz when the unipolar technique is used.

300 300

200
200

100
100

0
0

-100
-100

-200
-200

-300
0.6 0.605 0.61 0.615 0.62 0.625 0.63 0.635 0.64
-300
Time (S) 0.6 0.605 0.61 0.615 0.62 0.625 0.63 0.635 0.64
Time (S)

(A) Output voltage of Unipolar SPWM inverter (B) Output voltage of bipolar SPWM inverter
Fig. 5. Comparison between the Output voltage of bridge inverter when unipolar and bipolar methods are used at 1000Hz.

300
I out
Vout
200

15

10 100

0 0

-5

-10 -100

-15

-200

-300
0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6
Time (S)

(A) Unipolar technique (B) Bipolar technique

Fig. 6. Output voltage and current at the load during 1000Hz when using SPWM techniques as in (A) and (B).
B. Simulation Results
Inverter voltage is measured before filtering in both cases
the unipolar and bipolar techniques. The results are shown as in
Fig.5. Those waveforms have required a filter to filter out the
harmonic components and give a pure sine waveform.
The same LC filter is applied to both circuits, which was
shown as in fig.3. The output voltage and current filtered out
the harmonic components as shown in fig.6. It is clear that the
unipolar inverter gives a better waveform and less distortion
compared to the bipolar inverter. This has been implemented in
the lower switching frequency of 1000Hz, however, when the
switching frequency is increased to15000Hz, both techniques
give a pure sine waveform of the output voltage and current as
shown in fig.7. However, in practice, it is challenging to obtain
a pure sinusoidal of the output voltage and current, unless the
robust control and implementing multiple loop controllers as it
is applied in [9].
20
10
Current (A)
0 0
-10
-20
0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55
Time (S)
Fig. 7. Output voltage and current when using SPWM bipolar and unipolar
techniques at high-frequency 15000Hz
(A) Unipolar SPWM switching
Fig. 8. Spectrum for the output voltage and current at 1000Kz as in (A) and (B)
Fig.8 shows the spectrum of the output voltage is a top
graph and the lower graph is the output current of the inverter.
It can be noticed that the harmonic components at 1000Hz and
The limitations in this simulation are as follows [4, 7, 9]:
1-The parasitic resistance of LC filter is ignored, such as
parasitic inductor and parasitic of the capacitor.
2-Parastes of switches and current fall time and also
current tail time are eliminated in this simulation.
3-DC source voltage is assumed as a constant voltage
without any ripple.
For further analysis, the frequency domain is considered
with a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm analysis as
below. Inverter voltage requires a large filter to reduce the
harmonic components that lead to an increase in the size and
the cost of the inverter.
C. Analysis the result in frequency domain
The analyses in the frequency domain can facilitate the
evaluation of the output voltage and current easily, where the
FFT analysis is used to the different harmonic components. In
the spectrum analysis is shown in Fig.8, a switching frequency
of 1 kHz was selected, in order to study the impact of low
frequency and show the sideband; however, in reality, the
200 switching frequency is higher than 1 kHz. We notice in Sunny
Boy inverter the frequency is roughly 15000 kHz. In the
market, there are many power analyzers that can be used to
measure the individual harmonic or THD. These are useful to
evaluate the effectiveness of designing inverter.
Voltage (V)
-200
0.6
(B) Bipolar SPWM switching
the sideband appears in the bipolar inverter and also at
2000Hz while in unipolar inverter disappears at all at 1000Hz
and appears small harmonic components at 2000Hz. Fig.9
shows the spectrum analysis of output voltage and current as
expected at 15000Hz in both cases of the unipolar and bipolar
inverter. There are no harmonic components, except the
fundamental harmonic (desired voltage and current) at 50 Hz.

Voltage [200 V/Div.]

Time [2 ms/Div.]

Fig. 10. Input and the output voltage of the transformer in Sunny Boy 1700E
Fig. 9. Spectrum for the output voltage and current using unipolar and inverter.
bipolar PWM at 15000 Hz.
The relation between the values of output inverter voltage
The difference between the bipolar and the unipolar and input-inverter- DC voltage is related to transformer ratio.
SPWM techniques is listed in table I. The transformer turn ratio (N) is given by [9]:
V/ (4)
TABLE I. COMPARISON BETWEEN UNIPOLAR AND BIPOLAR SWITCHING N
INVERTER TECHNIQUES V
Bipolar Unipolar Where, Vo/p(max) is a maximum value of the output
Properties of Components
switching switching inverter voltage in root mean square and VDC(min) is a
Cost of filter High Low minimum value of the input- inverter voltage. The value of
Requires a Requires a output-transformer voltage is 226V in green color, whilst, the
Size of filter larger smaller input transformer voltage is 142 V, which appears in blue color
filter filter as shown in Fig. 10. Therefore, the transformer turn ratio was
Power quality Low High given 1.59.
Complex of Control Simple Complex In order to validate this experimentation, it was compared
with the technical description of the SB1700E inverter, which
IV. EXPERIMENTATION PART is provided by SMA Company [11]. Fig.11 shows the relation
between the input DC voltage and the output AC voltage of the
The Sunny Boy (SB) 1700E inverter is very popular and is inverter.
required to identify different parameters such as the input
capacitor, the switching frequency and including the
transformer. This section introduces the experimental setup of
the commercial PV inverter to test its performance and finding
the type of the switching techniques whether the unipolar or
bipolar techniques.
The PV inverter Sunny Boy 1700E inverter is connected to
the series resistor between the variable DC power supply and
the AC inverter side is connected to the utility network. The
input and output of the transformer in the commercial PV
inverter are connected to two probes for finding a transformer
ratio and a switching frequency, which are considered the
main objectives of the conducted experimentations.
The transformer ratio of SB700 inverter was identified in a Fig. 11 The relation between the minimum MPP input voltage and the output
previous study [10]. The main weakness with the previous voltage of the SB1700E inverter [11].
study is that it does not include the filter of the SB700
inverter. However, in this study, the transformer ratio and a The transformer is needed to isolate the DC components
switching frequency of the SB1700E inverter, instead of from injecting into the grid and step up the DC voltage level to
SB700 inverter, have been established in order to be included be suitable for the grid level. Thus, the boost converter is not
in the inverter model. The experimental results are observed required. A switching frequency of SB1700E is a need also to
by connecting to terminals of transformers and monitoring be taken into account. From Fig. 12 and by zooming in the
with an oscilloscope as shown in fig. 10. observed waveform of the input- transformer voltage,
switching frequency of SB1700E inverter can be easily
determined. Two cursors a, and b of oscilloscope were used to
measure the time of one period, which is 64 s. Since the
switching frequency is inversely the time period. Thus, the
switching frequency of the SB1700E inverter is 15.6 kHz 16
kHz.
Time [40 s/Div.]
Fig. 12 Determining-switching frequency of the SB1700E inverter.
To summarize, this experimentation has identified some
parameters of SB1700E whether using technical description or
the waveforms. Those parameters need to be taken into account
in the modelling inverter.
CONCLUSION
DC-AC inverters are used in different applications such as
AC motor drives and uninterruptible AC power supplies. The
output voltage of the inverter is required to be sinusoidal and
adjustable in its magnitude and frequency. The SPWM is one
of the most important of PWM techniques in DC-AC inverter.
Thus, this paper has investigated the impact of low switching
frequency by implementing the same circuit of the inverter
with unipolar switching and bipolar switching in Psim
commercial software. The acquired results show that the
unipolar scheme is suitable for lower frequency than the
bipolar scheme. When switching frequency is increased to
15000Hz to match a real PV inverter, the harmonic
components disappear in both unipolar and bipolar techniques.
Empirical results show that switching frequency of Sunny Boy
1700E inverter is 15000Hz and transformer ratio is 1.59, which
is agreed with a technical description of the inverter (provided
by SMA Company). By analyzing the simulation work and the
experimental results, a unipolar inverter with the LC filter
circuit gives a better sinusoidal output waveform compared to
the bipolar inverter. Also, as a part of future work, the sweep
parameters function in different packages of software such as
Psim and Pspice could be used to determine the right value of
the LC filter with the load. In next publication, the state space
analysis of inverter will be derived.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The experimental work presented in this paper was
conducted at the Department of Engineering, University of
Leicester, UK.
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