IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO.

5, MAY 2000 747

Analysis of a Novel Bidirectional DC-to-AC Inverter

Zaohong Yang, Member, IEEE, and Paresh C. Sen, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—The switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter using dc-to-dc

converter configuration has many advantages over the tradi-
tional bridge-type inverter. The previously presented circuit with
nonlinear robust control works only for resistive load and its
output voltage has considerable distortion near the zero-crossing
point. A novel bidirectional circuit with nonlinear robust control
is proposed in this paper to overcome those drawbacks. This
inverter can dynamically stabilize the output voltage, i.e., the
output voltage of the inverter remains dynamically unchanged
when subjected to large disturbances in the input voltage or output
load. The stability analysis is presented. The closed-loop control
system under P control, PI control, PD control, and PID control
of the voltage loop for different types of loads are investigated.
The results show that the PD control is the best choice. The
performance of the circuit is also studied. Computer simulation
and experimental results are provided.
Index Terms—Control techniques, dc-ac power conversion, dy-
namic response, pulse width modulation inverters.

I. INTRODUCTION

T RADITIONALLY, a bridge configuration is employed for

the switch-mode dc-to-ac inverters, as shown in Fig. 1.
By using the PWM switching technique, the input dc voltage
is transformed into a high-frequency pulse waveform at the
output of the bridge. Through a filter, this high-frequency
pulsed voltage is smoothed into a sinusoidal waveform [1], [2].
In recent years, the switch-mode dc-to-ac inverters using
dc-to-dc converter topology have been developed [3]–[8]. The Fig. 1. Traditional bridge-type PWM inverter. (a) Topology. (b) Waveforms.
principle of operation of this type of inverter is illustrated in
Fig. 2(a), where the dc-to-dc converter is of the Buck config-
uration. The average output voltage vo of this Buck converter
is the product of the duty ratio  and the input voltage vs ,
i.e., vo = vs . If the input voltage vs is constant and the duty
ratio  is varied slowly, relative to the switching frequency
in the form of a fully rectified sinusoidal wave, the output vo
will naturally be a fully rectified sine wave. Through a bridge
circuit which is synchronized with the fully rectified waveform
of , the output vo is unfolded into a sinusoidal waveform vac , (a)
as shown in Fig. 2(b).
Compared to the bridge-type inverter, the inverters using
dc-to-dc converter configuration have several advantages.
1) Only one switch operates at high frequency, as shown in
Fig. 2(a), as a result, switching losses will be significantly less
and, thus, this circuit is suitable for high-frequency operation.
2) the bridge circuit following the dc-to-dc converter topology

Manuscript received June 25, 1998; revised May 19, 1999. This paper was
recommended by Associate Editor Ioinovici. (b)
Z. Yang was with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada, K7L 3N6. He is now with ASTEC Fig. 2. Switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter using dc-to-dc converter topology. (a)
Advanced Power Systems, Ottawa, ON, Canada. Diagram. (b) Waveforms.
P. C. Sen is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada, K7L 3N6 (e-mail:
senp@post.queensu.ca). shown in Fig. 2(a) operates at low frequency, e.g., 60 Hz.
Publisher Item Identifier S 1057-7122(00)03962-3. Hence, it has a safe delay interval. In contrast, conventional
1057–7122/00$10.00 © 2000 IEEE
748 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, MAY 2000
Fig. 3. Currently used control strategies for switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter
using dc-to-dc converter topology. (a) Direct duty ratio control. (b) Current
mode control.
bridge-type inverter [Fig. 1(a)] works at high frequency and
the delay interval between the upper device and bottom device
in each leg must be very short, increasing the risk of short
circuit. 3) The output filtering capacitors in the inverter using
dc-to-dc converters topology can be a dc-type capacitor, e.g.,
an electrolytic capacitor which is smaller and less expensive
than the ac-type capacitor for the same capacity required in the
traditional bridge configuration. However, the inverters using
the bridge configuration, shown in Fig. 1(a), can only choose
the ac-type capacitor as the filter. 4) More important is that
with the topology of dc-to-dc converter, the advanced control
techniques developed from the research on dc-to-dc converters,
such as current mode control, digital sampling control, and
sliding mode control, etc., can be directly applied to the
dc-to-ac switch-mode inverter. Therefore, a good dynamic
performance can be achieved.
Efforts have been made to improve the dynamical perfor-
mance of the switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter using dc-to-dc con-
verter topology. It is desirable that the output voltage remains
dynamically unchanged when subjected to large disturbances in
supply voltage or load current.
Direct duty ratio control is the most commonly used control
strategy [4], [5]. The principle of the control strategy is illus-
trated in Fig. 3(a). Its duty ratio is controlled by the error that
is the difference between the actual output voltage vo and the
reference voltage vr where the reference signal is of a fully rec-
tified sinusoidal waveform. The objective of the direct ratio con-
trol is to stabilize the output voltage when subjected to distur-
bances. However, this control method cannot achieve the dy-
namical stabilization of the voltage because the output voltage
vo changes before the control action begins. A sharp overshoot
will occur and a considerable time will elapse before it returns to
the steady state.
Fig. 4. Buck converter. (a) Topology. (b) Its low-frequency averaged circuit
model.
The current mode control of the switch-mode of dc-to-ac
inverter using the dc-to-dc converter configuration was pre-
sented in [6] and is shown in Fig. 3(b). In this control strategy,
the inductor current iL is forced to follow the current control
signal iL3 , which is in proportion to the difference between the
output voltage vo and reference signal vr . This type of control
strategy has many advantages over direct duty ratio control,
such as a wide bandwidth, fast response, and automatic current
protection. However, robust control of the output voltage is still
not achieved by this control strategy. When the supply voltage
or load current changes, the output voltage will change first,
because only after the output voltage changes does the current
control signal i3L change to accommodate the new operating
condition.
The discrete data sampling control has also been tried to the
switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter using dc-to-dc converter configu-
ration [7]. Unfortunately, the nature of the digital control makes
it slower in instantaneous response than the analog control. The
transient performance of the output voltage is not improved.
Moreover, this control system is very complicated and is dif-
ficult to implement in the practical circuit.
A dc-to-ac inverter using nonlinear robust control strategy
was proposed in [8], which is a further development of the con-
cept proposed for dc-to-dc converters reported in [9]. This type
of inverter can achieve dynamical stability of the output voltage,
i.e., when there are large disturbances in input source or output
load, the output voltage remains dynamically unchanged. How-
ever, the circuit proposed in [8] can only work for resistive
load but will not work efficiently for reactive load. Near the
zero-crossing point of the output voltage, the circuit goes into
discontinuous conduction mode, resulting in considerable dis-
tortion on the output voltage. In addition, the stability analysis
for the dc-to-ac inverter reported in [8] has, so far, not been car-
ried out.
YANG AND SEN: ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL BIDIRECTIONAL DC-TO-AC INVERTER 749

Fig. 5. Bidirectional Buck converter and its averaged circuit model. (a) Topology. (b) Low-frequency average circuit model. (c) Simplified average circuit model.

Fig. 6. The bidirectional dc-to-ac inverter with nonlinear robust control technique. (a) Topology. (b) Waveforms.
750 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, MAY 2000

In this paper a novel bidirectional power circuit with the non-

linear robust control is proposed, This circuit can work for both
the resistive load and reactive load. The continuous conduction
mode is always kept. Therefore, the distortion near the zero-
crossing is minimized. The principle of operation of the circuit
and closed-loop control system is explained. The stability anal-
ysis of the closed-loop control system is performed. The system
under the P control, PI control, PD control, and PID control of
the voltage loop for resistive load and inductive load is investi-
gated. The root locus analysis shows that the PD control is the
best choice. The effect of large step changes in input voltage
and output load on the output voltage is also studied. Computer
simulation and experimental verification are also provided.

II. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

A nonlinear robust control strategy was proposed to the
Buck-type dc-to-ac inverter [8]. The low-frequency averaged
equivalent circuit model of Buck converter is shown in Fig. 4,
Fig. 7. Low-frequency average circuit model for stability analysis. (a) For
which can be derived from the state-space averaging method resistive load. (b) For inductive load.
[10].
In this averaged-circuit model, the active switch is modeled
by a controlled current source with its value equal to the aver-
aging current flowing through it over one switching cycle, i.e.,
is = iL , for Buck converter, where iL is the averaged in-
ductor current and  is the duty ratio. The diode is modeled by
a controlled voltage source with its value equal to the averaging
voltage across it over one switching cycle, i.e., vd = vs for the
Buck converter.
From Fig. 4(b), the output voltage can be expressed as

vo = p vs 0 vL (1) Fig. 8. Switching average low-pass filter.

where vL is the averaged value of the inductor voltage and p From (4), the output voltage can be found as
is the duty ratio required for the power stage. This p can be
expressed as K
vo = v
K+1 r
(5)
v +v
p = o L : (2)
vs Equation (5) shows that, by the control law (3), the closed-loop
Equation (2) defines the duty ratio required by the Buck con- averaged output voltage is forced to be proportional to a refer-
verter at a specific operating point of vo , vL , and vs . ence voltage.
The control circuit can now be constructed to generate the In the switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter, the load can be resis-
duty ratio. Let the input and output relation of the control circuit tive, inductive, or capacitive. Therefore, the energy flows bidi-
be formulated as rectionally. A bidirectional power stage of the Buck converter
is considered, as shown in Fig. 5(a). The transistor symbol in
K (vr 0 vo ) + vL Fig. 5(a) represents any type of gate switching device. In this
c = (3)
vs bidirectional power stage, the switches Q1 and Q2 are triggered
complementarily. When energy flows from input to output, Q1
where vr is the reference voltage, K is the gain of the propor- and D2 are active. The power stage functions like a Buck con-
tional error amplifier, and c denotes the duty ratio generated verter. When energy flows from output to input, Q2 and D1 are
by the control circuit. active. The power stage functions like a Boost converter. As a
In the practical circuit, the output of the control circuit is con- result, the inductor current is always continuous, even at a no
nected to the gate of the active switch in the power stage, making load condition.
p = c . Therefore, the closed-loop characteristic can be ob- The low-frequency averaged circuit model for the bidirec-
tained by equating (2) and (3) as tional converter is shown in Fig. 5(b), which is a combination
of a Buck converter and a Boost converter. According to
vo + vL K (vr 0 vo ) + vL Kirchhoff’s current and voltage law, the circuit model shown
= : (4)
vs vs in Fig. 5(b) can be simplified to a simpler model, shown in
YANG AND SEN: ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL BIDIRECTIONAL DC-TO-AC INVERTER
(a)
(c)
Fig. 9. Root loci of the control system with P, PI, PD, and PID control for resistive load. (a) P control KP = 1
! !
(c) PI control KP = 1 100; KI = 20. (d) PI control KI = 0:1
Fig. 5(c). Obviously, this circuit model is the same as that shown
in Fig. 4(b). This paves a way to extend the aforementioned
nonlinear robust control to the switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter.
In the switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter with bidirectional buck
converter topology, the reference is chosen as a fully rectified
sinusoidal waveform, i.e., vr = Vrm j sin !a tj (the frequency fa
is much lower than the switching frequency). The output voltage
can be derived as
K
vo = V j sin !a tj
K + 1 rm
and represents a fully rectified sinusoidal waveform having the
same frequency as the reference signal vr . With a bridge-type
synchronizer, a sinusoidal voltage is obtained at the output.
Fig. 6(a) shows the diagram of the proposed dc-to-ac inverter.
The bridge-type synchronizer is the circuit with four switches
(T1 –T4 ) and their antipaprallel diodes, as shown in Fig. 6(a). In
this synchronizer, the switching cycle of the diagonal pair of
switches, (T1 ; T4) or (T2 ; T3 ) is synchronized with that of the
reference signal vr . For example, T1 and T4 are turned on at
T , 2T , etc., and T2 and T3 are turned on at T=2; 3T=3, etc.,
as shown in Fig. 6(b). Therefore, the fully rectified sinusoidal
waveform vo is unfolded into a sinusoidal ac output voltage vac .
Equation (6) means the closed-loop output voltage of the bidi-
rectional buck converter is only determined by the reference
751
(b)
(d)
! 100. (b) PI control =1 ! 100 = 1.
KP ; KI
50; KP = 1:00.
voltage and thus the output voltage is not affected by large dis-
turbance in supply voltage or load current. As a result, the sinu-
soidal voltage at the output of the low-frequency bridge circuit
(T1 –T4 ) in Fig. 6(a) is immune from the input source and output
load deviations.
As the bidirectional Buck converter always works in the con-
tinuous conduction mode, the distortion of output voltage near
the zerocrossing point is minimized.
(6)
III. STABILITY ANALYSIS
In order to ensure that the dc-to-ac inverter using the non-
linear robust control will generate the desirable output voltage,
irrespective of disturbances such as variations in the input
voltage and perturbations in the load current, the closed control
system needs to be carefully studied.
The low-frequency averaged circuit equivalent circuit model
shown in Fig. 5(c) is used to perform the stability analysis. As
the winding resistance of the inductor, RL , and equivalent se-
ries resistance (ESR) of the filtering capacitor, RC , should be
included, the equivalent circuit is redrawn and shown in Fig. 7.
As can be seen from (3), the average voltage of the inductor
is indispensable in the construction of the control circuit.
However, the actual inductor voltage is a high-frequency
rectangular wave. It consists of a low-frequency component
752 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, MAY 2000

(e) (f)

(g) (h)
Fig. 9. (Continued.) (e) PD control KP = 1 ! 100; Kd = 0:01. (f) PD control KP = 1 ! 100 = 0:1. (g) PD control Kd = 0:0 ! 0 01 = 10.
!
; Kd : ; KP
(h) PID control KP = 1 100; Kd = 0:01; KI = 80.

and a series of high-frequency components which are multiples power stage are: Ts = 20 s, L = 609 H, C = 94 F,
of the switching frequency. A switching average low-pass filter R = 10
and RL = 0:05
; RC = 0:01
; here Ts is the
proposed in [9] is used to retrieve the useful low-frequency switching period.
component and suppress greatly the high-frequency compo-
nents. A. Proportional Control
The principle of operation of this filter is illustrated in Fig. 8. The generated duty ratio is
The input voltage v1 is first converted into a proportional current
i = v1=R. This current then charges the capacitor C . The output K (vr 0 vo ) + vL (t 0 Ts )
c = : (8)
voltage v2 is the sampled value of the capacitor voltage at every vs
switching cycle Ts = 1=fsw . The capacitor is reset after sam- From the combination of control circuit (8) and the power stage
pling so that no previous
RT information is kept. The expression (2), the closed-loop output voltage can be expressed as
of voltage v2 = ( 0 s v1 dt)=RC . Because the average value
of high-frequency components relating to switching frequency vL + vO = vL (t 0 Ts ) + K (Vr 0 vo ): (9)
over the switching period is zero, the output v2 contains only the
information of the low-frequency component of v1 . This filter is The steady-state output voltage can be found as
suitable to retrieve the low-frequency component of the inductor K
voltage vL . Approximately, the low-frequency component of the VO = V
K+1 r
(10)
inductor voltage at the output of the filter delays the actual one
by one switching period Ts , i.e., where VO and Vr are the rms value of the output voltage and
reference voltage, respectively.
vL = vL (t 0 Ts )
0
(7) The dynamic response of the closed-loop system to the dis-
turbances in line and load can be investigated as follows. Substi-
where the vL 0
denotes the retrieved inductor voltage. tuting the circuit variables in (9) with its steady-state value and
First, the resistive load is considered for the stability analysis. its dynamic component due to perturbations, i.e., vO = VO +~ vO
Its circuit model is shown in Fig. 7(a). The parameters of the and vL = VL + v~L , where the capital case letter indicates the
YANG AND SEN: ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL BIDIRECTIONAL DC-TO-AC INVERTER 753

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Fig. 10. Root loci of the control system with P, PI, PD, and PID control for inductive load. (a) P control KP = 1 ! 100.(b) PI control =1 ! 100 = 1.
! !
KP ; KI
(c) PI control KP = 1 100; KI = 20. (d) PI control KI = 0:1 50; KP = 10.

rms value and the tilde  above a variable indicates a dynamic
component. In this process there is no small signal assumption.
The dynamic equation can be found from (9) as
v~L + v~O = v~L (t 0 Ts) 0 K v~O :
Equation (11) is a linear equation with time delay. Its Laplace
transformation can be found as
VL (s) + VO (s) = e0sTs VL (s) 0 KVO (s)
where the initial conditions are set to zero.
Because the disturbances vary much more slowly than the
switching frequency, e0sTs can be expressed approximately as
where the coefficients are
a3 = Ts LC (R + RC ) a2 = Ts RL C (R + RL) + Ts L
a1 = Ts RL + RRC C (K + 1) a0 = R(K + 1):
(16)
(11)
Fig. 9(a) shows the root locus of the closed control system when
the proportional gain of the error amplifier of feedback loop K
varies from K = 1 to K = 100. The control system is unstable
(12) for the given parameters because two roots are in the right half
s plane.
B. Proportional-Plus-Integral Control
Since the proportional control of the feedback loop of the

e0sTs = 1 0 sTs :
output voltage is unstable for the given parameters, the PI con-
(13) trol scheme is studied. The PI control circuit generates the de-
sirable duty ratio as follows:
From Fig. 7(a) VL (s) can be expressed as
  R
sC vL (t 0 Ts ) + KP (Vr 0 vO ) + KI 0t (Vr 0 vO ) dt
VL (s) = (sL + RL )
1
VO (s): c = :
1 + sRC C
+
R
(14) vs
(17)
Substituting (13) and (14) into (12), the closed-loop output Similar to the procedures mentioned in the P control, the
voltage can be derived as closed-loop dynamic output voltage can be found as

a s3 + a2 s2 + a1 s + a0 )VO (s) = 0
( 3 (15) a s4 + a3 s3 + a2s2 + a1 s + a0)VO (s) = 0
( 4 (18)
754 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, MAY 2000
(e)
(g)
!
Fig. 10. (Continued.) (e) PD control KP = 1 100; Kd = 0:01. (f) PD controlKP = 1
!
(h) PID control KP = 1 100; Kd = 0:01; KI = 80.
where the coefficients are
a4 = Ts LC (R + RC ) a3 = Ts RL C (R + RC ) + Ts L
a2 = (KP + 1)RRC C + Ts RL
a1 = (KP + 1) + KI RRC C a0 = K1 R: (19)
The root loci of the closed-loop system where the feedback loop
of output voltage is under PI control are shown in Fig. 9(b), (c),
and (d). The diagrams shown in Fig. 9(b) and (c) describe the
root loci when the proportional gain varies from KP = 1 to
KP = 100 under the condition that the integral gain KI is fixed
at KI = 1 and KI = 20, respectively. It can be seen that two
conjugate segments of the roots lie in the right half s plane in
both diagrams. Fig. 9(d) shows two roots in the right half s plane
when KI changes from KI = 0:1 to KI = 50 and Kp = 1 is
kept. Other two segments are in the left s half plane and are
not plotted. Obviously, the closed-loop control system using PI
control is unstable for the given parameters.
C. Proportional-Plus-Derivative Control
The duty ratio generated by the control circuit with PD con-
trol of output voltage feedback loop is expressed as
v (t 0 Ts ) + KP (Vr 0 vO ) + Kd dtd (Vr 0 vO )
c = L (20)
vs
(f)
(h)
! 100 = 0:1 (g) PD control Kd = 0:0 ! 0 01 = 10.
; Kd : ; KP
With similar steps shown in P and PI control analysis, the
closed-loop dynamic output voltage can be derived as
a s3 + a2 s2 + a1s + a0 )VO (s) = 0
( 3 (21)
where the coefficients are
a3 = Ts LC (R + RC )
a2 = Ts RLC (R + RL ) + Ts L + Kd RRC C
a1 = Ts RL + RRC C (KP + 1) + RKd
a0 = R(KP + 1): (22)
The closed-loop control systems for inductive load with P
control, PI control, PD control, and PID control for the output
voltage feedback loop have been investigated. Fig. 10(a)–(h)
shows the root loci of the closed-loop control system. The
root loci are similar to those for resistive load, except for an
additional small segment on real axis around (0377, 0). This
additional root is caused by the sLO + RO . Because this root
is on the negative real axis and is confined within a tiny range
around (0377, 0), it will not affect the stability.
Root locus analysis is performed for the closed-loop control
system with PD control. Fig. 9(e) and (f) gives the root loci of the
closed-loop control system. The derivative gain Kd is fixed at
Kd = 0:01 and Kd = 0:1, respectively, while the proportional
gain KP is being varied from 1 to 100. All the roots are in the
YANG AND SEN: ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL BIDIRECTIONAL DC-TO-AC INVERTER 755

(a)
(a)

(b)
Fig. 11. Computer simulation of PD control. (a) Output voltage
K d = 0:01; KP = 10. (b) Output voltage Kd = 0:9; KP = 10.
left half s plane. For each value of Kd there are three segments.
(b)
Fig. 12. Experimental result of PD control (5 V/div, 5 mS/div). (a)
Output voltage Kd = 0:003 76; KP = 10:10. (b) Output voltage
Kd = 0:0186; KP = 10:10.

One segment is on the real axis and becomes the dominant root
and the other two segments are conjugate and lie far away left
that is dominant. As a result, PID control has slower dynamic
from the real root and are not plotted. Fig. 9(g) gives the root
loci of the PD control for Kp = 10 while the Kd is varied from
response or is more oscillating than PD control. The reason is
that the PD control can be made stable and PI control is not
0 to 0.01. It can be seen that as the Kd value is increased, the
stable. The integral part in the PID control moves the roots of
two conjugate roots move from the right half s plane to the left
the PD control system toward the right half s plane. Therefore,
half plane. Thus, from the analysis it is seen that for the given
the performance of the system with PID control is worse than
parameters, the system can be stabilized when the gain Kd is
PD control.
proper.
The stability of the control system for the dc-to-ac inverter
D. Proportional-Plus-Integral-Plus-Derivative Control for inductive load is also analyzed by root locus method. The
low-frequency averaged circuit model as shown in Fig. 7(b) is
PID control for the output voltage feedback loop is also ana-
used for the analysis. The parameters of the power stage are:
lyzed. The effect of the gains, KP ; KI and Kd on the stability of
Ts = 20 s, L = 609 H, C = 94 F, RO = 7:071
;
the system is investigated. The analysis shows that if the gains
LO = 18:756 mH, and RL = 0:05
; RC = 0:01
. Here
are selected properly, the system can be stable. However, if the
Ts is the switching period.
gains are not properly selected, the system cannot be stable.
As a result of the stability analysis, PD control is selected for
Fig. 9(h) shows two roots on the real axis when KP varies from
1 to 100 and Kd = 0:01; KI = 80, the other two roots are con-
the output voltage feedback loop.
jugate and lie far to the left in the left half s plane and are not
IV. COMPUTER SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
plotted. Comparing with PD control, as shown in Fig. 9(e), in
both cases where Kd = 0:01 is kept, PID control adds one real The proposed switch-mode dc-to-ac inverter using bidirec-
root between the root of PD control and the origin. It is this root tional Buck converter topology under nonlinear robust control
756 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, MAY 2000
(a)
(b)
Fig. 13. Simulated results of the effect of large disturbances in input voltage
and output current on the output voltage waveform for inductive load. (a) Effect
of large step changes in input source on the output voltage. (b) Effect of large
step changes in load impedance on the output voltage.
shown in Fig. 6 is simulated by PSPICE. To verify the theoret-
ical analysis and simulation results, a prototype model of the
inverter is also breadboarded. The parameters of the power con-
verter are: Buck filtering inductor L = 609 H; Buck filtering
0 Z = 24:56 54:8
: upper: output
capacitor C = 94 F (two 47 F in parallel ); and input voltage
vs = 20–30 V. The reference voltage is a fully rectified sinu-
soidal waveform vr = 9j sin(377t)jV . In the voltage loop, PD
control is employed for both the the simulation and experimental
models.
The effectiveness of the PD control in the voltage feedback
and 246 56:4
, the output voltage is not
loop to stabilize the system is verified by the computer simula-
tion and experiment. The results show that when Kd is selected
very small, oscillation appears on the output voltage as shown
in Figs. 11(a) and 12(a). This oscillation is predicted by the
root locus shown in Figs. 9(g) and 10(g). When the gain Kd is
smaller, the roots are in the right half s plane and the closed-loop
system will become unstable. Figs. 11(b) and 12(b) illustrate
that if the Kd is increased to a proper value, the closed-loop
control system will become stable.
The simulated results in Fig. 13(a) shows that when the
supply voltage steps from 20 to 27 V the output voltage does
not change where the output load is inductive. The response
of the control system to the large disturbances in the inductive
(a)
(b)
Fig. 14. Experimental results of the effect of large disturbances in input
voltage and output current on the output voltage waveform for inductive load.
(a) Effect of the supply voltage step change for a inductive load. upper: supply
voltage vs , 5 V/div; lower: output voltage vac , 5 V/div, and output current io ,
0.83 A/div; time: 5.0 ms/div. (b) Effect of the load impedance step changes for
a inductive load Z = 44:726 26:6
voltage vac 5 V/div; lower: output current io , 0.125 A/div; time: 5.75 ms/div.
load is also studied by simulation. The result illustrated in
Fig. 13(b) indicates that when the inductive load steps between
44:76 26:6
affected.
Fig. 14(a) and (b) shows the experimental results when there
are large step changes in input voltage or output load. The re-
sults reveal that the output voltage remains unchanged when
subjected to these disturbances.
The response of the output voltage of the inverter to a step
change in reference voltage has also been investigated. The os-
cillograms shown in Fig. 15 reveal that the output voltage of the
inverter follows the change in reference very quickly.
V. CONCLUSION
A novel bidirectional circuit with nonlinear robust control is
proposed in this paper. This circuit can dynamically stabilize the
YANG AND SEN: ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL BIDIRECTIONAL DC-TO-AC INVERTER
(a)
(b)
Fig. 15. Dynamic response of the output voltage to the step change in reference
voltage. (a) vr steps up. (b) Steps down (5 V/dv, 5 V/dv, 1 mS/div).
output voltage when there is large disturbance in input voltage
or output current. It works for both the resistive and reactive
load. The distortion of the output voltage near the zero crossing
is minimized.
The dynamical performance of the closed-loop control
system is investigated. The stability of the system under P
control, PI control, PD control, and PID control of the output
voltage feedback loop is analyzed for both the resistive load
and inductive load. The root loci of the closed-loop control
system reveals that PD control is the best among the four
control schemes.
The computer simulation and experimental results reveal that
PD control can stabilize the closed-loop control system and the
inverter presents excellent performance.
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[4] J. Jalade, J. Marpinard, and M. Valentin, “DC/AC high power cell struc-
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[7] J. Jalade and S. Senanyake, “Reversible power cell contributes to
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Zaohong Yang (S’96–M’00) received the B.Sc.
and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1984 and
1987, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from Queen’s University, Kingston,
ON, Canada, in 1999.
From 1987 to 1994, he was an Assistant Professor,
at Hangzhou Institute of Electronics Engineering,
Hangzhou, China. From 1994 to 1998, he was
Research Assistant at Queen’s University. In June
1998, he joined Advanced Power Systems, Northern
Telecom Ltd., Ottawa, ON, Canada, as a Power Supply Designer. Since
September 1998, he has been with ASTEC Advanced Power Systems (formerly
the power division of Northern Telecom Ltd.), Ottawa, as a Power Supply
Designer. His research interests include surface-mount dc-to-dc power supply
modules in telecommunication systems, high-frequency power conversion,
power factor correction circuits, and high-power resonant converters for
induction heating.
Paresh C. Sen (M’67–SM’74–F’89) was born in
Chittagong, Bangladesh. He received the B.Sc.
(Hons.) degree in physics and the M.Sc. (Tech.)
degree in applied physics from the University of
Calcutta, India, in 1958 and 1961, respectively,
and the M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from the University of Toronto, Toronto,
ON, Canada, in 1965 and 1967, respectively.
He is currently a Professor of Electrical Engi-
neering at Queen’s University, Kingston. Ontario,
Canada. His fields of interest include power elec-
tronics and drives, modern control techniques for high-performance drive
systems, switching power supplies, and power factor correction circuits. He has
written more than 125 research papers in the general areas of power electronics
and drives and is the author of two books, Thyristor DC Drives (New York:
Wiley, 1981) and Principles of Electric Machines and Power Electronics (New
York: Wiley, 1989).
Dr. Sen has served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS AND CONTROL INSTRUMENTATION (1975–1982) and
as Chairman of the Technical Committees on Power Electronics (1979–1980)
and Energy Systems (1980–1982) of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.
At present, he is an active member of the Industrial Drives Committee and the
Industrial Power Converter Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications So-
ciety. He received a Prize Paper Award for technical excellence from the Indus-
trial Drive Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society in 1986.