AUDIO AMPLIFIER BASED ON A MONOPHASIC INVERTER

Ginart D. Antonio, Esteller R. Rosana

Universidad Simon Bolivar, Apartado Postal 89000, Caracas-Venezuela
email: aginart8usb.ve
Abstract
An audio amplifier was simulated, designed, built and
tested, based on a switching technique, by means of a
monophasic inverter (AAMI).Variable width pulses
control the monophasic inverter switching. The duration
of each pulse was established by comparing the input
(reference signal) and a sample of the amplified output
signal, the difference between both produces the e m r
signal that determines in real time the pulse width. A
lowpass filter was connected to the inverter output which
principal function was to eliminate the high frequencies
due to the inverter chopping. This amplifier can work
with any signal shape inside its bandwidth and also
corrects the non-linearities from the system. Distortions
lower than 1% can be obtained with this kind of
amplifiers. This technique leads to great advantages: 1)
High power amplifiers with high efficiency. 2) A
considerable reduction in the amplifier size.

1.-Introductiqn
Switching techniques [ I]-[4]allow driving large
powers with high efficiency. The development of more
powerful and faster electronic devices [5] allows the
application of P W techniques to new fields. The
Instantaneous Feedback techniques for P W Inverter
control define the pulse width according to the feedback
variables and to the input reference signal or pattern.
This kind of modulation [ l ] is used to the achievement
of non tuned audio amplifiers, to control the inverter.
The monophasic inverter performs the output signal
construction according to the pattern input pursuit,
controlled by an appropriate switching sequence. To
obtain an amplifier without distortion (ideal amplifier)
based on this technique, it would be required to apply an
infinite switching frequency to the PWM inverter.
The inverter output pulses must be filtered
appropriately to obtain the wished signal. For this
reason, it is necessary a lowpass filter at the output, that
removes the high frequency components due to the
inverter chopping .
When Instantaneous Feedback is used, the pulse
width determination is performed by comparison
between the generated output signal and the pattern
input signal. If the difference between the output and
input signal (the error), exceeds a tolerance value

(maximum allowable). the corresponding commutation

is made to maintain the error into an established range.
This amplifier can work with any signal shape inside its
bandwidth and also corrects the non-linearities from the
system, such as: the distortion due to the voltage drop on
the electronic switches, the lowering in the inverter
surge lines, the over voltage and oscillations originated
by the commutations and others, thanks to the use of
instantaneous feedback. In general, it is important to
consider the need of a high number of commutations to
get an amplification with a low distortion, producing a
compromise between the maximum distortion and the
highest chopping frequency allowed by the switching
devices.
The Audio Amplifier based on a Monophasic
Inverter (AAMI) offers large advantages in relation to
the conventional amplifiers that work in a linear region.
It dnves large powers with high efficiency and operates
in commutation, while the traditional audio amplifiers
are implemented with semiconductor devices working in
linear or active region in its various stages, and due to
this, require bigger sizes.

2.-AAMI StmCtuW
The AAMI basic structure is showed in figure
1. It consists of a control block, a monophasic inverter, a
lowpass filter and a speaker. As it can be observed, the
filter output is feedback to the control block.
Inmrtrr

Fig.1 AAMI Basic Structure

The inverter structure scheme and the filter
appear in figure 2. The monophasic inverter is type H,
and the filter is a first order LC

INVERTER
Fig 2 Inverter and Filter Structure

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114
Control Law
The control system is on-off and its
commutation speed is controlled by the introduction of
the error signal across a PD control and by means of a
tolerance adjusted according to the input reference
to keep the switching frequency constant and at the
maxi" allowed by the semiconductor devices.
The error signal is generated by comparison of
the system output with the input signal. A PD control
receives the error signal and its output is compared with
an e m tolerance (H). previously fixed. This comparison
determines which pair of transistors will commute.
According to the pair of fets that are conducting, a +E or
-E voltage is applied to the twinset load-filter, modeled
in figure 3 by the transfer function in the third block.

For systems with big damping factors (M)

and
switching frequencies higher than the natural resonance
frequency (W >> Wn), it is obtained from (1):

h, =

4 Wn2K D
XW

In this simplified expression. the switching

frequency is directly proportional to Kd and inversely
proportional to the tolerance. Input signals distinct of
zero will affect the oscillation frequency, and regarding
the simplifications made to obtain (2) and from (2). it
yields:

h = h,co s2(-)

w
y
o

nv4

(3)

2E

This approach was used to modify the tolerance

according to the input pattern, with the implicit purpose
of maintaining the switching frequency constant for
either operating condition.

Fig3 Control System

The chopping frequency changes during the
input signal pursuit depend of the system and of the
input reference signal, in spite of the tolerance value is
adjusted with the input signal.
The distortion is affected by: the input signal
(pattern) [ 11 [6] [7], the values of Kp, Kd and H,and the
filter structure.
Considering the limit cycle theory, for a system
constant oscillation frequency, the squared wave at the
inverter output can be expressed by the fourier
component sum that conforms it. From these harmonics
only the fundamental is considered for the analysis of the
control system. This is reasonable, regarding that the
third block in fig. 3 is a lowpass filter. From this
analysis, similar results to those proposed by Kawamura
are obtained [ 11 [6]:

where:
ho = normalized tolerance (WE) for zero input si. !I
E = inverter output voltage
6 = damping factor
Wn = natural oscillation frequency
W = switching frequency

The inverter bridge (fig. 4) was design to bear

loOV and 15Amp. It allows a possible output of 1500W.

The design utilizes loOKHz for the commutation
frequency, the highest allowed by the FETs IRF 450,
which are placed in parallel. Considering that the audio
amplifier is for low and medium frequencies, the input
signal bandwidth was fixed by means of the filter.
between 0 and 4.5 KHz. It can be noticed, that low
frequencies, conventional audio amplifiers require
higher powers, establishing important restraints in the
design.

Fig 4. Inverter
The AAMI was simulated by software to
evaluate its dynamic and static response and to select its

filter element values. Audio amplifiers have three main

frequency bands: the low (20Hz-800Hz), the medium
(800Hz-3KHz) and the high (3KHz-20KHz), and several
traditional amplifiers separate these bands with a
crossover allowing the use of independent amplifiers for
each frequency band. Here, a low frequency band
amplifier was built, but this doesn't mean that the
medium or the high band amplifiers can't be constructed.
According to the simulation tests, L and C were chosen
in 40pH and 50pf respectively, because these values
provide a satisfactory response for frequencies below

0.001
0.0008

0.0006

cn
0

0.0004

-m
iLJ

0.0002
0

8WHz.

2000

4000

6000

f(H4

An eight-ohm and 100-watt speaker was used

for the tests.
Fig. 5 Dynamic Response Time vs. Frequency
4.- Results and Discussiqg

The next tests were performed:

-Frequency response
-Dynamic Response Time
-Error vs. Frequency
Different frequency sinusoids were applied to
the AAMl to find its frequency response. A PM3350A
oscilloscope-acquisition equipment from Philips was
used to record the input and output sinusoid waves. After
these measurements, the frequency response analysis was
made over the record data, obtaining a flat response in
magnitude and a zero phase until 4600Hz. At this
frequency, the response in magnitude and phase becomes
unstable because of the AAMI control loss, the inverter
applies a squared wave to the filter, with a similar
frequency to the input reference signal and the
magnitude and phase behave similarly to the natural
response of the passive filter.
The stabilization time was estimated by means
of the AAh4I simulation software, sinusoids of different
frequencies were introduced to the AAMI simulator and
at the filter output the transient time was measured. In
this way, the dynamic response time Vs frequency was
obtained. For 8WHz or lower frequencies, figure 5
presents a very good dynamic response. The transient
Time or delay is insignificant compared with the 800Hz
period. However, for higher frequencies comprised in the
audio medium band, the transient time becomes higher
and more significant, compared to the period of the
considered frequency. This can be regarded as one of
the main limiting factors in the amplifier bandwidth. As
it can also be seen in figure 5 , the AAMI dynamic
behavior gets worse rapidly at 4600Hz. strengthening
results obtained in the frequency response. It is related
to the filter natural resonance frequency.

The error signal was obtained for each

frequency, as the difference between the input and the
output signal. Over this error signal, the mean absolute
error was calculated. Figure 6 presents the mean
absolute error vs. frequency, in this graph the error is
lower than 1% for each operation frequency in the
considered range.

g o~~
B 0.004

W
L 0.006

0.002

Fig. 6 Error vs. Frequency

From these results, it is clear the need of a
detailed research about the filter stage in the AAMI to
try to improve the distortion level.

$.-Conclusions
Experimental tests performed on the designed
amplifier leaded to distortions less than 1%. These
distortion levels didn't provide the highest fidelity, but
future studies on the amplifier filter block and
increments in the switching frequency, could lead to
amplifiers with higher fidelity, similar to that obtained
by the traditional audio techniques.

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116
Synchronization Technique for Static Delta-Modulated
IEEE Transactions on Industrial
Electronics, November 1988. vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 502507.
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PWM Invaten",

The authors wish to acknowledge the technical

assistance of Eng. Carlos Rodriguez and G i l h
Angulo in the assembly and measurements of this
amplifier.

[l] A. Kawamura and R. Hoft, "Instantaneous Feedback

Controlled PWM Inverter with Adaptive Hysteresis",
IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, July 1984,
vol. IA-20, NO.4, pp. 769-775.
[2] A. Kawamura, R. Chuarayapratip and T. Haneyoshi,
"Deadbeat Control of PWM Inverter with modified Pulse
Patterns for Unintermptible Power Supply", IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics", May 1988, vol.
35, NO. 2, pp. 295-300.
[3] C. Christiansen. M. Valla and C. Rivetta, "A