International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics

Volume 119 No. 7 2018, 407-429

ISSN: 1311-8080 (printed version); ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)
url: http://www.ijpam.eu
Special Issue
ijpam.eu

BOOST UP OF RANDOM PULSE WIDTH

MODULATION OVER SINUSOIDAL PULSE
WIDTH MODULATION FOR THREE PHASE
VOLTAGE SOURCE INVERTER
Sreeja P1 P.Muthukumar2 L.Padmasuresh3
1
Research scholar, Noorul Islam University, Chennai-600 025, India
2
Associate Professor, Dept of EEE, AMET University, Chennai,Tamilnadu-603772, India
3
Professor, Dept of EEE, Baselios Mathew II College of Engineering, Sasthamkotta, Kerala
690521,India
1
sreejathambi0@gmail.com, 2muthukumar.p@ametuniv.ac.in , 3suresh_lps@yahoo.co.in

Abstract
One of the inexpensive concepts in modern power electronics is the principle of random
pulse width modulation (RPWM) for control of semiconductor based power converters,
accelerated by the steadily increasing concern with or regulations regarding emissions of
acoustic noise, vibrations and electric fields. Novel co-simulation of random pulse width
modulation generation for three phase inverter drive by using Modelsim6.3f and Matlab 7.10,
in order to disperse the acoustic noise spectra of an induction motor drive is presented. This
scheme is randomized by selecting the triangle arbitrarily among the two triangles. The
arbitration selection is based 8 bit linear feedback shift register. The least bit of the register
output decide the winning triangle which is to compare with sine reference wave to generate
pulses. The results of co-simulation are presented for both RPWM and SPWM in terms of
Fundamental, Total Harmonic Distortion(THD), Harmonic Spread Factor(HSF). In addition,
Xilinx XC3S500E FPGA device synthesis results are presented. The experimental validation
of SPWM and RPWM are presented at the end and compared.
Keywords: Pulse width modulation, Random pulse width modulation, Total harmonic
distortion, Field programmable gate array, Harmonic spread factor

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter fed induction motors have
been widely applied as motor drives in industry[1]. Owing to the deterministic frequency
PWM switching of the inverters, the motors generate an unpleasant acoustic switching noise

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and a mechanical vibration. To solve this problem, Random PWM [2]–[6] has attracted
attention from 1987 . The significant feature of an inverter adopting random PWM is that its
output harmonic spectra are dispersed and distributed continuously. Hence, the acoustic noise
and mechanical vibration can be greatly reduced. Generally, the existing random PWM can
be classified into three categories :

1) random carrier frequency PWM scheme ; 2) random switching scheme ; and 3) random
pulse position PWM scheme .

In this paper presents the digital implementation of Sinusoidal pulse width modulation
generation and random carrier pulse width modulation generation. The simulated
environment for the proposed scheme having the co-simulation feature i.e. Random pulses is
generated by using modelsim6.3f and MATLAB 7.10 is used for analysis.

In this paper comprising of seven sections. Section 2 describes about the types of pulse
width modulation. Section 3 explains the digital implementation of SPWM, Section 4
describes the proposed scheme implementation in digital processor. Section 5 shows the
simulated environment and performance parameters. Section 6 deals with the simulation
results and its comparison. Section 6 brings out the conclusion.

2. PULSE WIDTH MODULATION

Because of advances in solid state high power devices and processors, switching power
converters are used in more and more modern induction motor drives to convert and deliver
the required energy to the motor. This energy is controlled by Pulse Width Modulated
(PWM) signals applied to the gates of the power semiconductors. PWM signals are pulse
trains with variable pulse width and fixed frequency. There is one pulse of fixed magnitude
in every PWM period. However, the duration(width) of the pulses changes from pulse to
pulse according to a modulating reference signal. When a PWM signal is applied to the gate
or base of a power transistor, it cause the “ON” and “OFF” intervals of the transistor to
change from one PWM period to another PWM period according to the same modulating
reference signal. The frequency of a PWM signal must be much higher than that of the
modulating reference signal, the fundamental frequency, such that the available energy
delivered to the motor and its load depends mostly on the modulating signal.

The advantages of PWM based switching power converter are

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 No temperature variation-and ageing-caused degradation in linearity or drifting,

 Compatible with modern digital controllers (VLSI/FPGA[7][10] and advanced
processors)
 Easy to implement and control

The basic PWM techniques are:

1. Single Pulse Width Modulation

2. Multi Pulse Width Modulation

3. Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM )

But when the technology progresses some advanced modulation techniques is also
proposed: 1. Space vector Modulation (SVPWM )[3] 2. Random PWM[4][6]

2.1 PRINCIPLE AND OPERATION OF SINUSOIDAL PULSE WIDTH

MODULATION FOR THREE PHASE INVERTER

Among all PWM schemes, SPWM is one of the most popular and simple methods utilized in
power inverter and motor control drives. Its main features can be summarized as sine-triangle
wave comparison. As shown in Figure 1, a sine wave (reference modulated wave) is
compared with a triangle wave (high frequency carrier wave) and when the instantaneous
value of the triangle wave is less than that of the sine wave, the PWM output signal is in high
level („1‟). Otherwise it goes into the low level („0‟). The switching is produced at every
moment the sine wave meet with the triangle wave[4]-[6]. Thus the different meeting
positions result in variable duty cycle of the output waveform.

Figure 1. SPWM waveform generation

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3. DIGITAL IMPLEMENTATION OF SINUSOIDAL PULSE WIDTH

MODULATION GENERATION

In terms of the basic principle of SPWM illustrated in Figure 1, it‟s easy to implement using
analog circuit (Figure 2). Sine reference and triangle carrier waves are respectively generated
by specially designed circuits and then fed to the properly selected comparator which can
output the desired SPWM signal. But the control precision and reliability of this scheme are
always not so satisfying due to the complicated analog circuit structure as well as the
instability of the parameters of all analog devices.

Figure 2. Analog scheme for SPWM generation

With the development of the digital VLSI, nowadays the software implementation for SPWM
is completely adopted to realize high accuracy control. In Figure 3.shows a typical hardware
of the SPWM generation circuit through the digital logic circuits combination.

In the digital implementation of SPWM generation comprises of 3 major section.

1.Sinusoidal reference generation, 2. Triangle carrier generation section, 3.Comparison and
Dead time insertion. In each of the above module comprises of derived clock generation
module from the Master board clock.

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Figure 3. Typical Sinusoidal pulse width modulation generator using digital logic circuits

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3.1 REFERENCE SINE WAVE GENERATION

In the 50 Hz Sine Reference generation module only one quarter (0 to 90o) sine sample values
has been used to generate the four quadrant which will generate the bipolar reference
wave.50 sine samples has been used in one quarter cycle,
So each sampling rate is 90o/50 = 1.8o. shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Sampling of sine reference

This sine samples multiplied with chosen modulation index, then will get the reference sine
wave.
Sampling period calculation
200 sampling period=20 milliseconds for 50 Hz.
1 sample period=20 milliseconds/200 =100 µseconds.
So that, 10 kHz sampling frequency has been used to sample the data.

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3.2 10 KHZ CLOCK GENERATION

In the FPGA design, synchronous reset and 50 MHz board clock has been used. Figure.5.
shows the flowchart to generate the 10 kHz clock. This clock has been used to sample sine
data from look up table.

Figure 5 10kHz Clock Generation

3.3 TRIANGLE CARRIER WAVE GENERATION

In Figure 3. shows the triangle carrier wave generation. Up down Counter based VHDL
program has been used for carrier wave generation. Switching frequency is equal to the
carrier frequency in SPWM. 3 kHz switching frequency has been selected for this case.
Modulation index means it is the ratio of amplitude of the modulating wave to the amplitude

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of the Triangle wave. Positive peak of carrier wave is Vc=Vm in positive half cycle and Vc=-
Vm for negative peak value.

3.4 COMPARISON AND DEAD TIME INSERTION

Three comparator and three not gates has been used to generate the 6 pulses. As per SPWM
approach , if modulating signal higher the triangle signal , then the pulse will be high
otherwise low. The upper and lower devices of each phase leg cannot be gated on
simultaneously either by purpose or by EMI noise. Otherwise, a shoot through would occur
and destroy the devices. The shoot through problem due to electromagnetic interference
(EMI) noise misgating on is a major killer to the inverter‟s reliability. Dead time to block
both upper and lower devices has to be provided in the VSI. Here, 2.5 micro seconds has
been used as a dead time.

4. RANDOM PULSE WIDTH MODULATION

A random carrier is acquired by randomly composing two triangular carriers, each of the
same fixed frequency, but of opposite phase. The random selection of two carriers is decided
by “low” or “high” states of the random binary sequence (RBS) as listed in table 1.

Table 1.Truth table of the multiplexer

RBS Status Mux Output

0 C

1 C bar

In Figure 6 shows that the random bit generation methodology. Two fixed frequency
triangle generated and fed to the 2:1 multiplexer. Selection bit of multiplexer is based on the
8 bit linear feedback shift register. The output of the shift register has been changed every
switching cycle. In this case 3 kHz have taken as a switching frequency. The concept diagram
is shown in Figure 7.

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.
Figure 6. Random bit generation

Figure 7. RPWM Generation

In addition to the SPWM generation, random bit generation and inverted triangle generation
are added for the digital implementation of the RPWM shown in Figure 8. The initial value
of the triangle carrier is zero and the initial value of the inverted triangle carrier is the peak of
the triangle. This is the only difference between the two triangles. Three xor gates and linear
feedback shift register has been used to generate the random bit. . The interpretation selection
of the two triangles is based on the output of the xor gate output which is normally call it as a
pseudo random binary sequence(PRBS) bit.

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Figure 8. Typical random pulse width modulation generator

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5. SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT

In the developed co-simulation is time efficient method to describe mixed simulation.

Two simulators and a synthesizer have been used to build this work. ModelsimSE 6.3f is
used for digital design simulation. Matlab / Simulink tool incorporated three-phase inverter
design modeling, analysis tool (FFT-Powergui) and an interface tool [8]. The functionality
verification done by RTL based test bench also incorporated in the Modelsim-VHDL-design.
50MHz system clock has been used for all VHDL design modules. Active high reset is used
for system design deactivation. Workspace is the area to stock up the data between two
simulators. HDL Co-simulation is a powerful tool, used as interface between design and
analysis environments shown in Figure.9. The scope of the real time implementation is
analyzed by using Xilinx project navigator tool incorporated synthesis behavior analysis.

MATLAB 7.10.0(R2010a)

Modelsim6.3f- W
O Three
HDL Simulator R phase
K Inverter
VHDL - Digital Design S
for Proposed Pulse P
generation A
C
Xilinx Synthesis-Report E Analysis
SPEED/AREA/POWER

Figure 9. Co-simulation Environment

The evaluation chart derived from voltage harmonic spectrum has been given for various
modulation index (Ma) ranges from 0.2 to 1.0 shown in table 3. Modulation index is the ratio
Xilinx Synthesis-Report
of the peaks of modulating wave and carrier wave. The table 4 gives the voltage harmonic
SPEED/AREA/POWER
spectrum evaluation chart for dominating harmonic order (D-H-O) and its amplitude value
for Ma=0.8. The diagram clearly depicts that peak amplitude of the dominating harmonic is
very less when compared with the conventional methods. Harmonic spread factor (HSF) is
the performance evaluation indicators to investigate the acoustic noise power of the PWM
based induction motors[4][6][9][10]. The concept of statistical deviation is employed for HSF

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calculation for evaluating the harmonic spread effect of the random PWM. The HSF can be
defined as follows

(1)

(2)

Where,„Hj‟ is amplitude of jth harmonics, „H0‟ is average value of all „N-1‟ harmonics.
The HSF quantifies the harmonic spectra spread effect of random PWM scheme and it should
be small. For an ideally flat spectrum of white noise, the HSF would be zero (Young-cheol
Lim et al 2010). The performance parameters (Fundamental voltage, THD and HSF) are
carried out by using FFT window in matlab with one cycle. The THD is defined as the ratio
of harmonic amplitude to the fundamental amplitude. The distortion of voltage/current
waveforms can be quantified using total harmonic distortion (THD) and give as

V 2 2 rms   V 23 rms   ...  V 2 n rms 

% THD 
V 21 rms 
(3)

Where, V1 is the rms value of fundamental component of the output voltage and V2, V3,...
are the rms values of second, third,... harmonics.

6. DISCUSSION ON SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL

RESULTS

Figure.10 and Figure.11 shows the Sine reference wave generation output(fm=50 Hz)
and random Carrier generation output(Fs=3 kHz). In Figure 12. depicts the all the
switching pulses generation with corresponding carrier and reference wave.

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Figure 10. Sinusoidal Reference Generation using Modelsim 6.3f

Figure. 11. Carrier Generation with Random bit using Modelsim 6.3f

Figure. 12. Pulse Generation of RPWM with Random bit using Modelsim 6.3f

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Modulation Index ma=0.2

SPWM RPWM

Modulation Index ma=0.4

Figure 13. Spectrum of SPWM and RPWM for Modulation index ma=0.2 and 0.4

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Modulation Index ma=0.6

SPWM RPWM
Modulation Index ma=0.8

Figure.14. Spectrum of SPWM and RPWM for Modulation index ma=0.2 and 0.4

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SPWM

RPWM

Figure 15. Spectrum of SPWM and RPWM for Modulation index ma=1.0

Random bit also generated every 3 kHz, which is also shown in Figure.11 and Figure.12.

1 In the performance comparison shown in table 2, some of the points can be arrived.
2 In the Fundamental voltage point of view there is no much degradation in the RPWM
compare with counterpart SPWM.

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Table 2. Performance Comparison for various modulation Indexes

PWM Techniques Two

Triangle
SPWM
Performance RPWM
Ma
Parameters
Fundamental 37.76 36
% THD 253 258
0.2 HSF 3.57 3.3
Dominating Voltage
58,62,119,121,239,240 119,121,239,360
Harmonics
Fundamental 75.6 74
% THD 163 164
0.4 HSF 4.79 4.46
Dominating voltage 58,62,119, 121 ,178,
119,121,239,120
Harmonics 239
Fundamental 113 112
% THD 119 123
0.6 HSF 5.38 4.78
Dominating voltage 58,62,119, 121,177,
119,121,120,359
Harmonics 181
Fundamental 150.3 151
% THD 93.6 93
0.8 HSF 5.49 4.56
Dominating voltage
58,62,119,121 119,121,239,120
Harmonics
Fundamental 188.6 189
% THD 80.02 75.02
1 HSF 8.63 3.83
Dominating voltage
58,62,119,121 119,121,77,235
Harmonics

3 In the case of conventional SPWM shown in the Figure 13 to Figure 15 the cluster of
harmonic peak appears at 3 kHz and its multiples. But, as in the case of random
triangle PWM shown in the Figure 7 , the cluster of harmonics are considerably
reduced at the switching frequency and its odd multiples of 3 i.e. 3, 9 , 15 , 21 etc.
4 Harmonic spread factor is the acoustic noise performance predictor shows the clear
dominations of the RPWM. The value of HSF is less though out the modulation index
range from 0.2 to 1.0. where are its range is high and large variation in the SPWM.
5 It is observed that this RPWM will be useful for high speed application where the
acoustic noise is major impact.

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6 In this RPWM digital implementation, 13 % of look up tables are utilized. 2 DSP

based 18x18 multipliers are used for development of carrier and reference waves. A
50 MHz board clock has been used for sequential digital circuit design.

Figure 16. Experimental setup

150 V
Magnitude in Voltage ->

100 V

50 V

0-500 order
Figure 17. Harmonic spectrum of SPWM for ma=0.8

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150 V
Magnitude in Voltage ->

100 V

50 V

0-500 order

Figure 18. Harmonic spectrum of RPWM for ma=0.8

The methods have been tested with the designed setup consisting of a FPGA based PWM
inverter circuit. It contains a FPGA board, inverter module with driver circuits, an
autotransformer and an induction motor drive. Yokogawa Digital Storage oscilloscope will be
used for all the inverter output measurements. The experimental setup for control of an
induction motor is shown in Figure 16. and the parameters required for the setup is listed in
the Table 3. The inverter is fed with a DC voltage of 220 V with the help of an
autotransformer and a rectifier. As explained in previous that the conventional and proposed
method PWM signals have been generated by FPGA. A dead time of 2.9µ seconds is
introduced between the switches of the same inverter leg in order to ensure smooth transition
of the switching states of the inverter. Both the SPWM and RPWM schemes test were carried
out with the fundamental frequency of the inverter voltage was set at 50 Hz. All the hardware
results are analysed from modulation index ranges from 0.2 to 1.0.

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Table 3. Parameters of the system used in the hardware setup

Inverter 3Φ Two level Inverter

Switching Device IGBT
Input Voltage 220 Volt
Load 3 Φ Induction Motor
Modulation Index 0.8
Dead Time 2.9 µs
Control Open loop
Filter No

Table 4. Simulation and Experimental Result comparison

Technique SPWM

Simulation Results Hardware results

Output Output
ma Voltage THD % HSF Voltage THD % HSF

0.2 38.04 253.47 3.57 36.5 60.67 3.545

0.4 76.91 162.18 4.79 74.6 45.81 4.765

0.6 113.90 121.54 5.38 112.5 30.21 5.355

0.8 153.20 90.43 5.49 151.2 24.01 5.465

1.0 190.19 69.09 4.49 186.6 18.66 4.465

In SPWM, When the frequency modulation index mf is an integer, the modulation scheme is
known as synchronous PWM and is more sui for implementation in a FPGA digital
processor. If mf is ≥9 and it is multiple of three, all the harmonics in line voltage with the
order lower than mf-2 are eliminated. In SPWM, the harmonics are centred on mf and its
multiples. i.e harmonics are presented mf,mf±2,2mf±2,3mf±2…… as shown in Figure 17.
The experimental results revealed that the output harmonics are presented at the centred
around the 3 kHz, 6 kHz, 9 kHz, 12 kHz, 15 kHz and 18 kHz. In the harmonic spectrum each

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line shows the 50 Hz. The HSF performance parameter of SPWM is giving the low value of
HSF at 0.2 ma, whereas the highest value occurred at modulation index 0.8. So, this is
compassionate of band of HSF between 3.5 to 5.5.

Table 5. Simulation and Experimental Result comparison

Technique RPWM
Simulation Results Hardware results
Output Output
ma Voltage THD % HSF Voltage THD % HSF

0.2 36 258 3.3 40.2 61 3.275

0.4 74 164 4.46 78.3 47 4.435
0.6 112 123 4.78 120.5 32 4.755
0.8 151 93 4.56 163.04 22 4.535
1.0 189 70.18 3.83 185 17.2 3.805

In the Two triangle RPWM method, the harmonics are presented at 2mf±2, 4mf±2…. i.e the
dominating harmonics are present at 6 kHz and 12 kHz and 18 kHz. The counterpart SPWM
is having the harmonics fashioned at 3 kHz and 9 kHz and 15 kHz are suppressed in RPWM
which is shown in Figure 18. In the Fundamental and THD point of view there is no much
difference in the RPWM compare SPWM. But, in the HSF, is somewhat degraded compare
SPWM, which makes the band between 3.27 to 4.75 as shown in Table 5.

7. CONCLUSION

The digital implementation of the both sinusoidal pulse width modulation and random pulse
width modulation are described. The detailed SPWM and two triangle RPWM generation of
FPGA is spoken. The spectral analysis of the above methods is carefully examined in
MATLAB environment. The validity of the simulated spectral analysis is examined through
experimentation. Comparisons showed an excellent equivalency between simulation and
actually measured spectra. At the end of this analysis, it is to conclude that two triangle
random pulse width modulation outperforms.

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