Digital Design Articles from the Power Electronics Technology Conference
For more information on the papers listed here see the conference proceedings referenced or contact the Editor. At a later date, these papers will be posted at this site.”
Power Electronics Technology 2007 Conference:
The Power Electronics Technology conference, held in Dallas, Texas from October 30 – November 1, 2007, featured the following papers on digital power control in the PET16 session.
“Unique Trades for Unique Products in Digital Power,” by David Caldwell, Flextek Electronics.
“Real-time Efficiency Optimization: Beyond FET Silicon,” by Deepak Savadatti, Primarion.
“Multi-phase & Multi-output DC/DC Power Supplies Using Software Programmable Digital Controllers,” by David Figoli, Texas Instruments.
“Emerging Challenges in Designing Power Converters with Digital Signal Controllers,” by Charlie Wu, Freescale Semiconductor.
Power Electronics Technology 2006 Conference:
The Power Electronics Technology conference, held in Long Beach, Calif. from October 24 – 26, 2006, featured the following papers on digital power control in the PET01 session.
“True Digital Solutions Simplify Full Featured Cost Effective Buck Converters”, by Deepak Savadatti, Primarion.
“CLOZD Loop Technology Advances Digital Power Control”, by David Caldwell, Flextek Electronics.
“Design and Applications of Universal Power Management Mixed-Signal SoC Controller (UMPC) Platform”, by Dr. Shmuel Ben-Yaakov, Systel Development & Industries.
“Implementing High Speed Isolation Barriers”, by Keith Coffey, Silicon Laboratories.
Power Electronics Technology 2005 Conference:
Seminar PES 04: “Compensating Digital PWM Control Loops” by Philip McKenzie, Zilker Labs.
Digital pulse width modulators (PWMs) are emerging in commercially viable power supply control ICs. Although digital PWMs provide many benefits in terms of flexibility and power system management, they also present some challenges to power supply designers not familiar with digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. This difficulty is evident when compensating the power supply control loop. This paper will show the parallels between the analog control loop and the digital control loop. It will be shown that each block in a digital control loop can be represented by a continuous “s” domain transfer function, and thus can be modeled or simulated with commonly available programs such as MathCAD or PSPICE. Using a minimum of DSP theory a set of equations are derived which allow the designer to calculate digital filter settings (coefficients) with a calculator. This paper will show a worked example with test results from a power supply controlled by a digital PWM.
Seminar PES 08: “Implementation of a Digitally-Controlled, Isolated DC/DC Converter with PMBus” by Don Alfano, Silicon Labs.
This paper describes a highly versatile, cost-effective digital voltage-mode PWM controller IC. It has a novel architecture which uses programmable signal processors to execute bandwidth-intensive control algorithms under the supervision of an integrated MCU. As such, the controller offers fast response, programmability, and cost effectiveness, which makes it usable in a wide range of applications. PWM switching waveforms, loop compensation, fault recovery, start-up and steady state behavior are all software-programmable and can be modified by the MCU during operation. It is applicable in many isolated and nonisolated SMPS topologies. This paper provides a solution to the problem of designing a complete digital power supply with proof that the solution will work.
“Digital Signal Controller Based Automatic Transfer Switch” by Venkat Anant, Senior Staff Applications Engineer, Freescale Semiconductor. Presented in Session PET 02 on Emerging Technologies at Power Electronics Technology 2005 Conference, Baltimore, MD, October 25-27, 2005.
“What are the Power Communications Buses and Do We Always Need Them?” by Lou Pechi, Power-One. Presented in Session PET 04 Power Supply Design and Power Management at Power Electronics Technology 2005 Conference, Baltimore, MD, October 25-27, 2005.
“Digitally Controlled Power Supply Design Method” by Brad Suppanz, Sr. Application Engineer, Power-One. Presented in Session PET 08 Innovative New Products at Power Electronics Technology 2005 Conference, Baltimore, MD, October 25-27, 2005.
“Flexible Power Converter and Process Controller” by David Caldwell, Flextek Electronics. Presented in Session PET 08 Innovative New Products at Power Electronics Technology 2005 Conference, Baltimore, MD, October 25-27, 2005.
“Managing the Power Chain in Portable Consumer Equipment” by Thomas DeLurio, Director, Applications; George Hall, Staff Applications Engineer; Josh Jones, Applications Engineer; Summit Microelectronics. Presented in Session PET 10 Battery and Portable Power Management at Power Electronics Technology 2005 Conference, Baltimore, MD, October 25-27, 2005.
Power Electronics Technology 2004 Conference:
“New Cost Effective Approach to Digital Power Management” by Brian Wong, Executive VP, Marketing and Business Development, Primarion. Presented in Session PET 13 on Control Method at Power Electronics Technology 2004 Conference, Navy Pier, Chicago, November 16-18, 2004.
This paper discusses Primarion’s PX3535 digital controller and PX3520 integrated power stage
“An Innovative Digital Controller for VRM Application with Negligible Quantization Effects” by Christian Porta, STMicroelectronics, Italy. Presented in Session PET 13 on Control Method at Power Electronics Technology 2004 Conference, Navy Pier, Chicago, November 16-18, 2004.
“Digital Control Design and Implementation of a DSP-based High-Frequency DC-DC Switching Power Converter” by Shamim Choudhury, Texas Instruments. Presented in Session PET 15 on Automotive/Transportation Power Design at Power Electronics Technology 2004 Conference, Navy Pier, Chicago, November 16-18, 2004.
Power Electronics Technology 2003 Conference:
“IBA Spawns New DC/DC Products, Presents New Opportunities to DC/DC Converter Assemblers” by Chuck Sabolis, Director of Marketing, Datel. Presented at Power Electronics Technology 2003 Conference, Long Beach, Calif., November 4-6, 2003. Paper appears on pages 172-176 of conference proceedings.
This paper discusses the use of microcontrollers in board-mounted dc-dc converter modules. Sabolis writes, “A new generation of smart DC/DC converters promises to address the part number explosion. Based on embedded microcontrollers, these devices will set their own output voltage and optimize their performance based on whatever socket they are in. The promise of ‘one-size-fits-all’ convenience appeals to both manufacturers , who will have fewer products to design/assemble/stock, and users who will have fewer products to evaluate/purchase/stock. A future of totally configurable, low-cost POLs communicating via the ICI bus may be on the horizon.”
“FPGA based control loops for THD minimization and precise RMS control in sinewave inverters for UPS and emergency power supplies” by Nihal Kularatna, Abbas Bigdeli, and Peter K.F. Tsang, Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Presented at Power Electronics Technology 2003 Conference, Long Beach, Calif., November 4-6, 2003. Paper appears on pages 222-226 of conference proceedings.
This paper discusses how “low cost sinewave output inverters can be digitally controlled either by using DSP or FPGA subsystem based control loops.”
“DSP Implementation of an Average Current Mode Controlled Power Factor Correction Converter” by Shamim Choudhury, Texas Instruments. Presented at Power Electronics Technology 2003 Conference, Long Beach, Calif., November 4-6, 2003. Paper appears on pages 366-370 of conference proceedings.
Power Electronics Technology 2002 Conference:
“Field Programmable Gate Arrays for Control Loop of Sine Wave Inverters” by Nihal Kularatna and Abbas Bigdeli, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Power Electronics Technology 2002 Conference, Rosemont, Ill., October 29-31, 2002. Paper appears on pages 389-393 of proceedings.
Power Electronics Technology 2000 Conference:
“DSP Based Control Algorithms for Harmonic & RMS Output Control in Sinewave Inverters” by D.I.M. de Silva, University of Moratuwa; A D V N Kularatna, L.N. Rathnayake, Arthur C. Clarke Institute, Sri Lanka. Presented in Poster Session #2 at Power Electronics Technology 2000 Conference, Boston, Mass., October 3-5, 2000. Paper appears on pages 416-423 of proceedings.
“DSP Control of a Single-Stage DC-UPS with Power Factor Correction” by Ya-Tsung Fung and Ying-Yu Tzou, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Presented in Poster Session #2 at Power Electronics Technology 2000 Conference, Boston, Mass., October 3-5, 2000. Paper appears on pages 424-431 of proceedings.