519

CONVERSION OF A SINGLE-BIT SIGNAL INTO A PWM SIGNAL

Weibo Li*, Yuichiro Orino*, Minoru Kuribayashi Kurosawa* and Takashi Katagiri**

*Tokyo Institute of Technology, Department of Advanced Applied Electronics,

G2-32, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8502, Japan
**Sutekina Inc., 14-200 Akaho, Komagane, Nagano, Japan

ABSTRACT 1-bit + Hysteresis PWM

Integrator
Signal - Comparator Signal
A novel Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal
generation technique is proposed. The generator
converts a single-bit digital signal into a PWM signal
Delay
without a ramping waveform generator. The proposed
PWM signal generators are based on the concept of
Delta-Sigma (
 ) modulation. A comparator with Fig. 1. 1st-order PWM signal generator.
hysteresis is used instead of a quantizer in the

modulator. The switching frequency of the PWM signal
decreased with increase of the hysteresis width. The Out Out
noise-shaped output is obtained and a high Signal to 1 1
Noise Ratio (SNR) is achieved.
In this paper, a 1st-order PWM signal generator is -H H
presented. In order to obtain a much higher precision 0 In 0 In
PWM signal, a 2nd-order PWM signal generator
is discussed. But the 2nd-order PWM is instable. -1 -1
Hence, a PI compensation is applied to stabilize the
modulator. A better PWM signal generator with (a) (b)
PI compensation is presented. From the improved
generator, a low distortion PWM signal was generated, Fig. 2. (a). 1-bit quantizer ; (b). Hysteresis window
and the SNR of output signal is increased about 20 dB
compared to the 1st-order PWM signal generator.
converts a PCM signal into a PWM signal. The Equibit
1. INTRODUCTION is used as a basis for the construction of a filter of the
Hammerstein type. Like preceding conventional PWM
At present, single-bit digital signal which generated


signal generator, the Equibit modulator uses triangle
by Delta-Sigma ( ) modulators is getting more wave as reference signal to control the switching
popular in many fields of electronics because of high frequency of PWM signal, also.
precision and simple circuit construction, including In this paper, a novel digital PWM signal generator
control systems [1],[2]. However, the single-bit signal is proposed. It dispenses with the need of ramping
is impossible to drive actuators such as brushless DC signal generator, by introducing a parameter ”H” to
motors directly, due to the high sampling frequency control the switching frequency of PWM waveform.
of the single-bit signal higher than 1 MHz. Usually, The proposed PWM signal generators are based on
we drive a brushless DC motor and, nowadays, a
loud speaker using a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
the concept of the

modulation. The noise-shaped
output is obtained and a high Signal to Noise Ratio
driver whose carrier frequency is around ten to several (SNR) is achieved.
hundreds kHz. Hence, it is necessary to convert the
single-bit signal to PWM signal with simple circuit
without reduction of the signal quality. 2. GENERATION OF THE PWM SIGNAL
Conventional PWM signal generators compare a
input signal with a ramping signal to produce the PWM 2.1. 1st-order PWM Signal Generator
waveform. This process requires an unwanted circuit The 1st-order PWM signal generator circuit, as
to generate the ramping signal like sawtooth or triangle illustrated in Fig.1, basically consists of integrator,
wave to obtain PWM signal. Even though in a case comparator block, and negative feedback loop path.
of class D power amplifier getting popular in audio It is similar to a 1st-order

modulator in structure.
equipment, the ramping signal is used. For example, The PWM signal generator replaces the 1-bit quantizer,
Equibit technology [3] describes a modulator that as shown in Fig.2 (a), in the 1st-order

modulator
with hysteresis circuit, as shown in Fig.2 (b). By
­
0-7803-8560-8/04/$20.00 c 2004IEEE changing width of the hysteresis window in Fig.2
 (a). Single bit Signal (Input) (a). Input of the Camparator
+1 520
In(+) In(0) In(-)
0 H

Value
0
-1
-H
Amplitude

(b). PWM Signal (Output)

+1 (b). Output of the Camparator
0 +1
0
-1 -1
(b-1)
0 20 40 60 80 100
one period

Amplitude
(c). Input of Camparator (Output of Intergrator) +1
0
H -1
(b-2)
Value

0 +1
0
-1
-H
0 20 40 60 80 100
0 20 40 60 80 100 (b-3)
Time (Sample)
Time (Smaple)

Fig. 3. Conversion of a Single-bit signal into a PWM Fig. 4. Modulation of the duty ratio.
signal.

slowly falls. As a result, the duty ratio depends on the

(b), the period of PWM signal can be changed. A
instantaneous input signal.
parameter ”H” is defined as half of hysteresis width.
The similar concept found in [4]. Nevertheless, it Figure 5 shows the result of a simulation with a
implemented as a continuous time circuit. 1kHz sinusoidal input signal. The sampling frequency
was set at 12.5 MHz, and maximal value of the
The operational schema of the 1st-order PWM
switching frequency of single-bit signal was 6.25
signal generator is illustrated in Fig.3. Figure 3
(a) shows a single-bit signal generated from a
 MHz. The switching frequency of the PWM signal, the
carrier frequency of PWM, was around from 300 kHz
modulator with a DC 0 input. The single-bit signal is
to 350 kHz by tuning the value of ”H” to 10. In the
a discrete signal which has only two states of ”1” and
figure, the total harmonic distortion (THD) measured
”-1” as well as PWM signal. If the output of the PWM
harmonics of 2nd through 10th order, although the
signal generator is ”-1”, because of negative feedback
harmonics can hardly be observed. The SNR measured
loop path in Fig.1, the value of the output from the
within 20 kHz as bandwidth. Fig.5 shows that the
integrator will be rising as shown in Fig.3 (c). The
value will keep uptrend as a whole until it exceeds the
distribution of spectrum is like that of modulation,

value of the ”H”, although it will stop rising sometimes
because of ”-1” input as single-bit signal. During this 0
process, the output of the generator will be ”-1”. While switching frequencies
-7.96 dB
the value becomes larger than ”H”, the value will start -20

to fall, and then the output of PWM signal generator -40

Magnitude [dBFS]

will be ”+1”. As the same processing time after time,

-60
the PWM signal will be generated as shown in Fig.3
3rd harmonic
(b). -80 (-96.4 dB)

Figure 4 shows the modulation of the duty ratio

-100
of PWM signal which is generated from Fig.1. In
Fig.4 (a), In(0) means a value of the integrator in the -120
1st-order PWM signal generator, and the input of a

modulator is DC 0. When the input of a

modulator
-140 Cut Off Frequency SNR = 51.9 dB
(20kHz) THD = 0.0232%
is DC plus, the value of the integrator is shown in -160
10 100 1k 10k 100k 1M 10M
In(+). On the contrary, In(-) correspond to DC minus Frequency [Hz]
input. As shown in Fig.4 (b-2), corresponding to
In(0) in Fig.4 (a), the value of the integrator rises and Fig. 5. Spectrum of the Output of the 1st-order PWM
falls at same speed. This results in the duty ratio of signal generator.
50%. In the case of In(+), the value rapidly rises and
 1-bit + + Hysteresis PWM
Integrator Integrator
Signal - - Comparator Signal
Delay
Fig. 6. 2nd-order PWM signal generator.
Input Pulse
0.4
Value
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 544.6 545.0
Time (Sample)
Output Pulse
1
Value
0 signal generator with PI compensation is stable when
-1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 544.6 545.0
Time (Sample)
Fig. 7. Instability of the 2nd-order PWM signal
generator.
the noise is shaped away from the low frequency band.
It means the noise-shaped output is achieved. The
switching frequencies of the PWM signal are found
from 300 kHz to 350 kHz. It shows that the PWM
signal is able to drive actuators. As a result, a PWM
signal with low switching frequency was converted
from a single-bit signal with high sampling frequency
successfully.
2.2. 2nd-order PWM Signal Generator
Figure 6 shows the model of the PWM signal generator
with 2nd-order

modulation principle. However, as
shown in Fig.7, along with the simulation time steadily
increases, the width of pulses were broadened. It
means that the generator is instable. The figure shows
the result of simulation with sampling frequency of
12.5 MHz. The originating input signal is pulse signal
with amplitude of 0.4 and ”H” was set to 10. Explained
specially, the period of input pulse signal is random
but the width of pulses are invariable. As explanation,
as shown in Fig.6, it has twice integral operations the
input to the circuit fed to the comparator. And the
integral operations result in the phase margin reduced.
In addition, the comparator reduces the phase margin
too. Therefore, the system became unstable.
2.3. PWM Signal Generator With
Compensation
In order to stabilize the 2nd-order PWM signal
generator, a PI (Proportional-Integral) compensation
method is proposed. As illustrated in Fig.8, the first
integrator, which shown in Fig.6, is replaced with a
PI compensator. By adjusting the Kp which is the
proportional coefficient and Ti which is the integral
coefficient, gain crossover frequency can be decreased
1st-order PWM
PI compensation
521 waveform generator
1-bit Kp Hysteresis PWM
Signal Signal
Gain 1/Z Comparator
1/Z
Ki 1/Z
1/Ti
1/Z
Fig. 8. PWM signal generator with PI compensation.
545.4
5
x 10
and phase margin can be increased. In other words,
the system will be stable by adjusting the Kp and Ti.
In fact, according to results of simulation, the PWM
Kp was 0.1, Ti was 0.5.
545.4
5
x 10
3. PERFORMANCE
The performance of the PWM signal generator with
PI compensation will be discussed. Figure 9 11 are
the results of simulation with a PWM signal generator
model shown in Fig.8. The input signal of a

modulator was a 1 kHz sinusoid with amplitude of 0.4.
”H” was set to 10, Kp was set to 0.1, Ti was 0.5.
Figure 9 shows a linear relation between the periods
of PWM signal and hysteresis widths. In the figure,
”the most frequent Switching Period” indicates the
number of times which appears are most in all
switching periods that generated from Fig.8 with same
hysteresis width. It is called the main switching period
in here. If a value of main switching period and ”H” are
known, the value of ”H” can be estimated according
to the requested switching period. Hence, a switching
frequency of PWM signal can be adjustment freely
only applies a parameter ”H”.
However, As shown in Fig.10, the precision of
PWM signal falls with increase of ”H”. The
SNR calculated within 20 kHz as bandwidth. As
explanation, one of characteristics of

modulation
is that the rms noise in signal band falls with the
increase of sampling frequency [5, page 15]. In
the case of the switching frequency of PWM signal
regarded as the really sampling frequency of signal, the
characteristic of
 modulation suits similarly in the
proposed PWM signal generator. In order to ensure the
SNR is higher than 50dB, ”H” was selected less than
50 samples. Because of too high switching frequency
is impractical, ”H” is no less than 2.5 samples.
The result of a simulation is illustrated in
PI Fig.11. Which was implemented by spectral analysis
approach. The switching frequency was designed
in 300 kHz 350 kHz as same as in Fig.5. The
SNR calculated within 20 kHz as bandwidth. The
THD measured harmonics of 2nd through 10th order,
although only the 3rd harmonics and the 5th harmonics
can be observed. Compared to the Fig.5, it is observed
that the noise floor in signal band from the PWM signal
generator with PI compensation is lower than that
from the 1st-order PWM signal generator. The SNR
 250 0
maximum SwitchingPeriod switching frequencies
the most frequent SwitchingPeriod 522 -20 -7.96 dB

Switching Period [Sample]

minimum SwitchingPeriod -40
200
-60

Magnitude [dBFS]
5th harmonic
150 -80 (-114 dB)
3rd harmonic
-100 (-111 dB)

100 -120
-140

50 -160
-180 SNR = 71.7 dB Cut Off Frequency
(20kHz)
THD = 0.00106%
0 -200
0 2.5 5 7.5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 10 100 1k 10k 100k 1M 10M
Frequency [Hz]
H

Fig. 11. Spectrum of the Output of the PWM signal

Fig. 9. Linear relation between the periods of PWM generator with PI compensantion.
signal and hysteresis widths.

100 frequency of the PWM signal. By adjusting the

”H”, the switching frequency of a PWM signal was
50
able to designed so that actuators could be driven
efficiently.The simulation results revealed that the
noise of output signal was shaped away from the low
Power [dB]

0 SNR(20kHz) frequency band. Furthermore, a low distortion PWM

3rd Harmonic
5th Harmonic signal generator which applied a PI compensation
-50 was presented. When the switching frequency of the
PWM signal was about 320 kHz, the 3rd harmonic
was -111dB and 5th harmonic was -114dB. Compared
-100
to the 1st-order PWM signal generator, the SNR
increased about 20 dB under all parameters target was
-150 consistent.
0 2.5 5 7.5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
H
5. REFERENCES
Fig. 10. Precision of the PWM signal with regard to
[1] T. Fukui, M. Segawa, M. Kurosawa, K. Oka and
hysteresis widths.
T. Higuchi, ”Control System with Single-bit Digital
Signal Processing,” Proc. of 4th Int. Conf. On control,
Automation, Robotics and Vision. pp.1992-1996,
Singapore, 3-6 Dec. 1996.
increases about 20 dB, and the distortion becomes
lower. Furthermore, the dynamic range is larger than [2] M. Kurosawa, M. Kawakami, K. Tojo, T. Katagiri,
that of the 1st-order PWM signal generator. and T. Higuchi, ”Single-bit Digital Signal Processing
for Current Control of Brushless DC Motor,” Proc.
IEEE-ISIE2002, pp. 589-594, L’Aquila, Italy, 8-11 July,
4. CONCLUSIONS 2002.

A novel digital PWM signal generator, which [3] L. Risbo, H. K. Andersen, ”Conversion of a PCM Signal
converted a single-bit signal into a PWM signal, was Into a UPWM Signal,” International patent document
presented. In this paper, three kinds of digital generator WO97/37433, 40pp., 19 figures.
were mentioned. The 1st-order PWM signal generator [4] Paul van der Hulst, Andr Veltman, Ren Groenenberg,
was the basic generator. In order to improve the ”An asynchronous Switching High-end Power
precision of the PWM signal, the 2nd-order PWM Amplifier,” Proc. 112th convention AES, pp. 1-7,
signal generator which expanded from 1st-order PWM Munich, Germany,10-13 May 2002.
signal generator was proposed. However it was
instable. Hence, a PI compensation was proposed and [5] Norsworthy, S.R., Schreier, R., and Temes, G.C., Eds.
tried. Delta-Sigma Data Convertors - Theory, Design, and
Simulation, IEEE Press, Inc., New York 1997.
The stable PWM signal generators converted
a single-bit signal with high sampling frequency
to a PWM signal with low switching frequency
successfully. The PWM signal generators only
depended on the parameter ”H” to control the