PWM CONTROL STRATEGY FOR

SINGLE PHASE INVERTER USING

ARDUINO MICROCONTROLLER
Maniraj P, PG student and Gomathi V Asst professor,
College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai.

Abstract – This paper presents the
development of controller circuit for single phase
inverter using Arduino microcontroller.
Microcontroller is able to store the required
commands to generate the necessary waveforms to
control the frequency of the inverter through proper
design of switching pulses. The PWM technique was
used to produce pure sinusoidal wave of voltage and
current output. This inverter is designed to be either
for stand-alone or for grid connected from a direct
supply of photovoltaic (PV) cells. In this paper PWM
switching technique is first reviewed. The control
circuit consists of the Arduino controller and it is
used to produce required PWM for triggering the
IGBTs. The driver circuit isolates the control circuit
from power circuit. The outputs for variable AC
voltages are observed in the CRO. Experimental
results with the Arduino program is discussed to
show how the PWM signals are generated using
Arduino microcontroller and also the inverter output
waveforms are shown.
Keywords – Arduino microcontroller, Pulse
width modulation (PWM), Arduino programming
language, Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors.
I.INTRODUCTION
In this paper, new control strategy is
proposed for the single phase inverter using the
Arduino Leonardo Microcontroller. In order to
generate the required PWM signals the coding is
done with the help of the Arduino programming
language. The pulses are given to the inverter
switches and the required output voltage can be
obtained. Here, experimental results are discussed
and briefly explained the method of producing the
PWM signals with the help of this controller. In the
following sections the control procedure is clearly
explained.
II. CONTROL PROCEDURE
The Fig 1 shows the hardware
development for controller circuit. The arrow
represents the flow of PWM signals from the
Arduino microcontroller to the single phase
inverter circuit.
Arduino Microcontroller
(PWM )

PWM or pulse width modulation is widely Opto Isolator

used in power electronics to digitize the power so
that a sequence of voltage pulses can be generated
by the on and off of the power switches. The pulse Gate Driver
width modulation inverter has been the main choice
in power electronic for decades, because of its Single phase inverter circuit
circuit simplicity and rugged control scheme. PWM
switching technique is commonly used in industrial
applications. PWM techniques are characterized Fig 1 Steps involved in the control procedure.
by constant amplitude pulses with different duty
The Fig 1 represents the flow of PWM
cycle for each period. The width of this pulses are
signals generated by the Arduino microcontroller to
modulated to obtain inverter output voltage control
the IGBT. Here switching frequency of the
and to reduce its harmonic content. Pulse width
switches is fixed as 1 KHz, depending on our
modulation or PWM is the mostly used method in
application the switching frequency is varied and
motor control and inverter application.
variable control outputs are produced. Consider the
above figure the pulse produced by the
The proposed alternative approach is to
microcontroller is given to the Optocoupler which
replace the conventional method with the use of
is acting here as the driver circuit for the IGBT.
microcontroller. The use of the microcontroller
Optocoupler is used to separate the low voltage
brings the flexibility to change the real-time control
circuit from the high voltage circuit.
algorithms without further changes in hardware. It
In the following sections the devices
is also low cost and has a small size of control
which are used in this project are discussed one by
circuit for the single phase full bridge inverter.
one.
 III. ARDUINO MICROCONTROLLER
A. Introduction
Various types of Arduino Controller board
is available in the market, depending on the
applications we can select the board. For PWM
generation Arduino Leonardo Microcontroller
board is a great option.
The Arduino Leonardo is a power jack. Leads from a battery can be inserted in
microcontroller board based on the ATmega32u4.
It has 20 digital input/output pins (of which 7 can
be used as PWM outputs and 12 as analog inputs),
a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a micro USB
connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a
reset button. It contains everything needed to
support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a
computer with a USB cable or power it with an
AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started. The
Leonardo differs from all preceding boards in that
the ATmega32u4 has built-in USB communication,
eliminating the need for a secondary processor.
This allows the Leonardo to appear to a connected
computer as a mouse and keyboard, in addition to a
virtual (CDC) serial / COM port.
The pin diagram of this Arduino is
represented in the Fig 2.
The Arduino Leonardo can be powered
via the micro USB connection or with an external
power supply. The power source is selected
automatically. It has the built in Analog to digital
converter. External (non-USB) power can come
either from an AC-to-DC adapter (wall-wart) or
battery. The adapter can be connected by plugging
a 2.1mm center-positive plug into the board's
the Gnd and Vin pin headers of the POWER
connector.
The board can operate on an external
supply of 6 to 20 volts. If supplied with less than
7V, however, the 5V pin may supply less than five
volts and the board may be unstable. If using more
than 12V, the voltage regulator may overheat and
damage the board. The recommended range is 7 to
12 volts.
B. Arduino Programming
The Leonardo can be programmed with
the Arduino software. Select "Arduino Leonardo
from the Tools > Board menu (according to the
microcontroller on your board). The ATmega32U4
on the Arduino Leonardo comes preburned with a
boot loader that allows you to upload new code to it
without the use of an external hardware
programmer. It communicates using the AVR109
protocol. You can also bypass the boot loader and
program the microcontroller through the ICSP (In-
Circuit Serial Programming) Header.

IV. IGBT DRIVER CIRCUIT

A. INTRODUCTION TO IGBT

The Insulated Gate Bipolar transistor

(IGBT) is a cross between a MOSFET (metal oxide
semiconductor field effect transistor) and a BJT
(bipolar junction transistor) since it combines the
Fig 2 Pin diagram positive aspects of MOSFETs and BJTs. The IGBT
has the fast switching capability of the MOSFET
The specification of this controller is and is capable of handling the high current values
given below. typical of a BJT. In addition, IGBTs have a lower
Microcontroller ATmega32u4 on-state voltage drop and are capable of blocking
Operating Voltage 5V higher voltages. The IGBT, as a first
Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V approximation, can be modelled as a PNP transistor
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V driven by a power MOSFET, as shown in figure 3.
Digital I/O Pins 20
PWM Channels 7
Analog Input Channels 12
DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin 50 mA
Flash Memory 32 KB (ATmega32u4) of
which 4 KB used by boot loader
SRAM 2.5 KB (ATmega32u4)
EEPROM 1 KB (ATmega32u4)
Clock Speed 16 MHz Fig 3 IGBT equivalent circuit
 The equivalent circuit for the input of
IGBT is the same as a MOSFET and is purely
capacitive. This allows the use of a voltage drive,
which means that it is possible to have a less
complex circuit with lower power consumption
compared to a BJT. IGBTs are used for high
current, high voltage applications when switching
speed is important.
B. IGBT SWITCHING BEHAVIOR
One of the important performance features
of any switching device is the switching (turn-on
and turn-off) characteristic, since significant power
losses are incurred during these switching states.
When driving inductive loads, the devices under
goes higher stress. Hence, it makes sense to study
the turn-on and turn-of time of the IGBT/MOSFET
when driving inductive loads. The IGBT’s internal
input capacitance (CGE) and Miller capacitance
(CGC) impacts the IGBT turn-on behaviour. But
the CGC effect is very small and negligible.
Figure 4 illustrates the parasitic IGBT capacitances.
Fig. 4 IGBT parasitic Capacitance
The turn-on behaviour of the IGBT is
identical to the power MOSFET, since the IGBT
acts as a MOSFET during most of the turn-on
interval. When a gate signal is applied, the gate
emitter voltage of the IGBT rises from zero to
VGE(TH), as shown in figure 5. This voltage rise is
due to the gate resistance (Rgate) and the CGE
Fig 5 IGBT turn on sequences
The turn-on time is a function of the
output impedance of the drive circuit and the
applied gate voltage. Hence, it is possible to control
the turn-on speed of the device by choosing an
appropriate value of gate resistance (Rgate).
Fig 6 Rgate effect on dV/dt
In other words, by varying the Rgate it is
possible to vary the time constant of the parasitic
net equal to Rgate x (CGE+CCG) and then dV/dt.
Therefore, the Rgate value strongly impacts the
power losses, since its variation also affects the
dV/dt slopes as illustrated in figure 6.
Fig 7 IGBT turn off sequence
The turn-off behaviour of the IGBT, as
shown in figure 7, has a dual characteristic of both
power MOSFET and BJT devices. At turn-off, the
gate voltage begins to decrease until it reaches the
value when the Miller effect occurs; during this
time the VCE voltage increases changing the
output characteristics with constant IC.
Next, the Miller effect and the VGE voltage
remain constant because of modulation of the
collector gate capacitance, which is due to VCE
voltage rapidly increasing to its maximum value.
During this time, the collector current begins to fall
quickly, and continues with a “tail” which is due to
recombination of minority carriers in the substrate.
The faster (and first) part of the IC current is due to
the turn-off of the MOSFET portion of the IGBT
structure. The IC-tail, which is due to the turn-off
the BJT portion of the IGBT structure, causes the
major part of the switching losses.
 an IGBT too fast. Excessive turn−off speed will
V. SINGLE IGBT GATE DRIVER result in large overshoot voltages. Normally, the
The MC33153 is specifically designed as turn−off resistor is a small fraction of the turn−on
an IGBT driver for high power applications that resistor. The MC33153 contains a bipolar totem
include ac induction motor control, brushless dc pole output stage that is capable of sourcing 1.0
motor control and uninterruptable power supplies. amp and sinking 2.0 amps peak. This output also
Although designed for driving discrete and module contains a pull down resistor to ensure that the
IGBTs, this device offers a cost effective solution IGBT is off whenever there is insufficient VCC to
for driving power MOSFETs and Bipolar the MC33153.
Transistors. Device protection features include the In a PWM inverter, IGBTs are used in a
choice of de-saturation or over current sensing and half−bridge configuration. Thus, at least one device
under voltage detection. These devices are is always off. While the IGBT is in the off−state, it
available in dual−in−line and surface mount will be subjected to changes in voltage caused by
packages. the other devices. This is particularly a problem
when the opposite transistor turns on. When the
Features lower device is turned on, clearing the upper diode,
 High Current Output Stage: 1.0 A the turn−on dv/dt of the lower device appears
Source/2.0 A Sink across the collector emitter of the upper device. To
 Protection Circuits for Both Conventional eliminate shoot−through currents, it is necessary to
and Sense IGBTs provide a low sink impedance to the device that is
 Programmable Fault Blanking Time in the off−state. In most applications the turn−off
 Protection against Over current and Short resistor can be made small enough to hold off the
Circuit device that is under commutation without causing
excessively fast turn−off speeds.
 Under voltage Lockout Optimized for
IGBT’s
 Negative Gate Drive Capability
 Cost Effectively Drives Power MOSFETs
and Bipolar Transistors
The most important design aspect of an IGBT
gate drive is optimization of the switching
characteristics. The switching characteristics are
especially important in motor control applications
in which PWM transistors are used in a bridge
configuration. In these applications, the gate drive
circuit components should be selected to optimize
turn−on, turn−off and off−state impedance. A Fig 8 Using a Single Gate Resistor
single resistor may be used to control both turn−on
and turn−off as shown in Figure 8. However, the
resistor value selected must be a compromise in
turn−on abruptness and turn−off losses. Using a
single resistor is normally suitable only for very
low frequency PWM. An optimized gate drive
output stage is shown in Figure 9. This circuit
allows turn−on and turn−off to be optimized
separately.
The turn−on resistor, Ron, provides control
over the IGBT turn−on speed. In motor control Fig 9 Using Separate Resistors for Turn−On and Turn−Off
circuits, the resistor sets the turn−on di/dt that
controls how fast the free−wheel diode is cleared. VI. FULL BRIDGE SINGLE PHASE INVERTER
The interaction of the IGBT and free−wheeling
diode determines the turn−on dv/dt. Excessive The DC to AC converter, also known as
turn−on dv/dt is a common problem in half−bridge inverter converts dc power to ac power at desired
circuits. The turn−off resistor, Roff, controls the output voltage and frequency. The output voltage
turn−off speed and ensures that the IGBT remains of an inverter has a periodic waveform that is not
off under commutation stresses. Turn−off is critical sinusoidal but can be made to closely approximate
to obtain low switching losses. While IGBTs this desire waveform. Figure 10 shows the circuit
exhibit a fixed minimum loss due to minority topology for a full bridge inverter. It is an
carrier recombination, a slow gate drive will electronic power converter that is necessary as an
dominate the turn−off losses. This is particularly interface between the power input and the load.
true for fast IGBTs. It is also possible to turn−off
The full bridge single phase inverter consists of the
DC voltage source, four switching elements S1, S2,
S3 and S4 and load.
The switching element available
nowadays, such as bipolar junction transistor
(BJTs), gate turn off thyristor (GTOs), metal oxide
semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs),
insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), metal
oxide semiconductor controlled thyristor (MCT’s)
and static induction transistors (SIT’s) can be used
as a switch. They are substituting the relays,
magnetic switches and other magnetic components
as the inverter switching devices. This makes use
of microcontroller becomes more significant. The
full bridge single phase inverter has two legs, left
or right or ‘A’ phase leg and ‘B’ phase leg. Each
leg consists of two power devices (here IGBT)
connect in series.
Fig 10 Single phase inverter topology
The load is connected between the
midpoints of the two phase legs. Each power
control device has a diode connected in anti-
parallel to it. The diodes provide an alternative path
for the load current if the power switches are turned
OFF. For example, if lower IGBT in the ‘A’ phase
leg is conducting and carrying current towards the
negative DC bus, this current would ‘commutate’
into the diode across the upper IGBT of the ‘A’
phase leg, if the lower IGBT is turned OFF.
Control of the circuit is accomplished by varying
the turn on time of the upper and lower IGBT of
each inverter leg with the provision of never
turning ON both at the same time, to avoid a short
circuit of DC bus.
Fig 11 Switching strategy
Figure 11 below show the switching
strategy that is used in this research. The turn ON
and OFF switch 1 (S1) and switch 4 (S4) are
controlled by PWM 1 generated at port 12 of
Arduino microcontroller. While the turn ON and
OFF switch 2 (S2) and switch 3 (S3) are controlled
by PWM 2 generated at port 13 of Arduino
microcontroller. Both PWM 1 and PWM 2 used the
same control signal generated by the
microcontroller. The different is only PWM 1
signal is leading PWM 2 by half cycle or 180
degree of the switching signal.
VII.EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A. PWM signal generation
Arduino Microcontroller is used to
generate the PWM signals; this is possible by
performing the coding in the controller. The coding
is performed with the help of the Arduino
programming language. The coding which is
performed here is given below.
int pulse1=12;
int pulse2=13;
Void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
pinMode (pulse1,OUTPUT);
pinMode (pulse2,OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
digitalWrite(pulse1,HIGH);
digitalWrite(pulse2,LOW);
delayMicroseconds(500);
digitalWrite(pulse1,LOW);
digitalWrite(pulse2,HIGH);
delayMicroseconds(500);
}
Here the switching frequency is taken as
1 KHz. Depending on our requirement the
switching frequency is varied and the output is
obtained. The experimental results obtained from
the Arduino controller is discussed here. The fig
gives the PWM signal which is obtained in the 12th
and 13th pin of the controller. Here the 12th and the
13th pin are selected as the output pins (as per the
program).
Fig 12 shows the experimental result of PWM
signal.
B. Future Work
At present this paper mainly
deals with the PWM signal production with the
help of the Arduino controller. This work will be
further continued to produce the SPWM signals. In
later stage this will be used to control the single
phase inverter circuit which is used in the
application of interfacing renewable energy sources
with the Microgrid. This control circuit perform
efficiently when it is used in the closed loop
operation.
 Fig 12 PWM output signal

VII. Conclusion

Thus, this paper mainly deals with the

PWM signal generation through the Arduino
Microcontroller. In addition it gives the clear view
about the flow of the PWM signals to the Inverter
circuit from the Arduino controller. Further, the
devices which are used in this project are discussed
and the experimental results are taken. And this
work is still in progress to design an efficient
controller for single phase inverter to interface the
renewable energy sources with the microgrid.