Power Amplifier Design in Magnetic Suspension System
Nina Luo, Lide Wang
Department of Electrical Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Abstract Magnetic suspension system is a typical non-
linear system, so the complexity of its control system design
can be directly affected by the linearity and response time of
every unit in the system, so as the power unit. A method of
forming a linear current source controlled by voltage is pre-
sented in this paper, with an H-type bridge chopper as its
major circuit. It makes use of the pulse width modulation
characteristic of voltage-drive modulator TL494, and the
bootstrap function of IR2110, generates MOSFET drive
pulse signals whose duty cycle can be adjusted, so that the
output current value can be changed. Frequency band is
broadened and response speed is improved by improving the
compensation part of the system. The experiments have in-
dicated that this power circuit has a good linearity. It has
not only the simple and stable characteristics but also good
performances and practical characteristics.
Keywords Magnetic suspension system, pulse width
modulation, H-type bridge chopper, feedback compensation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Magnetic-suspend technology, because of its notouch,
zero friction, low energy consumption and long life, has
drawn attentions of scholars inland and abroad. This sub-
ject investigates in three-magnetic suspension system,
designs its control strategy aiming at its nonlinear and
tight coupling. So the success of control strategy is tied
closely to the structure of hardware circuit design. Fig.1
shows the schematic drawing of single-magnetic suspen-
sion control system.
In this way, the power system affects greatly the sys-
tem's rigidity, real-time and stability, and it is the key of
reflecting the control algorithm. Design and analysis of
this unit will be followed.
II. DESIGN OF SUSPENSION POWER CIRCUIT
A. Design of main circuit
Fig. 1. Single-magnetic suspension control system structure
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Electromagnetic suspension system (EMS) is natu-
rally instable. When suspension air gas changes, current
of electromagnet should be adjusted immediately, in order
to change the electromagnetic of coil and force of the
electromagnetic, which makes the suspension air gas keep
dynamic stable. Suspension chopper, as the power drive
unit of multipoint suspension system, is the main power
equipment. Its structure, service voltage and switching
frequency affect directly the rigidity and stability of the
suspension system.
H-type bridge chopper (Fig.2) has been selected ac-
cording to the request of response time and shock resis-
tance. In the case of electric drive, it provides the load
energy, and feeds back energy to the power supply when
load is reverse connected to the power supply, which
makes the current decrease quickly. As a result, this cir-
cuit is in favor of controlling the magnetic current.
There are three methods to control the VT1 and VT3:
(1) VT1 conducts all through, VT3 discontinuous; (2)VT1,
VT3 conduct alternately; (3)VT1,VT3 conduct synchro-
nous. The third method is adopted here as it has the
maximum dildt, which is propitious to controlling the
current. Voltage and current waves of load are showed in
Fig.3. Io means maximum current, and '2 means minimum
current. RL is inductance, and L is resistance of coil.
1) When O<t<tl, VT1, VT3 are off, load current io,
decreases quickly according to exponent law, as the re-
verse voltage affects:
Ud ( (RLI L)t _1) + IOe (RL L)t (O < t < to )
(1)
RL
2) When tl<t<T, VT1, VT3 is on, load current io2
increases quickly according to exponent law, as the sup-
ply voltage affects:
1o2 Ud (e-(RL IL)(t-t1)_1) + Ioe (RL IL)(t1) (to < t < T) (2)
RL
Fig.2. Sketch circuit of the system
 gained from the division of a 5V reference voltage. When
uc
current exceeds, the pulse width will decrease immedi-
ately to protect high-power device.
The main circuit adopts bridge structure, so the power
tubes on diagonal arms need synchronization trigger pulse
and the upper one also needs a floating supply voltage.
Although the output of TL494 has the capacity of driving
ILU0 MOSFET, both of the outputs are relative to the ground
when working at synchronous mode. Therefore, IR2 1 10 is
Ud chosen. It can easily solve the problem of floating boot
II power supply in higher end through a boot circuit with
simple configuration outside, and execute the drive of
bridge chopper effectively.
III. ANALYSIS AND IMPROVEMENT OF CURRENT CONTROL
Based on the upper description of hardware circuit, the
-Ud following part refers to quantitative analysis on frequency
.*
and time domain. First, describe the system in transfer
10 function in terms of Fig.2.
Io TL494, PWM wave generator, whose error ampli-
fier I acts as compensation network, has the transfer func-
12 tion of:

- V3(s) / V(s) = K(1±+S/w)(1±+S/wp) (4)

0 t, T
Output of error amplifier I compares with sawtooth
Fig.3. Voltage and current waves of load ( uc is drive voltage) voltage to control the duty of the load's voltage. Because
it has a high switching frequency of 30KHz, transfer func-
Average current is(D means duty): tion of the electromagnet's voltage to output of error am-
plifier can be treated linear:
_ ti T u
i1dt
I + i02 dt = d (2D - 1) (3) Uo(S) / V3(s) =50 / 2.7
O ti RL (5)

The results clarifies that average current and duty Transfer function of load is:
have linear relationship, and afterflow velocity of two-
quadrant bridge chopper is faster than single-quadrant. lo(s) / Uo(s) = 1 / (Ls+RL) (6)
This process can feed back energy to power supply, so
two-quadrant bridge chopper is suitable for power supply Hall current sensor is used to detect the current, it has
of suspension system. a transfer function of:
B. Drive circuit
Vp(s) / 10(s) = 0.9 (7)
Different control voltage generates different pulse
width signals, controls the switching time, changes the According to the upper description, the transfer func-
electromagnet's current. TL494, as a fineness pulse width tion model of the power's closed loop is shown in fig.4.
modulator, transforms analog signals to corresponding
PWM signals. It has two error amplifiers inside. One is A. Analysis offrequency characteristic
used to make up current closed loop. Chopper- In order to make the system stable, it must meet the
Electromagnet as the controlled plant of suspension con- following requirements as in [7]:
trol unit, requests that electromagnet's current should
follow the output changes of suspension control units fast 1) According to Nyquist sampling principle, cut fre-
with higher stable precision, thereby, precision control of quency should be less than half the switching frequency;
suspension air gap can be executed. So it is obvious that
current closed loop must be adopted here. Feedback volt-
age and control voltage are compared by this amplifier,
then output compares with the given sawtooth wave to
adjust the pulse width of drive voltage. The other ampli-
fier is used for overcurrent protection. Feedback current
of main circuit is connected to positive end of ampli-
fier II through a resistance, and the negative voltage is Fig.4. Transfer function model of closed loop system

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 2) Cut frequency should be as high as possible to
insure the switching convertor has fast dynamic response;
3) Amplitude-Frequency characteristic should cross
horizontal axis by -20dB/dec, and have expected ampli-
tude margin;
4) At certain cut frequency, the closed loop gain
should be OdB.
According to the foregoing principle and transfer
function model, open loop frequency characteristic of the
system is gained in stipple line of Fig.5. K= ,wz=1 07,
wp=3000, cut frequency is 3966rad/s, and phase angle
margin is 700. Closed loop frequency characteristic is
shown in dotted line. It is obvious that the system can
realize zero gain during a large range of frequency band,
but phase angle appears below zero in advance, which
makes the system lag. Fig.6. Response of series and feedback compensation on step input
How to broaden bandwidth of the zero phase angle
without open loop frequency characteristic changed? to make a little change of primary system. The changed
Feedback compensation has solved the problem. The structure is shown in Fig.7, a new amplifier is introduced
compensation unit can be moved to the feedback channel, into the system., R1 =R12=30KQ, R13= 1OOQ,C= lnF.
which not only ensures the correction effect of open loop,
but also weaken the influence to the system's characteris- IV. CONCLUSIONS
tic caused by the parametric variation. Real line in Fig.5
shows the characteristic of closed loop system after feed- The relationship of control voltage and output current,
back compensation. Thus it can be seen closed loop sys- in actual measurement, is shown in Fig.8 when supply
tem can realize zero gain and zero phase angle in a large voltage is 25V and switching frequency is 30 KHz. It
range of frequency band after feedback compensation. represents that control voltage and output current have a
good linear relationship.
B. Dynamic response Based on the characteristic and demand of suspension
After the research of frequency characteristic, dy- system, this paper discussed the structure design of the
namic responses of series and feedback compensations power unit, designed compensation part of the system by
are gained by Simulink simulation. Response curves of analyzing the frequency characteristic. And also proved,
the system, in the condition of step input, are shown in besides broaden the system bandwidth, feedback compen-
Fig.6. Dotted line represents series compensation and real sation can improve response speed, make suspension air
line represents feedback compensation. The figure indi- gas stable, enhance capacity of anti-jamming, and keep
cates that feedback compensation reduces not only good linearity between contro voltage and output current.
risetime, but also transit time.
Both of the analysis and simulation of frequency and REFERENCES
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Fig.7. Transfer function model of feedback compensation

Fig.5. Frequency characteristic of open and closed loop system and improvement of circuit

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