Arbitrary waveform power source for testing purposes in real-time using an H-cascaded multilevel converters and FPGA-based control

Abstract

This paper presents the design and construction of a scaled-down arbitrary waveform power source which bases the synthesis of power signals at its output in two H converters multilevel with asymmetric sources in cascade. The aim of the power source is to mimic the disturbance-like signal for testing controls, instruments and electric devices and equipment in real-time. The electrical disturbances of interest are those related to power quality degradation and short-circuit events in power grids. A FPGA platform is the core element of the computational bed for the PWM multilevel scheme, and other control task, useful for implementing the waveforms as required for a particular application. As final part a number of experimental results are presented.