FPGA-based digital control implementation of a power converter for teaching purposes

Abstract

European universities are nowadays immersed in curricula changes to adapt them to the European Higher Education Area commitments. The new criteria give significant importance to hands-on training sessions in order to develop specific skills of the students according to their professional training. This paper presents the development and application of a digital controller of a power converter for teaching purposes. This design if based on an FPGA and its development is made as close as possible to a real design. The digital controller is implemented using three different approaches. Firstly, two hardware implementations using fixed-point and floating-point arithmetic are proposed. The use of the VHDL 1076–2008 standard that includes fixed and floating point packages shortens the design cycle. The third approach is a software implementation based on the embedded soft-core microprocessor MicroBlaze. The design of the proposed platform is explained, and its use in the hands-on training sessions is detailed.