On-chip Power Line Communication for Cascaded H-bridge Power Converters

Distributed power generators and power converters are widely incorporated in modern microgrid and smart grid structures, which require data links among the source and load sites for monitoring and control. This paper proposes a novel power line communication (PLC) system design fabricated in an integrated circuit using the XFAB XH018 0.18μm CMOS technology to enable the data linking capabilities in such decentralized units. The proposed on-chip PLC system can be used in cascaded H-bridge power converters connected on a common DC or AC bus without requiring additional circuitry for transmitting the information. Also, its operation does not depend on the scale or type of the supplied load. An experimental prototype system for the power and data transmission, including the fabricated PLC chip and a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) device for the data reception, has been developed and tested. The experimental results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed on-chip PLC system.