A Hybrid PWM Strategy Combining Modified Space Vector and

Triangle Comparison Methods

Vladimir Blasko’
Rockwell Automation - Allen Bradley
Mequon, WI 53092, USA

Abstract - Classical space vector PWM with equal duration By adding a third harmonic zero sequence [ 11, linearity of the
of application of zero state vectors VO and V7 was modified. PWM is extended for about 15.5%.
The time of application of vector V7 (and VO) was made
changeable from 0 to 100% over the time To for their com- 1 1
bined application. The ratio of the duration of application of
vector VO vs. V7 can be kept constant or changed on a sample
by sample basis with a significant impact on the characteris-
tics of the PWM. Correlation between modified space vector
and triangle comparison methods was established. It was
proved in the paper that modified space vector PWM (with a
classical space vector PWM as a special case) can be imple-
mented as triangle comparison method with added zero se-
quence. A new algorithm suitable for implementation of
modified space vector method on digital or analog hardware
for triangle comparison PWM was proposed. Because the
algorithm combines theory of space vector PWM with ease
of implementation of a triangle comparison PWM it was
c, x €{O,l, ...7}
(ABC), A, B, c E {1 (conducting),O(non conducting)}
named “Hybrid” PWM (HPWM).
(a>
-
I. INTRODUCTION v,
(010)
The Triangle Comparison Pulse With Modulator
(TCPWM) compares a high frequency triangular carrier with
three reference signals and creates gating pulses for the
switches in the power circuit. It can be easily implemented in
analog or digital domain. Almost all the motor controllers
available on the market today have hardware for the digital
implementation of symmetrical (updated once per cycle) or
asymmetrical (updated twice per cycle) PWM or both. To
extend linearity a zero sequence signal is added to all of the
+q\ /,/ 4,Re

three phase reference voltages [l]. The zero sequence moves Sector 6
locally averaged voltage of motor neutral n (averaged over
one period of the carrier) with respect to the center point of
the DC link voltage n’, Fig. l(a). However neutral of the mo-
tor is not connected and locally averaged motor phase volt- (001) (1 0 1)
ages remain undistorted and follow reference voltages. (b)
* The author is with Rockwell Automation - Allen Bradley Fig. 1. (a) three phase inverter with switches A , 2 , B, B , C,
Standard Drives Development, 6400 W. Enterprise Drive, c and the definition of switching state vectors (b) in the
Mequon, WI 53092 USA, vblasko@meqlanl .remnet.ab.com complex dq plane

0-7803-3500-7/96/$5.00 01996 IEEE 1872

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 The space vector method [2] (SVPWM) operates in a - normalized q and d components of
complex plane divided in the six sectors separated by the
switching state vectors, Fig. l.(b). The switching state vec- reference vector = v ~I (vdC/2)
:~ .
tors are defined by combination of conductinghonconducting For sectors 1 to 5, TI and T2 determine duration of applica-
switches in the power circuit of inverter, Fig. I(a). The com- tions of vectors with lower and higher indices respectively.
plex reference vector FY: is used to locate two adjacent In sector 6 , TI and T2 determine duration of application of V6
and VI respectively.
switching state vectors and to compute time (TI and T2) for The relationship between reference voltages in three phase
which they are active. For the rest of sampling time T, zero system a,b,c and two phase d,q system is defined by:
switching state vectors V, or Vo (connecting all of the three
phase winding to positive or negative rail of the DC bus) are * I I * *
active. SVPWM locally averages, over sampling period T,, vy = -(2v, - Vb - vc)
active and zero state vectors to be equal to the reference vec- 2
tor. * 43
Vd = -(vf -vi)
In this paper, classical SVPWM (with sequence VO, VI, V2, 3
V7, V7, V2, VI, VO over two sampling intervals in the frst
sector and with equal duration of zero state vectors VU and Equations ( 2 ) to (6) define space vector PWM. They give
V7, [2]) was modified. The ratio of duration of application of correlation between normalized three phase reference volt-
zero vectors VO and V7 over the interval To for their com- ages v:,~,~(which are inputs into PWM) and time intervals To,
bined application was made variable. The duration of appli- TI and T2 during which zero state and active space vectors
cation of vector VO can be changed from 0% to 100% at the are applied.
expense of duration of application of vector V7 and vice
versa. The correlation between modified space vector method
and triangle comparison method was established. A new 111. CORRELATION BETWEEN MODIFIED
Hybrid PWM (HPWM) algorithm combining good features of SPACE VECTOR AND TRIANGLE COM-
SVPWM and TCPWM was developed
PARISON PwM
11. SPACE VECTOR Pwh.4 In the classical SVPWM zero state vectors VO and V7 are
applied each OST,. Figure 2.(a) shows sequence of applica-
The reference voltage vector T‘4; = Vq*- jVd* can be ap- tions of switching vectors in sector one in modified
proximated in first sector using local averaging concept by SVPWM. Zero vectors V7 and VO were applied for the time
the following: intervals ko To and (1-ko) To respectively, where 0 4 k,, 4 1 .
Durations T,, Tb, and T, of gating pulses for switches A, B,
t;‘ = v * - j v * = ’ v +
T T”p and C are:
(1)
yd Y d
r,’ T 2 T, = k, T, + T,
To i-
Time intervals TI and T2 determine durations of applications
of vectors VI and V2 respectively. Zero state vectors V7 or & =k,,T+&
VO are applied for the rest of sampling interval: T, = k,,&

For the triangle comparison PWM method, Fig. 2(b), the

normalized triangle signal vf (part of v, with positive slope)
In all the six sectors time intervals T, and T2 can be calcu- can be described by:
lated from [3]:

A * 7r
7; = ~-[v,cos(-”)+v,sin(-”>]
* 7 r
(3)
2 3 3
where V, and V, are instantaneous and peak values of tri-
angle wave form respectively. It is convenient for the analy-
sis to normalize V, to the same base value as three phase ref-
where: erence voltages i. e. Vrp= v&. Thus Vt pulsates between +/-
m - sector number, m=1,...6; ifm=l than 1 and modulation index m (defined as the ratio of peak value
m- 1=6, of reference voltage and peak value of triangle) becomes

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 equivalent to the amplitude of normalized input reference T = Zvb-v,)=-vbc.
(** r,*
voltage. 2 2 2

Time intervals TI and T2were computed from (3) to (6) for

the first sector. Note that TI and T2 are proportional to line to
line reference voltages. The same results can be obtained
directly by the inspection of the Fig. 2(a). From Fig. 2(a) it
is evident that during TI and T2 bus voltage Vd, is applied
between lines ab and bc respectively. Time intervals TI and
T2 can be computed from the required equilibrium of volt -
seconds over sampling interval Ts:7; V, = Vu; and
V, = Vbz c.
Such an approach eliminates the need for use
of space vector method (at least equations (3) and (4)) in the
analysis. It also confirms that space vector method deals with
line to line voltages and as a consequence it is able to provide
full dc bus voltage Vdc as locally averaged peak value of line
to line voltage. On the other side, the triangle comparison
method without added zero sequence, deals with phase volt-
ages. It can provide only VdJ2 as the peak value of locally
averaged phase voltage. Evidently for the same Vdc, SVPWM
provides without distortion higher output voltage for the fac-
tor of 2/& = 1.155 than the TCPWM.
Introducing (2), (14) and (15) into (1 I) to (13) the new set
of reference voltages is obtained:
** * *
vu = v, + v,, (16)
** * 1

Vb = Vb +v, (17)
Fig. 2 (a) timing of switching of space vectors and (b) *I * *
v, = v, +v, (18)
timing of gating pulses based on triangle comparison
method vis =-[(1-2k,)+k0v: +(l-k,)v;] (19)

By introducing (7) to (9) into (10) i.e. the equation of tri- For the "classical" SPWM, with VO and V7 applied for the
** * * To12 each and for the balanced system (v: + v i +v,* = 0),
angle wave form in Fig. 2(b); reference voltages vu ,vb and
*I
vc , which produce the same gating pulses and give the same zero sequence follows fiom (19) as a special case with ko=0.5:
results as the modified space vector method, are obtained:
v:, = -0.5(vU
I
+ vc) = 0 . 5 ~ ;
*

(20)

The above procedure was repeated for all the other sectors.
The results are summarized in the Table I, Fig. 3 and in Eqs.
** L (21) to (23):
V b = -(k,T, + T*)- 1 ,
r,
** 2
v, =-(k,T,)-l,
T,

with time intervals

* *
where ofv,,, ,v , , ~and v;, are minimum, middle and maxi-
T, T , ,
r, =-(vu
2
-vb) = -Vub,
2 mum values of input reference voltages v : , ~ , ,illustrated in
Fig. 3.

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 cation for the classical SVPWM implementation on TCPWM
TABLE I. DEPENDENCEOF T I ,Tz AND MINIMUM,
MAXIMUM
hardware. The algorithm ffor the determination of the zero
AND MEDIUM VOLTAGES ON SECTOR NUMBERS AND INPUT
sequence voltage with factor ku as a variable is shown in Fig.
PHASE AND LINETO LINE REFERENCE VOLTAGES
4(4.

I I Sector -1

U
Sorting
(a)

~~

0 * 0.005 * 0.01 * 0.015 0.02

-- v m - Vmld ----- vm t [SI

Fig. 3. Derivation of v:in ,vildand viax from the input refer-

ence voltages v:,~,,

The new set of normalized reference voltages v::b,c was

generated in (21) by adding zero sequence voltage vzs to the
old set of reference voltages v:,~,,. The zero sequence con-
tains a dc component (1-2 ku) and the combination of the
original - initial phase reference voltages. Working with me-
dium, maximum and minimum voltages simplifies the algo-
rithm and eliminates need for explicit sector identification.
Equations (21) - (23) are used as a basis for the block dia-
gram representation in Fig. 4. The algorithm is convenient for
microprocessor implementation. All the operations required
including sorting to determine maximum and minimum input
reference are simple and fast. The algorithm is also conven-
ient for the analog implementation. The principle of opera-
tion of analog sorting block is shown in Fig. 4(b). Two sim-
ple three phase rectifier bridges with compensated voltage
drops on diodes can be used to sort minimum and maximum
values (envelopes) of input voltages. Fig. 4(c) shows block
diagram of the algorithm (23) for the zero sequence identifi-
Fig. 4 (a) Block diagram of HPWM, (b) analog implemen-
tation of sorting block (c) zero sequence generation for
ko=0.5, and (d) generation of zero sequence with ko as a
variable
111. FACTOR k,, AND CHARACTERISTICS
OF HPWM
SVPWM and TCPWM have two or three input variables
vi>d or v : , ~ , HPWM
~. has one additional input, factor k,,
which can be constant or a variable changed on a sampling
interval basis. Factor ku effects voltage and current wave
forms of the load and thus evidently characteristics of PWM.
Equation of the voltage on one phase of three phase sym-
metrical load (subscripts for phase assignment are omitted)

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 will be used to investigate effects of ko on PWM characteris- voltage U-. It effects the distance between fixed high and low
tics: voltage levels and thus effects the amplitude of the ripple
current, Fig. 5(a-b).
di Increase of ko from 0 to 1 widens gating pulses A, B, and C,
L--+iR+e,
U = Fig. 2. In the first sector gating pulse for the phase c narrows
dt
u=U+u_, i = I+i_, e = E , to zero if ko=O. On the other hand for ko=l gating pulse for
phase a stretches across the whole carrier cycle. Evidently for
ko = constant = 0 or 1 the devices in one leg of the bridge stop
where: switching. Currentdvoltages of the three phase load are con-
RL - resistance and inductance of the load,
trolled by switching the other two legs in the bridge. Switch-
U,Z,E -fundamental components of voltage, current and ing losses are reduced approximately by U3.
electromotive force,
u,i- - ripple components of voltage and current. 1 r-. I

The voltage U, current i and counter electromotive force e

in (25) are split into slowly changing fimdamental compo-
nents (quasi - constant) and ripple components with a signifi-
cant change over carrier period. introduction of (25) into (24)
splits (24) into two equations, one for fundamental and an-
other for ripple voltage. Voltage U from the equation with
1
fundamental quantities correspond to the voltage V* which is
input into PWM. More interesting is the equation with the 05
ripple components: 0

-0.5
d i_
U _ = L-+i_ R, (26)
dt -1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
(b) t/T,
1
which after integration gives the trajectory of the ripple cur-
rent 05
1' R '. 0
i_(z)=-/u-dt+-/l_dt+i_(O), 0 2 z I n T , , (27)
LO LO -0 5
where n is a PWM update factor n=1,2. For PWM updated -1
0 05 1
every T, or twice per carrier n=l. For PWM updated every (c) UT, 2
2T, or once per carrier n=2. Depending on n, factor ko can be 1
changed at least once or twice per carrier.
0.5
The results of simulation showing the influence of ko on per
unit wave forms of current and voltage ripple, are shown in 0
Fig. 5. A three phase, predominantly inductive load with a -0.5
time constant of L/R=lOT, was assumed.
-1

A . Factor ko Constant or Changed Once Per

Carrier
Factor ko is kept constant over carrier period 2T, at values
k, = 0.1 and 0.7, Fig. 5(a-b). Pulsating voltage U- and current
i- on the load are even and odd functions respectively around
the center of the carrier regardless of value of ko. Their aver-
age values are zero and the both of the first terms in (27) are
zero. It follows from (27) that i-(2TJ=i-(O)=O i.e. ripple cur-
rent i- crosses zero at the centers of symmetry of voltage U-
Current sampled at these instances corresponds to the fun-
damental component and is ripple free. However change of ko
, every even multiple of T,, effects the wave form of the ripple
Fig. 5. Wave forms of a carrier vt , current i- and voltage ripple
U- on the RL load with (a) ko= 0.1, (b) ko=0.7, (c) with ko
changed from 0.1 to 0.7 in the middle of the carrier cycle and
(d) steady state (after 58TJ with ko periodically changed from
0.1 to 0.7 every T,
B. Factor ko Changed Twice Per Carrier
By computing v : : ~ with
, ~ ko different at different sampling
intervals TA,the center of gating pulses A, B and C in Fig.
2(a) is shifted to the left or to the right from the center of the

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triangle. The effects of change of ko=kol=O.1 to ko=koz=0.7at l
the center of the triangle of carrier are illustrated in Fig. 5(c).
0.5
Change of ko , every T, or even number of T,, effects the am-
plitude of the current ripple and also adds a bias to it effect- 0
ing the fundamental component. -0.5
If ko is periodically changed between the same values every -1
T,, the second term in (27) causes the bias from ripple current
to decay towards zero with the time constant of the load
( L / R ) , Fig. 5(d). However the zero crossing of the current 1
(in steady state) is shifted from the peaks of the triangle to the 0.5
center of (shifted) voltage pulses. The current and voltage 0
wave forms in Fig. 5(d) are identical to the those obtained -0.5
with ko=0.5(kol+koz)=0.4=constantover 2T, without phase -1
shift. 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 . 0.02
(b) ko= 1 1 LSl

IV. THEORETICAL
AND EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
The analysis of the HPWM was done at different modula-
tion indexes m and for different factors ko. Fig. 6 shows zero
* **
sequence and reference voltages v, , v, and v:, for (a) ko=O, 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
(b) ko=l, (c) ko=0.5 and (d) ko=0.75 with modulation index (c) ko= 0.5
m=1.154. Reference voltages vi* for ko=O and ko=l are mir- 1
ror images of each other. For the one third of (hndamental) 0.5
period they are equal to the + or - peak value of v, causing 0
continuous conduction and reducing switching losses by -113. -0.5
I*

Voltage reference v, for all the factors k, f 0.5 are non -1

symmetrical around time axis. 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
Figures 6(e-f) illustrates operation of HPWM with factor ko (d) k,= 0.75 ['I
changing during operation. Factor ko pulsates between 0 and 1
1 with frequency three times higher than the frequency of the 0.5
reference v: . The modulation indexes m is 0.9 and 1.154.
0
Wave form vi* is symmetric around time axis. Switching of -0.5
the bridge is reduced by 113. -1
The reference wave forms shown in Fig. 6 (with exception 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 1'1 0.02
of wave form in Fig. 6(d)) have been generated by the differ- (e) k,=f((t), m=0.9
ent PWM schemes, reported in [2], [4 - 61. From Fig. 6. it is
evident that a single HPWM algorithm can generate any of 1
them. 0.5
The results of simulation in Fig. 7. illustrate the operation 0
of HPWM with random change of ko around 0.5 every -0.5
TS=2/f,;fc = carrier frequency = 2000Hz. The random change
-1
of ko adds random component to v:* and makes spectrum C, 0 0.005 0.01 0.015 t ['I 0.02
of current i, in Fig. 7(c) uniformly distributed. It effects the (f) k,=f(t), m=1.154
acoustic noise produced by the drive. The spectrum of the
current obtained under the same conditions but with
ko=0.5=constant is mostly below 60dB for frequency range Fig. 6. Wave forms of modified reference voltage v:' ,
between 200 and 1500 Hz. reference voltage v: and zero sequence voltage v : ~at
. ..
Figure 8. gives experimental verification of HPWM. It pre-
I
sents wave forms of v, ,v, ,v , and i, with ko changed be- different ko

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 tween 0 and 1 with three times fundamental frequency as in V. CONCLUSION
Fig. 6(e). The wave forms were taken on a lOOkW three
phase regenerative voltage source converter with unity power Space vector PWM was modified to enable change of the
factor [6], at input voltage of 48OV, DC bus voltage of 750V duration of the application of zero vectors VO and V7. The
and the line reactor of 1mH. correlation between modified space vector and triangle com-
parison PWM was established. A variable k,, proportional to
1 the time of application of vector V7, was introduced. By
0.5 changing ko from 0 to 1, the duration of application of V7
0 can be changed fi-om 0 to 100% of the time for the applica-
tion of both zero vectors VO and V7. It made PWM more
-0.5 universal and flexible. The transitions from different “PWM
-1 schemes” reported in literature can be easily achieved.
0.035 0.04 0.045 (a) 0.05 t [SI 0.055 Factor ko can be changed within every sampling interval
thus enabling movement of the center of the PWM pattern
I I
around center of the triangle effecting the spectrum of the
current and audible noise of the drive. Change of ko every
two or even numbers of sampling intervals T, effects the cur-
rent ripple without changing the hndamental component.
The developed algorithm is suitable for microprocessor
-2 I I I I
and analog implementation. It provides extended linearity
0.035 0.04 0.045 0.05 t [SI 0.055
(b) (with modulation index up to 1.154), reduced switching
losses (during ko = 0 or 1) and enables change of the spec-
trum of the current by changing k,.

REFERENCES
[l] J. A. Houldsworth and D. A, Grant, “The Use of Har-
10’ 10 1o4 monic Distortion to Increase Output Voltage of a Three -
Phase PWM Inverter”, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., Vol. IA-
20, No. 5, SeptemberiOctober, 1984, pp. 1124 - 1228.
Fig. 7. Wave forms of: (a) normalized discrete reference voltage --_
**
- _ --_ . - . - - - . ,. 1 .”.
LL] H. w. van der Broeck, H. Ln. x u a e m y ana cr. >tame,
1 - 1

v, , triangle v, , factor k,, (b) current i, switching hnction A “Analysis and Realization of a Pulse Width Modulator
and (c) spectrum C, of current la; ko changed randomly around Based on Voltage Space Vectors”, IEEE IAS Annual
0.5 with twice the carrier frequency Meeting, Denver, USA, 1986, pp. 244-251.
[3] J. S. Kim and S. K. SUI, A Novel Voltage Modulation
v: j l p d d r v ] Technique of the Space Vector PWM”, IPEC - Yokohama
‘95, pp.742-747.
[4] H. W. van der Broeck, “Analysis of The Harmonics in
Voltage Fed Inverter Drives Caused by PWM Schemes
with Discontinuous Switching Operation”, EPE Annual
Meeting, Firenze, Italy, 1991, pp. 3-261 to 3-266.
[5] D. R. Alexander and S. M. Williams, “An Optimal PWM
Algorithm Implementation in a High Performance
125kVA Inverter”, APEC Annual Meeting, San Diego,
USA, 1993, pp. 771 - 777.
[6] Vikram Kaura, Vladimir Blasko, ‘Operation of a Voltage
Source Converter at Increased Utility Voltage’, Con$ Rec.
of PESC-9j Ann. Mtg, Atlanta, USA, 1995, pp.523 - 527.

Fig. 8. Experimental results - wave forms of v: ,v c , vr, and

current i, with ko changed between 0 and 1 as in Fig. 6(e)

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