Hysteresis Current Control in Three-Phase

Voltage Source Inverter

Mirjana Milosevic

Abstract

The current control methods play an important role in power electronic cir-
cuits, particulary in current regulated PWM inverters which are widely applied
in ac motor drives and continuous ac power supplies where the objective is to
produce a sinusoidal ac output. The main task of the control systems in cur-
rent regulated inverters is to force the current vector in the three phase load
according to a reference trajectory.
In this paper, two hysteresis current control methods (hexagon and square
hysteresis based controls) of three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) have been
implemented. Both controllers work with current components represented in
stationary (, ) coordinate system.

Introduction

Three major classes of regulators have been developed over last few decades:
hysteresis regulators, linear PI regulators and predictive dead-beat regulators
[1]. A short review of the available current control techniques for the three-
phase systems is presented in [2].
Among the various PWM technique, the hysteresis band current control is
used very often because of its simplicity of implementation. Also, besides fast
response current loop, the method does not need any knowledge of load pa-
rameters. However, the current control with a fixed hysteresis band has the
disadvantage that the PWM frequency varies within a band because peak-to-
peak current ripple is required to be controlled at all points of the fundamental
frequency wave. The method of adaptive hysteresis-band current control PWM
technique where the band can be programmed as a function of load to optimize
the PWM performance is described in [3].
The basic implementation of hysteresis current control is based on deriving
the switching signals from the comparison of the current error with a fixed toler-
ance band. This control is based on the comparison of the actual phase current
with the tolerance band around the reference current associated with that phase.
On the other hand, this type of band control is negatively affected by the phase
current interactions which is typical in three-phase systems. This is mainly due
to the interference between the commutations of the three phases, since each
phase current not only depends on the corresponding phase voltage but is also
affected by the voltage of the other two phases. Depending on load conditions
switching frequency may vary during the the fundamental period, resulting in
irregular inverter operation. In [4] the authors proposed a new method that

1
minimize the effect of interference between phases while maintaining the advan-
tages of the hysteresis methods by using phase-locked loop (PLL) technique to
constrain the inverter switching at a fixed predetermined frequency.
In this paper, the current control of PWM-VSI has been implemented in the
stationary (, ) reference frame. One method is based on space vector control
using multilevel hysteresis comparators where the hysteresis band appear as a
hysteresis square. The second method is based on predictive current control
where the three hysteresis bands form a hysteresis hexagon.

Model of the Three-Phase VSI

The power circuit of a three-phase VSI is shown in figure 1. The load model
is consisting of a sinusoidal inner voltage e and an inductance (L).

idc
Sa ia L + ea

+ C Sb ib L eb
Udc +

Sc ic L ec
+

Figure 1: VSI power topology

To describe inverter output voltage and the analysis of the current control
methods the concept of a complex space vector is applied. This concept gives
the possibility to represent three phase quantities (currents or voltages) with one
space vector. Eight conduction modes of inverter are possible, i.e. the inverter
can apply six nonzero voltage vectors uk (k = 1 to 6) and two zero voltage vec-
tors (k = 0, 7) to the load. The state of switches in inverter legs a, b, c denoted
as Sk (Sa , Sb , Sc ) corresponds to each vector uk , where for Sa,b,c = 1 the upper
switch is on and for Sa,b,c = 0 the lower switch is on. The switching rules are
as following: due to the DC-link capacitance the DC voltage must never be in-
terrupted and the distribution of the DC-voltage Udc into the three line-to-line
voltages must not depend on the load. According to these rules, exact one of
the upper and one of the lower switches must be closed all the time.
There are eight possible combinations of on and off switching states. The
combinations and the corresponding phase and line-to-line voltages for each
state are given in table 1 in terms of supplying DC voltage Udc .
If we use the transformation from three-phase (a,b,c) into stationary (, )
coordinate system:

2

2 ua
u 3
1
3
1
3 ub
= 1
(1)
u 0 1

3 3 uc

this results in eight allowed switching states that are given in table 1 and figure 2.

State Sa Sb Sc ua /Udc ub /Udc uc /Udc uab ubc uca u /Udc u /Udc

u0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
u5 0 0 1 1/3 1/3 2/3 0 -1 1 1/3 1/ 3
u3 0 1 0 1/3 2/3 1/3 -1 1 0 1/3 1/ 3
u4 0 1 1 2/3 1/3 1/3 -1 0 1 2/3 0
u1 1 0 0 2/3 1/3 1/3 1 0 -1 2/3 0
u6 1 0 1 1/3 2/3 1/3 1 -1 0 1/3 1/ 3
u2 1 1 0 1/3 1/3 2/3 0 1 -1 1/3 1/ 3
u7 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Table 1: On and Off states and corresponding outputs of a three-phase VSI

1 u3(010) u2(110)
U DC
3 S2
S1
S3
uref

u0(000) u1(100) a
u4(011) u7(111)
S4 S6

1 S5
- U DC
3 u5(001) u6(101)
2 1 1 2
- U DC - U DC U DC U DC
3 3 3 3

Figure 2: Switching states of the VSI output voltage

3
 Hexagon Hysteresis Based Control

Three hysteresis bands of the width are defined around each reference value
of the phase currents (ia , ib , ic ) (figure 3).

ia,b,c

time

Figure 3: Hysteresis bands around the reference currents ia , ib , ic

The goal is to keep the actual value of the currents within their hysteresis
bands all the time. As the three currents are not independent from each other,
the system is transformed into (, ) coordinate system. With the transforma-
tion of the three hysteresis bands into this coordinate system, they result in an
hysteresis hexagon area. The reference current vector iref points toward the
center of the hysteresis what can be seen in figure 4. In steady state, the tip of
the reference current moves on circle around the origin of the coordinate system
(figure 4). Therefore, the hexagon moves on this circle too.

bc,b

b
SIII SII

ie
SIV ie SI a

iref
i ca SV SVI ab

Figure 4: Hysteresis hexagon in , plane

The actual value of the current i has to be kept within the hexagon area.
Each time when the tip of the i touches the border of the surface heading out of
the hexagon, the inverter has to be switched in order to force the current into

4
the hexagon area. The current error is defined as:

ie = i iref (2)

The error of each phase current is controlled by a two level hysteresis com-
parator, which is shown in figure 5. A switching logic is necessary because of
the coupling of three phases.

ia
SI
ia,ref
SIV d

ib
SIII Switches
ib,ref Switching states
logic
SVI d

ic
SV
ic,ref
SII d

Figure 5: Structure of hysteresis control

When the current error vector ie touches the edge of the hysteresis hexagon,
the switch logic has to choose next, the most optimal switching state with re-
spect to the following:

1) the current difference ie should be moved back towards the middle of the
hysteresis hexagon as slowly as possible to achieve a low switching frequency;

2) if the tip of the current error ie is outside of the hexagon, it should be

returned in hexagon as fast as possible (important for dynamic processes).

In order to explain the control method the mathematical equations should

be introduced (figure 6).

i L + e

uk

Figure 6: The load presentation

di 1
= (uk e) (3)
dt L

5
 According to equation 2, the current error deviation is given by:

die di diref
= (4)
dt dt dt

From equations (3) and (4) we have:

die 1
= (uk uref ) (5)
dt L

where the reference voltage uref is defined by:

diref
uref = e + L (6)
dt

The reference voltage uref is the voltage which would allow that the actual
current i is identical with its reference value iref . In [5] the authors explained
why the decisive voltage for the current control is the sum of the inner voltage
and the voltage across the inductance of the load.

The switching logic for the switches has to select the most optimal out of
eight switching states according to the mentioned criteria. For the optimal
choice of the switching state, only two pieces of information are required:

1) the sector S1 , S2 , ..., S6 (figure 2) of the reference voltage,

2) the sector SI , SII , ..., SV I (figure 4) in which the current error vector
touches the border of the hexagon.

For the derivation of the stationary switching table one example would be
discussed. Let reference voltage vector uref be somewhere in sector S1 (figure
2). According to equation 5 the current error deviation is somewhere in one of
the hatched areas in figure 7.

These seven areas describe direction and speed with which the current error
deviation can move.

1. If ie touches the border of hexagon in sector SI :

To get back towards the middle of the hexagon, ie must move in direction of
a negative component. It means that vector uk uref must have a negative
component. The hatched areas A0 , A3 , A4 and A5 corresponding in full to this

6
 bc, b

u3 u2

u3-uref u2-uref

A3 A2
uref

u0-uref u0 u1 a
u4-uref u4 u7-uref u7 u1-uref

A4 A0,7
A1

ca ab
u5 u6
u5-uref u6-uref
A5 A6

Figure 7: Corresponding areas for uk uref

criterion are those that suit for states u0 , u3 , u4 and u5 . The second criterion
for the choice of the next optimal state is the length of vector uk uref , which is
proportional to the speed of ie . The speed should be as small as possible, which
implies that the length of vector uk uref must be the shortest. It can be seen
from figure 7 that state u0 is the optimal choice because vector u0 uref has
the minimum length.

2. If ie touches the border of hexagon in sector SII :

To get back ie towards the middle of hexagon, vector uk uref must be

below the ab axis. Hatched areas A0 , A4 , A5 and A6 fulfil this condition (figure
7). Vector u0 uref has the shortest length among vectors uk uref (k=0, 4,
5, 6). Therefore, state u0 is the optimal choice.

3. If ie touches the border of hexagon in sector SIII :

To get back ie towards the middle of hexagon, vector uk uref must be

below ca axis (figure 7). Areas A1 , A5 and A6 satisfy this condition in full and
state u1 has the shortest length of vector u1 uref and this is the optimal choice.

4. If ie touches the border of hexagon in sector SIV :

To get back towards the middle of hexagon, vector ie must move in direction
of a positive component (figure 7). Only state u1 satisfies this condition fully
and therefore, this is the optimal choice.

7
 5. If ie touches the border of hexagon in sector SV :

To get back ie towards the middle of hexagon, vector uk uref must be be-
yond ab axis. Only state u2 fulfils this condition and this is the optimal choice
(figure 7).

6. If ie touches the border of hexagon in sector SV I :

To get back ie towards the middle of hexagon, vector uk uref must be

beyond ca axis. Areas A2 , A3 and A4 (figure 7) fulfil this condition, but state
u2 has the shortest length of the corresponding vector u2 uref and this is the
optimal choice.

Similarly, the optimal switching states for all other reference voltage sectors
S2 , S3 , ..., S6 can be determined. Table 2 gives the complete logic for all sectors.

Sectors SI SII SIII SIV SV SV I

S1 u0,7 u0,7 u1 u1 u2 u2
S2 u3 u0,7 u0,7 u2 u2 u3
S3 u4 u4 u0,7 u0,7 u3 u3
S4 u4 u5 u5 u0,7 u0,7 u4
S5 u5 u5 u6 u6 u0,7 u0,7
S6 u0,7 u6 u6 u1 u1 u0,7

Table 2: Stationary switching table

The switching table for stationary behavior is derived for a movement of the
current error ie as slowly as possible [6,7]. Due to the fast changes of current
reference value iref , ie can be situated far outside of the hexagon region. In
this case, it must be returned as fast as possible back into the hexagon. For
the detection of dynamic processes, an additional larger hysteresis hexagon is
placed around the existing one (figure 8).

In dynamic processes the information about the sector of reference volt-

age uref is not needed. If vector ie touches one of the borders of the dynamic
hexagon in any sector (SI , SII , ..., SV I ) by choosing an inverter voltage uk which
directs straight opposite of the direction of current error ie , the speed of getting
back ie towards the middle of hexagon will be maximum.
For the derivation of the dynamic switching table one example would be dis-
cussed. Let current error ie hit the dynamic hysteresis band in sector SI . The
state u4 directs straight to the opposite of sector SI and it should be applied
in order to get back ie as fast as possible in the inner hysteresis area. There
are similar explanations for all other sectors (SII , ..., SV I ), which gives a very
simple dynamic table (table 3).

8
 b
Dynamic
hysteresis
SIII SII hexagon

Stationary
hysteresis
hexagon

SIV a
SI

d SV
d+h SVI

Figure 8: Stationary and dynamic hysteresis hexagon

Sector SI SII SIII SIV SV SV I

Voltage u4 u5 u6 u1 u2 u3

Table 3: Dynamic switching table

Simulation Results for Hexagon Hysteresis Control

The VSI is simulated in MATLAB using PLECS. The simulation result for
the explained hexagon hysteresis control is given in figure 9 (steady state). From
that figure it can be seen that the vector current error stays within the hexagon
area. If we apply step change in reference current that we have that the cur-
rent error goes outside of the hexagon, because the current changing causes the
change in the radius of the circle where the reference current moves on (figure
4), but the hexagon tolerance surface remains the same. The simulation result
is presented in figure 10 and the step change can be seen in figure 11.

Hexagon Current Control (steady state)

2

1.5

1
beta component of current error

0.5

0.5

1.5

2
2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
alpha component of current error

Figure 9: The current error movement in , plane (steady state)

9
 Hexagon Current Control (with Iref step change)
2

1.5

beta component of current error

0.5

0.5

1.5

2
2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
alpha component of current error

Figure 10: The current error movement in , plane (with step change)
Threephase current (reference value with step change after 0.001 sec)
4

2
current

4
0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.02

Threephase current (measured value)

3

1
current

3
0 0.002 0.004 0.006 0.008 0.01 0.012 0.014 0.016 0.018 0.02
time (sec)

Figure 11: Three-phase VSI current with step change in reference current after
0.001 sec (hexagon control)

Square Hysteresis Based Control

The employed current control method based on square hysteresis band work-
ing in (, ) plane is show in figure 12.

ia ref da
Hysteresis comprator Sa
Switching Sb VSI-PWM Load
table inverter
ib ref Sc
Hysteresis comprator db

ia
ib

Figure 12: Block diagram of the used method for current vector control

From equation (3) it can be seen that the current vector moves in direction of
the voltage across the load inductance, which is the difference between inverter
voltage uk and inner voltage of the load e.

10
 In this method we have only two tolerance bands (for and current com-
ponents). Therefore, the hysteresis surface is a tolerance square for the current
error which is shown in figure 13.

ie

iref
i

Figure 13: Square hysteresis area

Whenever the current vector touches the border of the surface, another volt-
age state is applied to force it back within the square. Similarly, as in the case
of the hexagon hysteresis control method, here the square tolerance band moves
together with the reference current such that the current vector points always
in the center of the square. For this purpose two hysteresis comparators for the
and components are employed.
A simple consideration makes it possible to control the current without any
information about the load inner voltage. If the current reaches, for example,
the right border of the tolerance square, then another voltage state has to be
applied which has the smaller component then the actual state. In this case,
regardless of the position of the load inner voltage, the component of the volt-
age across the load inductance and therefore the current deviation in direction
of can be reversed.
The complex (, ) plane can be divided into different sectors as defined by
the dotted lines in figure 2.

da db
h/2 h/2

3
h/2

2 2

1 1

0 iea 0 ieb
d d

Figure 14: Multilevel hysteresis comparators for and components

In -axis it is possible to apply four different voltage levels of uk ( 23 UDC ,

11
1
3 UDC , 3 UDC and 3 UDC ). In
1 2
-axis there are three voltage levels of uk ( 13 ,
0 and 1
3
). The exact selection of the appropriate voltage vector uk is deter-
mined by structure of the and hysteresis comparators and a corresponding
switching table (table 4). Hysteresis comparators are depicted in figure 14,
where because of the simplicity hysteresis levels are denotes as 0, 1, 2 and 3.
1
For comparator, level 0 corresponds to level 2 3 UDC , 1 to 3 UDC , 2 to 3 UDC
1
2
and 3 to 3 UDC . For comparator level 0 corresponds to level 3 , level 1 to 0
1

and level 2 to 13 .
The control scheme of this method uses one four level hysteresis comparator
for the component and three level hysteresis comparator for the component
of the current vector error.
Digital outputs of the comparators (d , d ) select the state of the inverter
switches Sa , Sb , Sc using the switching table:

, levels 0 1 2 3
0 u5 u5 u6 u6
1 u4 u0,7 u0,7 u1
2 u3 u3 u2 u2

Table 4: Switch logic table for square hysteresis control

The practical implementation of three-level hysteresis comparator is given

in figure 15. The implementation of four-level comparator is very similar.

1
d

h/2
1

d
+
0
d

1 h

0
d

Figure 15: Practical implementation of multilevel hysteresis comparator

12
 Simulation Results for Square Hysteresis Control

The VSI is simulated in MATLAB using PLECS. The simulation result for
the explained square hysteresis control is given in figure 16. It can be seen that
the current error vector is in the square area (steady state). The simulation
result for the step change in reference current is given in figure 17. It can be
seen that the current error vector goes outside of the square (similarly as for
hexagon control) due to the step change in reference current because the cur-
rent changing causes the change in the radius of the circle where the reference
current moves on (figure 13) but the square tolerance surface remains the same.

Square Current Control (steady state)

2

1.5

1
beta component of current error

0.5

0.5

1.5

2
2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
alpha component of current error

Figure 16: The current error movement in , plane

Square Current Control (with Iref step change)

2

1.5

1
beta component of current error

0.5

0.5

1.5

2
2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
alpha component of current error

Figure 17: The current error movement in , plane (with step change)

13
 Comments

Current regulator techniques based on the hysteresis control together with

switch logic are presented. The hysteresis hexagon control requires knowledge
of the parameters of the load, while the square method does not require that.
The simulation are done for the following data: E =150V, L=1mH, Udc =400V,
Iref =0A, (after t=5ms, Iref =2A). The simulation time is 10ms, = 0.8A,
h=0.4A for both control techniques.
Averaged switching frequency is higher for square method than for hexagon
method. The switching frequencies are different for different phase switches
(even for one type of control either for square or for hexagon control). With given
parameters of the circuit, for square control, the averaged switching frequency
(frequency during the simulation time) for Sa is 107kHz, for Sb is 107.5kHz and
for Sc is 100.7kHz and for hexagon control, the averaged switching frequencies
are, for Sa 94.7kHz, for Sb 94.3kHz and for Sc 81.4kHz. The hexagon method
has smaller switching frequencies because this method is based on the rule to get
back current error towards the middle of the hexagon area as slowly as possible,
which is not the case for square method. Also, the switching frequencies are
different for different phases because when one switch changes the state (either
from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0) that does not mean that other switches are changing
their states, too (for example, if state u1 (100) is applied after state u2 (110)
then only switch Sb has to change state from 0 to 1).

14
 References

1. S. Buso, L. Malesani, P. Mattavelli, Comparison of Current Control Tech-

niques for Active Filter Applications, IEEE Transaction on Industrial Elec-
tronics, Vol. 45, No.5, October 1998., pp.722-729

2. M.P. Kazmierkowski, L. Malesani, Current control techniques for three-

phase voltage-source PWM converters: a survey, Industrial Electronics, IEEE
Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 45, No. 5, Oct.1998., pp. 691 -703

3. B.K. Bose, An Adaptive Hysteresis-Band Current Control Technique of a

Voltage-Fed PWM Inverter for Machine Drive System,IEEE Transactions on
Industrial Electronics, Vol. 37, No.5, October 1990., pp. 402-408

4. L. Malesani, P. Mattavelli, Novel Hysteresis Control Method for Current-

Controlled Voltage-Source PWM Inverters with Constant Modulation Frequency,
IEEE Transaction on Industry Applications, Vol. 26, No. 1, January/February
1990., pp. 88-92

5. A. Ackva, H. Reinold, R. Olesinski, A Simple and Self-Adapting High-

Performance Current Scheme for Three Phase Voltage Source Inverter PECS
Toledo 1992.

6. F. Jenni, D. Wuest, Steuerverfahren fur selbstgefuhrte Stromrichter

7. P. Eichenberger, M. Junger, Predictive Vector Control of the Stator Voltages

for an Induction Machine Drive with Current Source Inverter, Power Electron-
ics Specialists Conference, 1997. PESC 97 Record., 28th Annual IEEE, Vol. 2,
22-27 June 1997., pp. 1295-1301

15