2012 2nd International Conference on Power, Control and Embedded Systems

A Study of Staircase Modulation Technique for

Single Phase Matrix Converter
Arinjoy Biswas, Student Member, IEEE, Jawahar Lal Jaiswal and Vineeta Agarwal, Senior Member,
IEEE

modulation [10-11]. A detail study has been made for cyclo-

AbstractThis paper proposes the implementation of inverter using different modulation techniques [12]. In this
staircase modulation technique to a single phase matrix paper the staircase modulation technique has been
converter for reducing the harmonic distortions in the output. introduced and applied to an AC to AC converter which is
The matrix converter is used as cyclo-inverter as well cyclo-
used for both step-up (cyclo-inverter) and step down (cyclo-
converter. Simulation results are shown for the converter using
MATLAB/SIMULINK software. Various parameters including converter) operation. The performance is evaluated in terms
output frequency of the converter, carrier frequency of the of total harmonic distortion and output voltage, as a
converter, number of steps in staircase wave, modulation percentage of fundamental voltage.
index, step size, length and breadth of each step etc., are varied
and results of each case are obtained. The minimum total II. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
harmonic distortion (THD) obtained is 1.003% for cyclo-
inverter and 1.209% for cyclo-converter, when only output Fig. 1 shows the power circuit of a Matrix Converter
frequency is varied keeping all other parameters constant at with 8 IGBT switches divided into two groups, i.e. Positive
carrier frequency of 3 kHz. The output voltage obtained is Converter (PC) and Negative Converter (NC), connected in
more than 90% of the fundamental, which is on higher side. anti parallel. The IGBT is used due to its high switching
capabilities and high current carrying capacities desirable
Index TermsAC to AC Converter, Cyclo-converter,
for high power applications. The output can be synthesized
Cyclo-inverter, Matrix Converter, Modulation Index (M),
Staircase Modulation, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) by suitable toggling of the switches subject to the conditions
that ensures the switches do not short-circuit the voltage
I. INTRODUCTION sources, and do not open-circuit the current sources.
An AC to AC converter (cyclo-converter /cyclo-inverter)
is a frequency changer that converts AC input power at one
frequency to AC output power at a different frequency with
one stage conversion. They are ideal for large AC motor
drives, VSCF (variable speed constant frequency) systems,
high frequency induction heating, arc welding and plasma
generation, power factor correction, industrial laser drivers
and so on. Eventual applications could range from power
grid stabilizers to ion rocket drives. A matrix converter can
be used as an AC to AC converter operating both in step up
and step down mode. The output of the converter is rich in
harmonics which affect the efficiency of the process being
carried out [1]. The conventional filtering technique cant be
used as it will have problems in both design and economical
aspects when it is applied to a variable frequency system.
Moreover, since the output frequency of the converter is Fig. 1. Power Circuit of AC to AC Converter
varying, use of tuned filter for eliminating each harmonic is
not at all feasible. The solution for this is hence, the use of The output is obtained by proper conduction of IGBT
modulation techniques as they can be flexible. Some of the switches in the two input cycles. There is a definite firing
techniques which are in use are sinusoidal PWM [2], delta sequence for a given value of Nr, to generate the high or low
modulation [3-7], space vector PWM [8] and trapezoidal frequency output, fo. The output frequency of the cyclo-
inverter (step up operation) is, fo = fi X Nr and output
frequency for cyclo-converter (step down operation) is, fo =
Arinjoy Biswas is currently the Assistant Professor with Electrical &
Electronics Engineering Department (EEE), Galgotias University, Greater fi / Nr, where fi is the input or source frequency and Nr is an
Noida 201306, India. He can be contacted at arinjoyeee2009@gmail.com integer that defines the number of times the output
and arinjoy.biswas@galgotiasuniversity.edu.in. frequency is more or less than the input frequency.
Jawahar Lal Jaiswal is currently the Assistant Professor with Electrical
and Communication Engineering Department (ECE), Ramswaroop
For step up operation, to generate an output frequency
Memorial University, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, India. He can be contacted double the input frequency a firing sequence that is adopted
at jlj1403@gmail.com. is as follows: For positive input cycle if the output is also
Vineeta Agarwal is currently the Professor with the Department of
positive, switches P1 and P2 will conduct while if the output
Electrical Engineering (EED), Motilal Nehru National Institute of
Technology, Allahabad 211004, India. She can be reached at is negative, switches N1 and N2 will conduct. For negative
vineeta@mnnit.ac.in.

978-1-4673-1049-9/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

input cycle if the output is positive, switches P3 and P4 will
conduct while if the output is negative, switches N3 and N4
will conduct. Similarly, for an output frequency three times
that of the input frequency, the firing sequence becomes
(P1P2, N1N2, P1P2, N3N4, P3P4, N3N4,.....) and so on.
This logic can also be extended for step down operation.
To generate an output frequency half the input frequency a
firing sequence that is adopted is as follows: For positive
input cycle if the output is also positive, switches P1 and P2
will conduct while if the output is negative, switches N1 and
N2 will conduct. For negative input cycle if the output is
positive, switches P3 and P4 will conduct while if the output
is also negative, switches N3 and N4 will conduct.

Fig. 3. Idealized waveform of Cyclo-Inverter for fo = fi x 2

III. STAIRCASE MODULATION TECHNIQUE

Fig 2. Triggering Pulses
Fig. 2 shows the mechanism to generate the triggering
pulses for Nr = 3, using two set of pulses having frequencies
50 Hz (supply frequency) and 150 Hz (Nr times the supply
frequency or desired output frequency). Let X1 represent
pulse at 50 Hz frequency and X2 represent pulse at 150 Hz
frequency. ANDing X1 and X2 results in the pulses required
by IGBT pair P1 and P2. Now, if X2 is inverted by a NOT
gate, then ANDing X1 and X2 results in the pulses required
by IGBT pair N1 and N2. Similarly, ANDing X1 and X2
results in the pulses required by IGBT pair P3 and P4 and
ANDing X1 and X2 results in the pulses required by IGBT
pair N3 and N4. Fig. 3 shows the idealized waveform with a
firing sequence of (P1P2, N1N2, P3P4, N3N4,.....) for an
output frequency twice the input frequency for a purely
resistive load. In order to optimize the harmonics and to
improve the output of the converter, gate pulses to different
IGBTs are modulated using staircase modulation technique.
First use of staircase modulation technique was given by
Kjeld Thorborg and Ake Nystrom [9]. Staircase modulation is
based on the principle of comparing a high frequency
triangular wave, Vtri with a staircase modulating waveform;
Vm. Pulses are obtained whenever the value of the staircase
modulating signal is more than that of the triangular carrier
signal. This PWM pattern is optimized in order to obtain an
acceptable output voltage spectrum over the full control
range. The frequency and the fundamental component of the
output voltage are independently controlled and they are
proportional to the control voltages.
Fig. 4 shows the method to obtain the desired output
voltage waveform. The pattern of the triangular wave is
retained as in case of most of the modulation techniques but
the sine wave (as in case of sinusoidal PWM) is replaced by
a staircase waveform. The staircase is not meant to represent
a sampled approximation to the sine wave. Two parameters
namely modulation index M = Am / Atri and the number of
steps are chosen to obtain the desired quality of output
voltage. The pulses obtained after comparison is then
combined with the control logic explained is Section II to
generate the triggering pulses for all the IGBTs, as shown in
Fig. 5 so that they can operate exactly as desired.

Fig. 4. Modulated Pulses from Staircase Modulation Technique

 a. Cyclo-inverter Operation

Fig. 7 shows the output waveform of the converter for

pure resistive load, where R = 100 . Fig. 8(a) shows the
output waveform along with its THD and Fig. 8(b) shows
FFT analysis for output frequency, fo = 100 Hz (Nr = 2) for
an RL load. All the simulations were obtained with RL load,
where R = 10 and L = 10mH. THD obtained is
approximately 1.12%. Output voltage is 98.84% of the input
supply from the FFT analysis.

200

O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )
100
Fig. 5. GATE pulse generation for power semiconductor switches
0

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS -100

SIMULINK software and its facilities are used to model -200

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
the converter using RL load. Since the output of the Time (sec)
converter depends on number of factors, each is addressed
separately. To know and compare the performance of Fig. 7. Output and THD of Cyclo-inverter for fo = 100 Hz (R-Load)
staircase modulation technique, it is important to obtain the
performance of an un-modulated AC to AC converter where O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )
200

no modulation technique is used. Fig. 6 shows the output of 100

a cyclo-inverter along with its THD for an input frequency 0

of 50 Hz and an output frequency of 250 Hz using R-Load -100

of 100 , without any modulation technique. It can be seen -200

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
that THD is about 31.61% which is quite high. Time (sec)
20

200 15
O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )

% THD

100 10
0
5
-100
0
-200 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 Time (sec)
Time (sec)
100
Fig. 8(a). Output and %THD of Cyclo-inverter for fo = 100 Hz (RL-Load)
75
% THD

50

25

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
Time (sec)

Fig. 6. Output Voltage & THD waveform for un-modulated cyclo-inverter

at output frequency fo = 250 Hz

Now staircase modulation technique is used along with

the un-modulated circuit and the results are obtained.
Parameters that can be varied are output frequency, carrier
frequency, number of steps in modulating staircase signal
and length & breadth of each step. The parameters were
applied one at a time and results were obtained for both
cyclo-inverter and cyclo-converter operation. Fig. 8(b). FFT analysis of Cyclo-inverter for fo = 100 Hz

Fig. 8. Results of Cyclo-inverter for fo = 100Hz

A. Varying Output Frequency
Fig. 9 shows the output waveform and THD waveform
The parameters used for the simulation purpose are: for output frequency, fo = 150 Hz (Nr = 3). THD values and
Input frequency = 50 Hz, carrier frequency = 3 kHz, input the output voltage values are given in TABLE I.
supply to the converter = 230V AC, M = 1, number of steps
(N) = 3. Now the results for different output frequency are
obtained.
 200 200
O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )

O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )
100 100
0 0

-100 -100

-200 -200
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
Time (sec) Time (sec)
20 20
15 15
% THD

% THD
10 10

5 5

0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
Time (sec) Time (sec)

Fig. 9. Output and %THD of Cyclo-inverter for fo = 150 Hz Fig. 12. Output and %THD of Cyclo-converter for fo = 25 Hz

Fig. 10 & 11 shows the output waveform and THD 200

O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )
waveform of cyclo-inverter for output frequencies of 250 Hz 100
and 350 Hz respectively 0
-100
200 -200
O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )

100 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
Time (sec)
0
20
-100
15
-200
% THD

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 10

Time (sec)
20 5

15 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
% THD

Time (sec)
10

5 Fig. 13. Output and %THD of Cyclo-converter for fo = 12.5 Hz

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06
200
O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )

Time (sec)
100
Fig. 10. Output and %THD of Cyclo-inverter for fo = 250 Hz 0
-100
200 -200
O u tp u t V o lta g e (V )

100 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
Time (sec)
0
20
-100
15
-200
% THD

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 10

Time (sec)
20 5

15 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1
% THD

Time (sec)
10

5 Fig. 14. Output and %THD of Cyclo-converter for fo = 10 Hz

0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03
Time (sec)
0.04 0.05 0.06 From the above waveforms it can be seen that the THD
waveform in case of cyclo-inverters vary in a narrow range
Fig. 11. Output and %THD of Cyclo-inverter for fo = 350 Hz while in case of cyclo-converter it is almost constant.

b) Cyclo-converter Operation B. Varying Carrier Frequency

The cyclo-converter operation is shown where the input
frequency is step down as per the desired requirement. Fig.
12, 13 & 14 shows the output waveform and THD
waveform of cyclo-converter for output frequencies of 25
Hz, 12.5 Hz and 10 Hz respectively. THD values and the
output voltage values are given in TABLE I along with the
value of cyclo-inverter operation.
Up till now only the output frequency is changed and
output and THD waveforms were obtained. Now second
parameter, i.e. the carrier frequency of the triangular wave,
is varied and similar results are obtained. The output
frequency is set at 250 Hz and all other parameters were
same as that of the previous case. THD values and the
output voltage values are given in TABLE II for cyclo-
inverter operation only. This can also be extended to cyclo-
converter operation.
 of each step.
TABLE I
%THD AND OUTPUT VOLTAGE OF CYCLO-INVERTER & CYCLO- TABLE IV
CONVERTER %THD AND OUTPUT VOLTAGE OF CYCLO-INVERTER FOR VARYING STEP
SIZE
Sl. Output Output Voltage as
%THD Sl. Output Voltage as
No. Frequency % of Input Supply Height Width %THD
1 5 Hz 1.254 92.19 No. % of Input Supply
1 10 Hz 1.220 92.75 1 1.0 1.25 1.297 92.96
2 12.5 Hz 1.276 93.14 2 1.0 0.75 1.246 92.95
3 16.67 Hz 1.244 93.98 3 1.0 0.5 1.159 93.01
4 25 Hz 1.209 96.49 4 1.0 0.25 1.343 93.08
5 100 Hz 1.120 98.84 6 1.25 1.0 1.115 93.20
6 150 Hz 1.207 93.99 7 0.75 1.0 1.264 93.33
7 200 Hz 1.236 93.17 8 0.5 1.0 1.307 93.38
8 250 Hz 1.193 93.15 9 0.25 1.0 1.325 93.40
9 350 Hz 1.153 92.43
V. CONCLUSION
10 750 Hz 1.003 98.37
Staircase modulation scheme has been applied to a matrix
TABLE II converter for both cyclo-inverter and cyclo-converter
%THD AND OUTPUT VOLTAGE OF CYCLO-INVERTER AT VARYING CARRIER operation to reduce the harmonics in the output that is
FREQUENCY
obtained in case of un-modulated output. The modulation
process is simpler to simulate and realize in MATLAB. The
Sl. Carrier Output Voltage as
%THD desired output is obtained conveniently by proper switching
No. Frequency % of Input Supply
sequence of the switches. Various parameters are discussed
1 3.5 kHz 1.196 93.18 in the paper i.e., output frequency, carrier frequency,
2 4 kHz 1.225 93.12 number of steps and step size. The %THD and output
3 5 kHz 1.206 92.86 voltage value in each case were obtained. When output
4 7.5 kHz 1.270 90.95 frequency is varied the minimum THD obtained is 1.003%
5 10 kHz 1.242 93.06 for cyclo-inverter when fo = 750 Hz and 1.209% for cyclo-
converter when fo = 25 Hz. The output voltage obtained is
C. Varying the Number of Steps in Staircase above 90% of the fundamental, which is high. Varying the
carrier frequency, minimum THD was obtained for 3.5 kHz.
TABLE III shows the THD values and the output voltage THD obtained is also well within acceptable range when the
values of cyclo-inverter for different number of steps of the number of steps are varied as well as when the size of each
staircase modulating signal. Here all the parameters are steps is changed.
same as that of the first case for output frequency of 250 Hz.
Only the number of steps is varied in this case VI. REFERENCES
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