A New Type Single Phase Switching Voltage Regulator

Ilknur COLAK Sukru ERTIKE

CERN-European Organization for Nuclear Research Istanbul Technical University
Dep. of TE/EPC, 1211 Geneva/Switzerland Dep. of Elect. Eng., 34469 Istanbul/Turkey
ilknur.colak@cern.ch ertike@itu.edu.tr

Main transformer
Abstract -- In many areas, the use of electronic devices
simultaneously results in overloads, voltage fluctuations, and
decreases in voltage quality. To protect the sensitive electronic
equipments from these voltage fluctuations and enable to gain
maximum efficiency from these devices, different types of
electronic and electromechanical voltage regulators are used in Variac
industry. This paper presents a new type single-phase voltage Vin Vout
regulator which has an isolated transformer connected in series
to the line and a special switching strategy. The proposed
voltage regulator has the capability of delivering sinusoidal
input and output current, good voltage regulation, and
bidirectional power flow. For these purposes, two full bridge
converters are used in the topology. The switching principle and Fig. 1. Motorized voltage regulator
the operation modes of the proposed system are described in this
study. The experimental results of a 5kVA voltage regulator are Tap-changing regulator is another widely used regulator
presented to verify the feasibility of the proposed system. type. The basic operation principle of these regulators is
adding or subtracting the number of turns on the secondary
Index Terms— AC-AC Power Conversion, Pulse Width
Modulated Converter, Switching Regulator, Voltage Regulator. side of a transformer by the use of semiconductor switches.
Since there is no movable part in these type regulators, short
I. INTRODUCTION term wear is not observed. They also result in silent and
simple operation. Their response time is generally equal to
The power quality of an AC voltage source is very one operation cycle which is quite long for sensitive devices.
important for voltage sensitive devices which can be In this method the regulation depends on the taps of the
seriously affected by voltage fluctuations. To prevent these transformer which means a large number of switches for a
affected devices which may result in failures and efficiency high control resolution. This also increases the complexity
loss a higher quality voltage source is needed. Different types and cost of the system [1], [3].
of voltage regulator circuits have been proposed to increase
the quality of the voltage sources for years.
The most well known regulator type in the field is
motorized voltage regulator which uses motor as a regulator
usually consists of two transformers [1]. As it is seen in Fig.
1, one of the transformers is a variac and it is rotated by a DC
motor to provide the voltage regulation. The second Vin Vout
transformer is the isolated one and serially adds the regulated
voltage to the line. Motorized regulators provide good
response to heavy surge currents whereby their very high
surge capacities. However they do not have a good dynamic
response, and they are not able to provide fast responses to
instant current variations because of their mechanical inertias.
Fig. 2. Tap changing voltage regulator
Movable parts in their systems increase their abrasion rate
and they require short term maintenance. On the other hand
Ferroresonant regulators consist of a high voltage winding
their transient suppressions are very poor.
and a capacitor as it is seen in [4]. This type of regulators
operates in the range of saturated flux. Even if the supply

978-1-4244-5287-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 1778

 voltage varies in a wide range, they can produce a constant
output voltage with a constant frequency. They also work as
a surge suppressers, and provide isolation and short circuit
protection. However, the output voltage of ferroresonant
regulators is not sinusoidal especially in the presence of
nonlinear loads. Because of their magnetic structures, the
output voltage may collapse when supplying a load that
draws high inrush current at startup. To avoid this problem,
they must be operated under nominal load with low
efficiency.
Today new types of regulators are based on high frequency
switching inverter technology and they operate with respect
to true RMS effective principle. Therefore they can provide
sinusoidal output voltage waveform. The most commonly
used switching voltage regulator topologies are given in Fig.
3. In the second circuit bidirectional current flow is available
while it is not possible in the first circuit. These types of
regulators have very fast dynamic responses, and they can
compensate the distortions exceptionally in the line voltage.
Because of having no moving parts, they have extended
operating life. On the contrary, their design and production
costs are relatively high. Moreover high current stress may
occur on the semiconductor switches due to hard switching.
And as it is explained in [5] very large LC filter is required to
eliminate the harmonics at the output side.
D1 D3 D5
Q1 Q3
Cdc
Vin
D2 D4 D6
Q2 Q4
(a)
D1 D3 D5
Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7
Cdc
Vin
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED SWITCHING VOLTAGE
REGULATOR
A. Main Circuit
The power stage schematic of the proposed voltage
regulator is shown in Fig. 4. Here the regulator is composed
of an isolated transformer, an electronic control unit and two
bidirectional full bridge converters which are switched at
50Hz and 20kHz respectively. A conventional iron core step
down transformer (220V/50V, 50Hz) which is serially
connected to the line was designed to operate at line
frequency. The main frequency of the voltage that is induced
in the transformer is equal to the line frequency (50Hz),
although the primary winding is switched at high frequency
(20kHz). Two low pass filter capacitors (Cp1 = 1µF, Cp2 =
1µF) are used to eliminate the high frequency signals in both
AC line and DC bus voltages. But no DC filter capacitor is
used in the system, thus a sinusoidal voltage is induced in the
transformer winding and the harmonics in the output voltage
are reduced, and the size and the total cost of the system are
decreased.
The power stage of the regulator operates as a PWM
controlled AC-to-AC chopper and controls amplitude and
phase of the transformer voltage. If a voltage in the same
phase (0º phase shifted) with line voltage is applied to the
transformer, a lower voltage value (depending on duty cycle
and turn-ratio) is induced in the secondary winding. So, the
D7
line voltage is increased to a higher output voltage with this
additional voltage value. If the applied voltage to the primary
Lf
winding of the transformer is 180º phase shifted, then the
Cf output voltage of the system is decreased below the input
Vout
voltage [6]. In boost mode the current flows through the first
bridge’s diodes and second bridge’s IGBTs, and in buck
D8 mode it flows through the second bridge’s diodes and first
bridges IGBTs. This system is also able to operate in bypass
mode by the help of a triac which is used in parallel with
primary winding of the transformer.
RCD Snubber
I. Full Bridge Circuit II. Full Bridge
D7
Lf
D1 D3 Ds Rs D5 D7
Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7
Cf Tp Ts
Vout
Vtr_p
Vtr_s

Cp2 Cs
Cp1
D2 D4 D6 D8 D2 D4 D6 Q9 D8
Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8 Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8

(b)

Fig. 3. Switching voltage regulators (a) Unidirectional input current (b) Vin Vout
Bidirectional input current.

Fig. 4. Configuration of the proposed switching voltage regulator.

1779
 During the tests it was seen that high voltage spikes occur
over the switching equipments on turn off time. This voltage
is sometimes higher than the maximum allowable dV/dt of
the switch. To reduce the total switching losses and eliminate
the high voltage and current spikes a resistor-capacitor-diode
(RCD) snubber circuit is used in parallel to the DC bus as
seen in Fig. 4. All the snubber components are selected
within the equipments which have very low ESR and self
inductance values.
B. Operation Modes and the Proposed Switching Strategy
As seen in Fig. 5 in every cycle of the first bridge, the
switches on one leg of the second bridge are switched at
20kHz, and the other switches are switched at line frequency
(50Hz). The voltage of the transformer is determined by the
duty ratio of the high side switches (Q5, Q7) on the second
bridge. The turn-on periods (during high frequency
switching) of the low side switches in the same bridge
determine the close loop duration.
The equivalent circuits during one switching period for
buck and boost modes are shown in Fig. 6. The switching
stages of the voltage regulator are described below:
Mode I: Boost (Phase Shift = 0º)
Stage I: This cycle starts by triggering the switches Q1
and Q4 simultaneously. The switches Q1, Q4, D1 and Q4 act as
a rectifier by operating together. The switching frequency of
the first bridge is equal to the line frequency and in the
second bridge the primary winding of the transformer is
switched at high frequency. In this stage, the circuit is
completed over Q5, Tp and Q8 enabling the induction of
voltage on the transformer with a frequency of line and
increasing the input voltage by an amount that is induced in
the secondary winding of the transformer.
Stage II: The second cycle starts by the turning off the Q5
switch and turning on of the Q6 switch. Q1, Q4, and Q8
switches stay at on position in this cycle. The stored energy
in the leakage inductance of the compensation transformer is
released over D6, Tp and Q8 closed circuit.
D1.TS2
Primary Voltage of  Vtr_p Deadtime 

≈ ≈≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈
≈ ≈ ≈≈ ≈ ≈ ≈
the Transformer 
Stage II  Stage III  Input  Q1 
Stage I  Stage IV  Voltage 
Q2 

Output  Q4 
Vin  Voltage  Q3 
Vout  (b) Close loop period 
Q5  D1.TS2 
≈ ≈≈ ≈≈

Q6 
VTR 

≈ ≈≈
Q8 
Q7 
Q1  Primary Voltage of  t 
≈

≈
t1_ON  the Transformer  TS2 = 50µsn 

Q2  Stage I Stage II

Vtr_p D2.TS2 
Q4  Primary Voltage of 
≈
≈

t1_ON  Deadtime
the Transformer 
t2_ON  Q1 
Q3 
≈ ≈≈

≈ ≈ ≈≈ ≈ ≈≈ ≈ ≈≈
CASE 1 
Q2 
Q5  Q4 
(c)
≈ ≈≈

Q3 
Q6 
Q5 
≈ ≈ ≈ ≈≈

t2_ON  Q6 
Q8  Close Loop Period 
Q8 

Q7  Q7  D2.TS2 

t
≈

CASE 2 
TS2 = 50µsn 
t
TS1 = 20msn  Stage III  Stage IV
TS2 = 50µsn  (a)
Fig. 5. Switching patterns (a) Boost Mode (b) CASE 1: Positive half
cycle (c) CASE2: Negative half cycle.

1780
 Stage III: In the boost mode, Q2 and Q3 switches are
turned on when the input voltage is in the negative alternate.
Since the polarity of the voltage at the end of the transformer
should be changed, Q6 and Q7 switches are operated in this
MODE I - BOOST
cycle. This prevents a phase difference to establish between
input voltage and transformer voltage.
Stage IV: As the current flows in the same direction over
the transformer, turning Q7 switch off starts the fourth stage.
MODE II - BUCK

D1 D3 D5 D7 D1 D3 D5 D7
Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7 Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7
Tp Tp

Vs Vs
Ts Cf Vo Ts Cf Vo

D2 D4 D6 D8 D2 D4 D6 D8
Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8 Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8

-Stage I- -Stage I-

D1 D3 D5 D7 D1 D3 D5 D7
Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7 Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7
Tp Tp

Vs Vs
Ts Cf Vo Ts Cf Vo

D2 D4 D6 D8 D2 D4 D6 D8
Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8 Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8

-Stage II- -Stage II-

D1 D3 D5 D7 D1 D3 D5 D7
Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7 Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7
Tp Tp

Vs Ts Cf Vo Vs Ts Cf Vo

D D4 D6 D8 D2 D4 D6 D8
Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8 Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8

-Stage III- -Stage III-

D1 D3 D5 D7 D1 D3 D5 D7
Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7 Q1 Q3 Q5 Q7
Tp Tp

Vs Vs
Ts Cf Vo Ts Cf Vo

D2 D4 D6 D8 D2 D4 D6 D8
Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8 Q2 Q4 Q6 Q8

-Stage IV- -Stage IV-

Fig. 6. The switching stages of the voltage regulator.

1781
A current path is formed by Q6, Tp and D8, and the stored also the period of the line voltage, and Ts2 is the switching
energy in the leakage inductance is released following this period of the second bridge. d1 and d2 are the duty ratios of
path. the first and second bridges gate signals respectively.
Mode II: Buck (Phase Shift = 180º) Here all the components are assumed to be ideal and
Stage I: When the line voltage increases over its nominal leakage inductance of the transformer and the dead times are
value, regulator switches into buck mode and the transformer ignored. In this case the RMS value of the transformer’s
voltage is polarized opposite to the line voltage. To provide primary voltage, Vtr_p, can be obtained as a function of
this phase difference, Q1, D1, Q4 and D4 in the first bridge, magnitude of the line voltage, Vmax, switching periods, Ts1,
and Q6 and Q7 in the second bridge are turned on at the Ts2 and d2 as in (1):
positive half cycle.
Stage II: When Q7 is turned off and Q8 is turned on, a ⎡ ⎛ 2πkTs 2 ⎞ ⎡ 2πTs 2 (k + d 2 ) ⎤ ⎤
closed circuit is formed by Q6, Tp and D8. So the energy 199 ⎢ sin ⎜⎜ ⎟
⎟ sin ⎢ ⎥⎥
V max 2 ⎢ 2d 2 Ts 2
∑ ⎝ Ts1 ⎠ ⎣ Ts1 ⎦⎥
stored in the leakage inductance of the transformer is released Vtr _ p =
2 ⎢⎢ Ts1
+
2π
−
2π ⎥ (1)
k =0 ⎥
during this turn-off time. ⎢
⎣
⎥
⎦
Stage III: Q2 and Q3 switches are turned on when the
input voltage is in its negative cycle. To create a 180º phase The variation of the Vtr_p as a function of d2 is plotted in
shift between line voltage and transformer voltage, Q5 and Q8 Fig. 8 for the line voltage of 220V / 50Hz.
switches are turned on in the second full bridge.
Stage IV: When switch Q5 is turned off, Q6 is turned on 250
after a dead time period, and creates a closed loop over the

Primary Voltage of the Transformer

transformer at the low side of the second full bridge. 200
C. Output Voltage Regulation
In this study, the converter produces an output voltage 150
which is similar to sinusoidal waveform by using a typical
PWM technique. The output voltage value depends on the 100
duty cycle of the second bridge’s gate signals.
Fig. 7 illustrates the induced voltage waveform in primary
winding of the compensation transformer ignoring the 50
leakage inductance. As it can be understood from the figure
the output voltage changes depending on the input voltage, 0
switching frequency, and the duty ratio. As the regulation 0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 0,9 1
frequency is equal to 20kHz here, 400 cycles occur in one Duty Ratio
cycle of the main period (20ms). Fig. 8. RMS values of the transformer primary voltage with respect to
duty ratio.
Vtr_p
Vmax= 2 .Vin The RMS value of the voltage at the secondary winding of
Ts1=20ms the transformer can be written as in (2), where n2/n1 is the
Ts2=50µs turns ratio of the transformer.
α = d2.Ts2
⎡ ⎛ 2πkT s 2 ⎞ ⎡ 2πTs 2 (k + d 2 ) ⎤ ⎤
199 ⎢ sin ⎜⎜ ⎟
⎟ sin ⎢ ⎥⎥
V max 2 ⎢ 2d 2 Ts 2
∑ ⎝ Ts1
n ⎠ ⎣ Ts1 ⎦ ⎥ (2)
Vtr _ s = 2 + −
n1 2 ⎢⎢ Ts1 2π 2π ⎥
⎥
k =0
⎢ ⎥
Ts1 ⎣ ⎦
−α
………………..… 400
The relationship between the input and output voltages is
given by (3):
t
199.Ts1
(k + 1).Ts1
α Ts1 k .Ts1 400 Vout = Vin ± Vtr _ s
+α Ts2 400
Ts1 400 400 199.Ts1
400 400
+α ⎡ ⎛ 2πkTs 2 ⎞ ⎡ 2πTs 2 (k + d 2 ) ⎤ ⎤
T s1/2 199 ⎢ sin ⎜⎜ ⎟ sin ⎢
⎟ ⎥⎥
Vmax n Vmax 2 ⎢ 2d 2Ts 2 ⎝ Ts1 ⎠− ⎣ Ts1 ⎦ ⎥ (3)
Fig. 7. Voltage waveform across the primary of the transformer.
Vout =
2
± 2
n1 ∑ 2 ⎢ Ts1
+
2π 2π ⎥
k =0 ⎢ ⎥
⎣⎢ ⎦⎥

In Fig. 7, Ts1 denotes the period of first bridge which is

1782
 III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS switch in case of requirement in the application.
The proposed switching voltage regulator was realized for TABLE I
a 5kVA single phase system where the apparent power of the Experimental Parameters of the Proposed Voltage
compensation transformer was specified as 1.6kVA. Fig. 9 Regulator
and Fig. 10 show the real hardware experimental layout of
Electrical Specifications
the system. As can be understood from the Fig. 9 all of the
IGBTs, triac, snubber circuit and two thermal sensor were Input Voltage 110Vac / 220Vac
placed on the same heatsink. One of the sensors was used to Input Frequency 50Hz / 60Hz ±5%
trig the cooling fan and the other one was used to disable the Voltage Regulation -20% - +20% for 220Vac
switching signals when the system is overheated. In this -40% - +40% for 110Vac
application the power module was realized by Power Factor 0.96 - 0.98
IXGH20N120D1 (IGBT) and BTA41700 (triac) switching Turn Ratio and
Np : Ns = 4.4 : 1
components. Apparent Power of
Str = 1600VA
the Transformer
Switching Frequency 20kHz
Control Circuit Output Filter 10µF
Output Voltage 110Vac / 220Vac
Load Power 5000VA
Voltage THD 3% (with linear load)
Overload Capability 150% - 2 minutes
Triac Dynamic Response 5ms (maximum)
Efficiency 97%

In Fig. 11, the system is in bypass mode, so the current

flows over the triac and load current, voltages across the D6
and D8 diodes are shown. When the gate signals are turned
Snubber Switching on, and the system begins to work in regulation mode, the
circuit Components voltages across the same diodes and the load current are seen
as in Fig. 12.
Fig. 9. The front view of the power module.

D6 voltage
waveform

Compensation
Transformer D8 voltage
waveform

Output Filter
Capacitor

Output current

Fig. 10. Power module from the rear view.

Fig. 11. D6, D8 voltages and load current waveforms while the regulation is
The experimental parameters and the operation conditions OFF (Ch1 = 100V/div, Ch2 = 100V/div, Ch4 = 50A/div).
for the regulator can be found in Table I. As it is seen in the
table the system was tested for both 110Vac (60Hz) and
220Vac (50Hz) AC voltages which can be arranged by a

1783
 capacitor is used in the DC bus.
D6 voltage
waveform D8 voltage Transition point of
waveform Q6 gate switching
signal the signals

Q8 gate
switching signal

Output current

Fig. 12. D6, D8 voltages and load current waveforms at buck mode (Vin =
235Vac), (Ch1 = 100V/div, Ch2 = 100V/div, Ch4 = 50A/div).
As they were analyzed in the previous part and also
illustrated in Fig. 5, the low side switching signals of the
regulator are seen as in Fig. 13 and 14 in the real application.
The transition point (from negative cycle to positive cycle) of
the low side switching signals can be observed also from Fig.
14.
Q6 gate switching
signal
Fig. 14. Low side switching signals (Boost mode - Vin = 205Vac), (Ch1 =
5V/div, Ch2 = 5V/div)
In Fig. 15 the system works in buck operation mode, the
input voltage is 235Vrms. Here the voltage regulator decreases
the voltage to the rated voltage by corresponding to the duty
cycle. In the same operation mode and also in the same input
voltage, the primary winding voltage of the transformer and
the load current waveforms are seen in Fig. 16.

DC bus voltage

Q8 gate
switching signal

Q8 switching signal

Fig. 13. Low side switching signals (Boost mode - Vin = 205Vac), (Ch1 =
5V/div, Ch2 = 5V/div)
Fig. 15. DC bus voltage and low side switching signal (Buck mode - Vin =
In Fig. 15 both DC bus voltage and one of the low side 235Vac), (Ch1 = 100V/div, Ch2 = 10V/div)
gate signals are seen. As it was already explained in the
topology description part, the DC bus voltage has the full
wave rectified sinusoidal waveform just because of no filter

1784

Primary voltage of the
transformer
Output current
Fig. 16. Transformer primary voltage and regulator output current (Buck
mode -Vin = 235Vac), (Ch1 = 100V/div, Ch4 = 25A/div).
In Fig. 17 the system works in boost operation mode while
the input voltage is 210Vrms. Comparing with Fig. 16, the
output current and the transformer primary voltage are in the
same phase here. As seen from the Fig. 16 and 17, the
voltage induced in the transformer primary winding is close
to ideal sinusoidal waveform.
Transformer primary
Output current
Fig. 17. Transformer primary voltage and regulator output current (Boost
mode -Vin = 210Vac), (Ch1 = 100V/div, Ch4 = 25A/div).
1785
IV. CONCLUSION
A novel switching voltage regulator which uses a PWM
technique is presented in this paper. Operation principles and
the switching strategy analysis were also described. A single
phase 5kVA voltage regulator prototype was designed and
built in order to verify the system performance. The
experimental results showed that this topology supplies a fast
dynamic response and a high efficiency (97%) comparing
with the other commonly used topologies. On the other hand,
without a DC bus capacitor, the regulator reduced the
switching losses, filters size and total harmonic distortions,
and also provided a sinusoidal output current. Finally the
realized 5kVA single phase regulator system gave the idea
that this switching technique can be applied to any full bridge
inverter and also three phase high power voltage regulators
moreover three phase regulators can be created with
multiplexing of this single phase regulator.
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