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FPGA based control of a self starting CSI fed 2kW, 9.8kHz induction heating
unit

Conference Paper · July 2010

DOI: 10.13140/2.1.2266.4485

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Molay Roy Mainak Sengupta

National Institute of Technology Sikkim Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur
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FPGA based control of a self starting CSI fed 2kW,
9.8kHz induction heating unit
M. Roy, M. Sengupta
∗
∗ Department Electrical Engineering

Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur,

Howrah - 711103, W.B., India
Email: mainak.sengupta@gmail.com

Abstract—Induction heating is a non-contact heating process

and became popular due to the high heating precision and
efciency. In this paper the development and testing of a fully
operational closed-loop laboratory prototype of a CSI fed con-
trolled IHU is presented. The electrical performance of the circuit
is analysed using a software called SEQUEL. The triggering
pulses of the IGBT based buck-chopper, the CSI thyristors and
an auxiliary thyristor based start-up circuit are all derived from
an FPGA based controller built around an Altera make Cyclone
EP IC12Q240C processor. Experiments have been done with the
CSI feeding around 10A (dc link current) to the induction heating
0
coil to heat the ”job” to above 85 C while operating at 9.8 kHz. Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of induction heating process.

Index Terms—Induction heating unit, Current source inverter,

FPGA, control, SEQUEL Simulation, Testing.
The concept of induction heating, employed in the
application of an induction melting furnace, was already
I. I NTRODUCTION well developed and is shown in Fig.1. This concept can be
explained in a simple way as follows. First, the AC coming
Induction heating is a non-contact heating process. It uses
from the power source may be converted to DC using a
high frequency electricity to heat materials that are electrically
rectier. This dc may be converted to high frequency in the
conductive. Since it is a non-contact type heating process,
heating coil through a power electronic inverter. This causes
it does not contaminate the material being heated. Similarly,
a high frequency magnetic eld to be created (Ampere's
the molten material does not contaminate the heating element
Law) around the heating coil. If an electrically conducting
or source.It is also very efcient since the heat is actually
object, e.g. solid or scrap iron or aluminium etc. is put inside
generated inside the ”work-piece”, thereby preventing chances
the magnetic eld, then the induced voltage (Faraday's Law)
of leakage of heat. This can be contrasted with other heating
and an eddy current are created in the metal to be heated.
methods where heat is generated in a heating element, a
part of which is then utilised to heat-up the work-piece. A
sizeable fraction of the heat is un-utilised lowering the heating
efciency. Over and above there is minimal environmental
pollution. For these reasons, induction heating lends itself to
some unique applications in the industry.

II. BASIC PRINCIPLES

Fig. 2. The complete circuit for the power converter.

Induction heating is the process of heating an electrically

conducting object (usually a metal) by electromagnetic induc-
tion, where eddy currents are generated within the metal and
resistance leads to Joule heating of the metal. An induction
heater (for any process) consists of an electromagnet, through
which a high-frequency alternating current (AC) is passed.
Heat may also be generated by magnetic hysteresis losses
in materials that have signicant relative permeability (ferro-
magnetic materials). The frequency of ac used depends on
the object size, material type, magnetic-coupling (between the
work coil and the object to be heated).
It is a separate issue that the eddy currents cannot penetrate
deep into the solid metal to be heated and rather tend to
get restricted towards the surface or skin of the metallic
solid (due to same reasons as skin effect showing up in
transmission conductors or in the bars of cage rotor IM). This
leads to heating (predominantly on the surface) of the solid
metal and it becomes red hot. The depth upto which, due
to ”skin effects”,eddy currents are more and heating is also
more is known as skin depth. This phenomenon is utilised in
case of surface heat treatment. Even otherwise, the rest of the
metal also heats up. In case the metal is in powdered or scrap power to fall. On the other hand in case the dc voltage is
form or if the metal is not ferromagnetic, the entire mass of controlled (by a buck chopper after the rectier), then one
the metal heats up and may even melt. may maintain the link current constant as should be the case
for a CSI. Hence, a digital (DSP-based [2] or FPGA based[3])
The circuit diagram for the induction heating unit with start control scheme may be implemented to adjust dc bus voltage
up circuit shown in the Fig.2. The entire hardware fabrication so as to maintain the required dc link current.
of the power electronic converter [7][2] along with the start- Here the inverter operating frequency is xed at 9.8 kHz. Use
up circuit [3], and the induction heating coil fwas done in the of FPGA based digital control would mean a greater exibility
laboratory and in the local workshop. in applying the appropriate control. Presently, however a very
elementary control scheme is implemented.
III. L ABORATORY MODEL AND CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENT
The owchart of the control algorithm is illustrated in Fig.4
The circuit diagram for the induction heating unit with start- below.
up circuit has been shown in the Fig.2 and a photo of the
laboratory prototype shown in the g.6. The details of design,
fabrication and operation of the entire set-up may be found in
a companion paper??.
The circuit arrangement and operation may be summed
up as follows. In this circuit, 3 phase 415 V, 50 Hz ac
supply connected to the input of a 3-phase diode bridge
rectier (through a 3-phase variac). The output of the bridge
rectier is connected through a buck chopper in series with
a dc-link inductor to the current source inverter which feeds
the induction heating coil (in parallel with the commutating
capacitors). The resonant frequency of the parallel connected
coil-capacitor system is 9.6kHz [1]. A cylindrical iron ingot(
diameter of 7cm and height 15cm)serves as the ”job” to be
heated. The unit is operated at 10A of DC link current. At an
ambient of around 200 C, the ingot is heated to about 850 C
and above after 30 minutes of running.

IV. C LOSED LOOP CONTROL

A simple control scheme that has been implemented to

control the dc link current in the present induction heating
unit is discussed in this section. The load (induction heating
coil) parameter values change with the temperature. With rise
Fig. 4. Flow chart of the control algorithm

The simple control scheme implemented here compares

the dc link current (sensed with Hall sensor LEM 25P)with
the generated ramp of constant frequency (having a peak
magnitude of 2 p.u. w.r.t the rated dc link current). The output
of the comparator is the logic pulse for the buck chopper
switching device. If the d.c. link current decreases, the duty
ratio of the logic gate pulse will increase causing the amount
to be raised back to its previous value. A block diagram of
the scheme is shown in Fig.3. The ramp signal generation
and comparison takes place in the FPGA EP 1C12Q240C8
processor (on-chip) [6]. The gate pulses of the CSI thyristors
and the gate pulse for the auxiliary thyristor of the start-up
circuit is also derived from the FPGA.
Fig. 3. Block diagram of induction furnace control scheme
The FPGA design le for the generation of buck chopper
switching pulses is shown in the Fig.5.
in temperature, the load inductance decreases and resistance
increases. In case the d.c. link voltage before the link inductor V. S IMULATION AND TEST RESULTS

is unchanged, rise of load impedance will mean fall in d.c. link As already mentioned, the circuit diagram for the induction
current. This will restrict the current in the load and cause the heating unit along with the start-up circuit is shown in the
 Fig. 7. SEQUEL circuit of induction heating unit

Fig. 5. FPGA design (*.bdf) le for the close loop control

Fig.2. A photograph of the laboratory prototype is also shown

in g.6.

Fig. 8. Voltage across the coil and current through total load in
simulated result at 9.8KHz

Fig. 6. A photograph showing the laboratory phototype[3]

The performance of the entire circuit consisting of the power

converters (including start-up circuit) and the induction heating
coil in parallel with capacitor is simulated in SEQUEL (which
is a public domain software developed by Prof. M.B. Patil
of IIT Bombay). The SEQUEL circuit is shown in the g.7.
The simulation has been done at identical conditions as the
practical tests. The waveforms obtained from simulation and
the experimental waveforms obtained from practical tests have
been compared and found to be in excellent agreement.
To validate the above claim, some sample experimental
and simulation results (waveforms) at same operating
frequency(i.e. 9.8kHz) and terminal voltage conditions have
been presented below. Fig.8,shows voltage across the induction
coil (blue line)which is sinusoidal with a peak voltage of
29V, and net load current (i.e. induction coil and capacitors
bank, green line) for a dc link current of 10A. It shows
a square waveform of current and positive peak current is
10A. The experimental waveforms in Fig.9 shows the voltage
across the induction coil (upper trace) which also shows
positive peak of 29V (rms voltage is 20.35V). The current
Fig. 9. Oscilloscope plot of voltage across the coil and current
through total load in Experimental result at 9.8KHz(ch1: probe ratio
1:1, Y-scale: 20V/div, ch2: probe ratio 1:1, Y-scale: 500mV/div and
t-scale: 50 µs/div)
waveform (lower trace) shows positive level of 250mV which
can be calculated as 250m × 40=10A(current sensor output
ratio is 40:1). The results therefore are in excellent agreement.
Under the same conditions, the simulated waveforms of
voltage across the CSI thyristors 2 and 4 are shown in
Fig.10 and Fig.11. They are also found to be in very good
agreement with the corresponding experimental waveforms in
Fig.12(prove ratio 10).In both cases a peak voltage of 29 V
can be observed.
Fig. 10. Voltage across the thyristor-2 in simulated result at 9.8KHz

Fig. 14. Oscilloscope plot of D.C. link inductor current in Experi-

mental result at 9.8KHz (probe 10:1, Y-scale: 200mV/div and t-scale:
50 µs/div)

Fig.13 shows the simulated waveforms of the dc-link in-

ductor current (please note the vertical scale) with a positive
peak of 10.12A. This again is in very good agreement with the
experimental waveforms presented in Fig.14. The experimental
plots of the dc-link inductor current is taken from a 0.5 V/A
current sensor (i.e. for 2A current it gives 1V output volt-

Fig. 11. Voltage across the thyristor-4 in simulated result at 9.8KHz

age). Thus the positive peak is 500mV×probe ratio(10)=5V,
corresponding to 10A current.
Finally, Fig.15 shows the simulated waveforms of the
sinusoidal induction coil current with peak of 24A. Fig.16
shows the experimental waveform of the coil current which
is taken from the 10:1 current sensor (i.e. for 10A current
it gives 1V output voltage). It also shows a positive peak
of 240mV×probe ratio(10)=2.4V and a negative peak of
-240mV×probe ratio(10)= -2.4V. which is corresponding to
24A.

Experimental meter readings

Sl. meter reading Equipment

no. (rms) used
1 Supply line voltage 22.7V Multi-meter
Fig. 12. Oscilloscope plot of voltage across the thyristor-4,2 in 2 Rectier output dc voltage 28.5V Multi-meter
Experimental result at 9.8KHz(probe 10:1, Y-scale: 2V/div and t- 3 Load current through coil 14.8A MIA
scale: 50 µs/div) 4 Load voltage across coil 17.76V Multi-meter
5 Voltage across thyristor 11.8V Multi-meter
6 Current through D.C.link inductor 10A MIA

TABLE I
TABLE LISTING VALUES OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULT OF IHU WITH
FIXED DC VOLTAGE .

VI. C ONCLUSIONS

In this paper the closed loop operation of a 2kW, 9.8

kHz induction heating unit, consisting of three phase bridge
rectier, a dc-dc buck chopper and single phase thyristorised
current source inverter is simulated by using SEQUEL(a cir-
Fig. 13. D.C. link inductor current in simulated result at 9.8KHz
cuit simulation software). A simple FPGA-based closed-loop
control scheme is implemented on a small scale prototype that
is completely designed, fabricated and tested in the laboratory.
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Fig. 15. Coil current in SEQUEL simulated result at 9.8KHz

Fig. 16. Oscilloscope plot of coil current in Experimental result at

9.8KHz (probe 10:1, Y-scale: 200mV/div and t-scale: 50 µs/div)

The FPGA platform generates trigger pulses for the buck

chopper IGBT, the CSI thyristors and the start-up circuit
auxiliary thyristor. The start-up circuit was fabricated for a
self-starting IHU and the whole prototype was tested on load
and in closed-loop. The entire work was a part of post-graduate
project and thesis work [3].

R EFERENCES

[1] Sudhin Roy, Finite Element Based Design, Fabrication and Tasting of A
2kW, 20A, 10kHz CSI Fed single Phase Induction Furnace for Application
in Bar/Billet Heating, M.E. thasis, BESU, Shibpur, 2007.
[2] Bhaskaran Barman Ansys based analysis, Sequel based simulation, DSP
based control and Fabrication of a CSI fed 2kW, 10kHz induction heating
system, M.E. thasis, BESU, Shibpur, 2008.
[3] Molay Roy, Finite Element analysis, sequel simulation, FPGA based
control and testing of a self starting CSI fed 2KW, 9.8 kHz induction
Heating unit, M.E. thasis, BESU, Shibpur, 2009.
[4] Bimal. K. Bose, Power electronics and ac drives- New Jersey: Prentice-
Hall.1986.
[5] N. Mohan, T.M. Undeland, W.P. Robbins, Power electronics, Replika
Press Pvt. Ltd.
[6] Jayalakshmi Kedarisetti, Parag Anand Rajve, Ravi Krishna, FPGA Board
Document Version V1, Dept. of EE, IISc Bangalore, July 18, 2006.
[7] Suhin Roy, M. Sengupta and K. Mukherjee, Design and testing of aPower
Converter for a 2 kW induction heating unit with real heating load,
NPEC-07, 2007.
[8] Sudhin Roy, M. Sengupta and K. Mukherjee, Design of a 2kW, 10kHz
induction heating unit, NPEC-07, 2007.
[9] M.Roy, B. Barman and M. Sengupta, Fabrication and testing of a
laboratory scale 2 kW, 9.8 kHz Induction Heating Unit, submitted for
review for possible acceptance at NPEC 2010.