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International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

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Vol. 3, Issue 4, April 2014

Microcontroller based Design and

Implementation of Single Phase Inverter
Using IGBTs
Pranshu Sharma1, Jayant Jain2 , Nirmaya D.3, Ayush Agrawal4
Department of Electrical and Electronics, R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
ABSTRACT : This Paper presents the design and implementation of a single phase inverter using IGBT as switch and
the study of the output responses. The inverter consists of two parts: the control circuit and the power circuit. The
control circuit is responsible for generating the gate pulses to trigger the IGBTs. The pulse width modulation technique
has been used to obtain pulse width modulated (PWM) pulses using microcontroller which are being used as triggering
pulses for the inverter circuit, so as to obtain the controlled AC output voltage. The power circuit consists of IGBTs
which turn on and off according to the duty cycle of the gate pulses. The single phase inverter designed and constructed
can be used as a part of a future renewable energy (harnessing and utilization) based project, wherein inverter is
expected to be an inherent part.
KEYWORDS: Inverter, Microcontroller, MOSFET,PWM.
I.INTRODUCTION
The current trend of increasing paradigm shift in power generation and distribution towards renewable and alternative
energy sources have given rise to excessive importance to distributed energy systems. Since the power harnessing and
storage from most of these sources are as DC, it needs to be converted to AC for compatibility with the existing AC
power systems. Inverter converts regulated DC voltage to AC voltage [1].Developing an optimized renewable energy
harnessing system is a very lucrative area in the power industry.
This paper describes a method to design a single phase sine wave inverter using IGBT as switching devices to obtain a
sine wave AC output of desired magnitude and frequency, and analyze the effect of various passive components on the
output waveform and try to improve the quality of the waveform. The desired output waveform should be a sine-wave
with very low harmonic distortion and clean power like utility supplied electricity. The pure sine wave inverters have
the advantages such as: Inductive loads like microwaves and motors run faster, quieter and cooler. It reduces audible
and electrical noise in fans, fluorescent lights, audio amplifiers, TV, fax and answering machines. It Prevents crashes in
computers and glitches in monitors [2].
Any device that uses a control circuitry that senses the phase (for voltage / speed control) or instantaneous zero voltage
crossing (for timing control) will not work properly from a voltage that has a modified sine wave-form. Also, as the
modified sine wave is a form of square wave, it is comprised of multiple sine waves of odd harmonics (multiples) of
the fundamental frequency of the modified sine wave. For example, a 60 Hz. modified sine wave will consist of sine
waves with odd harmonic frequencies of 3rd (180 Hz), 5th (300 Hz.), and 7th (420 Hz.) and so on[3]. The high
frequency harmonic content in a modified sine wave produces enhanced radio interference, higher heating effect in
motors / microwaves and produces overloading due to lowering of the impedance of low frequency filter capacitors /
power factor improvement capacitors.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
The developments in power electronics and semiconductor technology have triggered the improvements in power
electronic systems. The main components of a driving circuit for an inverter consist of power circuit, driver circuit, user
interface, mathematical models and serial transmission of data to the microcontroller. Based on power supply inverters
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International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

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Vol. 3, Issue 4, April 2014

can be classified into two types : voltage source inverter and current source inverter. A VSI has small or negligible
impedance at its input terminal that is, it has a stiff DC voltage source, where as for a CSI, it is fed with adjustable
current from a DC source with high impedance.
Recently, microcontrollers and digital signal processors (DSP) are used as advanced control techniques. Many
researchers developed the software for the control system, which confirmed the high quality of the control based on
microcontroller techniques [4] and to provide additional real time processing throughput in an inverter operation,
microcontrollers and DSP features minimize the CPU's overhead in an interrupt intensive application [5].
III.WORKING OF A SINGLE PHASE INVERTER
The Fig. 1 shows the gating signals IG1 and IG2 of switches S1 and S2 respectively. The switch S1 is closed for half
time period (T/2) of the desired ac output. It connects point A of the dc source to point C and the output voltage Vo
becomes equal to +V/2.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram for Half-Bridge PWM inverter

At t=T/2, gating signal is removed from S1 and it turns off. For the next half time period (T/2<t<T), the gating signal is
given to S2. It connects point B of the dc source to point C and the output voltage reverses. Thus, by closing S1 and S2
alternately, for half time periods, a square-wave ac voltage is obtained at the output.

Figure 2: Gating signals IG1 and IG2 of switches S1 and S2

For a resistive load, the load current is given by:
Io=Vo/R

(1)

Hence, the wave shape of output current is identical to that of output voltage, as show in Fig. 2
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Vol. 3, Issue 4, April 2014

The frequency of output voltage is given by:
f=1/t

(2)

By controlling the time periods of the gate-drive signals, the frequency can be varied.
IV.METHODOLOGY
3.1 CONTROL CIRCUIT
The control circuit generates complementary pulses for IGBT switching on and switching off. Complementary pulses
are needed for triggering the IGBTs. These are square wave pulses of magnitude 5V (approx.). In order to ensure
proper commutation of the IGBTs, a blanking time of approximately 100Sec (for an IGBT) has been introduced [6].
This is to make sure that both the IGBT are not switched on simultaneously (short-circuited).
A.SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION
The Block diagram representation of wave generation scheme is shown in Fig. 3. The AT89C51 microcontroller is used
to generate PWM pulses [7] to trigger the Power Circuit. The Generation of Digital Sample of Sinusoidal and
Triangular waves from the microcontroller are fed into the DAC 0808 and the analog output from the DAC 0808 is fed
into the comparator KF351 which compares the analog output from the DAC. The comparator gives SPWM triggering
pulses which is observed through the Oscilloscope and fed to the inverter.

Figure 3: Block diagram representation of wave generation scheme

The 8051 C Language programming for wave generation is used here to generate triangular and sine wave output from
the microcontroller.
The flowchart representation for microcontroller wave generation is shown in Fig. 4.The Sine and the triangular waves
generated are converted to analog signals using a digital to analog converter (Dual DAC) and the output is given to OpAmp (A741).

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Vol. 3, Issue 4, April 2014

Figure 4: Flow chart representation of wave generation

The Output of the Dual DAC is viewed using the CRO and the output is as shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.
The sine wave output terminal from the Dual DAC is connected to the 470K potentiometer which acts as a voltage
divider circuit and amplitude of the sine wave can be varied accordingly. Now the outputs are given to the Op-Amp and
the PWM signal is obtained as shown in Fig. 7. The PWM signal [8] is the output signal of control circuit which is
given as input to the gates of IGBTs of power circuit.

Figure 5: Generated sine wave

Figure 6: Generated triangular wave

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Figure 7: PWM signals on oscilloscope

3.2 POWER CIRCUIT
The Power circuit is a push-pull inverter circuit having two IGBTs acting as switches connected to transformer primary
winding with resistance and inductance in series. Load is connected to secondary winding of the transformer as shown
in Fig. 8. Control voltage is applied between gate and emitter of IGBT and DC supply voltage which is to be converted
to ac voltage is applied across collector and emitter of IGBT. The power circuit is as shown in the Fig. 8.

Figure 8: Power Circuit

The current flows through IGBT and the corresponding circuit including half the number of primary winding of the
transformer when IGBT is turned on. Complemented pulses are given to the IGBTs so that they turn on alternatively
and cause a Current flow through the upper and lower half of the primary winding alternatively and in opposite
direction. Resultant output which is taken across the load connected to secondary winding will be alternating sine
wave.
Resistance and inductance are used in series with switches to limit the sudden change in current (di/dt effect).
Transformer is used to provide isolation and flexibility in the circuit i.e. transformer ratio is chosen according to the
required output voltage.
The complete hardware experimental setup is shown in Fig. 9.

Figure 9: Complete experimental setup

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V.RESULT AND OUTPUT ANALYSIS
The output waveform obtained at the load connected to secondary of the transformer is distorted sine wave. We analyze
the effect of various components in the circuit on the output waveform and try to improve the wave form using
capacitance, inductance and diodes across the load.
1.

EFFECT ON RESISTIVE LOAD (WITH AND WITHOUT DIODE)

Anti-parallel diodes were connected across switches to prevent the large power dissipation in switches when
inductive loads are connected to the circuit by reducing the current stress on IGBT and aiding the commutation.
Theoretically there is no need of anti-parallel diodes across switches for R load. Since we are using a large
transformer some inductance was added in the circuit and hence even with the R load we are able to observe
considerable reduction in over shoot and significant improvement in the waveform by connecting anti parallel
diodes to the IGBTs. The output waveform on the CRO can be seen in Fig. 10.
Initially the waveform had large overshoot as can be seen in Fig. 10(a) but after the diodes have been connected
across the load the overshoot has been reduced greatly which can be observed in Fig. 10(b)

Figure 10: without and with diode

2.

EFFECT OF CAPACITIVE LOAD

As we have large overshoots in the wave form a capacitance is used across R load to control the overshoot. The
value of capacitance added with a fixed resistance value of R=750 and its effect on the output waveform is as
shown in Fig.11. As the value of capacitance included across the load increases the overshoot reduces. The
overshoot is minimal with capacitance of 5uF.It can be observed that by connecting a capacitance of 5uF across the
load the waveform has improved considerably as compared to the waveform when capacitance of 0.1uF was
connected across the load.

Figure 11: Effect of capacitance load

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3.

Vol. 3, Issue 4, April 2014

EFFECT OF INDUCTIVE LOAD
Inductive load test is one of the desirable tests for the circuit and for the stability of wave form. An inductance of
5H is connected in series with the 750 resistance and wave forms are observed by changing the capacitance
values across the load as shown in Fig. 12.

Figure 12: Effect of inductive load

With inductive load wave forms tend to be more distorted at normal operation. It can be corrected by connecting a large
capacitance in parallel with the load. It can be observed that as the value of capacitance connected is increased from
0uF to 5uF the distortion reduces and with capacitance of 5uF the waveform obtained across the load is almost a
sinusoidal waveform.
VI.CONCLUSION
The single phase inverter was realized using two IGBTs in parallel inverter configuration and the output waveforms
across the resistive load of 1K in the power circuit were obtained and were found to be sine waves. The output was
studied for resistive and inductive load and was found to be sine wave with minimal overshoot, hence satisfactory.
The different parts of the Inverter: the control circuit, the gating circuit and the power circuit or inverter circuit were
successfully linked to each other and the outputs of each stage were obtained. By analyzing various waveforms and the
effect of various components on the waveform we can say that voltage and current stress on the switches lead to wave
form distortion. By reducing the voltage and current stresses on the switches and ensuring proper commutation,
waveform can be improved.
The output sine wave can be further improved by incorporating harmonic filters at both input and output ends.
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