High performance FPGA controller for digital control of power electronics applications

Recently, progress of PLD (Programmable Logic Device) like FPGA or CPLD makes it realize the digital control system of power electronics without microprocessor (CPU or DSP). Complex control algorithm can be implemented into FPGA and the calculation time can be dramatically reduced based on parallel processing hardware circuit. But commercial based controller board for power electronics is mainly designed based on DSP or CPU. In this paper, design concept of original FPGA based controller for power electronics is proposed. Cyclone III with 24k LEs(logic elements) is adopted as FPGA device, and 1MHz A/D converter with 8ch multiplexer, 2MHz D/A converter with 8ch multiplexer, 12×4 digital I/O (3.3V/5.0V), 40 digital I/O(3.3V), RS-232C I/F, SD card slot and ethernet I/F are implemented. Expansion A/D and D/A board are also designed to expand the high speed controllability. The proposed FPGA based controller can be widely applied to many power electronics applications. Demonstration of experimental result with 1MHz high speed sampling digital control method was realized, the advantages of FPGA based hardware controller is indicated.