FPGA-based real-time simulation of a PSIM model: An indirect matrix converter case study

In this paper, an indirect matrix converter (IMC) which makes directly ac-ac power conversion, is modeled and simulated in real-time to demonstrate the capability of the new link between Opal-RT's eHS (electric Hardware Solver) and the CAD tool PSIM. An automatic methodology for the real-time simulation of power converters from PSIM circuit designs to FPGA is presented and discussed. A time-step of 250 ns is achieved on an FPGA computing engine developing up to 25.6 GFLOPS of processing power. Real-time simulation results are compared against PSIM as an offline validation tool, showing close match between the FPGA-based simulation and the reference.