Digital Control of Power Electronics Training Course

Introduction to the
Digital Control of Power
Electronics -4 Day
Training Workshop
Get the Digital Power Control
Advantage

601 E DAILY DRIVE, STE 112
CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
E-MAIL: ENQUIRIES@ELMGDIGITALPOWER.COM, WEB: ELMGDIGITALPOWER.COM
1
www.ElmgDigitalPower.com
2011-2016 by Hamish Laird. All Rights Reserved. Published by ELMG Ltd.
For more information, please contact:
ELMG Ltd
ELMG Digital Power INC
601 E Daily Drive, Ste 112
Camarillo CA 93010
Phone +1 805 764 2027
Skype: hamishlaird-elmg
hamish.laird@ELMGDigitalPower.com
Web: www.elmgdigitalpower.com

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
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Table of Contents
I. www.ElmgDigitalPower.com ....................................................................... 1
Table of Contents
Learning Outcomes – After attending the course
you will be able to:
II. Course Outline................................................................................................ 4
Day 1 Morning – Digital Control of Power
Electronics
Day 1 Afternoon – Converter transfer
measurement lab
Day 2 Morning – Digital Modulators
Day 2 Afternoon – Digital Modulators Precision and
Spectral Control lab
Day 3 Morning – Digital Control and Power
Day 3 Afternoon – Implementation – measuring
the converter and designing the controller lab
Day 4 Morning – Getting digital control robust,
rugged and maintainable
Day 4 Afternoon – Putting it all together lab
III. What other people have said about the
course .............................................................................................................. 8
IV. About the presenter Dr. Hamish Laird ...................................................... 11

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
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Who should attend?
Practicing Power Electronics Engineers
Experienced engineers moving into digital control of power electronics.
Recent graduates who have some experience (<5 years) and need to up skill in what is
important in digital control.
Software engineers writing software in digital power control teams.
Firmware engineers doing FPGA development in digital power control teams.
Mid-career engineers who are transitioning from analogue control to digital control.
Learning Outcomes – After attending the course you will be able to:
Close a digital power converter feedback loop in a stable fashion by following repeatable easily
understood steps.
Understand what the effect digital control’s limited bandwidth, processing power, number of bits
and dynamic range have in digital power electronic control.
Understand the interaction of power electronics and digital control. This includes sampling and
aliasing in the context of fixed and variable frequency switching power converters.
Take away methods and steps to solve design issues such as one sample noise, precision limits in
filters and controllers, non-linearity, quantisation and other digital effects.

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
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Course Outline
The objectives of this course are to provide solutions to the key issues in digital signal processing
using microcontrollers, microprocessors, DSP and FPGA so these can be used effectively in the
control of power electronics.
Day 1 Morning – Digital Control of Power
Electronics
The morning of day 1 presents a short introduction to control. The use of block diagrams, transfer
functions and frequency response is then covered.
 The Control Block Diagram – digital differences.
 What is important in digital control?
 The short history of control
 Control FAQs
 Frequency responses
 Domains and how and when to use them, s, z, modified z, and delta
 Key control concepts from a digital point of view, bandwidth, precision, in band and
crossover.
 Controllers you will meet, PI, P, LP,
 Digital only controllers.
 Loop Shaping control design
 Truths about control
Day 1 Afternoon – Converter transfer
measurement lab
 Measuring converter transfers using analysers.
 Measuring converter transfers using the digital controllers

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
5
Day 2 Morning – Digital Modulators
 Digital modulators and why they are so important
 Digital PWM characteristics
 What we want from digital PWM
 Effective numbers of bits
 Variable Period Oscillators VPO as modulators
 Increasing the effective number of bits
 Spectral control of digital modulators
 How to “fix” your modulator
Day 2 Afternoon – Digital Modulators Precision
and Spectral Control lab
 Modulator performance
 Modulator improvement
 Spectral effects and accuracy improvement

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
6
Day 3 Morning – Digital Control and Power
Power converters and their typical characteristics are covered. The usefulness of modelling and
measuring to get transfer functions is covered. Structures of digital controllers are then
presented and used to design a digital controller
 The power converter
 Modelling of converters
 Measuring of converters
 Designing with control in mind
 Digital controllers
 The Unit circle and Pole Zero Plots, useful pole zero combinations.
 Implementing these pole zero combinations on your MCU/DSP
 Where digital control of power electronics is different from analogue control
 Where digital control of power electronics is the same as analogue control
 Practising closing the digital power electronic control loop. Worked examples.
 Summary, recap and questions.
 The building blocks of digital control
 Analogue to digital converters, precision, speed, number of bits, linearity
 Software, Firmware
 Filters for the control block
 Other useful domains – modified z and delta transforms
 Control blocks integrators, filters, lead and lag
 Anti-aliasing filters and aliasing
 The use and usefulness of three phase converters
 Signal processing for three phase systems
 Summary, recap and questions
Day 3 Afternoon – Implementation –
measuring the converter and designing the
controller lab
 Converter measurements
 Compensator design and implementation
 Loop closing
 Performance

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Day 4 Morning – Getting digital control
robust, rugged and maintainable
The robust, rugged and maintainable digital controller.
 Ensuring that the digital controller design is going to work
 Quantisation – assessing the effect and if there is a problem
 Precision – fixing any low precision effects
 Integrators – why these are usually problematic
 Fixing digital integrator problems.
 Single sample noise
 Aliasing and how to analyse it
 Production variation and margins
 Converter non linearity
 You and your software engineer
 Verification of software
 Validation of software.
Day 4 Afternoon – Putting it all together lab
.
 Starting at the very beginning with power converter design
 Designing the power converter for control
 Choosing the microprocessor
 Assessing the processing power you need before buying the processor.
 The effect of delay – dealing with delay
 Converter non linearity
 Number of bits you actually need
 Extending the number of bits
 Digital Modulators – linearizing for the converter where possible.
 Compensator
 Analogue to digital converter
 Anti-aliasing filter design

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
8
What other people have said about the
course
After the course we ask people what they think. Here are summaries of the responses.

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
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Talk to someone who has attended the course?
E-mail enquiries@elmgdigitalpower.com and we will get you talking.
"Had very high expectations of this course. Hamish delivered. Excellent for power
engineers who are starting digital power. Thanks for putting this on...I only regret it
is a 3 day course. I could sit here for 3 more days"
"This course was full of critical material not found in the app notes. Very enjoyable
and well taught."
"Good course. Hamish knows his material. I'll be able to apply this coursework to
my work."
“I would highly recommend the ELMG digital control course to all power
electronics engineers. What makes this course particularly valuable is in the
practical approach and relevance to the control of power electronics. The topic
of digital control is a very broad subject and hence the specific challenges and
applicable tools are very different depending on the application details.
Many digital control / DSP courses try to approach the topic from a very generic
broad approach, treating all applications in the same way. The classic approach
involves starting from a conventional analog control model and then adding ADC
and DAC blocks to change between the analog and digital domains with a
digital controller replacing the traditional analog controller.
The problem with this classic approach is that it is not a practical or applicable
method for designing high bandwidth controllers for use for the control of power
converters.
The ELMG digital control course specifically focuses on the control of power
electronics and hence the course only considers concepts and techniques that
are applicable to the control of power electronics. The course covers a wide

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
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range of digital control theory and introduces the power electronics engineer to
all of the state of the art digital control concepts. This course is a must for any
power electronics engineer who is involved in the digital control of power
converters.”
Michael Harrison.  
Senior Director 
Power Conversion Strategy
Enphase Energy
Petaluma CA 94954 USA
What you get at the course
 Four days of unique targeted training on digital power electronics control that covers the
detail of both digital control and power electronics and how they go together.
 Copy of the slide presentation course booklet covering the material presented.
 Lunch – please advise any special dietary needs when you book.
 The ability to close a digital power converter feedback loop in a stable fashion by
following repeatable easily understood steps.
 Techniques to understand what the effect digital control’s limited bandwidth, processing
power, number of bits and dynamic range have in digital power electronic control.
 Knowledge of the interaction of power electronics and digital control. This includes
sampling and aliasing in the context of fixed and variable frequency switching power
converters.
 Take away methods and steps to solve design issues such as one sample noise, precision
limits in filters and controllers, non-linearity, quantization and other digital effects.

CAMARILLO CA 93010
PHONE +1 805 764 2027
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About the presenter Dr. Hamish Laird
Dr. Hamish Laird is a Principal Engineer at ELMG Digital Power,
Christchurch, New Zealand.
ELMG Digital Power was formed in 2001 by people who have collectively been involved
worldwide with digital control of power electronics since 1992.
Hamish is also an adjunct Senior Researcher at the University of Canterbury Dept. of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Christchurch, New Zealand where he has taught
power electronics and is involved in power electronics research.
Hamish Laird is a member of the IEEE.
Hamish Laird studied for the Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the
University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand from 1987 to 1990. Immediately
following this he completed a Master's at the same University. The area of research was
in active filtering with the Thesis title “A resonant link shunt active filter for the power
system”.
From 1992 to 1994 he worked as a design engineer developing induction motor starters
and variable speed drives at AuCom Electronics, Christchurch, New Zealand.
After traveling, living in the USA, Hamish worked at GEC Alsthom (now Alstom)
Transmission and Distribution Power Electronics Systems, Stafford, England, UK in 1995
and 1996.
Here Hamish worked performing analysis of HVDC transmission systems and SVC
reactive power control systems including the design for series connection of SCRs. In
1996 Hamish joined Eurotherm Drives (now Parker Hannifin SSD Drives), Littlehampton,
England where he worked in product development of DC and AC motor drives.

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In 1998 Hamish commenced study for the PhD degree in the Department of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. The
title of the thesis completed in 2001 was “Modelling and measurement of non-linear
rectifier loads and their interaction with shunt active filters”. Hamish is the author of 17
academic papers on digital power electronics and power quality.
Hamish works in developing digitally controlled power converters and controllers for
converters. Hamish is a well-regarded teacher, engineer, researcher and public
speaker.

Digital Control of Power Electronics Training Course

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