The document discusses the transition to digital control in power electronics, highlighting its advantages such as flexibility, configurability, and improved efficiency. It identifies three key issues to consider: numeric precision, timer precision, and changes in power converter behavior, which can complicate implementation. The document emphasizes that adopting digital control often necessitates new power converter designs to reduce losses and volume.

1. Three Key Issues to Watch out
for in the Digital Control of
Power Electronics
Your Digital Power Future – Roadblocks to Avoid

2. Digital Control of Power Electronics
Everyone is going digital – is it the right way forward?
There are specific advantages that digital control of power electronics provides when compared to
traditional analogue control. These include:
• Flexibility (being the main and key advantage)
• Configurability
• Re-tuning the loop for component variation such as Electrolytic capacitor freeze out at low
temperatures
• Management of the non-linearity of the converter
• Self measurement of the loop response in closed and open loop
• The ability to tune the switching times precisely to minimize the power loss and maximize the
efficiency

3. Three Key Issues
1. Numeric precision
• The number of bits in analogue to digital converters (ADC) can mean:
• Increased cost
• Limited output control
• Multiplications for internal calculations of filters reduce precision signals, potentially leading
to the digital filter failing to operate on small inputs.

4. Three Key Issues
2. Timer precision
• Pulse width modulator (PWM) or variable frequency/period oscillator (VFO/VPO) operates
from timers with a set time resolution from the clock. That time is quantized.
• The period or duty of the oscillation or modulator cannot vary continuously as it can for its
analogue equivalent.

5. Three Key Issues
3. Power converter behavior
• Commonly, going to digital control requires a new power converter development as opposed
to swapping analogue control for digital leaving the converter the same. This is because
reductions are required of:
• Power losses
• Converter volume
• Converter losses

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