There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Introduction to Electromagnetic Compatibility

Due to the continuous switching action of the inverter in the motor drive system, an electromagnetic interference (EMI) is generated in the system. Active EMI filter has a smaller volume and higher power density compared with the widely used passive EMI filter. However, for the conventional voltage-sensing voltage-compensating active filter and the current-sensing current-compensating active EMI filter, the active EMI filter itself needs a transformer to compensate or to sense the EMI noise and this will increase the volume of the active EMI filter. In order to save the sensing or the compensating transformer required by the active EMI filter itself, a voltage-sensing current-compensating active EMI filter for the motor drive system is designed. Combining the sensed common-mode (CM) voltage with the artificially fitted ac-side CM impedance network, the adverse CM current can be generated that can be used to suppress the dc-side CM EMI. This active EMI filter itself does not need any transformer in principle. Experimental results have validated the effectiveness of the proposed active EMI filter. It is shown that using this active EMI filter can simplify the structure of the active EMI filter and effectively suppress the dc-side EMI.

A Motor CM Impedance Based Transformerless Active EMI Filter for DC-Side Common-Mode EMI Suppression in Motor Drive System

Active cancellation of disturbing signals is a common method in EMC. In this paper, a specialized strategy is presented to minimize the disturbing harmonics of stationary clocked systems by injecting an appropriate harmonic cancellation signal with an adjustable signal synthesizer. The optimum cancellation signal is found via a convenient and robust adaptive approach. Each destructive harmonic is generated individually, and the cancelation signal is the superposition of a set of sinusoidal signals. As a special feature of this method, many troublesome effects, like delays or complex frequency characteristics, can be compensated easily. Several implementation variants can be derived from this general approach. Here, the variant, continuously adapted harmonics cancellation (CAHC), is considered. The system's limitations due to the ADC, the DAC, and the synchronization are described. An FPGA-implementation of CAHC is presented and applied to a dc/dc converter in an automotive component measurement setup to demonstrate the effectivity of the method.

Active EMI Reduction of Stationary Clocked Systems by Adapted Harmonics Cancellation

Active cancellation of disturbing signals is a common method in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of power electronic systems. In this paper, a new method of suppressing periodic disturbances is extended and applied. In this method, the disturbing harmonics are suppressed by a synthesized cancellation signal that is synchronized with the converter's operation. Here, the cancellation signal is synthesized from a number of destructive sine waves. The appropriate amplitudes and phases are found via a convenient and robust adaptive approach. As a special feature of this method, many troublesome effects, like delays or complex frequency characteristics, can be compensated easily. Therefore, this method does not suffer from the same limitations as previous active techniques. Until now, the method has only been proven for a small number of harmonics. In this study, it is applied to a wide frequency range of 150 kHz to 30 MHz of a 48-/12-V dc/dc converter, e.g., for automotive applications. An optimization strategy is developed from a causal model of the system. A test setup is realized, and the sensor's and injector's performances are discussed regarding the automotive EMC standard CISPR 25. Measurement results for the artificial network and the antenna are presented. The additional power losses are estimated.

Broadband Noise Suppression of Stationary Clocked DC/DC Converters by Injecting Synthesized and Synchronized Cancellation Signals

This paper deals with the application of spread spectrum techniques on power electronic converters to reduce electromagnetic disturbances. These techniques aim for a spreading of the harmonics in a frequency domain in order to distribute the power over a wider frequency range. By doing so, the levels of the harmonics drop. In this paper, both peak and average detector measurements are considered. It is shown that different parameters are required to minimize either peak or average emissions. The reduction of peak and/or average emissions is mathematically described for a sine wave as a harmonic of pulse width modulation signals. These spread harmonics overlap for high orders and/or high-frequency variations. It is shown that this effect is a limiting factor for spread spectrum in practical applications. The resulting maximum achievable reduction is analyzed. From these results, parametrization strategies are derived to fulfill specific requirements. In test setups, the precision of the proposed parametrization strategies is demonstrated. Additionally, it is shown that the results for peak measurements can also be applied to quasi-peak measurements.

Systematic Reduction of Peak and Average Emissions of Power Electronic Converters by the Application of Spread Spectrum

Cancellation of disturbing signals is a common strategy in EMC. In this work, a specialized strategy is developed to cancel the disturbing harmonics of stationary clocked systems. This strategy is refined by an adaptive approach to conveniently find the optimum signals for cancellation. As a special feature of this method, all troublesome effects, like delays or attenuations, can easily be compensated. From a basic theory, two implementation variants are derived: 1) Continuously Adapted Harmonics Cancellation (CAHC) and 2) Previously Adapted Harmonics Cancellation (PAHC). CAHC is implemented on an FPGA-system. The hardware, programming and performance of the utilized FPGA and its peripherals are transparently discussed. The effectivity of the method is demonstrated for a power electronic dc-to-dc converter.

Development of an Adaptive EMI Cancellation Strategy for Stationary Clocked Systems

Active cancellation of disturbances of power electronic systems is a common method in EMC. Most publications on this topic deal with the cancellation of either common or differential mode disturbances at either the input or the output terminals. In many systems, all disturbance modes of all terminals must be suppressed simultaneously. This is no trivial task since the different injectors for the anti-noise can affect each other. Therefore, a cancellation signal for the input terminals can worsen the noise at the output terminals, or vice versa. Additionally, due to mode conversion, common and differential mode can also interfere. In this work, synthesized cancellation signals are utilized that have already shown a very good performance in the suppression of periodic disturbances since complex transfer functions and delay times can be compensated. For the first time, a multi-port canceller is applied that injects synthesized cancellation signals to reduce the noise at four terminals simultaneously. The canceller enables a characterization of the system and an identification of the mutual coupling between the injectors. From this knowledge, the cancellation circuits can be designed purposefully. Furthermore, the mutual coupling can be respected in the calculation of the cancellation signals. A fundamental theory is described for DC/DC converters and applied to a 48 V/12 V converter in a measurement setup for conducted emissions according to the automotive EMC standard CISPR 25. The effectivity of the method is shown by measurements at artificial networks. The power losses of the cancellation system are estimated.

Andreas Bendicks

Papers

Active EMI Reduction of Stationary Clocked Systems by Adapted Harmonics Cancellation

Broadband Noise Suppression of Stationary Clocked DC/DC Converters by Injecting Synthesized and Synchronized Cancellation Signals

Systematic Reduction of Peak and Average Emissions of Power Electronic Converters by the Application of Spread Spectrum

Development of an Adaptive EMI Cancellation Strategy for Stationary Clocked Systems

Simultaneous EMI Suppression of the Input and Output Terminals of a DC/DC Converter by Injecting Multiple Synthesized Cancellation Signals