Implementation of digital signal processing techniques in thedesign of thermal pulse flowmeters

Various digital signal processing methods, which could be applicable to the design of a microcomputer-based thermal pulse flowmeter, are examined. Two excitation methods are investigated: a single thermal pulse, and a pseudorandom binary sequence signal (PRBS). The signal recovered downstream is processed by two alternative numerical algorithms to recover the time of flight (i.e. by peak detection of the signal itself and the peak of the differentiated signal). The recovered thermal pulse and the time of flight are then used to test the validity of two models: a diffusion-advection model and a simple time-delay model. The delay model is found to be compatible with the data, especially when the peak of the output signal derivative is used as a marker for determining the time of flight. The single-pulse injection method is found, in general, to be superior to the PRBS cross-correlation technique, except for the ability of the latter to provide early indication of flow-rate variations     

Design and performance of an electronic ballast for high-pressuresodium (HPS) lamps

An electronic ballast for high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps was designed and evaluated, theoretically and experimentally. The ballast is based on the half-bridge topology and includes a high-voltage ignitor and dimming capability. It was used to drive and examine the high frequency characteristics of a commercial HPS lamp (NAV-T 150 W (SON-T), OSRAM). The experimental results reveal that, for the frequency range of this study (27-75 kHz), the lamp is free of the acoustic resonance problem. It was also found that, for the present experimental conditions, the lamp is purely resistive, and the resistance is practically independent of the power level and operating frequency. The lamp exhibited stable operation over a very large dimming range, down to about 7% of nominal power. The 2.8-kV ignition pulse was found to be sufficient for both cold and hot startup under the proposed operating conditions     

Maximum power tracking of piezoelectric transformer HV converters under load variations

The problem of maximum power point tracking of high output dc voltage converters that apply piezoelectric transformers (PT) and voltage doublers was studied theoretically and experimentally. It was shown that the operating frequency of the PT, at which maximum power is reached, is a function of the load. Hence, under load variations, and to overcome parameter instability, there is a need for some frequency tracking mechanism that will help to lock the operating frequency to the optimum one. The proposed method to achieve frequency tracking is based on a phase locked loop (PLL). The PLL inputs are the phase of the input voltage driving the PT and the phase of the current flowing through one of the voltage doubler diodes. Theoretical analysis, verified by experiments, shows that when the phase shift of the diode current relative the phase of the input voltage is zero, the voltage gain of the system is at its maximum. By applying this approach, the system's operation can be made independent of input voltage, load variations, temperature (within a permitted range), and the spread and nonlinearity of the PT parameters, as well as their drift with time.     

H∞ control applied to boost power converters

The controller in a pulse-width-modulation (PWM) power converter has to stabilize the system and guarantee an almost constant output voltage in spite of the perturbations in the input voltage and output load over as large a bandwidth as possible. Boost and flyback power converters have a right-half-plane zero (RHPZ) in their transfer function from the duty cycle to the output voltage, which makes it difficult to achieve the aforementioned goals. Here, the authors propose to design a controller using H^∞ control theory, via the solution of two algebraic Riccati equations. The almost optimal H^∞ controller is of the same order as the converter and has a relatively low DC gain. The closed-loop characteristics of a typical low-power boost power converter with four different control schemes were compared by computer simulation. The H^∞ control was found to be superior in a wide frequency range, while being outperformed by the others at extremely low frequencies. Good agreement was found between simulation results and experimental measurements     

A SPICE model for current mode PWM converters operating undercontinuous inductor current conditions

A SPICE simulation model of current-mode pulse-width modulation (PWM) converters operating in the continuous mode is described and tested against analytical expressions and experimental data for buck and boost converters. The simulation model is also used to compare an earlier average model to a recently suggested modification and to examine the effect of the gain factor in the current feedback path     

Generic operational characteristics of piezoelectric transformers

The universal attributes of piezoelectric transformers (PT) were derived by an approximate analysis that yielded closed form equations relating the normalized load resistance to the voltage gain, output power per unit and efficiency. Based on the results of the study, a calculation procedure is developed for specifying a PT for any given application and is demonstrated by considering the design of a fluorescent lamp driver. It is suggested that the closed form formulae, developed in this study, could be invaluable when studying, specifying and designing practical PTs applications.     

PWM converters with resistive input

An average modeling methodology is proposed for deriving pulsewidth modulation (PWM) programming rules that cause DC-DC converters to look resistive at the input terminals. The method can be useful in the design of active power factor correctors that do not need to sense the input voltage     

A unified approach to teaching feedback in electronic circuitscourses

A generalized negative feedback model is proposed as a vehicle for teaching feedback amplifiers in engineering schools. The model applies to both discrete and operational amplifier configurations and does not dictate the use of specific gain definitions (such as transconductance) for analyzing a given negative feedback amplifier. The main features of the suggested methodology and examples for quick evaluation of closed-loop gain, frequency response, and input and output impedances of negative feedback amplifiers are presented. The proposed method has been successfully tested in the class room over the past two years     

Design and Analysis of Output Voltage Regulation in Multi-Phase Switched Capacitor Converters

A new regulation method based on duty cycle control of the average currents in the multi-phase switched capacitor converters (SCC) is proposed, analyzed, and verified experimentally for the no effective charging case, also known as the fast switching limit. The regulation is accomplished by adjusting the value of the SCC equivalent resistance. To this end, the time slots allotted to each of the SCC topologies are adjusted, while the total switching period is kept constant. The time slots are represented by master and slave duty cycles. By this, the SCC output voltage is expressed analytically as a function of the master duty cycle. In a similar way, analytical expressions for the voltages across the flying capacitors and for the average currents in each of the topologies can be obtained. Excellent agreement was found between the theoretical and experimental results.