A High-Performance Pulsewidth Modulator for an Inverter-Fed Drive System Using a Microcomputer

An Intel 8086 microcomputer-based pulsewidth modulator (PWM) is described which receives digital voltage and frequency commands independently at the input, generates precision three- phase PWM waves at the output, and can be used to drive a transistor or thyristor inverter for ac drive systems. A computation intensive uniform sampling technique is used in the low-frequency region, whereas the higher frequency region is based on word recognition and pattern retrieval method. A laboratory breadboard of the modulator has been built and tested for the frequency range 0-250 Hz with resolution of 0.0077 Hz and smooth voltage variation up to square wave within a one-percent step in the whole range. The modulator has been extensively tested with a transistor inverter and hybrid computer simulated induction motor drive system and shows performance improvement over the currently available techniques.