FPGA-based predictive current control of a three-phase active front end rectifier

A predictive current controller for a active front end rectifier is presented in this paper. The predictive algorithm is implemented on a FPGA platform, using a state machine and taking advantages of the parallel processing provided by these devices. The next step model calculations and cost function evaluation required by the predictive controller are executed, for all the possible witching states, in only one clock cycle each one. The optimization procedure is implemented using a three step algorithm based on successive comparisons. Using these approaches, the execution time is drastically improved compared to a sequential predictive algorithm implementation. Simulations results using a current control of an active front end rectifier shows that the algorithm performs a very small execution time. Therefore, it is possible to increase the sampling frequency, improving the harmonic content of the input currents.