An Effective Dithering Method for Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Reduction in Single-Phase DC/AC Inverters

A comprehensive method of electromagnetic emission interference (EMI) reduction in dc/ac inverters through periodic dithering of the pulse-width modulated (PWM) switching frequency is presented in this paper. The periodic dithering is the process of changing the switching frequency of the PWM signal that drives the switches of the power electronics inverter. The effects of the various parameters involved in the PWM dithering process have been analyzed in this paper. The important parameters involved in the dithering process are the frequency range used for dithering, the periodic time of the dithering signal, and the phase of the dithering signal. The effect of each of these parameters has been studied to determine their values that minimize the EMI. Additionally, analytical expressions for theoretical prediction of the EMI levels at different frequencies have been derived for performance analysis during the design stage. The theoretical predictions for the dithering signals have been found to accurately correlate with both the simulation and experimental results.