FalconEye 3-Level

3-Level Inverter Reference Design

Driven by products from the fields of renewable energies and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), different manufacturers of power electronics components now offer IGBT modules that completely integrates a three-level phase. Three-level topologies have been standard for power in the MW field for many years. The main reason behind this is the much lower electrical strength that the power electronic switches must exhibit.

The other positive features of the three-level inverters are welcome but not of decisive importance. This is currently changing in the field of kW. In many applications, the use of a three-level topology is now often more cost-effective:

Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)
Inverters with high output frequencies (e.g. spindle drives)
Extremely dynamic servo drives with high clock frequencies for rapid regulation
Inverters for network supply (e.g. renewable energies, regenerative industrial inverters or battery management systems for smart grid applications

The franchise partners for this reference design are: Altera^® Corporation, Avago Technologies and Infineon. The FalconEye 3-Level provides a 3-level modulator that can be used in conjunction with an existing µC / DSP or as a complete control solution inside the FPGA. The 3-Level modulator is build in VHDL, the control algorithm is based on Nios^® II.

Key Features

3-Level Modulator
Extended Fault control
IGBT State machine
Compact design (system on a programmable chip)
Sigma-delta current measurement
Optional customer IP (PWM, custom instruction etc.)

Applications Examples

FalconEye 3-Level is not a finished product, but an FPGA initial aid for experienced inverter control or FPGA developers. It is assumed that the user adapts and expands the VHDL and C sources. Customer-specific solutions are not only configured as with a microcontroller, but must be programmed in VHDL or C.

The FalconEye 3-Level reference design addresses

Inverters for network supply (e.g. renewable energies, regenerative industrial inverters, or battery management systems for smart grid applications)
Inverters with high output frequencies (e.g. spindle drives)
Extremely dynamic Servo drives with high clock frequencies
Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS)

Hardware

3-Level Power Stage with the DBM3C40

Power stage
The power stage is build around three Infineon 3-Level 50A modules (F3L50). the gate drivers used are Avago ACPL-332 (for the outer IGBT driver) and ACPL-H342 for the inner IGBTs. For current measurement Avago ACPL-796J -ADCs and for DC-link voltage and IGBT module temperature ACPL-C979 are used.

Control Hardware:
The Falconeye-3-Level can be controlled by three different FPGA development boards: