0000000000184251

AUTHOR

R. Garcia-gil

A PC-based low cost impedance and gain-phase analyzer

Abstract In this paper, we present a practical and inexpensive impedance/gain-phase analyzer (IGPA), which is very useful in the design of electronic circuits. This instrument allows the Bode diagram of any network or electronic circuit with an input and an output to be obtained, even though this implementation was not previously known. It can also obtain the module and phase diagrams of any impedance separately. The device under test (DUT) is connected to a personal computer (PC) via the parallel port by means of an electronic circuit implemented for this purpose. The results are shown on the screen of the PC and can be accessible for use in any further operation. The instrument operates i…

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Development details and performance assessment of a Wind Turbine Emulator

This paper describes an experimental platform to emulate the static and dynamic behavior of real Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS). The Wind Turbine Emulator (WTE) consists of two coupled 1.5 kW squirrel-cage induction machines. The WTE calculations are performed on a PC and a DSP, both connected via USB. The total torque applied to the WTE motor is the difference of the scaled wind mechanical torque calculated on the PC, and the turbine inertia torque calculated on the DSP. An improved WTE shaft speed derivative has been used for the inertia torque calculation, which provides better results in terms of attenuation of the high-frequency harmonics present in the generator speed acquisiti…

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Transconductance Converters Based on Current Mirrors Applied to pH Measurement Using ISFET Sensors

New transconductance circuits (V/I converters) are designed based on current mirrors and operational amplifiers. Their input/output characteristics and the influence of DC parameters are obtained. Experimental results were performed, comparing them with the simulated results. An electronic instrumentation circuit is designed based on one of the transconductance converters analyzed. The purpose of this circuit was to condition the response of an ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) to measure pH. In the proposed application, the V/I converter presented provides the stability and accuracy of the ISFET operating point, making an easy characterization procedure and the design of multic…

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Electronic Design for a Bleeding Detector to be Used in Intraoperative Radiotherapy Applications

An electronic design for a bleeding detector used with mobile linac during intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) is presented. It consists on a readout circuit based on a De Sauty Bridge and a wireless power supply using a supercapacitor. The goal is the measurement of the height of fluid present in the applicator in order to avoid a misadministration dose during the irradiation process. A minimum measurement height of 5 mm is required by clinic to be confident with the selected radiation dose. The measurement circuit uses a capacitive sensor which detects variations lower than 0.1 pF. The readout circuit converts dynamic capacitance variation from the bleeding detector into an analog voltage …

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Parameterizing non-linear magnetic cores for PSpice Simulation

Abstract. In this paper the main Jiles & Atherton parameters of a magnetic material, according to their particular working condition (mainly frequency, temperature and waveform) are calculated by means of a systematic procedure that use PSpice and MathCad. The modelled magnetic material is used for power electronics circuit simulation, which uses magnetic materials, working at frequencies in the region of kH, to construct transformers and inductors. Magnetic materials are the most critical components in electronics simulators due to their nonlinear behaviour and the accuracy in the simulation can only be obtained through a proper magnetic material modelling. This paper examines the modellin…

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Improving bleeding detector features for electron intraoperative radiotherapy

Abstract Purpose The aim of this work is to improve the potential bleeding detection during intraoperative radiotherapy with linac polymethyl methacrylate applicators (PMMA), based on one previously developed. The improvements carried out have been focused on: i) minimizing the impact of the detector on the visual through the plastic applicators and ii) avoiding the asymmetry in the detection capability when the applicator is tilted. Methods Simulations have been made to select the geometry that provides a reduced visual impact on the applicator as well as allowing an independent response with the tilting angle of the applicator. A low-noise circuit for signal conditioning has been develope…

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Soft switched interleaved boost converters used as high-power battery discharge regulator for space power systems

In the following years the telecommunication satellites will have a much greater power demand than nowadays. One reason for this is that the geostationary orbit required by this kind of satellites is becoming too crowded. Probably power levels of l0 kW to l00 kW will be the standard and with life duration of 25 years. It is not possible to keep 0.5 kW modules with more than 100 in parallel and therefore higher power modules (5 kW) must be used. A higher bus voltage seems also necessary and keeping a safety limit of 150 V, any voltage below it and above 100 V could meet the needs. In this paper we will propose a topology that fits the application: two soft switched interleaved boost converte…

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A novel four-quadrant power supply for low-energy correction magnets

Abstract This paper describes an efficient power supply to feed low-energy correction magnets in particle accelerator applications, where a controlled current with trapezoidal profile and four-quadrant operation is needed. The selected design is based on an AC–DC matrix converter topology, which uses the Space Vector Modulation (SVM) technique to obtain a near unity power factor at the AC input and output DC current regulation. This topology allows performing high-frequency isolation, while four-quadrant operation is maintained, and reducing volume and weight as compared with the classical thyristor (SCR)-based technology. Control tasks are implemented on an all-digital control card: output…

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A Synchronous Reference Frame Robust Predictive Current Control for Three-Phase Grid-Connected Inverters

This paper presents a new predictive current control for three-phase grid-connected inverters in the synchronous reference frame. The control combines a deadbeat control law with a diagonal Luenberger observer to estimate the future value of the grid currents. It provides a decoupled control of the active and reactive power and offers robustness against the computational delay inherent in the digital implementation and against filter and grid-impedance uncertainties. This control exhibits a very fast current response while widely improving the gain and phase margins of the traditional predictive controllers.

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A New Generalized Robust Predictive Current Control for Grid-Connected Inverters Compensates Anti-Aliasing Filters Delay

In this paper, a new predictive control for grid-connected inverters is presented, which provides the best performance in terms of transient response and stability margins when analog filters in current sensing circuits are used. These filters are necessary to avoid aliasing in the A/D conversion process, which causes an important ripple on injected current into the grid and increases the total harmonic distortion. However, predictive controls are very sensitive to delays on the acquisitions, so when such anti-aliasing filters are used a reduction of stability margins is produced and the transient response is affected. The proposed predictive control allows to compensate the effect of the f…

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Detector for monitoring potential bleeding during electron intraoperative radiotherapy

Purpose: The aim of this work is to develop a bleeding detector integrated into the acrylic circular applicators for specific mobile linacs. Thus, a bleeding detector has been developed based on a capacitive sensor to be used with plastic applicators, as in the case of LIAC HWL from Sordina IORT Technologies SpA. According to the clinical impact, we have selected 0.5 cm as the minimum depth of fluid that should be detected. Methods: An experiment was developed using water-simulating blood. Two setups were considered: non-beveled applicators with 7 cm and 10 cm diameter. Measurements were done for applicators 0 degrees and 45 degrees tilted, both with respect to the horizontal surface, in or…

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Guidelines for the design and implementation of the ARPCC control applied to grid-connected converters

Abstract This paper presents implementation details of the adaptive robust predictive current control (ARPCC) applied to a grid-connected converter, such as feed-forward cancellation protocol, the selection of the observer gain and adaptive parameters or the sampling options, needed to get the best performance of this control. The feed-forward term cancellation permits to achieve a very low harmonic distortion in current waveforms when the voltage sensing circuits are well calibrated. A detailed gain adjustment protocol of the voltage sensing circuits is presented in this paper. Moreover, a control design procedure based on the observer gain L o boundaries and the adaptive parameters has be…

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Obtaining the electrical model of a power transformer by means of finite element software

Abstract. The behaviour of transformers and inductors working at high-frequencies and high power density can dramatically differ from the ideal or low-frequency operation. Their performance is very dependent on the magnetic material, operating frequency and physical construction. In this paper, finite element analysis (FEA) is used to obtain an accurate characterization of the electromagnetic behaviour of these magnetic components.

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An Adaptive Robust Predictive Current Control for Three-Phase Grid-Connected Inverters

This paper presents an adaptive robust predictive current control (RPCC) for grid-connected three-phase inverters that exhibit zero steady-state current error. The error correction is achieved by means of an adaptive strategy that works in parallel with the deadbeat algorithm, therefore preserving the typical fast response of the predictive law. The resulting control adapts to any particular L or LCL filter by estimation of the resistive part of the filter. As a variety of the RPCC class of control, it offers the best tradeoff between robustness and speed. © 2009 IEEE.

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Novel Wood Resistance Measurement Method Reducing the Initial Transient Instabilities Arising in DC Methods Due to Polarization Effects

A novel method for measuring the electrical resistance in wood is presented. It is based on applying an Alternating Current (AC) to two electrodes rammed into the wood. The method reduces the transient time for value stabilization. In case of Direct Current (DC) resistance measurement methods, typically used in wood measurement, an initial transient exists, invalidating the measured value during an initial transient period. This measurement method uses an electronic circuit based on a relaxation oscillator where the wood automatically sets the oscillation frequency depending on its electrical resistance. Compared to other AC methods, this circuit greatly simplifies the measurement process, …

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