Digital control of a rapid capacitor charger with sensor-less voltage feedback

This paper describes the implementation of a load voltage observer into the control algorithms of a Rapid Capacitor Charger controlled by a digital signal controller (DSC) with a fast DSP core. A hybrid peak current mode control algorithm with digital control of the PWM signal and high speed analog current sensing is used to control the inverter of the charger. The DSC controller keeps the current loop stable using adaptive slope compensation. In addition to providing fast adaptive digital control of the current loop, the DSC can perform additional functions such as estimation of the voltage level of the load capacitor. This avoids the cost, bandwidth limitations and insulation challenges of a conventional HV-sensor. To evaluate the performance of the load voltage observer, we measured the output voltage with a laboratory grade HV probe to establish a reference to test the results of the digital algorithm.