Timing calculations for three level dodecagonal space vector structure from reference phase voltages

A method to obtain pulse width modulation (PWM) timings for a three level dodecagonal (12-sided polygon) voltage space vector structure using only sampled reference values is proposed in this paper. Typical methods that are used to find PWM timings for dodecagonal SV structures use modulation index and the reference vector angle to get the timings by using trigonometric calculations. This method requires look-up tables, angle estimation making it difficult to implement in closed loop systems. The proposed method requires only two additions to compute these timings. For multilevel case, typical iterative methods need timing calculations (matrix multiplications) to be performed for each triangle within a sector. The proposed method does not require any iterative searching for locating the triangle in which the tip of the reference vector lies. It is also is generic and can be extended to any number of levels with symmetric structures. The algorithm outputs the triangle number and the PWM compare values - that can be used by any carrier based PWM module to obtain space vector PWM like switching sequences. Extensive simulation and experimental results for steady state and transient conditions have been presented to validate the proposed method.