Comparative analysis of SPWM and SVPWM control for three phase inverter

A voltage source inverter is commonly used to supply a three-phase induction motor with variable frequency and variable voltage for variable speed applications. A suitable pulse width modulation (PWM) technique is employed to obtain the required output voltage in the line side of the inverter. The different methods for PWM generation can be broadly classified into triangle comparison based PWM (TCPWM) and Space Vector based PWM (SVPWM). In TCPWM methods such as sine-triangle PWM, three phase reference modulating signals are compared against a common triangular carrier to generate the PWM signals for the three phases. In SVPWM methods, a revolving reference voltage vector is provided as voltage reference instead of three phase modulating waves. The magnitude and frequency of the fundamental component in the line side are controlled by the magnitude and frequency, respectively, of the reference vector. The highest possible peak phase fundamental is very less in sine triangle PWM when compared with space vector PWM. Space Vector Modulation (SVM) technique has become the important PWM technique for three phase voltage source inverters for the control of AC Induction, Brushless DC, Switched Reluctance and Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors. The study of space vector modulation technique reveals that space vector modulation technique utilizes DC bus voltage more efficiently and generates less harmonic distortion when compared with Sinusoidal PWM (SPWM) technique. In this paper first a model for Space vector PWM is made and simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK software and its performance is compared with Sinusoidal PWM. The simulation study reveals that Space vector PWM utilizes DC bus voltage more effectively and generates less THD when compared with sine PWM.