A Novel Active Common-mode EMI Filter for PWM Inverter

Yo-Chan Son and Seung-Ki Sul

School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science #024, ENG420, Seoul National University

Kwanak P.O.BOX 34, Seoul, Korea (ZIP 151-742)

http://eepel.snu.ac.kr e-mail:sulsk@plaza.snu.ac.kr

Abstract – This paper presents a novel active common-modeEMI filter for the PWM inverter application. The proposedfilter is based on the current sensing and compensation circuitand it utilizes a fast transistor amplifier for the current compen-sation. The amplifier utilizes an isolated low-voltage dc powersupply for its biasing and it is possible to construct the activefilter independent of the source voltage of the equipment. Thusthe proposed active filter can be used in any application re-gardless of its working voltage. The effectiveness of the pro-posed circuit is verified by experimental results.

I. INTRODUCTION

The PWM inverter as shown in Fig. 1, is the inherent noisesource that makes abrupt voltage transitions (high dv/dt)accompanied by switching actions [1, 2]. Coupled with thestray capacitance of the load machine the high frequencycurrent is generated, which can affect nearby equipments dueto the conducted and radiated electromagnetic interference(EMI) [3, 4]. As the semiconductor technology progressespower devices are getting faster to reduce the switching lossand to increase the controllability of the system, but the in-crease of dv/dt is accompanied by the increase of the EMIlevel. Especially the leakage current by the common-modevoltage of the PWM inverter is the primary concern of theconducted and radiated EMI. Because the high frequencyleakage current at the motor returns through the earth ground,its circulation loop is relatively large compared with that ofthe normal-mode current. This large circulation loop plays asa role of the antenna for the radiated EMI. These days manycountries limit the EMI emission under their regulations[3~6]. To meet such regulations many efforts to EMI mitiga-tion have been concentrated and most of them have beenrelated to the design of input/output EMI filters [1~3, 7].Most of conventional filters were passive filters. In designingpassive filters the obtainable insertion loss is limited by theavailable LC product that should be increased to meet therequirement. In case of the common-mode EMI, one cannotincrease the total capacitance for the safety reason [3] and

should increase the inductance of the common-mode chokein order to increase the insertion loss, which makes the com-mon-mode filter bulky. Many researchers have tried to de-velop some active filtering techniques in order to overcomethis limitation [8~12].

In this paper, a novel active common-mode EMI filter isintroduced in order to mitigate the conducted common-modeEMI. It can provide the sufficient attenuation under the limit-ed LC product and there is a promising possibility of its ap-plication regardless of the working voltage of the system. Itsanalysis and experimental verification will be given.

II. ACTIVE COMMON-MODE EMI FILTER

Fig. 2 shows the basic concept of the proposed ActiveCommon-mode EMI Filter (ACEF). The circuit is based onthe topology using the current sensing and compensation [8,9, 11, 12]. The noise source is the PWM inverter in Fig. 2and the input filter can be an additional passive filter, whichgives additional insertion loss. The series-connected com-mon-mode choke LCM works as the common-mode currentsensing element by the additional winding. The high frequen-cy current that passes through LCM generates the high fre-quency flux in the common-mode choke, which makes thehigh frequency voltage at the input terminal of the trans-conductance amplifier. The output of the amplifier is con-nected to the output capacitor Co that is used for the currentinjection to the earth ground. In this filter circuit, the injectedcurrent cannot be circulated within the system without usingthe coupling capacitor Cc because the closed loop cannot bemade. Thus Cc is used to provide the low-impedance path ofthe high frequency common-mode current for the internalcirculation. The supply voltage of the filter circuit Vc is usedto give the bias voltage to the amplifier. At low frequency theimpedance of Cc is large enough to isolate the bias voltagefrom the main voltage.

The required bias voltage of ACEF can be calculated as in(1). For example, if 0.5[A] of the high frequency current at

s

Motor

InputFilters

PWM InverterLISN

1gi

gi

2gi

Fig. 1. PWM inverter system using single-phase ac input.

1[MHz] should be supplied, then the bias voltage should belarger than 7.96[V] in order to drive 10[nF] of Co.

o

oc fC

iV

π2max≥ (1)

Fig. 3 shows the application of the proposed ACEF. In thisexample the single-phase, three-phase and dc applications areshown. As introduced in [12], a push-pull amplifier is usedand Cc is connected to the dc-bus of the PWM inverter or anydc load system. In case of the PWM inverter supplied by thecommercial 60[Hz]/220[Vrms] utility line, the dc-bus voltageis about 300[V]. As in [11], if the push-pull amplifier shouldbe placed across the dc-bus capacitor, then each transistorshould be able to handle the full dc-bus voltage. In this casethe high-voltage/high-current pnp-transistor is hardly avail-able, that limits its application. Moreover the required volta-ge of the push-pull amplifier is very small compared to thedc-bus voltage as calculated in (1) and it can make the ineffi-cient voltage usage. However in the proposed circuit theadditional low voltage supply can be used to drive the push-pull amplifier. This enables the use of low voltage devicesand extends the application of the proposed ACEF. Fig. 3(a)shows its application when coupling capacitors are placedbetween the dc-bus voltage Vdc and the filter supply voltageVc. While coupling capacitors in Fig. 3(a) isolate the dc-busand the ACEF at low frequency, they make the low impedan-ce path at high frequency, which allows the internal circula-tion of the high frequency leakage current between the sys-tem and the ACEF as introduced in [12]. Coupling capacitorsalso can be connected to ac input lines of the system asshown in Fig. 3(b) and it is possible to construct a separateinput filter stage. The same idea can be extended to the 3-phase applications, which is shown in Fig. 3(c) and (d).

The proposed circuit works as follows. In this analysisthere is an assumption that coupling capacitors have suffi-ciently low impedance at the frequency band of interest. Ifthe inductance of the common-mode choke seen at the pri-mary winding is LCM without the consideration of the secon-dary winding, then the relation between the input common-mode current ig and the base current of the push-pull ampli-fier can be found as (2).

1ω+⋅−=

ss

Nii

g

b and CM

in

LrN 2

1 =ω , (2)

where N is the turn ratio between the primary winding andthe secondary winding, and rin is the input impedance of thepush-pull transistor amplifier including the additional resistor.When the leakage inductance of the common-mode choke,the common-mode inductance LCM can be represented as (3).

e

eCM l

ANL

µ2

= , (3)

where µ is the relative permeability, Ae is the effective areaand le is the effective length of the magnetic core. Thus thecutoff frequency ω1 can be represented as (4) regardless ofthe number of turns N.

e

ein

A

lr

µω =1

. (4)

If the bandwidth of the transistor amplifier is ωT and theamplifier is modeled as a first-order system, then the injecti-on current io of the amplifier can be derived as (5). Becausethe input common-mode current ig is the sum of the injectioncurrent io and the load leakage current ig1, then the relationbetween ig and ig1 can be found as (6).

gT

feb

T

feo i

ss

s

Nhi

s

hi

111 ωωω +⋅

+−=

+= , (5)

where hfe is the ac current gain of the transistor.

inr

oC

cC

CML

mg

InputFilter

NoiseSource

cV

cC

gi

oi

1gi

sz

Fig. 2. Basic concept of proposed ACEF.

(a)

oC

CML

cC

−

+

dcVRectifier

orConverter

dcLoad

System

cVoi

1gigi

(b)

oC

CML

cC

ac or dcLoad

System

cV

bi

oi

1gigi

(c)

oC

CML

cC

−

+

dcVRectifier

orConverter

dcLoad

System

cV

gi 1gi

oi

(d)

oC

cC

3-phaseLoad

System

cV

CML

gi1gi

oi

Fig. 3. Configurations of proposed ACEF.(a) ACEF using dc-bus coupling, (b) ACEF using ac line coupling for sin-gle-phase application, (c) ACEF using dc-bus coupling, (d) ACEF using ac

line coupling for three-phase application.

( )( )1

1

2

1

11 11

1

11g

T

fe

T

Tgog i

ss

Nhss

iii

ωωωω

ωω

+

+++

++=+=

. (6)

If the bandwidth of the transistor amplifier and Nhfe arehigh, then (6) can be simplified as (7).

( )( )( )( ) 1

32

1

11

11g

Tg i

ss

ssi

ωωωω

++++

≈ , (7)

where ω2 = ω1/(1+Nhfe) and ω3 = NhfeωT. If ωT is muchhigher then ω1 then (7) is simplified as (8).

12

1

11

gg is

si

ωω

++

≈ , (8)

Fig. 4 shows the frequency response of the proposedACEF without including the effect of coupling capacitors.Parameters used in Fig. 4 are listed in Table I. As can be seenfrom the figure, the approximation (8) holds in the conductedEMI frequency band (0.15 ~ 30[MHz]). But the attenuationperformance is degraded in the radiated EMI frequency band(30 ~ 300[MHz]) due to the limited bandwidth of the tran-sistor amplifier. The maximum attenuation of 1/(1+Nhfe) isachieved between ω1 and ωT. Simple passive filters can beinserted at the input or output of the transistor amplifier toreduce the effect of the limited performance in the radiatedEMI frequency band. Also as concerned with the inflow ofthe low-frequency leakage current, it cannot be attenuatedbecause of the nature of the sensing circuit of (2).

The equivalent inductance of the common-mode chokedue to the ACEF can be calculated using the relation shownin (2) and it is given as (9). Combined with (7) and (9), the

input common-mode current is effectively suppressedwithout increasing the low frequency leakage current.

111

'ωs

LL CMCM +⋅= . (9)

III. EXPERIMENTS

In this section, several experimental results are shown.First, Fig. 5 ~ Fig. 9 show the evaluation of the proposedACEF using ac line coupling for a single-phase applicationand Fig. 10 shows the evaluation of the proposed ACEF for athree-phase application using ac line coupling.

Fig. 5 shows the configuration of the experimental system.Detailed parameters of the experimental system are listed inTable I. A 3.7[kW] induction motor is used as a load machineof the PWM inverter and a dc smoothing reactor is used inorder to reduce the input harmonic current. An input filterprinted circuit board (PCB) is used separately from the PWMinverter PCB. The input filter is composed of the ACEF andadditional passive filtering elements. A single-phase LISN isused to provide the stable source impedance at the high fre-quency as shown in Fig. 1 and the peak detector is used in themeasurement of the conducted EMI spectrum [3~5].

Waveforms of leakage currents and the conducted EMIspectrum of the system without any EMI filter are shown inFig. 6. Because there is no Y-capacitor, the motor leakagecurrent generated by the switching of the PWM inverter isdirectly reflected to the input common-mode current asshown in Fig. 6(a). The conducted EMI spectrum includesboth of the common- and normal-mode EMI. Although theyshould be separately considered, the normal-mode EMI willnot be discussed in this paper with the assumption that someappropriate normal-mode filtering elements are installed foreach design stage. After sufficient normal-mode filtering, thecommon-mode EMI plays as the bottleneck of the total con-ducted EMI [12, 13].

Fig. 7 shows leakage current waveforms and the conductedEMI spectrum when the proposed ACEF is added in the sys-tem of Fig. 6. Low-voltage complementary transistors (VCEO-

max = 30[V]) are used in this filter circuit and a 12[V] dc pow-er supply is used as the bias voltage Vc. Actually this voltageis coming from the control power supply in the inverter sys-tem. In this experiment Cx1 and Cx2 are installed along withthe ACEF. Using parameters listed in Table I, corner fre-quencies, ω1 and ω2, can be calculated as 11.2[MHz] and14[kHz] respectively when rin and hfe are assumed to be

s

3.7kWInduction

Motor

oC

cC

cVoi

1xC

2xC

2yC 1yC

1CML2CML

ACSource

1Q

2Q

PWMInverter

Input Filter

1gigi

Fig. 5. Configuration of experimental system.

Frequency (Hz)

Mag

nitu

de(d

B)

-60

-50

-40

-30

-20

-10

0

104

105

106

107

108

Conduction Radiation

Fig. 4. Frequency response of proposed ACEF.

100[Ω] and 100, respectively. Between ω2 and ω1, the pro-posed ACEF attenuates the conducted EMI according to (7)as shown in Fig. 4. Above ω2 the attenuation by the proposedACEF is effective as shown in Fig. 7(b). Most of the highfrequency leakage current ig1 from the motor is absorbed bythe proposed ACEF and only the low frequency ripple can beseen from the waveform of ig as shown in Fig. 7(a). Conse-quently the high frequency input common-mode current ismuch reduced compared with that of Fig. 6(a). Because itspeak magnitude is considerably reduced and this may helppreventing the saturation of the magnetic core in the addi-tional filter, which helps improving the performance of theadditional filter stage. Thus one can get the enhanced attenu-ation performance of the additional filter, or make the size ofthe additional magnetic core smaller.

In Fig. 8 an additional filter stage is added to the system ofFig. 7. In Fig. 8(a) an additional Y-capacitor Cy2 is installedat the input terminal along with an additional common-modechoke LCM2. With the aid of the additional filter stage theconducted EMI is suppressed about 20[dBµV] until 2[MHz]but the level of the EMI spectrum is increased especiallyabove 2[MHz]. Although the entire level is placed under thegiven limit line it is not favorable to have the small margin.

In Fig. 8(b) Cy1 is installed instead of Cy2. The entire EMIlevel is much attenuated and the conducted EMI above5[MHz] is not increased as in the case of Fig. 7(a).

The proposed ACEF was adopted for the commercial airconditioner and Fig. 9 shows its evaluation result. The circuitof Fig. 3(a) was used in this experiment. Fig. 9(a) shows theconducted EMI spectrum of the system with 2 stage cascadedpassive filters. An ACEF was implemented using the existingcommon-mode choke of filter stages of Fig. 9(a) and theresult is shown in Fig. 9(b). As can be seen from Fig. 9, theEMI spectrum of 150 of 500[kHz] is much attenuated so it is

(a)

1gi

gi

(b)

Fig. 6. No EMI filter installed.(a) Leakage currents (200[mA/div], 1[µs/div]), (b) conducted EMI spectrum.

(a)

1gi

gi

(b)

Fig. 7. Proposed ACEF installed.(a) Leakage currents (200[mA/div], 1[µs/div]), (b) conducted EMI spectrum.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 8. Additional passive EMI filter installed.(a) Cy2 installed, (b) Cy1 installed.

(a)

Quasi-peakMeasurement

Average Measurement

(b)

Quasi-peakMeasurement

Average Measurement

Fig. 9. Application example of ACEF for commercial air conditioner.(a) 2 stage passive filters. (b) 1 passive filter + 1 ACEF.

possible to meet the EN standard, although the EMI spectrumwas increased above 1[MHz].

Fig. 10 shows the evaluation result of the proposed ACEFfor a three-phase application. The circuit of Fig. 3(d) wasused in this experiment. Fig. 10(a) shows the configuration ofthe current experiment. Instead of using LISN for the con-ducted EMI measurement, a PLIP (Power Line InterferenceProbe) was used. This voltage probe is used in place of LISNwhen an EUT requires high current supply or when there aredifficulties in connecting a LISN into the circuit [5]. Mainpower source is corner-grounded delta-connection. Becausethe PLIP attenuates the detected voltage signal by 30[dBµV],it was taken into account in the measurement. From the Fig.10(b) and (c), the proposed ACEF provides good attenuationperformance until 10[MHz] and the EMI spectrum above10[MHz] is not much decreased due to the limited bandwidthof the amplifier circuit, which shows the validity of the pro-posed ACEF for the three-phase application.

V. CONCLUSION

In this paper, the concept of the novel active common-mode EMI filter (ACEF) has been proposed and its variousimplementation examples are introduced. With the proposedACEF it is possible to use low-voltage transistors for the

amplifier by introducing coupling capacitors between thepower line and the amplifier circuit. Thus the proposedACEF can be applicable to various power electronics systemregardless of the working voltage. Also it helps improvingthe performance of additional filter stages. Its effectivenesshas been verified by experiments.

REFERENCE

[1] G. Skibinski, R. Kerkman, and D. Schlegel, “EMI Emissions ofModern PWM ac Drives,” IEEE Industry Applications Maga-zine, pp. 47 ~ 81, Nov/Dec 1999.

[2] S. Chen, “Generation and Suppression of Conducted EMI fromInverter-Fed Motor Drives,” in Conf. Rec. of IEEE IAS, pp.1583 ~ 1589, 1999.

[3] L. Tihanyi, Electromagnetic Compatibility in Power Electronics,IEEE Press, 1995.

[4] T.Williams, EMC for Product Designers, 2nd ed., Newnes, 1996.[5] EN 55 014 : 1993, “Limits and Methods of Measurement of

Radio Disturbance Characteristics of Electrical Motor-operatedand Thermal Appliances for Household and Similar Purposes,Electric Tools and Electric Apparatus”

[6] L. Rossetto, P. Tenti and A. Zuccato, “Electromagnetic Com-patibility Issues in Industrial Equipment,” IEEE Industry Appli-cations Magazine, pp. 34 ~ 46, Nov./Dec. 1999.

[7] M. J. Nave, Power Line Filter Design for Switched-Mode PowerSupplies, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991.

[8] L. Lawhite and M. F. Schlecht, “Design of Active Ripple Filtersfor Power Circuits Operating in the 1-10MHz Range,” IEEETrans. Power Electron., vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 310 ~ 317, Jul 1988.

[9] N. K. Poon, J. C. P. Liu, C. K. Tse and M. H. Pong, “Techniquesfor Input Ripple Current Cancellation: Classification and Im-plementation,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 15, no. 6, pp.1144 ~ 1152, Nov 2000.

[10] S. Ogasawara and H. Akagi, “Circuit Configurations and Per-formance of the Active Common-Noise Canceler for Reductionof Common-Mode Voltage Generated by Voltage-Source PWMInverter,” in Conf. Rec. of IEEE IAS, pp. 1482 ~ 1488, 2000.

[11] I. Takahashi, A. Ogata, H. Kanazawa, “Active EMI Filter forSwitching Noise of High Frequency Inverters,” in Conf. Rec. ofIEEE PCC-Nagaoka `97, pp. 331 ~ 334, 1997.

[12] Yo-chan Son and Seung-Ki Sul, “Conducted EMI in PWMInverter for Household Electric Appliance,” in Conf. Rec. ofIEEE IAS 2001, pp. 2441 ~ 2447, 2001.

[13] M. J. Nave, “A Novel Differential Mode Rejection Network forConducted Emissions Diagnostics,” IEEE National Symposiumon Electromagnetic Compatibility, 1989.

TABLE I. SYSTEM PARAMETERS FOR FIG. 5.

Rating Single phase 220[V] 60[Hz] input,145[Vrms] 60[Hz] V/f operation.

PWM 2.5[kHz] switching frequency, SVPWM.Load machine 3.7[kW] induction motor.

Filter stages

LCM1 : 570[µH], N = 8LCM2 : 7.7[mH]

Cx1 = 680[nF], Cx2 = 330[nF]Cy1 = Cy2 = 2.2[nF]Co = Cc = 10[nF]

Q1 : KTC3230, Q2 : KTA1276(ICmax = 3[A], VCEOmax = 30[V], fT = 100[MHz])

Vc : 12[V] isolated power supply

(a)

nF10

nF10

V15

HLCM µ114=

oi

Fµ1Fµ1

PWMInverter

3-phaseInput

ACEF

PLIP

SpectrumAnalyzer

s

3.7kWInduction

Motor

(b)Without any EMI filter

With ACEF

(c)With LCM Only

With ACEF

Fig. 10. ACEF example for three-phase system.(a) Configuration of experimental system, (b) Comparison with raw EUT,

(c) Comparison with the case of LCM only.