FPGA-based design of an Automatic Tracking Observer for grid synchronization

The Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) components offer effective solutions and provide real-time computation performances for control algorithms of electrical systems. The aim of this paper is to present the FPGA implementation of an Automatic Tracking Observer (ATO) for the synchronization of the grid voltage vector. This application is particularly useful for the control of a three-phase Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) boost rectifier. The used FPGA for the digital implementation of the ATO is the Fusion AFS600 from Actel, which integrates analog functions such as ADC for a fully System on programmable Chip (SopC) solution. So, the implemented ATO allowed computing the phase of the grid voltage vector in a reliable environment, while ensuring very fast computation time of only few microseconds. Experimental results are presented in order to illustrate the efficiency and benefits of the proposed Fusion FPGA-based solution.