Design methodology of VLSI power electronics digital controller based on Matlab-Modelsim co-simulation

This paper presents a methodology to design Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) fully digital controller for power electronics. Step by step, the proposed top-down methodology based on very high speed integrated circuits Hardware Description Language (VHDL) and on Matlab-Modelsim co-simulation is presented. It is used to study and validate the digital adaptation and the architecture implementation of the control algorithm. Modelling, Matlab-Modelsim co-simulation and virtual prototyping are achieved in a unique design environment managed by Matlab computer aided design tools. An application using the proposed methodology was studied: a digital controller for three-phase Shunt Active Power Filter (SAPF). The power circuit has been modelled in the Matlab/Simulink environment, using the dedicated Power System Blockset (PSB) toolbox. The digital controller is modelled in VHDL code in the Modelsim environment. Then, this VHDL model is imported into Matlab environment and co-simulated using the Link-for-Modelsim toolbox. A high level VHDL model for the controller using real data format has been first designed and validated by co-simulation. Then, an optimized VLSI architecture for the controller using a specific data binary format has been modelled in VHDL code at Register Transfert Level and successfully validated by Matlab-Modelsim co-simulation.