EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier

Version November 13, 2008

The purpose of this experiment is to use your H-bridge inverter as an audio amplifier and analyze
its performance. Step A of the experiment can be performed at any lab bench. Step B requires
you to use our CD music test station. Sign up for a one-hour time slot for the music test station,
and please be considerate of others who are waiting to use it.

You are welcome to try out the display inverter and music test station anytime. But for purposes
of your lab report, you must use your own inverter.

A. Inverter Performance with Input from Sinusoidal Waveform Generator

(perform this step at any lab bench)

1. No DBR power to the inverter yet!

2. Make sure that both 10µF input and output capacitors are connected to your inverter.
3. Make sure that the scope is plugged in through a “ground buster.”
4. Connect a three-headlight load to your inverter output.
5. Turn on the benchtop waveform generator. Adjust the settings for 100Hz sinusoidal
output and 5V peak. Note – the benchtop waveform generator will display 5Vpp. It
is important that you have no DC offset in the waveform.

6. Either
1. Use a BNC-to-wall-wart-plug cable to connect the waveform generator output
to the jack of the inverter ma control potentiometer, or
2. use a BNC-to-alligator cable to connect the waveform generator output across
the outer two terminals of your 500Ω ma control potentiometer. Note – if you
do this at one of the Labview-equipped stations, pay attention to polarity because
the scope and waveform generator chasses may be connected together in back.
7. View the waveform generator output on the scope, confirm 5V peak, and adjust the
waveform generator output voltage if necessary.
8. Plug in the DC wall wart.
9. Use the scope to confirm that your triangle wave generator chip is producing a
symmetric triangular wave output. If necessary, adjust the skewness.
10. With ma = 0, use a multimeter to measure the DC value of VGS for each MOSFET.
Expect about 4.0Vdc.
11. Use a scope probe to view, one by one, all four VGS waveforms to confirm that your
inverter is firing properly.

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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12. With the variac “off” and its control knob set to zero, connect a variac, 25V
transformer, and DBR to provide DC power to your inverter. Use the variac to raise
the DC voltage to 35-40V.
13. Connect scope probe #1 and its ground clip to view Vcont, and scope probe #2 and its
ground clip to view the inverter output voltage. Use the “averaging over one cycle”
feature of the scope to denoise the scope trace.
14. Adjust the ma potentiometer so that ma is slightly less than 1 (i.e., the “fuzzy” flat
spot at the maximum and minimum of the sine wave disappears).
15. Measure the rms value of Vcont with a multimeter. Measure –Vcont with the same
multimeter. If necessary, adjust the gain of the op amp so that –Vcont has the same
rms value as Vcont.
16. Confirm that the H-bridge inverter is working properly and producing a replica of
Vcont.

Dead spots at zero crossings are

characteristic of PWM because of blanking
Waveform
generator
output

Inverter
output

100Hz Test

17. Disconnect scope probe #1.

18. Using a span of 1kHz, a center frequency of 500Hz, a Hanning window, and an FFT
sampling rate of 10kSa/s, display the FFT of the inverter output voltage (i.e., Channel
#2) and save a screen snapshot. For your report, you will estimate the THD of the
voltage waveform using the most significant harmonics (see Appendix).

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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1kHz span,
500Hz center

Save screen
snapshot #1

FFT of inverter output with 100Hz input signal

19. Raise the benchtop waveform generator frequency to 1kHz, and repeat Step 18. This
time, for the FFT use a span of 10kHz, a center frequency of 5kHz, and a sampling
rate of 100kSa/s.

10kHz span,
5kHz center

Save screen
snapshot #2

FFT of inverter output with 1kHz input signal

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
Version November 13, 2008

B. Inverter Performance with Input from CD Player

(sign up for a one-hour slot and perform this portion at the Music Test
Station)

Four 8Ω speakers in series present 32Ω to the inverter

495µF in series with speakers to block the flow of DC current

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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The CD player is modified to produce a Vcont input signal for our inverters

Two small 1:1 audio transformers sum the CD stereo channel outputs to produce a mono
signal. Each transformer is energized by one stereo channel. The two output windings are
connected in series to yield the mono signal.

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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You are welcome to use your own music CD if you prefer. The songs on Dr. Grady’s CD are

Track 1. The Hollies, “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress”

Track 2. Eagles, “Peaceful Easy Feeling”
Track 3. America, “Sister Golden Hair”
Track 4. Electric Light Orchestra, “Don’t Bring Me Down”
Track 5. Charlie Dore, “Pilot of the Airways”
Track 6. The Beach Boys, “Help Me, Rhonda”
Track 7. The Moody Blues, “Your Wildest Dreams”
Track 8. Ronnie Milsap, “Any Day Now”
Track 9. Fleetwood Mac, “You Make Loving Fun”
Track 10. Steppenwoulf, “Magic Carpet Ride”
Track 11. Roger Miller, “Chug-A-Lug”

iPod update

• An iPod interface cable is provided so that you can play your iPOD into the CD player,
and use the CD player to convert stereo to mono Vcont.

• The interface cable connects to the CD player’s channel A and B auxiliary audio inputs.
Use the CD player’s AUX mode.

• Turn Vdc all the way down, turn the CD player volume to max, turn the Vcont
potentiometer to max, and turn the iPod volume to about ½. View Vcont on the scope.
Adjust the iPod volume control until the peaks of Vcont are about 3.5 to 4.0V. Avoid
clipping.

The audio output signal of a portable CD player or radio drives the small speakers inside. You
will use this signal as the Vcont input for your inverter, drive the four-speaker unit with the
inverter output, and compare inverter input and output waveforms. We use two small audio
transformers to add the two stereo output channels of the CD player to create a mono signal.

The DBR provides the power to drive the speakers. The CD player is used only to provide the
Vcont signal.

20. No DBR power to the inverter yet!

21. Connect the mono audio output signal of the CD player to the jack of your ma
potentiometer.
22. Lower the ma control potentiometer to the minimum. Play a song, and observe the
mono output of the CD player on a scope. Raise the CD volume control to the
maximum. There should be no clipping. If clipping occurs, reduce the CD volume
control. See the figure on the next page for an example of clipping.

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EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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Audio output of CD player – no clipping

With some desktop radios, clipping occurs at about ± 3V

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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23. Connect a variac, transformer, and DBR. Start with zero Vdc.
24. Set the variac knob to zero.
25. Raise the ma control potentiometer to the maximum. Even with no Vdc, you will
hear weak music because the MOSFET gates are firing.
26. Gradually raise the DBR voltage to about 15V. Simultaneously view the CD
player output and the inverter output on a scope. You can carefully raise Vdc to
40V, but it will be loud! Comment on the audio quality of the amplifier.

CD player
output

Inverter
output

Save screen
snapshot #3

Top curve: Audio output of CD player to inverter,

Bottom curve: Output of inverter to speakers
(scope set to average over one cycle)

27. Borrow the clamp-on ammeter from Dr. Grady or a TA. Select DC milliamps, and
press the meter “zero” button to zero the reading.

28. Clamp the ammeter around one of the DBR output wires. Measure the current to the
inverter while the music is playing.

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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29. Multiply your Vdc by the average current to obtain average power to the speakers.
Your value should be less than 25W. (Your inverter can easily produce 200W!)
30. Examine the two transfer function graphs near the back of this document. Then,
loosen one leg of the inverter’s 10µF output capacitor to electrically remove it,
and listen to the difference. The output capacitor was originally selected for 60Hz
inverter operation and yielded an output filter resonant peak near 5kHz. Without it,
the 100µH inductor yields a smooth high-frequency roll off, without the resonant
peak.
31. Comment on the difference in sound quality with and without the capacitor. Does the
difference make sense after comparing the two transfer functions?
32. Turn off the equipment and make it ready for the next team.

Comments
• Your inverter, which is used mostly for motor drives and power-to-grid purposes, is also
known as a Class D amplifier. It is very efficient, but the music quality is not as good as
conventional linear amplifiers (which, by the way, have only 50% max efficiency).
• Better music quality can be achieved by raising the switching frequency to 100kHz. Of
course, higher switching frequency means higher losses.
• Class D amplifiers are best suited for powerful bass applications.

Extra parts for the student parts bin, screw cabinet, and TA parts bin
• Same as for H-bridge lab

Other items in ENS212

• Clamp-on ammeter (Extech #380942, Mouser #685-380942)
• The audio transformers are Triad Magnetics #TY-145P, 1:1 turns ratio, 600Ω CT on each
side (Mouser #553-TY145P).

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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Appendix. Analysis of Inverter Voltage Transfer Function, With and Without DC
Blocking Capacitor
c program inverter_transfer_function determines the transfer
c function of the inverter with

c Case 1. L,C1 low pass filter and R load

c Case 2. L,C1 low pass filter, C2 dc blocking capacitor, and R load
c
c L in H, C1 and C2 in F, R in ohms
c
real l
complex zc1,zc1_r,zl
complex zc2,zc2_r,zc1_c2_r

pi = 4.0 * atan(1.0)

c
c L is the inverter output series inductor
c C1 is the inverter output shunt capacitor
c C2 is the speaker bank series capacitor
c R is the speaker ohms
c
l = 100e-6
c1 = 10e-6
c2 = 495e-6
r = 32.0

open(unit=1,file="inverter_filter.csv")
write(1,*) "L = ",L * 1e6
write(1,*) "C1 = ",C1 * 1e6
write(1,*) "C2 = ",C2 * 1e6
write(1,*) "R = ",R

do 10 klog = 0,50
freq = 10.0 ** (klog / 10.0)
omega = 2 * pi * freq
c
c transfer function for case 1
c
zc1 = 1.0 / cmplx(0.0,omega * c1)
zc1_r = zc1 * r / (zc1 + r)
zl = cmplx(0.0, omega * l)
h1 = cabs(zc1_r / (zc1_r + zl))
c
c transfer function for case 2
c
zc2 = 1.0 / cmplx(0.0,omega * c2)
zc2_r = r + zc2
zc1_c2_r = zc1 * zc2_r / (zc1 + zc2_r)
h2 = cabs(zc1_c2_r / (zc1_c2_r + zl)) * cabs(r / (r + zc2))

write(*,*) omega,freq,omega,h1,h2
write(1,*) omega,",",freq,",",h1,",",h2

10 continue

stop
end

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Inverter Filter Performance with 10uF Output Cap

12

10

8
Vout/Vin

0
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000

Inverter Filter Performance without 10uF Output Cap

1.2

0.8
Vout/Vin

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000

Inverter Vout/Vin Transfer Function with 32Ω Resistive Load

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 EE362L, Power Electronics, H-Bridge as Audio Amplifier
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Appendix. Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)

The THD (in percent) of a waveform is defined as the rms value of the harmonics divided by the
rms value of the fundamental, or

⎡ V 2 +V 2 +V 2 +L⎤
THD (%) = ⎢ ⎥ • 100% ,
2 3 4
⎢ V1 ⎥
⎣ ⎦

where V1 is the fundamental frequency component, V2 is the second harmonic, etc. If the
harmonics are given in per unit of the fundamental, a more convenient form of the expression is

⎡ 2 2 2 ⎤
⎛ V2 ⎞ ⎛ V3 ⎞ ⎛ V4 ⎞
THD(%) = ⎢ ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ + ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ + ⎜⎜ ⎟⎟ + L ⎥ • 100% .
⎢ ⎝ V1 ⎠ ⎝ V1 ⎠ ⎝ V1 ⎠ ⎥
⎣⎢ ⎦⎥

When one harmonic, e.g. harmonic k, is much greater than the others, it dominates the sum of
squares, and the expression becomes

⎡V ⎤
THD (%) ≈ ⎢ k ⎥ • 100% .
⎣ V1 ⎦

Consider the 100Hz scope trace shown in this document as Screen snapshot #1. The 3rd
harmonic (i.e., 300 Hz) dominates the other harmonics and is 36.2dB down from the
V
fundamental. This yields a ratio 5 of 0.0155. Thus, the THD(%) is approximately 1.55%.
V1

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