Implementation of application specific soft-core architecture for switching converters

Application Specific Processors (ASPs) are used in many areas. In this paper, an application specific soft-core processor for control of switching power converters is designed and implemented. The proposed designed architecture is constructed based on fixed-point arithmetic with minimal functional units. The control algorithm, which is used in this architecture, is Finite-Set Model Predictive Control (FS-MPC). The proposed soft-core processor is coded in VHSIC Hardware Description Language (VHDL) and implemented on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) platform. This architecture consists of minimum functional unit with only two adders and two multipliers, a control unit and a selection unit. The designed architecture is general and low cost and can be used in any type of converters. In this paper the functionality of the processor is examined by three types of converters namely three-phase inverters, dual transistor forward converter and active front end rectifier. In comparison with other controllers, output results indicate the accuracy of proposed architecture. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.