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The bipolar amplifiers of TTMS

Bipolar amplifiers (also called four quadrant amplifiers) are capable of generating both voltage and current in both positive and negative. We at TTMS have a very wide line of bipolar amplifiers. Amplifiers with power ranges from a few watts to more like a Mega Watt. Voltage ranges run up to 700Vac and currents into the kA. Exceptional in this category (...) Read more

The bi-directional amplifiers of TTMS

Bi-directional amplifiers (also called two quadrant power supplies or unipolar power supplies ) are capable of covering two quadrants in terms of voltage or current. We see this a lot in the application of charging and discharging batteries. Always a positive voltage but the current can be either positive or negative. Again, we have range from nV to 2250V, from (...) Read more

Uni-directional amplifiers from TTMS

Uni-directional amplifiers actually consist of two main categories: DC power supplies or DC loads. This in turn can be subdivided into linear and switched-mode power supplies/loads. Depending on the models, we can then divide into constant voltage, constant current, constant power and, for loads, constant resistance as well. Among the loads, we now also see more and more regenerative DC (...) Read more

Uni-directional, Bidirectional or Bipolar amplifier

Another important element to consider is selecting a configuration with source and sink capabilities. An amplifier with absorbing capability can be much pricier than a standard sourcing amplifier. Depending on the application, the simulation setup needs to supply power to a load (known as sourcing) and/or to be able to absorb power (known as sinking). For example, the energy generated (...) Read more

Linear or switching amplifier at PHIL

Linear amplifiers operate in the linear region of semiconductor components. These amplifiers normally have a good frequency response above 10kHz. A disadvantage of these amplifiers is that they are often less efficient and large in size. This must be taken into account in high-power applications. Switching amplifiers operate in the saturation region of the switching element. By design, they are (...) Read more

PHIL bandwidth and stability

Determining the amplifier bandwidth is a factor not to be underestimated in determining the total PHIL system cost. In fact, the total system cost can double if high-frequency amplifiers are required compared to a normal low-frequency amplifier. Emulating motors Example: we want to simulate a motor to test the thermal capacity of an inverter design. For this, it suffices to (...) Read more

Communication between amplifier and simulator

PHIL applications require fast amplifier control and fast feedback of currents and voltages to close the loop. If the feedback is too slow, the changing currents and voltages will not be measured correctly, resulting in an unstable configuration. Since real-time simulators can be coupled to a wide range of amplifiers and controllers, choosing the right instrumentation is crucial. In fact, (...) Read more

Applications for PHIL

There are numerous applications where Power Hardware in the Loop (PHIL) can be a solution. We highlight some of them: Inverters for solar energy systems: A PHIL setup can be used to test the performance of an inverter for solar energy systems. The inverter is integrated into a real-time model that will simulate the solar power system and the power (...) Read more

Dimensioning the amplifier

The first consideration when designing a PHIL test setup is to specify the operating range of the devices that will be coupled. A common mistake is to select an amplifier solely on the basis of its power output without considering some important points. Should the amplifier be able to absorb power? What bandwidth do we need? Furthermore, the design should (...) Read more