PDS Consulting: Green Technology
Augmenting control algorithm implementation for green power conversion.
Product development for industrial applications involves extensive research and preparation in an environment of rolling deadlines and ever-evolving product specifications. While time-to-market for this sector may not be as short as it is for consumer electronics, products must ship quickly and with as many essential functions, features and potential hooks for the next generation as possible.
Engineers from Princeton Power Systems (PPS), a New Jersey-based manufacturer of advanced power-conversion products and alternative-energy systems, are evolving new green power products. One of the company’s demand response inverters (DRI) is the result of a three-year collaboration between PPS, the United States Department of Energy and Sandia National Laboratories’ Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS).
To meet the demands of industrial product design, companies like Princeton Power Systems leverage flexible development vehicles such as Xilinx’s Targeted Design Platforms, with their rich ecosystem of design services support. For their green power control algorithm, PPS engineers chose a Xilinx FPGA married to a DSP as a prime system control component. With its extensive SelectIO™ capabilities, the Xilinx device offered flexibility in implementation, particularly for trigger signals and analog-digital-converter input channels.
Additional Information
- Read the complete article, “Using Spartan Technology to Support Development of Green Energy,” in Xcell Journal Issue 80