FPGA Architecture Design for Home Power Inverter

Project in Nutshell: We designed a new hardware and software solution for a home power plant based on ECP5, a low-power FPGA from Lattice, so that our client could scale all their future engineering solutions.  

Client & Challenge

A North American provider of home energy management solutions approached us to develop a new FPGA solution based on Lattice's ECP5, an ultra-low-power FPGA for home power inverters. The previous version of the client’s device had limited functionality. The new FPGA-based controller for power supply was required for use in new devices and additionally to serve as a prototyping tool.
 

Solution

Promwad cooperated with the client as a dedicated expert, offering the services of one full-time FPGA engineer who worked in the client's infrastructure and used their GitHub account. 

1. FPGA design

The Promwad engineer provided a comprehensive design based on the Lattice ECP5 FPGA family. Here are a few of the main features that were implemented during the project: 

• Control of the gate drivers by implementing PWM circuits that provide optimal performance and smooth integration into a wide system architecture. 

• Real-time data acquisition and processing from voltage and current sensors with high accuracy and reliability. 

• Memory-mapped access enables smooth communication between the control firmware and FPGA resources, facilitating seamless hardware-software interaction.
   

Block diagram of the implemented FPGA architecture

Business Value 

Our client received an upgraded FPGA solution that will further ensure the scalability of their new home power plants.

More of What We Do for Power Electronics

• Design Services for Power Engineering: explore our services in hardware and software development for electricity metres, protection relays, grid communications, and power conversion systems.  

• Promwad & Infineon partnership: learn how we use Infineon's semiconductor solutions to develop power electronics and IoT applications for our clients. 

• Industrial Control Panel: a case study of a complete development cycle from industrial design and mechanical engineering to a test bench for functional testing.