Design of FPGA based Synchronized Power Supply Controller for Automation in Research Laboratory

Abstract

advancement and stringent requirements on various scientific experiments. Any industrial plant or scientific experiment mainly consists of actuators, sensors, electronics, power supplies, and software. The power supply requirement of any load is dynamic in terms of voltage amplitude, current consumption, predefined temporal profile, interlock supports for fail-safe operation. The programmable settings of various parameters of power supply and real-time monitoring of outputs is necessary for automation and remote operation of the application. In general, the analog power supply (APS) has manual control of output and does not support computer interfacing feature. The digital controller or processor offers computer interfacing facility with signal acquisition using analog to digital converter (ADC), signal processing using processor and control task using digital to analog converter (DAC). The digital power supplies usually have readily available computer interfacing port for automation. This paper mainly focuses on the design, development, and automation of analog (DC–DC converter) and digital power supply. The design of inhouse field programmable gate array (FPGA) based add-on board for automation of multichannel APS is discussed in detail. Finally, development of LabVIEW-based graphical user interface (GUI) for setting and monitoring of various parameters of the system is discussed. The demonstration of designed hardware and software is checked for one of the power supply sections of optoelectronics laboratory. The developed work is upgradable to multiple simultaneous channels for monitoring and control. We believe that the developed work will be useful for many industrial and research applications.