PWM（脉冲宽度调制）

模拟信号的值可以连续变化，其时间和幅度的分辨率都没有限制。9V电池就是一种模拟器件，因为它的输出电压并不精确地等于9V，而是随时间发生变化，并可取任何实数值。与此类似，从电池吸收的电流也不限定在一组可能的取值范围之内。模拟信号与数字信号的区别在于后者的取值通常只能属于预先确定的可能取值集合之内，例如在{0V,5V}这一集合中取值。　　模拟电压和电流可直接用来进行控制，如对汽车收音机的音量进行控制。在简单的模拟收音机中，音量旋钮被连接到一个可变电阻。拧动旋钮时，电阻值变大或变小；流经这个电阻的电流也随之增加或减少，从而改变了驱动扬声器的电流值，使音量相应变大或变小。与收音机一样，模拟电路的输出与输入成线性比例。　　尽管模拟控制看起来可能直观而简单，但它并不总是非常经济或可行的。其中一点就是，模拟电路容易随时间漂移，因而难以调节。能够解决这个问题的精密模拟电路可能非常庞大、笨重（如老式的家庭立体声设备）和昂贵。模拟电路还有可能严重发热，其功耗相对于工作元件两端电压与电流的乘积成正比。模拟电路还可能对噪声很敏感，任何扰动或噪声都肯定会改变电流值的大小。　　通过以数字方式控制模拟电路，可以大幅度降低系统的成本和功耗。此外，许多微控制器和DSP已经在芯片上包含了PWM控制器，这使数字控制的实现变得更加容易了。

具体过程

　　脉冲宽度调制（PWM）是一种对模拟信号 电平进行数字 编码的方法。通过高分辨率 计数器的使用， 方波的 占空比被 调制用来对一个具体模拟信号的电平进行编码。 PWM信号仍然是数字的，因为在给定的任何时刻，满幅值的直流供电要么完全有（ON），要么完全无（OFF）。电压或电流源是以一种通（ON）或断（OFF）的重复 脉冲序列被加到模拟负载上去的。通的时候即是直流供电被加到负载上的时候，断的时候即是供电被断开的时候。只要带宽足够，任何模拟值都可以使用PWM进行编码。　　多数负载（无论是电感性负载还是电容性负载）需要的调制频率高于10Hz，通常调制频率为1kHz到200kHz之间。　　许多微控制器内部都包含有PWM控制器。例如，Microchip公司的PIC16C67内含两个PWM控制器，每一个都可以选择接通时间和周期。占空比是接通时间与周期之比；调制频率为周期的倒数。执行PWM操作之前，这种微处理器要求在软件中完成以下工作：　　

    1、设置提供调制方波的片上定时器/计数器的周期 　

    2、 在PWM控制寄存器中设置接通时间 　　

    3、设置PWM输出的方向，这个输出是一个通用I/O管脚 　　

    4、启动定时器　　

    5、使能PWM控制器　　

目前几乎所有市售的单片机都有PWM模块功能，若没有（如早期的8051），也可以利用定时器及GPIO口来实现。

脉冲宽度调制优点

　　PWM的一个优点是从处理器到 被控系统信号都是数字形式的，无需进行 数模转换。让信号保持为数字形式可将噪声影响降到最小。噪声只有在强到足以将逻辑1改变为逻辑0或将逻辑0改变为逻辑1时，也才能对数字信号产生影响。　　对噪声抵抗能力的增强是PWM相对于模拟控制的另外一个优点，而且这也是在某些时候将PWM用于通信的主要原因。从模拟信号转向PWM可以极大地延长通信距离。在接收端，通过适当的 RC或 LC网络可以滤除调制高频方波并将信号还原为模拟形式。　　总之，PWM既经济、节约空间、抗噪性能强，是一种值得广大工程师在许多设计应用中使用的有效技术。

PWM

from:http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/PWM

The Fading example demonstrates the use of analog output (PWM) to fade an LED. It is available in the File->Sketchbook->Examples->Analog menu of the Arduino software.

Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM, is a technique for getting analog results with digital means. Digital control is used to create a square wave, a signal switched between on and off. This on-off pattern can simulate voltages in between full on (5 Volts) and off (0 Volts) by changing the portion of the time the signal spends on versus the time that the signal spends off. The duration of "on time" is called the pulse width. To get varying analog values, you change, or modulate, that pulse width. If you repeat this on-off pattern fast enough with an LED for example, the result is as if the signal is a steady voltage between 0 and 5v controlling the brightness of the LED.

In the graphic below, the green lines represent a regular time period. This duration or period is the inverse of the PWM frequency. In other words, with Arduino's PWM frequency at about 500Hz, the green lines would measure 2 milliseconds each. A call toanalogWrite() is on a scale of 0 - 255, such that analogWrite(255) requests a 100% duty cycle (always on), and analogWrite(127) is a 50% duty cycle (on half the time) for example.

Once you get this example running, grab your arduino and shake it back and forth. What you are doing here is essentially mapping time across the space. To our eyes, the movement blurs each LED blink into a line. As the LED fades in and out, those little lines will grow and shrink in length. Now you are seeing the pulse width.

Written by Timothy Hirzel

Introduction to Pulse Width Modulation

Michael Barr

8/31/2001 6:53 AM EDT

Introduction to Pulse Width Modulation

A look at a powerful technique for controlling analog circuits with a microprocessor's digital outputs.

Pulse width modulation (PWM) is a powerful technique for controlling analog circuits with a microprocessor's digital outputs. PWM is employed in a wide variety of applications, ranging from measurement and communications to power control and conversion.

Analog circuits

An analog signal has a continuously varying value, with infinite resolution in both time and magnitude. A nine-volt battery is an example of an analog device, in that its output voltage is not precisely 9V, changes over time, and can take any real-numbered value. Similarly, the amount of current drawn from a battery is not limited to a finite set of possible values. Analog signals are distinguishable from digital signals because the latter always take values only from a finite set of predetermined possibilities, such as the set {0V, 5V}.

Analog voltages and currents can be used to control things directly, like the volume of a car radio. In a simple analog radio, a knob is connected to a variable resistor. As you turn the knob, the resistance goes up or down. As that happens, the current flowing through the resistor increases or decreases. This changes the amount of current driving the speakers, thus increasing or decreasing the volume. An analog circuit is one, like the radio, whose output is linearly proportional to its input.

As intuitive and simple as analog control may seem, it is not always economically attractive or otherwise practical. For one thing, analog circuits tend to drift over time and can, therefore, be very difficult to tune. Precision analog circuits, which solve that problem, can be very large, heavy (just think of older home stereo equipment), and expensive. Analog circuits can also get very hot; the power dissipated is proportional to the voltage across the active elements multiplied by the current through them. Analog circuitry can also be sensitive to noise. Because of its infinite resolution, any perturbation or noise on an analog signal necessarily changes the current value.

Digital control

By controlling analog circuits digitally, system costs and power consumption can be drastically reduced. What's more, many microcontrollers and DSPs already include on-chip PWM controllers, making implementation easy.

In a nutshell, PWM is a way of digitally encoding analog signal levels. Through the use of high-resolution counters, the duty cycle of a square wave is modulated to encode a specific analog signal level. The PWM signal is still digital because, at any given instant of time, the full DC supply is either fully on or fully off. The voltage or current source is supplied to the analog load by means of a repeating series of on and off pulses. The on-time is the time during which the DC supply is applied to the load, and the off-time is the period during which that supply is switched off. Given a sufficient bandwidth, any analog value can be encoded with PWM.

Figure 1 shows three different PWM signals. Figure 1a shows a PWM output at a 10% duty cycle. That is, the signal is on for 10% of the period and off the other 90%. Figures 1b and 1c show PWM outputs at 50% and 90% duty cycles, respectively. These three PWM outputs encode three different analog signal values, at 10%, 50%, and 90% of the full strength. If, for example, the supply is 9V and the duty cycle is 10%, a 0.9V analog signal results.

Figure 1: PWM signals of varying duty cycles

Figure 2 shows a simple circuit that could be driven using PWM. In the figure, a 9V battery powers an incandescent lightbulb. If we closed the switch connecting the battery and lamp for 50ms, the bulb would receive 9V during that interval. If we then opened the switch for the next 50ms, the bulb would receive 0V. If we repeat this cycle 10 times a second, the bulb will be lit as though it were connected to a 4.5V battery (50% of 9V). We say that the duty cycle is 50% and the modulating frequency is 10Hz.

Figure 2: A simple circuit

Most loads, inductive and capacitative alike, require a much higher modulating frequency than 10Hz. Imagine that our lamp was switched on for five seconds, then off for five seconds, then on again. The duty cycle would still be 50%, but the bulb would appear brightly lit for the first five seconds and off for the next. In order for the bulb to see a voltage of 4.5 volts, the cycle period must be short relative to the load's response time to a change in the switch state. To achieve the desired effect of a dimmer (but always lit) lamp, it is necessary to increase the modulating frequency. The same is true in other applications of PWM. Common modulating frequencies range from 1kHz to 200kHz.

Hardware controllers

Many microcontrollers include PWM controllers. For example, Microchip's PIC16C67 includes two, each of which has a selectable on-time and period. The duty cycle is the ratio of the on-time to the period; the modulating frequency is the inverse of the period. To start PWM operation, the data sheet suggests the software should:

• Set the period in the on-chip timer/counter that provides the modulating square wave.
• Set the on-time in the PWM control register.
• Set the direction of the PWM output, which is one of the general-purpose I/O pins.
• Start the timer.
• Enable the PWM controller.

Although specific PWM controllers do vary in their programmatic details, the basic idea is generally the same.

Communication and control

One of the advantages of PWM is that the signal remains digital all the way from the processor to the controlled system; no digital-to-analog conversion is necessary. By keeping the signal digital, noise effects are minimized. Noise can only affect a digital signal if it is strong enough to change a logical-1 to a logical-0, or vice versa.

Increased noise immunity is yet another benefit of choosing PWM over analog control, and is the principal reason PWM is sometimes used for communication. Switching from an analog signal to PWM can increase the length of a communications channel dramatically. At the receiving end, a suitable RC (resistor-capacitor) or LC (inductor-capacitor) network can remove the modulating high frequency square wave and return the signal to analog form.

PWM finds application in a variety of systems. As a concrete example, consider a PWM-controlled brake. To put it simply, a brake is a device that clamps down hard on something. In many brakes, the amount of clamping pressure (or stopping power) is controlled with an analog input signal. The more voltage or current that's applied to the brake, the more pressure the brake will exert.

The output of a PWM controller could be connected to a switch between the supply and the brake. To produce more stopping power, the software need only increase the duty cycle of the PWM output. If a specific amount of braking pressure is desired, measurements would need to be taken to determine the mathematical relationship between duty cycle and pressure. (And the resulting formulae or lookup tables would be tweaked for operating temperature, surface wear, and so on.)

To set the pressure on the brake to, say, 100psi, the software would do a reverse lookup to determine the duty cycle that should produce that amount of force. It would then set the PWM duty cycle to the new value and the brake would respond accordingly. If a sensor is available in the system, the duty cycle can be tweaked, under closed-loop control, until the desired pressure is precisely achieved.

PWM is economical, space saving, and noise immune. And it's now in your bag of tricks. So use it.

Michael Barr is editor in chief of ESP. He is also the author of Programming Embedded Systems in C and C++ (O'Reilly, 1999) and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland.

E-mail him at mbarr@cmp.com.

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