Spread-spectrum (SS)-based pulsewidth modulation (PWM) techniques play an important role when tackling the electromagnetic interference (EMI) problem in the switch-mode power supply (SMPS) domain. They achieve the best EMI noise reduction and emerge as a promising and very effective solution to comply with electromagnetic standards. The current work provides an insight into the SS techniques: its history, its types, and mainly its ability to mitigate the EMI problem in the SMPS domain. Moreover, it gives a short review of the different SS-based PWM techniques going from the most basic and simple, i.e., the periodic modulation, to the most developed and complex, i.e., the random and chaotic modulations. Besides, a short review of the different implementation methods was addressed and they were categorized into analog and digital implementation techniques where its pros and cons were provided. Finally, a new fast digital implementation method based on a dsPIC33F microcontroller is presented. Its effectiveness was proved and its advantages over the reviewed implementation techniques were recognized. It reached a 20 dBuV EMI level reduction when the digital chaotic and periodic profiles were embedded into a boost converter prototype.

This paper proposes a Low-Voltage Ride-Through control strategy for a three-phase grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system. At two stages, the topology is considered for the grid-tied system fed by a photovoltaic generator with a boost converter followed by a three-phase voltage source inverter. A flexible control strategy is built for the proposed system. It accomplishes the PV converter operations under the normal operating mode and under grid faults (symmetrical and asymmetrical grid voltage sag). The boost converter is controlled via an incremental conductance maximum power point tracking technique to maximize the PV generator power extraction. In the case of voltage sag, the implemented control strategy provides a switch between MPPT mode and non-MPPT mode to ensure the protection of the power converters. Theoretical modeling and simulation studies were performed, and significant results are extracted and presented to prove the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm.