A direct method and algorithm for determining the harmonic content of sinusoidal PWM waveforms suitable to low-level DSP and microcontrollers

A method for exact calculation of the harmonic content of the classic three-level sinusoidal PWM waveform for any modulation index is presented. Unlike methods that are based on the double Fourier series and Bessel functions, this method uses only the cosine function and linear algebra operators. As such it is well suited for both simulations and real-time control algorithms. For applications using low-level DSP's and microcontrollers, an approximate method is provided.