Buck Converter: 1 Theory of Operation
Buck Converter: 1 Theory of Operation
Buck Converter: 1 Theory of Operation
IL
VL
Theory of operation
On-State
O-State
2 Concept
The conceptual model of the buck converter is best understood in terms of the relation between current and
Fig. 2: The two circuit congurations of a buck converter: On- voltage of the inductor. Beginning with the switch open
state, when the switch is closed, and O-state, when the switch
(in the o position), the current in the circuit is 0. When
is open (Arrows indicate current according to the conventional
the switch is rst closed, the current will begin to increase,
current model).
and the inductor will produce an opposing voltage across
The basic operation of the buck converter has the cur- its terminals in response to the changing current. This
rent in an inductor controlled by two switches (usually a voltage drop counteracts the voltage of the source and
transistor and a diode). In the idealised converter, all the therefore reduces the net voltage across the load.
components are considered to be perfect. Specically, Over time, the rate of change of current decreases, and
the switch and the diode have zero voltage drop when the voltage across the inductor also then decreases, in1
2 CONCEPT
creasing the voltage at the load. During this time, the Conversely, the decrease in current during the O-state
inductor is storing energy in the form of a magnetic eld. is given by:
If the switch is opened while the current is still changing,
then there will always be a voltage drop across the induc T =ton +toff
tor, so the net voltage at the load will always be less than
VL
Vo
I
=
dt = toff , toff = (1D)T
Loff
the input voltage source.
L
L
ton
2.1
Continuous mode
A buck converter operates in continuous mode if the current through the inductor (IL) never falls to zero during
the commutation cycle. In this mode, the operating principle is described by the plots in gure 4:
VL = L
dIL
dt
With VL equal to Vi Vo during the On-state and to Vo In some cases, the amount of energy required by the load
during the O-state. Therefore, the increase in current is too small. In this case, the current through the inductor
falls to zero during part of the period. The only dierduring the On-state is given by:
ence in the principle described above is that the inductor
is completely discharged at the end of the commutation
ton
cycle (see gure 5). This has, however, some eect on
VL
(Vi Vo )
ILon =
dt =
ton , ton = DT
the previous equations.
L
L
0
2.3
ILM ax =
Vi Vo
DT
L
Io =
(Vi Vo ) DT (D + )
2L
Io =
(
(Vi Vo ) DT D +
Vi Vo
Vo D
2L
IL = Io
Where IL is the average value of the inductor current. As
can be seen in gure 5, the inductor current waveform has
a triangular shape. Therefore, the average value of IL can
be sorted out geometrically as follow:
1.00
D=0.9
0.80
D=0.7
Normalized Voltage
0.60
D=0.5
0.40
discontinuous
0.20
D=0.3
continuous
D=0.1
0.00
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
Normalized current
1
1
ILmax DT + ILmax T
2
2
ILmax (D + )
=
2
= Io
IL =
1
T
Fig. 6: Evolution of the normalized output voltages with the normalized output current.
As mentioned at the beginning of this section, the converter operates in discontinuous mode when low current
is drawn by the load, and in continuous mode at higher
The inductor current is zero at the beginning and rises load current levels. The limit between discontinuous and
during t up to IL . That means that IL is equal to: continuous modes is reached when the inductor current
2 CONCEPT
falls to zero exactly at the end of the commutation cycle. the current at the limit between continuous and disconUsing the notations of gure 5, this corresponds to :
tinuous mode is:
DT + T = T
Vi
D (1 D) T
2L
Io
=
D (1 D)
2 |Io |
Iolim =
+D+ =1
Therefore, the output current (equal to the average inductor current) at the limit between discontinuous and continuous modes is (see above):
Therefore, the locus of the limit between continuous and
discontinuous modes is given by:
Iolim =
ILmax
IL
(D + ) = max
2
2
(1 D) D
=1
2 |Io |
Iolim =
Vi Vo
DT
2L
Iolim =
Vi (1 D)
DT
2L
Vo
Vi
. It is
1
2LIo
D 2 Vi T
+1
1
2|Io |
D2
+1
D2
=
2 |Io | + D2
2.4
Non-ideal circuit
2.4.1
Both static and dynamic power losses occur in any switching regulator. Static power losses include I 2 R (conduction) losses in the wires or PCB traces, as well as in the
switches and inductor, as in any electrical circuit. Dynamic power losses occur as a result of switching, such as
the charging and discharging of the switch gate, and are
proportional to the switching frequency.
Output voltage ripple is the name given to the phenomenon where the output voltage rises during the Onstate and falls during the O-state. Several factors contribute to this including, but not limited to, switching frequency, output capacitance, inductor, load and any current limiting features of the control circuitry. At the most
It is useful to begin by calculating the duty cycle for a
basic level the output voltage will rise and fall as a result
non-ideal buck converter, which is:
of the output capacitor charging and discharging:
dVo =
idT
C
D=
Vo + (VSYNCSW + VL )
Vi VSWITCH + VSYNCSW
D
f
dTof f = (1 D)T =
1D
f
Qualitatively, as the output capacitor or switching frequency increase, the magnitude of the ripple decreases.
Output voltage ripple is typically a design specication
for the power supply and is selected based on several factors. Capacitor selection is normally determined based
on cost, physical size and non-idealities of various capacitor types. Switching frequency selection is typically determined based on eciency requirements, which tends
to decrease at higher operating frequencies, as described
below in Eects of non-ideality on the eciency. Higher
switching frequency can also reduce eciency and possibly raise EMI concerns.
2 CONCEPT
VF is the forward voltage of the body diode, and
Pleakage = Ileakage V
where:
Ileakage is the leakage current of the switch, and
V is the voltage across the switch.
Dynamic power losses are due to the switching behavior
of the selected pass devices (MOSFETs, power transistors, IGBTs, etc.). These losses include turn-on and turno switching losses and switch transition losses.
Switch turn-on and turn-o losses are easily lumped together as
PSW =
V Io (trise + tfall )
6T
where:
V is the voltage across the switch while the switch is
o,
trise and tfall are the switch rise and fall times, and
2.5
Specic structures
7
more than the freewheeling diode. Second, the complexity of the converter is vastly increased due to the need for
a complementary-output switch driver.
PD = VD (1 D)Io
where:
VD is the voltage drop across the diode at the load
current Io,
D is the duty cycle, and
4 IMPEDANCE MATCHING
3 Eciency factors
Conduction losses that depend on load:
Resistance when the transistor or MOSFET switch
is conducting.
Diode forward voltage drop (usually 0.7 V or 0.4 V
for schottky diode)
Inductor winding resistance
Capacitor equivalent series resistance
Fig. 10: Closeup picture of a multiphase CPU power supply for
an AMD Socket 939 processor. The three phases of this supply can be recognized by the three black toroidal inductors in the
foreground. The smaller inductor below the heat sink is part of
an input lter.
Switching losses:
Voltage-Ampere overlap loss
Frequency *CV2 loss
Reverse latence loss
4 Impedance matching
A buck converter can be used to maximize the power
transfer through the use of impedance matching. An application of this is in a "maximum power point tracker"
commonly used in photovoltaic systems.
By the equation for electric power:
Vo Io = Vi Ii
9
Z is the output impedance
Z is the input impedance
Substituting these expressions for I and I into the power
equation yields:
ON
Vo = DVi
where:
D is the duty cycle
Substituting this equation for V into the previous equation, yields:
D2 /Zo = /Zi
and nally:
D=
Zo /Zi
See also
Boost converter
Buck-boost converter
Split-Pi (Boost-Buck Converter)
General DC-DC converters and Switched-mode
power supplies
References
P. Julin, A. Oliva, P. Mandolesi, and H. Chiacchiarini, Output discrete feedback control of a DCDC Buck converter, in Proceedings of the IEEE
International Symposium on Industrial Electronics
(ISIE97), Guimaraes, Portugal, 7-11Julio 1997, pp.
925930.
H. Chiacchiarini, P. Mandolesi, A. Oliva, and P.
Julin, Nonlinear analog controller for a buck converter: Theory and experimental results, Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics (ISIE99), Bled, Slovenia, 12
16 July 1999, pp. 601606.
M. B. DAmico, A. Oliva, E. E. Paolini y N.
Guerin, Bifurcation control of a buck converter
in discontinuous conduction mode, Proceedings of
the 1st IFAC Conference on Analysis and Control
of Chaotic Systems (CHAOS06), pp. 399404,
Reims (Francia), 28 al 30 de junio de 2006.
Oliva, A.R., H. Chiacchiarini y G. Bortolotto Developing of a state feedback controller for the synchronous buck converter, Latin American Applied
Research, Volumen 35, Nro 2, Abril 2005, pp. 83
88. ISSN: 0327-0793.
DAmico, M. B., Guerin, N., Oliva, A.R., Paolini,
E.E. Dinmica de un convertidor buck con controlador PI digital. Revista Iberoamericana de automtica e informtica industrial (RIAI), Vol 4, No
3, julio 2007, pp. 126131. ISSN: 1697-7912.
Chierchie, F. Paolini, E.E. Discrete-time modeling
and control of a synchronous buck converter .Argentine School of Micro-Nanoelectronics, Technology
and Applications, 2009. EAMTA 2009.12 October 2009, pp. 5 10 . ISBN 978-1-4244-4835-7
.
10
External links
Interactive Power Electronics Seminar (iPES) Many
Java applets demonstrating the operation of converters
Model based control of digital buck converter Description and working VisSim source code diagram
for low cost digital control of DC-DC buck converters
SPICE simulation of the buck converter
Tutorial video explaining buck converters with example buck converter circuit design
Switch-Mode Power Supply Tutorial - Detailed article on DC-DC converters which gives a more formal and detailed analysis of the Buck including the
eects of non-ideal switching (but, note that the diagram of the buck-boost converter fails to account
for the inversion of the polarity of the voltage between input and output).
DC-DC Power Converter Case study
On the Power Eciency Optimization
EXTERNAL LINKS
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