One-cycle control of switching converters

A new large-signal nonlinear control technique is proposed to control the duty-ratio d of a switch such that in each cycle the average value of a switched variable of the switching converter is exactly equal to or proportional to the control reference in the steady-state or in a transient. One-cycle control rejects power source perturbations in one switching cycle; the average value of the switched variable follows the dynamic reference in one switching cycle; and the controller corrects switching errors in one switching cycle. There is no steady-state error nor dynamic error between the control reference and the average value of the switched variable. Experiments with a constant frequency buck converter have demonstrated the robustness of the control method and verified the theoretical predictions. This new control method is very general and applicable to all types of pulse-width-modulated, resonant-based, or soft-switched switching converters for either voltage or current control in continuous or discontinuous conduction mode. Furthermore, it can be used to control any physical variable or abstract signal that is in the form of a switched variable or can be converted to the form of a switched variable

Sliding mode control of switching converters: general theory in an integrated solution

The application of the sliding-mode control theory to the regulation of dc-to-dc switching converters is reviewed. Subsequently, linear dynamical models are derived and compensating networks are designed. An analog integrated circuit illustrating the theory has been designed, implemented and applied to regulate a buck converter in continuous conduction mode. Experimental verifications are provided.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

High Temperature Silicon Carbide Mixed-signal Circuits for Integrated Control and Data Acquisition

Wide bandgap semiconductor materials such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide have grown in popularity as a substrate for power devices for high temperature and high voltage applications over the last two decades. Recent research has been focused on the design of integrated circuits for protection and control in these wide bandgap materials. The ICs developed in SiC and GaN can not only complement the power devices in high voltage and high frequency applications, but can also be used for standalone high temperature control and data acquisition circuitry. This dissertation work aims to explore the possibilities in high temperature and wide bandgap circuit design by developing a host of mixed-signal circuits that can be used for control and data acquisition. These include a family of current-mode signal processing circuits, general purpose amplifiers and comparators, and 8-bit data converters. The signal processing circuits along with amplifiers and comparators are then used to develop an integrated mixed-signal controller for a DC-DC flyback converter in a microinverter application. The 8-bit SAR ADC and the 8-bit R-2R ladder DAC open up the possibility of a remote data acquisition and control system in high temperature environments. The circuits and systems presented here offer a gateway to great opportunities in high temperature and power electronics ICs in SiC

Comparative Analysis of Different Control Schemes for DC-DC Converter: a Review

DC-DC converters are some power electronic circuits that convert the DC voltage from one level to another. They have a very large area of applications ranging from computing to communication. They are widely used in appliance control transportations and high-power transmission. Its increasing demand is based on its capability of electrical energy conversion. The basic topologies of DC-DC converter are Buck converter and Boost converter, other topologies are derived from these two basic topologies. Mathematical modelling of both Buck converters is done. Some of the control schemes are summarized in this paper. Current mode control (CMC), PID, Sliding Mode (SM) control including their advantages and disadvantages are highlighted in this paper

Sliding-mode controller for a photovoltaic system based on a Cuk converter

The wide range of step-up and step-down input-output voltage characteristic of the Cuk converter makes it a good candidate to interface photovoltaic arrays in both classical and distributed maximum power point tracking systems. Because its two inductor structure, Cuk converters have continuous input and output currents, which reduce the additional filtering elements usually required for interfacing dc/dc converter topologies. However, PV systems based on Cuk converters usually do not provide formal proofs of global stability under realistic conditions, which makes impossible to ensure a safe operation of the PV installation. Therefore, this paper proposes a high performance sliding-mode controller for PV systems based on Cuk converters, which regulates the PV voltage in agreement with the commands imposed by a MPPT algorithm, rejecting both load and environmental perturbations, and ensuring global stability for real operation conditions. Finally, the performance of the regulated PV system is tested using both simulations and experiments

Design of Power/Analog/Digital Systems Through Mixed-Level Simulations

In recent years the development of the applications in the field of telecommunications, data processing, control, renewable energy generation, consumer and automotive electronics determined the need for increasingly complex systems, also in shorter time to meet the growing market demand. The increasing complexity is mainly due to the mixed nature of these systems that must be developed to accommodate the new functionalities and to satisfy the more stringent performance requirements of the emerging applications. This means a more complex design and verification process. The key to managing the increased design complexity is a structured and integrated design methodology which allows the sharing of different circuit implementations that can be at transistor level and/or at a higher level (i.e.HDL languages).In order to expedite the mixed systems design process it is necessary to provide: an integrated design methodology; a suitable supporting tool able to manage the entire design process and design complexity and its successive verification.It is essential that the different system blocks (power, analog, digital), described at different level of abstraction, can be co-simulated in the same design context. This capability is referred to as mixed-level simulation.One of the objectives of this research is to design a mixed system application referred to the control of a coupled step-up dc-dc converter. This latter consists of a power stage designed at transistor-level, also including accurate power device models, and the analog controller implemented using VerilogA modules. Digital controllers are becoming very attractive in dc-dc converters for their programmability, ability to implement sophisticated control schemes, and ease of integration with other digital systems. Thus, in this dissertation it will be presented a detailed design of a Flash Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). The designed ADC provides medium-high resolution associated to high-speed performance. This makes it useful not only for the control application aforementioned but also for applications with huge requirements in terms of speed and signal bandwidth. The entire design flow of the overall system has been conducted in the Cadence Design Environment that also provides the ability to mixed-level simulations. Furthermore, the technology process used for the ADC design is the IHP BiCMOS 0.25 µm by using 50 GHz NPN HBT devices

Comparative Analysis of Different Control Schemes for DC-DC Converter: A Review

DC-DC converters are some power electronic circuits that convert the DC voltage from one level to another. They have a very large area of applications ranging from computing to communication. They are widely used in appliance control transportations and high-power transmission. Its increasing demand is based on its capability of electrical energy conversion. The basic topologies of DC-DC converter are Buck converter and Boost converter, other topologies are derived from these two basic topologies. Mathematical modelling of both Buck converters is done. Some of the control schemes are summarized in this paper. Current mode control (CMC), PID, Sliding Mode (SM) control including their advantages and disadvantages are highlighted in this paper

One-Quadrant Switched-Mode Power Converters

This article presents the main topics related to one-quadrant power converters. The basic topologies are analysed and a simple methodology to obtain the steady-state output-input voltage ratio is set out. A short discussion of different methods to control one-quadrant power converters is presented. Some of the reported derived topologies of one-quadrant power converters are also considered. Some topics related to one-quadrant power converters such as synchronous rectification, hard and soft commutation, and interleaved converters are discussed. Finally, a brief introduction to resonant converters is given.Comment: 25 pages, contribution to the 2014 CAS - CERN Accelerator School: Power Converters, Baden, Switzerland, 7-14 May 201

Sliding Mode Control of Buck Converter

DC-DC converters are used to convert DC voltage from one level to other. These converters are drastically used in industry as well as in research. One of the main limitations of these converters is unregulated supply of voltage and current. To overcome these problems there are various control techniques. This paper presents two such methods. This paper compares dynamic performance of buck Converter using PID controller and Sliding mode controller. Simulation of PI and Sliding mode control of Buck Converter is carried out in MATLAB SIMULINK