An adaptive controller for a boost converter with

harmonic reduction
G. Escohar*, A. Valdez, J. Leyva-Ramos and P.R. Martinez-Rodriguez

Absfracf- An adaptive controller for the compensation of

harmonics in the input voltage is proposed for a Pulse Width
Modulated (PWM) boost converter. Following the Lyapunov
approach we designed an adaptive law to cope with uncertaintie
in the disturbance signals. Complexity of the proposed controller
is reduced by rotations which transform the adaptive terms into
a sum of resonant filters having as input the output voltage error.
The resonant filters are tuned at the frequencies of the harmonics
under consideration. To facilitate the implementation we have
tried tn preserve the structure of the proposed controller as close
as possible to the conventional controller. The latter is usually
composed by a voltage outer loop (basically a Proportional plus
Integral (PI) control on the output voltage error) and an inner
control loop (basically a Proportional control plus a Feedforward
term). Thus, in the proposed controller, the hank of resonant
filters appears as a refinement term which is added to the inner
control loop. The proposed controller turns ont to he robust
with respect to parameter uncertainties. Experimental results on
a boost converter hoard, using a poorly regulated voltage source,
are presented to assess the performance of our approach.

I. INTRODUCTION
The main role of a dc-dc boost converter is to keep the
output voltage as close as possible to a desired constant
reference. Although this task may be fulfilled by a simple
open loop controller, it is usual to aggregate control terms to
alleviate certain drawbacks. For instance, it is well known that
open loop control is not able to cope for steady state errors due
to changes in the input voltage and load variations. Usually,
Proportional plus Integral (PI) controllers have provided a
good answer to the regulation task in dc-dc boost converters.
Due to the nonminimum phase nature of this converter [l],
the designer is forced to control the output voltage indirectly
by directly controlling the inductor current, this technique is
referred as current or indirect control in the power electronics
literature. Moreover, to facilitate the design, the designer
usually appeals to the decoupling assumption, out of which
the control design is split in two loops, namely, the. inner
current loop and the outer voltage loop. The former is aimed
to guarantee fast regulation of the inductor current towards its
reference. usually a proportional term on the inductor current
error plus either, a feedforward term of the input voltage, or
a simple offset. The purpose of the outer voltage loop is to
simply provide the inductor current reference to the inner
'Corresponding author
G. Escobar. A. Valder, J. Leyva-Ramos, and P.R. Martinez-Rodriguez are
with Dept of Aplied Malhemathicr and Computer Systems-IPLCYT
AV.
Venusliano Carranza 2425 A
Col. Bellas Lomas - San Luis Pomsl,
SLP 78210 - Mexico
Tel +52 444 833 541 I
FAX +52 444 833
5412 - Tel +52 444 833 5411 - FAX +52 444 833 5412.E-mail [gercobar,avaldezjleyva,pm~i"~~]@ipicyt.edu.rm

0-7803-7906-3/03/$17.0002003 IEEE.

current loop, in this case a PI controller on the capacitor

voltage error is the most commonly used.
Although most of the controllers designed so far have
taken into account disturbances such as step load changes
and slow input voltage variations, and they may be robust
with respect to system parameters uncertainties, there are few
results regarding the compensation of periodic disturbances on
the input line voltage at frequencies in the audible range [3],
[4],[51. This issue arises in applications, such as power factor
correctors (PFC). where the delivered voltage varies over a
wide rage. In these cases the input voltage is mainly polluted
by a Znd harmonic component of the line voltage which is due
to the rectification process in PFC.
In this paper we proposo an adaptive controller aimed to
reduce the effects of harmonic disturbances present in the
input voltage. Specifically, the proposed controller is aimed
to reduce selected harmonics of the output capacitor voltage,
hence, improving the audio-susceptibility chart, while maintaining an acceptable dynamical performance. We follow the
Lyapunov approach to generate adaptation laws to estimate
certain harmonic components of the disturbance to be compensated. The adaptations are later reduced, by means of rotations,
into a hank of resonant filters tuned at the frequencies of
the harmonics to be compensated. We also appeal to the
decoupling assumption, hence, the final expression of the
proposed controller includes an inner current loop and an
outer voltage loop. In our case, the former is composed by a
proportional term on the inductor current error, a feedforward
term in function of the input voltage and the bank of resonant
filters. The outer voltage loop is formed by a Low Pass
Filter (LPF) term plus an integral term, both operating on
the capacitor voltage error. We remark that, in our proposal,
the usual proportional term has been substituted by a LPF to
prevent the reinjection of further harmonics into the control
loop due to the remanent harmonic content in the capacitor
voltage. Our controller turns out to be very similar to the
conventional one, where the main difference is the introduction
of the bank of resonant filters acting as a refinement to the
final control signal. It could be observed that the conventional
controller and the feedforward control presented in [3] are
particular cases of the proposed controller.
Finally, experimental results have been carried out in a
boost converter board to asses the performance of the proposed
controller. The converter is fed by a poorly regulated voltage
source polluted by the second harmonic, i.e., 12OHz. For the
sake of space, we present only the results of the modified
version of the proposed controller, i.e., without feedforward
term. For implementation purposes the resonant filters (which

568

where p, represents a unitary vector rotating at a frequency

mw in counterclockwise direction,
and V & , are the real
and imaginary parts of the phasor Vs,,,,
A4
. is the set of index
of the harmonic components contained in uin.
The control objective consists in regulating the output
capacitor voltage 2 2 towards a constant reference v d despite of
the harmonic distortion in the input voltage. That is, the controller should be able to reject harmonic voltage disturbances
present in the power supply. It is well known that, due to the
nonminimum phase nature of this converter, it is preferable to
indirectly control the capacitor voltage by directly regulating
the inductor current towards a constant reference (this scheme
is referred in literature as current or indirect control . As it will
become clear later, a solution to our problem treated here is
obtained by forcing the inductor current to track a harmonic
distorted reference instead of the usual constant signal. The
idea behind this approach is that, by distorting the inductor
current reference, we incorporate a degree of freedom that
allows compensation of harmonics in the capacitor voltage
side.
Thus, we propose the following reference for the inductor
current:
Z;(t) = I d
P:Ih,k
(4)

have infinite gain at the resonant frequency) are replaced by

Band Pass Filters (BPF) (which have limited gain at the tuned
frequency) to guarantee a safer operation. Notice that the
environment might be polluted by harmonics of frequency
close to the resonance frequency, which might be introduced
into the control loop with a huge gain. In our implementation
only a single BPF tuned at 120Hz was included. Several tests
have been proposed, such as the response to a step change
in the load resistance, and connectioddisconnection of the
resonant filter contribution, etc.

q,,,

11. PROBLEM FORMULATION

A circuit of the boost converter is shown in Fig. 1. We
have neglected, without loos of generality, the equivalent series
resistances (ESR) of inductor, capacitor and Mosfet, as well
as the voltage drop in the diode.
L

I
Fig. I .

kEH

Boost converter circuit.

The system dynamics of the boost converter shown in Fig.

1 are described by the following expressions:

LX1
CX2

= -ux2+uan
=

U51

x2

(1)

where Id is a constant reference, usually obtained (in a

conventional controller) from a proportional plus integrative
P I ) controller; and I h , k = [ I i , k , l A , k ] Ta phasor representing
the harmonic components intraduceh to be reconstructed in an
outer loop as well. H c M is the set of index of the harmonic
components to be compensated.
Its time derivative i s given by

(2)

where x 1 is the inductor current, x2 is the capacitor voltage,

vZnrepresents the voltage source (this signal is addressed
indistinctly as input voltage or voltage source all along the

paper), L is the inductance, C is the capacitance and R is the

load resistance. We assume that parameters L,C and R are
unknown positive constants. In the discontinuous model, i.e.,
U E {0, l}, the value u.= 0 corresponds to the situation where
the transistor is conducting, while 'U = 1 corresponds to the
case where the transistor is disconnected and thus the diode
is conducting. In the average model used along the paper, it
is assumed a sufficiently large switching frequency, hence, U
represents the slew rate of a PWM signal feeding the gate of
the boost converter, i.e., U = (1- d ) where d is the duty ratio.
We assume that the input voltage uin is polluted by higher
order harmonics. This phenomenon appears in some application where the input voltage may vary on a wide range, for
instance, in PFC's, or when the converter is fed by a poorly
regulated voltage source, most of them occurring in relatively
high power applications. In these cases, we assume that the
invut voltage can he reDresented as follows:

where we used the fact that bk = k w J p , .

For the sake of simplicity, we assume that the inductor current dynamics are faster than the capacitor voltage dynamics.
This is a usual time scale separation principle advocated in
many converter circuits to facilitate their control design. That
is, the converter can be treated as two decoupled subsystems,
a fast inductor current subsystem and a slow capacitor voltage
subsystem. Therefore, dividing the control design in a inner
current control loop and an outer voltage control loop.
111. PROPOSED CONTROLLER ASSUMING vin IS AVAILABLE
'
A. Carrent control loop
Let us rewrite the inductor current subsystem dynamics (1)
in terms of its increments as follows:

Lbl = --U22

+ vin - LX:

Assuming signal uin is available from measurements, then

a control law can be proposed as:

mEM

where kz is a positive design constant, Z1= x1 - xi,where

xi is obtained later in the outer loop.

569

time, introduction of higher order harmonics in the capacitor

voltage
response. Fortunalely, as observed in practice, and
k222~2 -V,
LL1 = -- xi
(Lx; -U<,)
thanks to the system parameters, the contribution of these
K!
K!
higher harmonics is considerably smaller than the benefits
We observe that, if zp is bounded and positive, the system obtained by the compensation algorithm. Moreover, the haris stable. Moreover, the second term on the right hand side monic components just created can be treated in their turn
is a harmonic perturbation which vanishes as 2 2 --t vd. We by the introduction of more and more compensating harmonic
conclude (based on the decoupling assumption and assuming~ components into the inductor current reference xi. Thus, to
that zp effectively converges to v d in average as will be shown consider all these effects and for ease of presentation, we lump
later) that j.1 converges to a ball of arbitrarily small radio.
together all unknown harmonic components and consider only
the harmonics that will be treated. Moreover, to simplify the
B. Voltage control loop
notation in the sums we iise k instead of k E H in what
Again. under the decoupling assumption and after a rela- follows. Then, the expression ( 7 ) IS reduced to the following
Linear Time Invariant (LTI) system:
tively short period of time the following holds
The closed loop dynamics yields

z,?Zz;

?,EO%

cx2

EId

E
+6
cp:Ih,k

Under this assumption the control law takes the form

Vin - LX?

U =

V,

out of which the capacitor voltage subsystem yields:

cxp =

Uin

'

v,Lx? ) z;

22
-R

Direct substitution of expressions for z; and

c
X
2

($+

X2
-

xi

(.+

kUJP:JIh,k)

vd k E H

yields:
p:Ih,k)

EId
vd

1
vd

dIh,k
kEH

E
-

+Id

P:Ih,k

c'

1P L V . . +~ L.'.
mEM

L
-

(9+

pHVs,mf

ci20

K! m E M

kCH

vd

where c1 represents the introduced dc component, and ' P k

concentrates the contribution of all unknown harmonics. In
this expression we have ne,glected the fifth term in (7).If this
term is considered, then a linear transformation is necessary to
extract Ih,k (which is required to reconstruct zy). Nevertheless,
its effect is negligible since the term kwLId is much smaller
than E for the harmonics of interest.
We observe that this LTI system is perturbed by two unknown signals of different nature, a dc signal
c1), and

(#; ck

= -f

vd

f c l -R
'

pZ1h.k
$ ZkP i ' P k ) .
a harmonic disturbance
Following the descriptive function technique (also referred
as harmonic decomposition) we can split the system response
in two parts

kEH

Using (3), and after multiplication. we obtain

c
X
2

22

' C p : * k

kWp:JIh,kt

&2h

kEH

=
=

EId

x 20

vd

-+ c l - -

(8)

~E ~ P kT I h , kId f & ~ P : * x2h

k - R (9)
k

22

( 7 ) where z 2 0 is the dc compo,nent of x2. i.e., 2 2 0 = ( z z ) ~and

.
a
vd k E H
kEH
x2h is the ac component of x2, i.e., x 2 h = C kx Z h , k . where
A
From this expression we highlight the following observaX Z h , k is the kth harmonic component of xp, i.e., x 2 h . k =
tions:
!
\
(W/k.
1) The third term represents the effects of the harmonic
I ) dc component: Subsystem (8) represents the convendistortion in the voltage source in the case that the tional capacitor voltage dynamics, where Id is considered the
inductor current reference is simply a constant, as in control input. For this subsystem we propose the following
the conventional approach.
controller composed by a L.PF plus and an integral term
2) Thanks to the distortion introduced in the inductor
current reference, the second term appears, which gives
Id = - k p V - k;E
(10)
a degree of freedom that will be used to alleviate the
(1 1)
= &0
effects of harmonic distortion in U,,,. That is, each IS,*
U = -bu+aZpo
(12)
can be seen now as a control signal whose purpose is
a
to inject a ICth harmonic component that should reduce where j.20 =
(zz0- vd), k p , ki,a and b are positive design
the effect of the corresponding harmonic.
parameters.
3) The fourth term produces higher order harmonics plus
The error dynamics yield.
a dc component.
E
520
vd
4) The sixth term produces only higher order harmonics.
Gip0 = - (-k,,u - kit) + c 1 - - - v,
R
R
We conclude that introduction of harmonic distortion in
the inductor current reference allows compensation of harmonic distortion in the capacitor voltage and, at the same
kurP:J1h,k

dlh,k -

~~

<

570

with adaptive expressions given by

with equilibrium point given by

which is stable provided that all design parameters are chosen

positive.
2) a c component: For the sake of clarity, let us define the
following transformation

<l,k

"ikX2h - W k c 2 , k

52,k

W&,k

which expressed in the form of transfer functions are

52,k

Recall that I h , k represents the kth control input for this

subsystem, while v , , k represents the kth harmonic component
of the perturbation.
The subsystem is now rewritten as

k and y

-b

k -

Remark 111.1 Notice that this controller is composed by a

feedforward term
plus a proportional term kh(x1 - I d ) ,
which are the same terms present in the conventional approach.
In contrast with the conventional approach, our proposed
controller includes, as well, a sum of resonant filters to cope
with the harmonic distortion.
0

It is clear that X 2 h and 2 2 0 are not available from measurements. Fortunately, thanks to the selective nature of the
resonant filters we can assume

whose time derivative given by

X2h E

is made negative semidefinite by proposing the following

adaptive laws

520 E 5 2 -

where ^/k are positive design constants representing the adaptation gains, and we used the fact that 6 k = k'k since * k
are constants, for all k E H. This yields the time derivative
, 0ut of which X 2 h is bounded and goes to zero
asymptotically. Moreover, following the Lassalle's invariance
principle, X2h o implies &k = 6 k = 0.

Id

Notice that the controller above requires the generation of

vectors pk. which might complicate its physical implementation. To overcome this problem, we propose the following
transformations
52,k

"

P k J*k

which yields the following expression for the controller

(14)

= -k,v - k;<
=

Using the descriptions of X I and Si (4)-(5), and the transformations (13),then controller (6) can be rewritten in terms
of the estimate * k as follows

Vd

In conclusion, the final expressions for the controller are

C. Implementation discussion

-vd

and leaning on the LPF capability of the proposed controller

(12) we can assume

kEH

+k=ykPkxZh

c l , k = P:&k

YkkW
+ k2w2.x2h

for every k E H.
Thus, the controller is rewritten as

where k; =
where &k = (*k - * k ) .
Following the Lyapunov approach, we propose the following storage function

s2

22

= -bu+a52

where ita
= x 2 - Vd. A block diagram of controller (15) is
shown in Fig. 2.
I v . EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS

A boost,converter and controller (15) have been implemented. The converter parameters are given in Table I. The
inductor current is sensed via a precision resistor of 0.05R
connected in series with the inductor. A typical circuit SG3524
is used to generate the PWM signal. A conventional non
regulated power supply using a full bridge diode rectifier with
a 4700pF capacitor filter is used as a voltage source. The
voltage provided by this source is polluted mainly by a 2nd
harmonic, i.e., at 120Hz. which, as expected, increases for
a higher current demand. To guarantee a safer operation, we
have preferred to use BPF's instead of resonant filters (ideally,
resonant filters have infinite gain at the resonant frequency,

57' 1

..............

. ..
.
. . . . . ..
.
.

. .. .

,
.....
.

. . .. .

, ,

.......
.
.
.
.

.....

. . . . . .I
.

..

. . . . . . . .

!
-.

'

.. . . .. . . . . .

Fig. 3. Transient responses after enabling the harmonic

compensation, with R = 1812. (From top to bottom) capacitor
voltage x2. inductor current i : ~and dc component of the inductor
current. reference Id.

Fig. 2. Block diagram of proposed controller measuring vin.

while BPF's have a limited gain at the resonant frequency)

In our implementation only a single BPF tuned at 120Hz
was included. This BPF has been implemented following the
guidelines in [Z],whose transfer function is given by

Fig. 4 shows the frequency spectrum of 2 2 without and

during compensation (from top to bottom). We observed that
the 2"d harmonic component (the one under compensation)
decreases almost 30dB,while the rest of harmonics are maintained almost unchanged.

7;s

U0 _
-

vi

...

. ,. .

s2

+ 2 s + k2w2

where the design parameter A, > 0 is the desired gain of the

BPF at the resonant frequency kw.Notice that, in the case of
an ideal resonant filter A , a 03.
Diode

MBRICJ45

Power Mosfet

IRF540

Inductor

350mH

Capacitor

47pF

Load resislor

18/36 R

WE

IO.Od8

62.5HZ,

Fig. 4. Frequency spectrum of capacitor voltage 52, with

R = 18R: (Top) without harmonic compensation, and (Bottom)
under harmonic compensation.

TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE BOOST CONVERTER

The tests performed include:

1) Enabling and disabling the harmonic compensation. That
is, connecting and disconnecting the BPF contribution,
respectively, while keeping a constant load resistance
R = 180.
2 ) Step changes in load resistance between 18R and 36R
are presented to show the robustness of the proposed
controller against load variations.
Fig. 5 shows the responses of capacitor voltage 2 2 , inductor
current x1 and the dc component of the inductor current
reference I d (from top to bottom). In this figure the harmonic
compensation is enabled after a given period of time. We
observed that after a relatively short transient, the distortion
in the output voltage capacitor is considerably reduced.

Fig. 5 shows the responses of capacitor voltage x2,inductor

current x1 and dc component of the inductor current reference
Id (from top to bottom), when the compensation is disable
after a certain period of time.
Fig. 6 shows the frequency spectrum of the inductor current
x1 without and under compensation (from top to bottom).
As predicted by theory, the harmonic content of the inductor
current increases, roughly s,peaking, it is necessary to distort
the inductor current in such a way to allow compensation in
the capacitor voltage 2 2 .
Once the system is operal.ing under compensation, i.e., with
the BPF connected, we proceed to change the load from 36R
to 18R. Fig. I shows the transient response of voltage x2 and
inductor current x1 (from top to bottom). We observed that
after 3 small transient the voltage recuperates its desired value

512

..
.

..
.
.
.. . . . . . . . .
.
.

i..?

........

........

........
.

......

f'

'

" " "

................

Fig. 7. Transient response for a load step change from R = 36R

to R = 18R: (From top to bottom) capacitor voltage XI. inductor
current X I and dc component of the inductor current reference I d .

Fig. 5 . Transient responses after disabling the harmonic

compensation, with R = 180: (From top to bottom) capacitor
voltage 5 2 , inductor current ZI and dc component of the inductor
current reference I d .

----p
-.

friI
j

. . .

....

.:

.
.
. . ... . . ... . .

. . . . . . . . .
.
.

Zo.od8

..c..

................
'

Fig. 8. Transient response for a load step change from R = 180

to R = 36R: (From top to bottom) capacitor voltage X I , inductor
current X I and dc component of the inductor current reference I d .

Sz.IHz1

Fig. 6. Frequency spectrum of inductor current XI. with

R = 18R: (Top) without harmonic compensation, and (Bottom)

under harmonic compensation.

24V. in average. In Fig. 8 the inverse process is performed,

that is, we switch the load resistance from 18R to 36R.

the responses obtained with and without the aforementioned

harmonic compensation. Transient responses to step changes
in the load are also presented to exhibit the robustness of the
proposed controller against load variations.

V. CONCLUSIONS
We have presented a controller for the boost converter
whose structure is very close to the conventional one. The
main difference consists in the introduction of a bank of
resonant filters aimed to compensate for a selected group of
harmonic components (in the audible range) contained in the
output capacitor voltage. This type of disturbance is mainly
due to a voltage source polluted by harmonics in the audible
range. The idea behind the proposed approach is that,, by
distorting the inductor current reference, we incorporate a
degree of freedom that allows compensation of harmonics in
the capacitor voltage side. Implementation of the controller
requires the measurement of the inductor current, capacitor
voltage and input voltage. A set of tests have been carried
out in an experimental prototype to assess the performance of
the proposed controller. To guarantee a safer operation in the
real implementation we have preferred to use BPF's instead of
pure resonant filters. In the experimental results we compare

REFERENCES
SIRA-RAMIREZ
AND J.P. VIAn Experimental Comparison of Several Nonlinear Controllers far
Power Converten. IEEE Tram. Conrrol Sysrems and Tech.. Vol. 19 , No.

[I] G. ESCOBAR,
1. ZEIN, R . ORTEGA, H.
LAIN.

1, pp. 66-82, 1999.

[ZI G. CLAYTON AND S. WINDER. Operarional Amplifiers, ButtenuortiHeinemann. 4th edition, June ZWO.
[31 M.K. KAZlMlERCZUK A N D L.A. STARMAN. Dynamic Performance of
PWM dc-dc Boost Convener with Input Voltage Feedforward Control.
IEEE Transactions On Circuits and Systems/; Fwu*lmentnl Theory And
Applicariionr, Vol. 46. No. 12. December 1999.
L41 M . K. KAZIMIERCZUK A N 0 A. MASSARINI.Feeedfonvard Conh-01 of
dc-dc PWM Boast Convener. IEEE Tmns. Circuits Syst.. I , Vol. 44, pp.
143148, Feb. 1997.
[51 B. Arbetter and D. Maksimovif. Feedforward Canuol of dc-dc PWM
Boost Convener. IEEE Tmns. Power Elecrmnics, Vol. 12. pp. 361-368,
Feb 1997.

573