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INTERLEAVED BUCK CON VERTER APPLIED TO HIGH POWER HID LAMPS

SUPPLYING: DESIGN, MODELING AND CONTROL

Andressa C. Schittler, Douglas Pappis,

J. Marcos Alonso

Alexandre Campos, Marco A. Dalla Costa

schittler@ieee.org, douglaspappis@gmail.com,
alex30275318@gmail.com, marcodc@gedre.ufsm.br

marcos@uniovi.es

Federal University of Santa Maria - UFSM

Electrical Engineer Post-Graduation Program - PPGEE
Electronic Ballast Research Group - GEDRE
Av. Roraima, n. 1000 - 97 105-900 - Santa Maria, RS, Brazil

Universidad de Oviedo
DIEECS - Tecnologfa Electronica
Campus de Viesques sIn, Edificio 3, 33204
Gijon, Spain

Abstract

As the output current levels of power converters

increases, interleaved topologies become widely used. A well

known topology is the interleaved buck converter (IBC), which
presents as main characteristic a low ripple output current
source behavior. Due to HID lamp voltage source characteristics
and their acoustic resonance issue, it is necessary to drive them
with

nearly

constant

current

with

square-wave

shape.

Therefore, a buck-interleaved converter can be advantageous

for supplying high power HID lamps. The goal of this paper is a
proposal of an electronic ballast based on a two-cell buck
interleaved converter for high power HID lamps, with current
control loop, voltage sensing and constant power. A DC model
based on averaged state-space technique is derived for the
ballast,

as

well

disturbances.

as

The

an

AC

results

model

are

based

verified

on

small-signal

experimentally

and

through simulation in Matlab/Simulink and PSIM softwares.

Index Terms

Electronic ballast, high power HID lamps,

interleaved buck converter,

modeling,

state-space

averaging

technique.

I.

INTRODUCTION

The use of power converters is increasing in several areas,

such as electric cars, portable electronic devices and
electronic ballasts [I] . As the output current levels increase in
these converters, a configuration with parallel converters or
cells of a same converter can be applied [2] .
Commonly applied from medium to high power levels,
current sharing among converter cells or among converters
enables losses reduction in magnetic cores and
semiconductors, once the current levels are lower [3] .
Another characteristic is the output current ripple reduction,
which consequently lowers the output capacitor of the
converter.
Regarding to that, an interleaved topology can be applied
to high power high-intensity discharge (HID) lamp supplying.
These lamps present a voltage source characteristic [4] ,
which requires the ballast to present an output stage as a
current source. Mainly, the applied ballast might present an
output current nearly constant, with nominal current ripple of
5% maximum, because of the acoustic resonance phenomena

[5] . Moreover, the parallel output capacitor has to be below a

maximum value to assure converter stability, as presented in
[6] , due to the lamp negative incremental impedance.
It is important to highlight that HID lamp electronic ballast
manufacturers present products up to a maximum power of
only 400 W (e.g. Philips, OSRAM, TridonicATCO), although
electromagnetic ballasts present disadvantages as low
efficiency, audible noise, flicker and reduction of the lamp
lifetime [7] that are emphasized at the high power range.
The simple substitution of electromagnetic by electronic
ballasts allows for implementation of intelligent features as
self-tests and insertion of communication networks (DALI,
wireless, etc), which have been becoming essential for actual
lighting consumers market.
For designing such ballast, a single-cell converter might
present some issues, as high current levels at the
semiconductors and magnetic cores, increasing conducting
and switching losses. Also, a relatively increased size output
capacitor may be applied to reduce output current ripple.
Considering the presented characteristics, a buck
interleaved converter becomes suitable to be applied for high
power HID lamps supplying, not only for the simple design
but also for its inherent output current source characteristic.
Besides, the ballast should present PFC (power factor
correction) and PC (power and/or current control) stages, as it
is shown in Fig. 1. PFC stage design will not be covered by
this proposal, being assumed as a constant DC voltage
source.
Focusing on the lamp current, Fig. 2 shows a typical
configuration for HID lamps supplying [7] . It presents two
main stages: power andlor current control, represented by the
constant current source; and inversion stage, applied to avoid
the lamp early aging by electrophoresis [8] . For the sake of

@-1

____ P_ F _C----J

___

PC

___

__

Fig. 1. HID ballast characteristics block diagram

This work was partially co-sponsored by the Brazilian and

Spanish governments under research grants CAPES/DGU/5267,
CEEE-D and PHB2010-0145-PC.

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np ______
____ L_al_

Page 2 of 7

simplification, the starter circuit has not been shown in the

figure.
S,
1m

l------IC]

Time intervals

As started in [2] , for the output current ripple

minimization, the gate signals delay angle (8) can be
calculated as shown in (1).

15=

S.

Where: nc

Fig. 2. HID lamp supplying configuration with current control and inverter

From a control point of view, ballast reactive elements

have a dynamic behavior and together with the lamp
dynamics can bring the system to instability [8]. Therefore, a
closed-loop system is required and based on an interleaved
topology a high power HID lamp electronic ballast can be
proposed.
The main goal of this paper is to present a two-cell IBC
operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM) applied to
high power HID lamps supplying. The converter operates
with two current loops, a voltage sensing and constant power.
Converter design, modeling will be presented and confirmed
by experimental results and the control loop will be verified
through simulation.
Section II presents the IBC details of operation and
modeling; section III introduces the discharge lamp model
and frequency analysis. Section IV contains some
experimental results. In section V, topics concerning the final
version of this paper are described. Finally, some conclusions
are presented in section VI.
II.

A.

TWO-CELL INTERLEAVED

BUCK

A two-cell buck-interleaved converter is shown in Fig. 3.

The time intervals, AC model and transfer functions are
derived at the follow subsections.

360

( 1)

nc

number of cells

The time intervals are divided as they can be seen in Fig.

4. There, each time interval can be observed, as so the
inductor currents (ill e iL2) and gate signals (01 for SI and O2
for S2)' In Fig. 5 the equivalent circuits for each time interval
are shown.

v_

V...

(;;1

1;s

<h

T1'

T2

D:

Ts ,

T4

'

Fig. 4. Inductors L1 and L2 currents theoretical waveforms; MOSFETs S 1

and S2 gate signals

Time interval TI

In this interval (Fig. 5 (a)) the MOSFETs Sl e S2 are

turned on. It can be observed that the load current is shared in
two circuits: SloLl-load e S2-L2-load, charging the two
inductors. The diodes DI and D2 are reversed biased.

Time interval T2

Here (Fig. 5 (b)), the switch Sl is still on and switch S2 is

turned off. The diode D2 is directly biased and enables the
discharge of the energy stored at inductor L2.

Time interval T3

This interval is equal to interval I, as it can be observed

based on Fig. 4. The switch S2 is turned on and the switch Sl
is still on.
Fig. 3. Two-cell buck-interleaved
s,

L,

s,

L,
D,

...,...
'"

J)

(a)

( b)
Fig. 5. Time intervals for the two-cell buck-interleaved: (a) Tl and T3; (b) T2; (c) T4

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(c)

Page 3 of 7

Time interval T4

At this interval (Fig. 5 (c)) the switch SI is turned off and

the switch S2 remains turned on. The diode Dl is directly
polarized and enables the discharge of the energy stored at
inductor Ll.
B.

AC model and Transfer function

Considering a system with the state matrix as x and the

input matrix as u, the state-space representation is given by
(2) [ 14] .

x= Ax
. +Bu
.
y= C .x+E.u

(2)

Where: Ap. Bp. Cp - small-signal derived state-space

matrices.
The two-cell buck-interleaved AC model including
inductor conducting resistance (RL)' switches conducting
resistance (Rdsoll) and diodes drop voltage (V'lf) is presented in
(6). Converter modeling is based on state-space matrix
[iLl iL2 vcoV and input matrix [Vin vdf1 vdf2V.

(RL + Rdson' Dc)

L1
Ap-

Where: A - dynamic matrix;

B - input matrix;
C - output matrix;
E - direct transfer matrix.
Based on [9] , the small-signal AC model can be derived
from the state-space DC model and the steady state
equilibrium point (X). The DC model can be calculated based
on the matrices derived from the time intervals of the
converter, in the way shown in (3). As the two-cell buck
interleaved presents four time intervals, the DC model will
present the sum of four terms, as it can be seen in (3).

2.nc
A=

2.nc

2.nc

Ik=l TkA. k B= Ik=l TkB k C = Ik=l Tk,Ck

(3)

Where: A", B", Ck - state-space matrices that identify each

time interval operation;
Tk - respective time for each stage of operation.

Ap=A
B,

[ (

(-l)mA' X+

) (

Cp= C

'

(-l) HB'

) u]

(5)

L1
1

Co

Co

Co

L1

L1

L1

L2
(6)

L2
0

The transfer function (TF) can be obtained from (7) [9] .

1
G(s)= Cp(
. sI-Apr .Bp

(7)

A general TF for the two-cell buck-interleaved converter

of inductor current by duty-cycle is shown in (8). The
following terms are compressed in the TF for a better
visualization:

a1 = -Rdson' ILl + Yin - Vdf;

a2 = -Rdson' IL2 + Yin - Vdf;
(3 = RL + Rdson' Dc;
Leq = parallel assocIatIOn of

the

converter

interleaved inductors.
C.

The AC model is calculated based on the steady state

equilibrium point and on the addition of small disturbances
(small-signal) at the system input vector. Equation (5) gives
the relationship between DC model, equilibrium vector, input
vector and AC model.

L2
0

(4)

Where: U - input vector

(RL + Rdson' Dc)

Bp-

The steady state operation point is calculated as (4) [9] .

Converter design

The converter design is based on a 400 W lamp, which the

model will be presented in section lILA.
For a buck converter, the duty-cycle can be calculated as
shown in (9).
(9)

The inductors current ripple can be calculated as being

twice the required output current ripple. Regarding to that,
the inductors can be calculated as shown in ( 10). Note that
the inductors and the respective current ripples are considered
equal.

(8)

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Page 4 of 7

L1 =

(V,. - V-)

( 10)

D DcT.
S
!:J.iL

Where: T, - switching period;

l1iL - inductor current ripple.
III. SYSTEM ANALYSIS
The discharge lamps model has been consolidated by
many authors [8] , [ 10], [ 1 1] , [ 12] . In [8] the lamp is included
in the TF based on the principle that the converter can be
modeled as a constant current source dependent on the lamp
voltage and duty-cycle, once it is operating at the
discontinuous conduction mode (DCM).
In this paper, another approach is made, based on lamp
and ballast dynamics isolation, considering the control loop
faster than any load variation. It means that each dynamic can
be considered independent from the other.
A.

switching frequency of 40 kHz. The Bode diagram that

characterizes the inductor current over the duty-cycle (TF
presented in (8 is shown in Fig. 8.
Even though the converter presents stability without a
compensator, a control loop should be inserted to prevent
changes at the load in case of any variation.
By Nyquist theorem, a system is enabled to reproduce
signals until half of the sampling frequency. Commonly, the
crossover frequency ife) is chosen at a lower decade of the
switching frequency if,). In this case, Ie is chosen to be close
to the lamp model pole. There are two reasons for this: first,
the analyzed converter is a well-known plant and second, for
the sake of dynamics, the lamp pole is not as significant as
the right-plane zero.

5.2

Lamp Mode!

-- Lamp response
-- Simulink

As presented in [ 10] , the discharge lamps present a

different response at steady-state and at a small-signal
disturbance. The steady-state model can be approximated by
a resistance R) and the dynamic model is presented at ( 1 1).

s
( - z)
ZLamp(S)= k (s + p)

4.8
4.6

( 1 1)

44

"0
> 4.2
4

The lamp dynamic model proposed in [ 10] has been

adapted for simulation by [ 1 1] and it is based on the
equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 6.

3.8

R,

!!!!!!!!
!! !!!!
!! "
!! !!!!
!!
- ___________-.J
---=3.4 =------=--=------=-::------=-::-

3.6

R,

C, E,

0. 1

0.2

0.3

04

Time
0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

Fig. 7. Lamp response and model obtained

Gm

Inf, Pm

Bode Diagram
=

94.6 de9 (at 7.83e+004 rad/sec)

30

Lamp Model

-------Fig. 6. Simiati;n I ;; ;dei (a d';-pted fr i:io])

In this paper, the lamp model was obtained by analyzing

the lamp response against an input voltage step. This method
was proposed in [8] . Lamp response and model obtained from
that are shown in Fig. 7 and the derived parameters are shown
in the Table I.
TABLE I
LAMP PARAMETERS (400W)

Parameter
k
z

Value
13.53 1 Q
3.95 1 krad/s
15.36 krad/s

20

iii"

"

"0

:::;:..

C>

10
0
10
20
30
0

"

-45

-90

'
10

B.

Ballast specifications

'
10
Frequency (rad/sec)

The two-cell buck-interleaved converter operating in

continuous conduction mode (CCM) was designed with a

Fig. 8. Inductor current by duty-cycle frequency response

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0.9

Page 5 of 7

C.

1)

Bode Diagram

Control Loop

Gm

Inf. Pm

110 deg (at 1.4e+004 rad/sec)

Design
iii'
:!:.

The compensator must present steady-state null error and

maintain the phase margin of the system at least 60. For that,
the proportional-integral (PI) compensator can be applied and
its TF is shown in ( 12).

0>

20

-40

i--OLTFi

-30

The two-cell buck-interleaved has been simulated using

two current control loops, one for each interleaved cell. A
voltage sensing loop was added to generate the lamp current
reference, so the lamp power is maintained constant.
The block diagram that illustrates the current/power
control loop of the complete system is presented in Fig. 9
(sensors and modulators gains are considered unitary) and the
blocks description is shown as follows:

CiLl(s) - Compensator TF for current loop 1;

CiL2(s) - Compensator TF for current loop 1;

GiLld(S) - System TF, relation between inductor

L) current and duty-cycle;

GiL2d(S) - System TF, relation between inductor

L2 current and duty-cycle;

PL - Lamp power.

-60

-90

:li

:!:.

-120

'
10

'
10
Frequency (rad/sec)

Fig. 10. Frequency response of the open loop transfer function

TABLE II
SIMULATION AND PROTOTYPE PARAMETERS
Element
Value
400Y
Yin
IOOY
Vl..amp(nom)
400W
PLam (nom)
220 nF
Co
LJ,L,
7.5 mH
25Q
Ro
40 k Hz
;;
SPA08N80C3
::hS,
HFAI5PB60
DJ,D,

Based on the system evaluation, values found for the PI

compensator coefficients are Kpi
0.6166 and Zpi
1.396
krad/s.
The Bode diagram of the open loop transfer function
including the PI controller is presented in Fig. 10.
=

40

-20

( 12)

v.

Figure 12 presents the results for lamp current (upside

waveform); inductors currents (middle waveforms) and the
input voltage in the downside graphic with a 50V step at 10
ms. In Fig. 13 it can be seen that the lamp power is
maintained constant after the input voltage step.
IV.

Fig. 9. Closed loop block diagram

2)

60

Simulation Results

PSIM software was used to simulate the circuit with

current loop and the lamp model. The mc design values are
shown at table II. The simulated circuit is shown in Fig. 11,
including the lamp simulation model extracted from [8] and
adapted to PSIM.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

A 400W two-cell mc prototype was built with

components shown in table II. Figure 14 shows the gate
signals for the switches used on the converter. In Fig. 15 both
inductors currents are presented and a comparison between an
inductor current and the lamp current is shown in Fig. 16. It
can be seen the ripple reduction for the inductor current to the
total (lamp) current. Finally, Fig. 17 illustrates the input
current (which is, for the mc, the sum of both switches
currents) and the voltage stress in one switch. Converter
measured overall efficiency is 98.5%.
It can be observed in Fig. 17 a certain difference of current
levels between each cell, consequently on the inductors. That
can occur due to inherent non-linearities and components
tolerances, being difficult to prevent. Such unbalance can
lead to instability and/or chokes saturation. Therefore, it can
be concluded that it required current regulation of each cell,
rather than only controlling the output current.

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Page 6 of 7

S,
0,

R"

v.

Lamp simulation
model

L,

R"

L,
c.

v_

0,
Gain: Vz

;
P- n .2
Fig. II. Circuit simulation model including lamp equivalent circuit

oon
TRia)

Fig. 13. Lamp power -50 V step at input voltage at 10 ms

Fig. 12. Lamp and inductors current; input voltage with a 50V step at 10 ms

21.0MHz Filt de Rurdos

Acion.

Tek E,ec.

[D
Ell!

10 10.0V

0 10.0V

33.80%110 f4.80V

ElI!lIlO.o)J'

37.3333kHZ

Fig. 14. Gate signals for two-cells!B C at open loop operation (lOV/div;
IOIlS/div)

Ii :

TekPreVi,
.

,!

'"

10 tOOA

Ell!

2.30MHz
.

,!"

,!

.;.tOOA

" !, "

. - .

. _ .

- - -

10';'1.00 A

Ell!

.;.tOO A

Filt. de Rui do,

ElI!Il
c:20::.:.O=.)J' =--_....:1.::.3.4.:.:0c:;%IIO f-2.24 A

<10HZ

Fig. 15. Inductors currents for two-cells !BC at open loop operation (lNdiv;
20lls/div)

Fi11. de Ruido,

5.50MHz

TekPreVi,

Fi11. de Ruido,

. - .

'

::
-

" !"

,!

,!,

'!

. - .

ElI!II2o.o)J'

2.30MHz

TekPreVi,

18.60%110 f5.00A

<10HZ

Fig. 16. Lamp (up waveform) and inductor current (down waveform) (INdiv;
20IlS/div)

Ell!

Fig. 17. Input current (upside) and Sr voltage stress for two-cells!BC open
loop operation (2Ndiv; 200V/div; IOlls/div)

2.00A

.. 200V

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ElI!II10.0)J'

26.20%11.. f80.0V

<10HZ

Page 7 of 7

v.

CONCLUSION

This paper presented an electronic ballast for supplying

high power HID lamps based upon a two-cell CCM buck
interleaved converter for current/power control. Inversion
stage has been implemented via ordinary full-bridge and a
PFC stage is assumed.
It can be concluded that the interleaved buck converter is
an excellent option for designing an electronic ballast due to
its inherent output low ripple current source as well as its
suitability for high power ballast applications. More
importantly, it has to be highlighted that only electromagnetic
ballasts are currently available on the market for this range of
lamp power.
Moreover, such converter presents the advantage of being
flexible in terms of power level, as the number of cells can be
increased for a higher lamp power, keeping the same
functionality. Besides, interleaved topologies can bring
advantages as smaller size, in comparison with a single-cell
converter for the same power and high efficiency, 98.5% in
the presented converter.
The ballast has been analyzed from a control point of
view. Based upon the average state-space technique, DC and
AC models for the two-cell interleaved buck converter can be
obtained considering most of the important parasitic
elements.
This guarantees theory and practical match, improving
reliability of the feedback control loop. For obtaining the
system model, HID lamp has been considered as a resistance,
once its impedance characteristics are compensated by the
control loop.
Feedback control loop has been also presented in the paper.
For overcoming the HID lamp negative incremental
impedance, two current loops have been successfully
included, one for each inductor current. This avoids the
complexity of adding the lamp small-signal AC model to the
converter model. Lamp voltage sensing loop has been added
for the lamp power setting.
In summary, it can be concluded that this paper presented
a complete proposal for a high power HID lamps electronic
ballast design, with its most important parts being described
in detail.

[3] Wang, J. B., Chuang, S. "A study of the interleaved

buck derived converters". IEEE International Conference on
Industrial Technology, ICIT 2006.
[4] Mader, D., Hom, P. "A dynamic model for the electrical
characteristics of fluorescent lamps". IEEE Industry
Applications Society Annual Meeting, lAS 1992.
[5] Dalla Costa, M. A., Alonso, J. M., Garcia, J., Cardesfn,
J., Rico-Secades, M. "Acoustic resonance charactetization of
low-wattage metal-halide lamps under low-frequency square
waveform operation". IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics, v. 22, n. 3, pp. 7 35743, May 2007.
[6] Marchesan, T. B., Cervi, M., Kirsten, A. L., Campos, A.,
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voltage inversion for the bidirectional flyback converter".
IEEE Industry Applications Society, lAS 2008.
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low-frequency square-wave electronic ballast for HID
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2, pp. 24-430, March/April, 2003.
[8] Alonso, J. M., Dalla Costa, M. A., Cardesfn, J., Martfn
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[9] Erickson, R. W., Maksimovic, D. "Fundamentals of
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Ben-Yaakov, S., Shvartsas, M., GIozman, S. "Statics and
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Benyoussef, I. "A study of modeling and simulation for
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978-1-4244-9500-9/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE