SYSTEM MODELLING AND CONTROL IN THE DESIGN OF DC-D .. .

14th World Congress ofIFAC

Copyright l[.: 1999 IFAC 0-7c-04-1

14th Triennial World Congn.:ss, Beijing. P.R. China

SYSTEM MODELLING AND CONTROL IN THE

DESIGN OF DC-DC CONVERTERS

Kw Zeuger * Kai Heikkinen" Idris Gadoll.ra·

Teuvo Suntio"· Petri Vallittu "'**

• Helsinki University oj Technology, Control Engineering

Laboratory, P.O.Box 5400, FIN-DeDl5 HUT, Finland, Phone:
+35894515204, Fax: +358 94515208, Email; kai.zenger@hut.ji
*'" University of Oulu, Electronics Laboratory, P. 0. Box 444,
FIN-90571 , Oulu, Finland
H* Elare Oyj, P.O.Box 61, FIN-02211, Espoo, Finland

Abstract: In the paper basic modelling techniques of the Buck converter are presented.
The voltage mode control is tested by tuning a PID controller, and its operation is
tested by simulation. The theoretically interesting case of constant power load is
discussed, and it is shown to lead to an unstable open loop system. The ability of the
:(>ID controller to stabilize the system is shown. Copyright ©1999 IFAC.

Keywords: Power supplies, DC-DC converters, PID controllers, power system

control, constant power load.

1. INTR.ODUCTION A smooth introduction to different models, mod-

elling techniques, and control principles is given
by Erickson (1997a). Because of the nonlinear
In recent years a lot of research has been done for
character of the switching power unit small signal
designing control algorithms for switching power
models are often used to give approximate models
supplies. Among traditional control methods also
for analysiS and controller design. Some of these
modern paradigms and technologies have been
modelling techniques are described by Vorperian
introduced in the control of DC-DC converters:
(1990a, 1990b) and Erickson (1997b). AdvJ.nces in
fuzzy control seems to be the contemporary magic
fuzzy control in the context of DC-DC converters
word also in this context. Despite this, the tradi-
ha.ve been reported e.g. by \Vang and Lee (1995),
tional control engineering community seems not
Mattavelli et al. (1997). An example of the use
to have participated much in the research of this
of robust control is given by Chang (1995). An
application area, and the development of modern
interesting case of modelling a buck converter with
control algorithms for switching power supplies
a constant power load is discussed by Grigore et
is therefore in somewhat immature stage, which
al. (1998).
makes it an interesting field of research.
In this paper preliminary results of a project are
The worldwide competition calls for cost efficient
describe d, ill which the voltage mode control of a
controllers, which are easy to implement and flex-
Buck converter is studied. A small signal model
ible enough to be modified for different applica-
of the converter is developed, and a PID type
tions. This can be achieved by developing bet-
controller is designed and tuned for the system.
ter control algorithms sharing intelligent features .
A design environment consisting of a commercial
These algorithms are then implemented in digital
program package (MatlabjSimulink) is used, and
signal processors (DSP) instead of using analogue
implementation techniques.

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Copyright 1999 IF AC ISBN: 0 08 043248 4
SYSTEM MODELLING AND CONTROL IN THE DESIGN OF DC-D ... 14th World Congress oflFAC

S...A1 ch Open loep vortage and currem wavil.cms

C.
n

--

.J
I-- -'--~----'---'--'j
5·
Fig. 1. The Buck converter "\\ i\ "\ /\
,, 1\ i\
' \ .j
its applicability in the design phase of switching
power supplies is studied. 41/
~L' \\ ,/ \,L \ I \ ,.".,/
' \ .'// '\ .,/

2. DIFFERENTIAL MODEL OF THE BUCK
CONVERTER
The circuit describing one of the basic DC-DC
converters, the Buck converter, is shown in Fig. l.
The PWM (pulse width modulation) switch in the
dashed box is used to control the output voltage
by changing the duty cycle i.e. by changing the
relation between the "ON" and "OFF" times in
each switching period. In "OK" state the current
through the inductor is growing transferring elec-
tric power to the load; in "OFF" state the current
flows through the diode, and the induct or current
is decreasing. Because the sv-ritching frequency is
very high, e.g. 100 kHz, the current and voltage
ripples in the inductor and in the load are small.
In spite of disturbances in the input voltage and
load current it is possible to control the duty
cycle in a manner which keeps the output voltage
constant with high accuracy. In this paper the
voltage mode control is studied, in which only the
output voltage, and not the inductor current, is
used in the feedback. The parameters to be used in
the examples and simulations are taken from one
stage of a real switching power supply. The nom-
inal values are as follows: Vi" = 140 V, VD = 54
V, D = 0.386 (nominal duty cycle), L = 100 ~H,
C = 1000 ~F, R = 11 n (resistive load), fB=100
kHz (switching frequency, whic.h corresponds to
the period lOftS). The dynamics of the system can
be expressed by the state equations
in which v.'l(t) V<tries between Vin and 0 depending
on the switch position, and iL(t) is limited to pos-
itive values because of the diode. It is interesting
2r \; \ / V V
, ~. --L----.J_--'---'--------'--------'-------'-_
J.0275 0.0275 0.0275 0 . ~7S 0 . ~76 0.0276 0.0215 0.0276 0.0276
1
Fig. 2. Open loop responses
to note that regarding vg(t) as the control input
the equations form a linear time invariant system
representation, which becomes nonlinear however,
when the inductor current becmnes zero. In the
former case the inductor is in continuous con-
duction mode, in the latter case in discontinuous
conduction mode.
Based on the equations (1) and (2) a Simulink
model was constructed to simulate the open loop
response of the system. The results (Fig.2) show
that after a transient phase the voltage achieves
the nominal value 54V with a small ripple; the
inductor current becomes zero (discontinuous con-
duction mode) during the initial transient, but
remains in the continuous conduction mode there-
after. In the lower figure a small part of the induc-
tor current. waveform can be seen more clearly;
the triangular shape agrees with the theory ofihe
circuit topology. The time scale in the figure is
in seconds (s). Note the large initial transient of
the system, which is not acceptable in the use of
a power supply. In Fig. 3 it is shown, how the
system behaves near the steady state. In steady
state analysis it is customary to use the so ealled
small ripple approximation, in which the ripple
components are removed from the equations. For
the DC-values it holds that (Erickson, 1997a)
Vo = DV; .. =54 V, h = VoiR =4.9 A. The ripple
components can be calculated from
(3)

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Copyright 1999 IFAC ISBN: 0 08 043248 4
SYSTEM MODELLING AND CONTROL IN THE DESIGN OF DC-D ... 14th World Congress ofIFAC

Vo~a.g.? a.nd c. w.en) wa'tlefClms: iritisJ !rS[lS,enj r~mQved linear small signal model the deviations from
-,----- . values of an operating point are calculated

55
I (Vin(t)}
d(t)
= Vin + Vin(t)
= D + JCt)
(7)
(8)
'" V/i/V'VvVVIfIMIVWVVV"V'Vc1 (iL(t)}=h+iL(t) (9)

~ I (vo(t) = Vo + voCt) (10)

52 1
L
C
~c--:-----'--~--'--~-"----"--~...L-~-'---~.l.---_L-----'
D.DC5 CD' ~.~1: oms
0.02 0.825 CC3 OM 0.045 D.CS
The linearized small signal model then becomes
diL(t) ~
L~ = DVin(t) - vo(t) + V'ind(t) (11)

Cdv~~t) = iL(t) - ~Vo(t) (12)

from which the transfer functions are easy to

derive

voCS) = LCS2 : : ifs + 1 VineS)

2L-L_ _. _ ----'~_ ______________1 _ _ _ _ __ ~ ____ ~

+ v:c,
0026 D.C265 0.027 0.0275 0.028
LCs2 + *8 + 1
des) (13)

The line-to-output and control-to-output transfer

Fig. 3. Open loop responses without initial tran-
sient functions are

(14)
(4)

in which Ts is the switching period. A closer look

at the simulation results shows that they are well G () Vin
vd S = 1 + _8_
Qw~
+ (..L)2
in accordance with the above approximations. It is WO

interesting to note that the simulation of the basic VID

(15)
+ Q:. + (:)2
=~-~~~~~
models can well be done by Matlab/Simulink 1
instead of programs specially designed for the
simulation of electric circuits (e.g. Pspice, Micro- in which Wo = 1/VLC and the quality
factor
Cap, Saber). Q = RI(w"L) = RvCIL. For the example case
wo(fo) =3162 rad/s (503 Hz) and the quality
factor Q=34.8=30.8 dB. The poles of the transfer
3. SMALL SIGNAL MODEL functions are -45.5±i 3162.

In order to analyse the dynamic behaviour of the

converter(s) for the purpose of controller design,
small signal models can be constructed. This well
known method (Erickson, 1997a, 1997b) can be
applied to equations ( 1) and ( 2), which leads to
L d(i~?) = d(t)(Vin(t»
Cd(vo(t» = (.
dt
In the equations the abbreviation () is used to
denote the time average of the signal over one
switching period; the term d(t) is the duty cycle,
the nominal value of which is D.
The equations (5) and (6) are non-linear (or time-
varying) because of the term d(t); to obtain a
4. CONSTANT POWER LOAD
The analysis ofthe dynamics of DC-DC converters
feeding a constant power load is a particularly
interesting problem as noted by Grigore et al.
(1998). A converter is often feeding another con-
- {vo(t) (5) verter in which case it can be modelled as a power
supply with a constant power load. Although it
(t)) _ {vo(t» (6) is questionable, how accurate this assumption is
%L R in real power supplies, a good starting point in
analysis is to consider the constant power load
case. The load current then obeys the rule
(16)
in which P is the constant output power, which
in the operating point is P = VoIo = RoI~.

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Copyright 1999 IF AC ISBN: 008 0432484
SYSTEM MODELLING AND CONTROL IN THE DESIGN OF DC-D ... 14th World Congress oflFAC

By considering small deviations io = Io + ~v,

ro = Ra + To, Vo = Vo + Vo the load resistance
can be written

(17)

where i~ has been neglected as a "small" term.

Taking two first terms from the Taylor approxi-
mation gives

which can be used in the voltage equation

i l
6-

where the second order term has again been

neglected. The result shows that in the DC model
the load resistance is Ra = Vr? / P, and in the
small signal model -Ro. Hence, in the constant 0.015 0.32 0025 0.:13 C.035
power load case the small-signal model transfer
functions of the Buck converter become (compare
Fig. 4. Open loop responses in the case of constant
with equation (13)
power load
ed(t) = CYsp(t) - yet) (23)
VoCs) = LCS2 _D..£..8 + 1 vg(s)
Ro e(t) = y"p(t) - yet) (24)
Vq ,
+ LC8~ - ·~s + 1 des) (20) describe the error signal with p ossible weight-
Rn
ings, which can be regarded as additio nal tuning
The result is interesting in the sense that it
parameters of the controller (Y"p is the output
predicts the open loop system to be unstable (the
reference value, and y is the process output). For
transfer functions have two poles in the right
example, by choosing b = c = 1 the proportional
half plane). Simulation results are presented in
and derivative parts are affecting the error signal
Fig. 4. The constant power load P o =265 W has
directly; by choosing c = 0 the pea k in the deriV"d.-
been realized in the simulation by changing the
tive part caused by a step change in the reference
resistance of the load continuously. Compared
Value is removed.
to Fig. 3 it can be noticed that the open loop
response is more oscillatory than in t he case of a In commercial products different modifications
resistive load. The system is inherently unstable of the standard PID algorithm are used. One
although the oscillations do not grow wit hout example is
limit, because t.he induclor goes to discontinuous
conduction mode occasionally. 1
U(s) = K(bYBp(s) - Yes) + -E(s)
STi
STd
5. PID CONTROL OF THE COKVERTER +1 + sTd/N(cYsP(S) -Ye s»)) (25)
The standard textbook formula for the PID con- which is different from the previous algorithm in
troller (Astrom and Hagglund, 1995) is the sense that an additional lag term has been

u(t) = K (e p + 1
Ti f t

e(r)dr ded
+ Td{ft) (21)
included in the derivative part. The tuning pa-
rameter N has typically va lues b etween 3 and 10
(Astrom and Hagglund, 1995). The converter is
o
modelled by equations (1) and (2), and in accor-
in which u is the controller output, and K, T i , and dance with (25) the control volta ge is calculated
Td are the tuning parameters (gain, integration from
time, and derivation time) . The terms
e,,(t) = bYsp(t) - yet) (22)

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qesp O"lses D01a1 nedby col"ltl nuo us. PlO controller to the values below 0.5 to keep the inductor in
~O'I '- 'I continuous conduction mode. The duty cycle is
formed by using a sawtooth signal with linearly
I
r\. i increasing values between 0 and 0.5 during the

"I
switching period l011S (100 kHz). The "ON" and

!!3. 9~
O. :ll~ 0,02 0.025
'---
0."" 0, 03:5
O
.{].I .------L-

~ """
1 CC"'
"OFF" periods of the real switch in the converter
is determined by the time instants, in which the
sawtooth signal crosses the V"d.lue of the desired
duty cycle. In practice, the precision for this kind
of a PWM module is typically about 50 ns, which
"" can also be considered as a quantization non-

.r
ideality of the P'¥M switch. The accuracy can be
L estimated by noting that the control voltage range
o~ is divided into 100 parts (50 ns/5 ,us=O.Ol). For a
peak value of 50 V that would mean an inaccuracy

J C. C l ~ ~J.a2
,
:J . ~:3 003 O ,03~
,
004
J __

0."""
__
:J. C:l
of 0.5 V.
If an analog controller of the converter is replaced
by a discrete algorithm, a suitable DSP card
is normally used. The basic switching frequency
Fig. 5. Closed loop responses (100 kHz in this example case) is too high for
commercial DSP technology of today; processor
operating frequencies of 10 kHz - 40 kH7, must be
considered as a realistic alternative. To keep the
The duty cycle controlling the switch is deter- price of the eventual product (switching power
mined by the PWM block with the additional supply with processor-based voltage controller)
property that the duty cycle is restricted to the cheap, frequencies at the lower end of t he men-
interval [0 0.5]. tioned interval must be considered.

In Fig. 5 the closed loop responses have been The controller algorithm (26) is discretized by
presented. The parameters of the PID controller using backward approximations in both integral
are K = 500, Ti = 0.001, Ta = 0.0005, and N = 3. and derivative terms. The sampling frequency is
The amplitude scale has been chosen accurate 25 kHz (sampling time 40 l1S). In t h e transfer
enough to show the disturbances caused by two function notation the controller is then
step changes in the input voltage Vin (at time 0 .02
s from 140 V to 120 V, and at time 0.04 s from 120 hz
vc(z) = KC1 + Ti.z _ Ti )(vret(z ) - v o(z»
V to 160 V). The lower figure shows the control
voltage. TdZ - Td
-K( (Ta/ N + h)z _ T d/N)vo(.z) (27)
Practical experience shows that for real switching
power supplies the above control result is far too where h is the sampling period. The results of
optimistic. It is interesting to study reasons for the simulation are presented in Fig. 6. The tun-
t hat in order to develop the simulation proce- ing parameters of the PID controller are K=3,
dures towards a more realistic setting. There are 1i=O.OOl, Td = O.OOOl, and N=3. The effects of
three main reasons why practical controllers can- the line and load disturbances are clearly more
not achieve as accurate results as above. Firstly, notable when compared to Fig. 5. In the lower
a real PWM switch is not an ideal component: it picture of Fig. 6 the noise caused by the non-
contains an inherent inaccuracy caused by quanti- ideal P\\'''M switch can be noted. The variation
zation. Secondly, t he discretization intenrc!l of the in the output signal is in this case not as severe
PID controller has not been taken into account. as predicted. The same controller has then been
Thirdly, the components of the converter are not used in the constant power load case. The result
ideal as assumed in the preceding discussion. They is shown in Fig. 7 . It can be noticed that the
contain non-ideal elements ("parasite effects"), closed loop system is stable (compare to Fig. 4),
which can to some accuracy be modelled by series although the deviations after the disturbances are
resistors. still too large. Normally, the desired accuracy of
the output voltage is ±1 V.
Only the two first problems are considered short ly
in t his paper. The PWM switch can be described
as an element, which converts the control voltage 6. CONCLUSIOK
vc(t) to the duty cycle. The value of the duty
cycle is theoretically between 0 and 1; for practical The voltage mode control of the Buck converter
Buck converters the duty cycle must be restricted operating mainly in the continuous conduction

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SYSTEM MODELLING AND CONTROL IN THE DESIGN OF DC-D ...
Fig. 6. Closed loop responses obtained by using a
discrete time PID controller and a non-ideal
PWM switch
,,:~-. ,-~--,-- -,-------,---,--1--
C;:.m;;ta ~t pcwer
~I
/,.,~I~'~~~·w~_-.-~~-~~'\ ..--,~~~.~.~-. -~'"" \"~~'~-l
",! ~(
"'
02.,Li_-"--_--'-_--'-_--'-_--'-_--'-_--'-_--'-_--'-_--'
C 'O.:J0!5 00<, Q.:J\5 0.002
Fig. 7. Closed loop responses in the constant
power load case; a discrete time PID con-
troller and a non-ideal PWM switch
mode has been discussed in the paper. Small sig-
nal models were used to tune the PID controller,
which was then tested in the case of both resistive
load and constant power load. The results showed
that the ba.sic converter can very accurately be
controlled by the PID control algorithm, and the
inherently unstable case of constant power load
can be stabilised with this controller. However,
-the control results were not good enough in the
case of initial transients and large disturbances
entering the system. More research is still needed
in these aspects. Furthermore, questions like the
pa.rasite effects, output power limit, and overcur-
rent protection have not been considered in the
paper. In practice, the control problem turns out
Copyright 1999 IF AC
14th World Congress ofIFAC
to be highly nonlinear, and therefore "intelligent"
control in required. The results obtained by using
an analog or discretized PID controller can be
used for comparison and as a starting point.
The reported results in the pa.per have been ob-
tained in a project, which aims to replace ana-
log controllers in switching power supplies with
digital control algorithms. The validation of the
results has been done with Saber, which is an
extensive simulation package for the simulation of
electrical systems. In the next stage, an additional
software, FuzzyTech, will be studied to investigate
intelligent control of the converters. All algorithms
will be considered for possible implementation in
a DSP setup.
7. REFERENCES
Chang, C. (1995). Robust Control of DC-DC Con-
verters: The Buck Converter, Proceedings of the
IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference,
pp. 1094-1097.
l~ad di!:;c'ete- ~'U ~nlrol~9f
Erickson, R. '.iV. (1997a). Fundamentals of Power
Electronics. Chapman & Hall.
~ Erickson, R.. W. (1997b). Advances in Averaged
Switch Modeling, Proceedings of the Fourth Brazil-
ian Congress of Power Electronics (COBEP97),
Belo Horizonte, BraziL
Q.C25 0.00 0.,030 '0.04 (j,~ (j,C!!
Grigore, V., Hiitonen, J., Kyyra, .J., and T. Sun-
tio. (1998). Dynamics of a Buck Converter with
a Constant Power Load, Proceedings of the
PESC'98 Conference, Fukuoka, Japan, Vo!. 1, pp.
72-78.
Mattavelli, P., Rossetto, L., Spiazzi, G., and P.
Tenti. (1997). General-Purpose FU:l:lY Controller
for DC-DC Converters. IEEE Transactions on
Power Electronics, Vol.12, No.l, pp. 79-86.
Vorperian, V. (1990a). Simplified Analysis of PWM
Converters Using Model of PWM Switch. Part
I. Continuous Conduction Mode. IEEE Transac-
tions on Aerospace and Electronic Sy.~tems , Vol.
26, No. 3, pp. 490-496.
Vorperian, V. (1990b). Simplified Analysis of PWM
Converters Using Model of PWM Switch. Part 11.
Discontinuous Conduction Mode. IEEE Transac-
tions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Vol.
26, No. 3, pp. 497-505.
Wang, F. H., C. Q. Lee. (1995). Comparison of
Fuzzy Logic and Current-Mode Control Tech-
niques in Buck, Boost, and Buck/Boost Convert-
ers, Proceedings of the IEEE Power Electronics
Specialists Conference, Vo!. 2, pp. 1079-1085.
Astrom, K . .T., T. Hagglund. (1995). PID Con-
trollers: Theory, Design, and Tuning. Instrument
Society of America.
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