Choosing components for DC-DC converters v.

6th September, 2010

Minimal Network Element III

Choosing Components for DC-DC converters

Version 1.0

Huy Nguyen

Team Members
Bikash Shakya (15 ECTS) Huy Nguyen (15 ECTS) Markku Antikainen (24 ECTS) Mudassir Asif (24 ECTS) Muhammad Ziad (24 ECTS) Naresh Kumar Khatri (24 ECTS) Siddharth Sharma (15 ECTS)

Coaches
Bernt Sundstrm Hans Eriksson Robert Olsson,

Champion
Bjrn Pehrson

6th October, 2010

Choosing components for DC-DC converters v.1

6th September, 2010

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Choosing components for DC-DC converters v.1

6th September, 2010

Table of Contents
I. Power Width Modulation (PWM).....................................................................................................4 II. Choosing components for Step up and Step down converters.........................................................5 II.1. Microprocessor with Integrated PWM.....................................................................................5 II.2. Diode........................................................................................................................................6 II.3. Inductor and capacitor..............................................................................................................6 II.3.1. Step-down converter.........................................................................................................6 II.3.1.1. Inductor.....................................................................................................................6 II.3.1.2. Capacitor...................................................................................................................7 II.3.2. Step up converters............................................................................................................8 References............................................................................................................................................8

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6th September, 2010

I. Power Width Modulation (PWM)

In electronic, PWM are mostly used to provide an electrical power within the range of fully on and fully off. In essence, PWM does that by encoding the power range into digital signals [1][2] [3]. These digital signals have the same frequency but are different in the duty time (e.g the time that the digital signal is in high level in each cycle). Several PWM signals with different on-time percentage are showed in figure 1:

Figure 1: PWM outputs with different on-time percentage (reproduced from [2]) The average output power of the power source which is under control by PWM is the product of the maximum power with the on-time percentage. In our project, PWM plays an important role in the step down and step up DC-DC converters. There are several terminologies associating with the PWM that we should know: Each on-off iteration is one cycle. The number of cycles in one second is the frequency of the signal The period is the reciprocal of the frequency. It is the number of second to finish one cycle. The duty cycle is the percentage of time that the signal in level 1. A 50% duty cycle means that half of the time the output of the PWM is the maximum voltage and half of it, the minimum voltage is output.

When it comes to the microprocessor's PWM, another terminology, resolution, should be considered. For example, what does 8 bit resolution PWM or 10 bit resolution PWM mean? Basically, to program the PWM in the microprocessor, you need to specify two things. Firstly, you must provide the period of the digital signal. Secondly, you must specify the duty cycle. These two values are provided to the microprocessor in form of two integers. The period of the signal is the product of the first integer with the period of the clock which is provided to the PWM by the microprocessor. The off-time (or on-time depending on specific microprocessor) is the quotient of the division of the second integer to the first integer. The resolution limits the large of the number can be provided. Thus, with a 8 bit resolution PWM, the maximum frequency is 1/(255*clock period).

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II. Choosing components for Step up and Step down converters

II.1. Microprocessor with Integrated PWM
The most important thing we need to consider when choosing a microprocessor with integrated PWM for our project is the PWM frequency. As we will see in the following sections, the values of the converter inductor and then, the capacitor are decided by the fast of the PWM. The faster the PWM is, the smaller the inductor and therefore, the capacitor we need. Thus, a high speed PWM is desirable. As described before, the frequency of the PWM depends on two parameters: the microprocessor clock frequency and the resolution we need. The maximum clock frequency is the microprocessor characteristic. In order to decide the resolution, we need to make decision on how much precision we want over controlling the PWM duty cycle. From the section 1 we know that the duty cycle (D) is the quotient of the two integers. So, the larger the divisor we choose, the more accuracy of D we get. However, this conflicts with the desire of a fast frequency, which require a divisor as small as possible. Thus, we need to make a compromise between the accuracy of the duty cycle and the frequency of the PWM. With a 8-bits resolution, we get an accuracy of 1/255 ~ 0.39%. That means if all the voltages used in our project is not much larger than 25.5 V, we can get the accuracy of 0.1 V. The relation between V Out ,V In and D for step up and step down converters are showed in the following formulas: For step up [4]: V In 1 D and D= V Out V In V Out

V Out =

For step down converter [4]: and D= V Out V In

V Out =V In D In which:

V Out : the output voltage V In : the input voltage D: the duty cycle

II.2. Diode
The criteria when choosing a diode is its power lost and its forward current [8]. The forward current of the diode should be larger than the maximum output current. When comes to the power lost, its maximum value is [8]: P = 1 V Out I Out V D V InMax
Max

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6th September, 2010

In which: P : the power lost V Out : the output voltage

V InMax : the maximum input voltage

V D : the voltage across diode (normally 0.7V) I Out : the maximum output current
Max

II.3. Inductor and capacitor

The inductor and capacitor values should be considered separately for the step up and step down. The following sections show the formulas to calculate their values corresponding to each type of converter. For the actually used value, [8] recommends to use the value which is about 20% higher than what are got from the calculation for the circuit tolerance. In addition, it suggests the voltage ripple should not be more than 2%.

II.3.1. Step-down converter

II.3.1.1. Inductor From [5][7][8], with step down converter operates in continuous mode we have: L= V InMax V Out V Out f Osc I L V InMax

1 I L = I OutMax I L 2
Peak

I L =V InMax V Out In which:

V Out 1 1 V InMax f Osc L

V Out : the output voltage V InMax : the maximum input voltage

I L : the inductor current ripple. [6][7][8] recommend its value to be 0.3 * I Out

I Out : the maximum output current

Max

f Osc : the PWM frequency L : the value of the inductor I L : the maximum value of the inductor current
Peak

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6th September, 2010

II.3.1.2. Capacitor When it comes to the capacitor, from [8] we have the following formula to calculate the value of the capacitor in order to relieve the output voltage overshoot effect: L I OutMax I L 2 C= V V Out 2 V Out 2 V Out
Capacitor

2 V InMaxV Out V Out 1 1 = 2C L V InMax f Osc

V Out = I LESR C
ESR

V Out

Ripple

=V Out

Capacitor

V Out

ESR

2 V InMax V Out V Out 1 1 = I L ESRC 2C L V InMax f Osc

2 V InMax V out V Out 1 1 1 ESR C = V Out C IL 2 L V InMax f Osc

Ripple

In which: C: the output capacitor V Out : the output voltage

V InMax : the maximum input voltage

I L : the inductor current ripple. [6][7][8] recommend its value to be 0.3 * I Out : the maximum output current
Max

I Out

f Osc : the PWM frequency L : the value of the inductor

V : output voltage overshoot V Out

Capacitor

: the output voltage ripple because of the capacitance

V Out : the output voltage ripple because of the ESR of the capacitor
ESR

ESRC: capacitor equivalent-series resistance

II.3.2. Step up converters

The formulas to estimate inductor and capacitor values are showed below [9]: V InMin V Out V InMin I L f OscV Out

L=

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C Out

I OutMax1 D f Osc V Out

ESR

V Out = ESR I L= V InMinD f Osc L

I OutMax I L 1 D 2

In which: V Out : the output voltage

V InMin : the minimum input voltage

I L : the inductor current ripple. [9] recommend its value to be [0.2:0.4] * I Out : the maximum output current necessary
Max

I Out

f Osc : the PWM frequency L : the value of the inductor

I L : the maximum value of the inductor current

Peak

V Out : the output voltage ripple because of the ESR of the capacitor
ESR

D: the duty cycle Cout: the output capacitor ESR: capacitor equivalent-series resistance

References
[1] Controlling the Motor Programming the PWM. Available at: http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ee40/calbot/pdf/ChapterFive/ChapterFive.pdf, last visited: October 2010 [2] M. Barr. Introduction to Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Available at: http://www.netrino.com/Embedded-Systems/How-To/PWM-Pulse-Width-Modulation, last visited: October 2010 [3] Pulse-width modulation. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-width_modulation, last visited: October 2010 [4] Maxim. DC-DC converter tutorial. Available at: http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes/index.mvp/id/2031, last visited: October 2010 [5] Buck Converter. Available at: http://schmidt-walter.eit.h-da.de/smps_e/abw_hilfe_e.html, last visited: October 2010 [6] Texas Instruments. High efficient single inductor buck-boost converter with 1.8-A switches. Available at: http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/slvs520b/slvs520b.pdf , last visited: October 2010

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[7] Toshiba. Step-Down DC-DC Converter IC Application Notes. Available at: http://www.semicon.toshiba.co.jp/docs/application_note/en/DCDC001-E_en_080327.pdf, last visited: October 2010 [8] D. Schelle, J. Castorena. Buck-Converter design demystied. Available at: http://powerelectronics.com/mag/606PET25.pdf, last visited: October 2010 [9] B. Hauke. Basic Calculation of a Boost Converter's Power Stage. Available at: http://www.powerdesignindia.co.in/STATIC/PDF/201004/PDIOL_2010APR19_PMNG_AN_01.pdf , last visited: October 2010