Control Strategy for Multi-Module Parallel Converter System B. Choi, B.H. Cho, RB. Ridley, and F.C. Lee ABSTRACT The control strategy for a multi-module converter system for high-current low-voltage applications is investigated. The system consists of several converter modules in parallel to effectively deliver 3 high-cucrent output. A multistage out- put filter is employed to efficiently attenuate the pple and high-frequency noise. In addition to output voltage and inductor current feedbacks, a feedback {rom the intermedi- ate filer stage is employed to optimize the transient re- Sponse in the event of failure of a converter module, and also to improve the other closed-loop performances of the system. Based on the small-signal analysis, a systematic ‘controlloop design procedure for oplimal performance of the system is presented, L INTRODUCTION With rapid advance of VLSI technologies, there are in- creasing demands for power supplies which must provide high-current low-voltage output eficiently and reliably. Many applications require hundreds of amperes of load current at output voliage of 5 V or les, with stringent ripple ‘and noise specifications. The high-current requirement is best met by using paralie converter modules with current mode control {1} The load current is equally distributes among converier_modules. thereby improving reliability Wwith reduced current stress of the stitching devices. More ‘over. the modular approach provides fault-tolerance for the system in the event of failure of a converter module. Finally. with an appropriate phase shift among the switch Jing sequence of converter modules, the switching ripples of {he individual converter modules cancel each other, greatly reducing the input and output ripple. In bigh-current applications, itis desirable to add a com- ‘mon secondary LC filter between intermediate bus (output of converter module) an the output of the system, to meet the stringent ripple and noise specifications. Reference (2) hhas shown that an efficient secondary LC filter can be de- signed to provide good atienuation of the switching ripple, while maintaining adequate stability margins under a wide range of capacitive loadings. This paper prevents a sysematc controlioop design proce: dure fora muldemodule converter system witha scongary LC alter To facitte we controlloop design, an equ sent singlemodule model fora molicmodule converter sytem i Geviped Having the fase cosecloop perfor fice asthe orginal system, the single module mal grealy implies te analyst and design of tresyeiam. A.thvee-loop control scheme is proposed. In addition to the ‘output and inductor-current feedbacks, the control scheme employs a feedback from the first-stage filter capacitor (Se summing point where all converter modules are merged) in order to improve the transient response due to the failure ofa convener module hereafter referred to as “module: failure response") and the other closed-loop performances. Design procedures of a three-loop control are formulated, ‘which significantly improve the transient responses and the smail~ignal performances of the system. The advantages of the proposed three-loop control over conventional two- loop control are demonstrated by small-signal analysis and large-signal simulations. 2. EQUIVALENT SINGLE-MODULE MODEL 2.1 Multi-module converter system Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a three-module converter system with the proposed control scheme, The sysiem consists of three buck converter modules in parallel, a common LC filter (L; and C;), and an output voltage feedback circuit, Fy . Each converter module contains a power stage, a pulse width modulation (PWM) block, and ‘wo inner feedback circuits: the current sensing network, CIC. for the inductor correat (on-time switch current) feed back, and F, for the eapacitor voltage feedback from power stage. The inner feedback from the power stage capacitor is defined as local voltage feedback, and the outer feedback. from the ouiput is defined as remote voltage feedback. ‘The work was supported by the International Business Machines Co., Kingston NY, ané by the Virginia Center for Inno- ‘alive Technology, Technology Development Center for Power Electronics. © 1990 IEEE. Reprinted, with pormiztion, fom Proceedings of the IEEE Power Electronics Sptcialists Conference and Exposidon, San Antoni, PX. June tid 2090: p23 eeThree-module converter system with a three oop controls Lys lau Ly = 05H C= 867KF | C= [2000uF Fig 2.2 Small-signal model of the system Figure 2‘shows the small-signal model of the system ob- tained using two recently proposed analysis techniques: the PWM switch model [3,4] and the continuous-time small signal model for a current mode control [5] An acive- ‘passive swich pair of the power stage is replaced with its small-signal PWM switch model. The PWM block and the current sensing network are replaced with their small-signal models, rectally geoposed in [S]. The modulator gain of PWM block is given by [5]: lees aS SF SE yD vmhere S,, 5, and T, are the ondime slope of the curent- Senge waveorm, te slope of an external ramp, and the Switching period, respectively. The current sensing network is replaced with a singe gain block F; given by: Fy= RHE) ° is the current sensing network gain, and #6) represents the sampling action of the current mode control, which can, ‘be approximated by (5 % Fig, 2. Smalisignal model of | system: al =e egy = Tad (k= 1,2,3) where Ley represefts DU inductor currem of converter module. Higa + = QB) where ee @ Kp represents the feedforward gain from the input voltage. ‘This gain path is created by feedback of the inductor cur- rent, the slope of which depends upon the input voltages of the power stage. For a buck converte, this gain is given by BE 0 ‘There is another gain path from the output voltage of the power stage, which represents the dependency of the inductor current slope on the ouput voliage [5]. However, jn most practical applications, this feedback gain js negligi= ‘ble compared to the local voltage feedback compensation, 434Fig. 3. Siopfatin of per tage, Modified power stage Tole! ine Digs m= By vic Ved, 12.3) (6) Binion of com: ion cuftent sources py mips tlm ips Femi hin =f (©) Eliinaton of common hag sourdes F,. Thus, this gain is not included in the small-signal model. Smal-signal sources, v, and /, represent the small- fignal diswurbance of the input voltage and load current, respectively. The additional current soutce, i, . represents the current disturbance coming from the individual con verter modules. For each converter module, the control derived from the three feedback signals Which will be referred to as remote , and inductor current, respectively. To characterize the module-failure response systematically, a wansfer function called trans-impedance is defined as Z; = vali, representing the output Voltage response due to Fig. 4. Derivation of an model: ‘equivalent single-moscle model: (a) Smallsignal model using. the simplified power stage model (b) Further sim- plication using d= d; = dy the current disturbance coming from the converter modules. ‘The other dosed ioop performances include: * —ausio-suscepibiity Ay = fai, : © output impedance Z = iy/i,; and + toop gain measured at B. 435Sang sgn tee Fig. 5. 4 Res 2. cya3C, F 2.3 Equivalent single-module model ‘The smaticignal system madel of Fig. 2 i¢ successively simplified to yield a single-module converter model, which bas the same closed-loop performance as the original sys- tem. This equivalent single-module model can be used for analysis and conirobioop design purpose. Figure 3 illustrates the simplification of the power stage. In Fig. 3(a) the power stage model is slighty modified: the jdeah wansformer is replaced with a pair of current source in and vollage source vrs, and the dependent voltage source Ya’ is moved to the secondary side of the transformer and sélabled a5 vq (k= 1.2,3)- The current sources ip i ing 204 ins lnm iy in Fig. 3) are appropriately combined vo yield Fig. "3(B). Three identical voltage sources in Fig. 3(0). Yn Yry are combined, and subsequently vq and vp are removed to yield Fig. 3(€). Figure 4(a) shows the sysiem model with the simplified power stage, where a pair of current and voliage sources, Jr, and vn are substituted again by an ideal wansformer, Since the dosea-toop performances of a muhi-znedule con- verter system are determined by the small-signal sources “ie i, and the injection signal at B. the oaly consider- alions in deriving an equivalent single-module model are the system response due to these small-signal sources. Due to the symmetry of the system, dj, dy and dy are identical when % dp 4, and the injection signal at B are concerned. AS a Gull, three dependent voltage sources, Yq, var and Yay are the tame, and the inductors of converter modules can bbe combined to yield Fig. 4(0). In Fig. 4(a), the output of the curent sensing network of each converter module is sven by: i, Efrat 6 Since the inductor is divided by three in Fig. (0), the cur- rent sensing network gain should also be divided by three, to produce the same output voltage as (6). With this ap propriate ecaling of the curcent sensing ectwork gain, the PUM gain Fy and the feedforward gain Kr remain the same in Figs. 4a) and 4(b) Fig. 6. Smalh-signal block diagram of system As the last step, the redundant voltage sources va and vp + together with their associate feedback controllers, are fe- moved, resulting in the equivalent single-module model of Fig. 5. The DC current of the single-module rode! is the sum of the DC currents of the three converter modules, bot the small-signal characteristics of a buck converter are in- dependent of this current. It is important to note that the single-module model is equivalent to the original model only ‘when the loop gain measured at B, avdio-susceptbili}. ‘output impedance. and wansimpedance are concerned. ‘Apart from that they are entirely different systems; one i ‘muli-module converter, and the other is a single-module ‘converter “The design procedures of the multimodule converter system using its equivalent single-module model are: 1. Derive the equivalent single-module mode! through the appropriate scaling of the common power stage pa- Design the current sensing network gain and the modulator gain of PWM block (external ramp slope) for the single-mmodule model. 3. Optimize the feedback compensations, F, and Fy, for the singlemodule model (this step will be discussed in Seen 3). 4. Muliply the current sensing network gain (obtained in 2) with the number of modules to obtain the equivalent tain for the multi-module converter system. 436Gain Saga RE RoR RE eR Fig. 7. Asymptotic plots of opendoop transfer func- 3. THREE-LOOP CONTROL 3.1 Open-loop analysis Figure 6 shows a block diagram repreteniaion of the quivalent single module model of Fig: 5. Transfer func: tions for the control variatle, d. to various feedback signals can be derived from Fig. 3 Vell $C/'Rey'd (1+ 51CRe + Ly'IR) + 8°L)'C] U+sGRol o [1 +5Cy'(Ra’ + Ro) +°20)3 Fete ——VelltsGRo OD US aGRa +R) + Ly CI (4 sLyR+ GR) +863 Rete : Z — ee [1+ 1G\(Ray + Re + GT i 1 +s Fae Yell 16] ° 2 RU FAGR + LR) +H with assumptions —y’'>>Ly G>>G’ and R>> Rey, Ra - These assumptions not only make the analysis actable, but also are a good design practice in order to mimimize the deimental effects of the secondary filter, such 38 the high-frequency peaking of the output impedance and the possible instability problem with ‘capacitive loadings. With C; > > G;", the system maintains adequate stability margins with capacitive loadings, and eliminates high-frequency peaking of the output impedance [Bh With b> > La the convolioindyctor current ans: fer function can be simplified to a second arder given by (9)- Figure 7 shows the asymptote plots ofthe transfer functions given by (1, (@) and (The controltounductor current ‘eansfer function is the same a5 that ofthe converter with @ single-stage output filter of Z," and Cj, having a Trstorder slope (- slope) withthe maximum phase delay of 90". This desirable property can be used to improve the system per Tormance in a way similar 10 a conventional currentmode control. ‘The canizol-lo-remote Voltage transfer function has two resonances, the first determined by 2,’ and C (and the second determined by Ly and G,' (fy) Ia conirelto- local voliage Uansfer function. there are the additonal complex zeros determined by L_ and C, (fa) besides two resonances found previously. Due to these complex 7270s, the transfer Ionetion fas the larger mid-feequency gain and can be effecively used to enhance the sytem performances, 45 will be illustrated in Section 5. 3.2 Three-loop control Figure 8 illustrates the principle of the threedoop control in ‘comparison with that of a conventional two-loop control (2L For the two-loop control, the feedback signals are derived from the first inductor current and the output voltage. Thi control scheme is illustrated in Fig. 8(a) in terms of tw0 in- Gividval feedback loops: current loop and voltage loop [6]. ‘The current loop denotes the feedback loop created by the inductor current feedback, and the voliage loop denotes the feedback path created by the output voltage feedback. With incorporation of #,(5), wtiich represents the sampling action ‘of the current mode control, the high-frequency character istics of current loop differ significantly from those found in [7.8]. The complex right half plane zeros give the extra hase delay at half the switching frequency. and an increase in gain [5], Considering this, generally, the crossover fre- quency of the current loop should be smaller than that re- commended by {7.8}. ‘The threeloop control is illustrated in Fig. 8(b), where cur- tent loop T; , local loop 7, and remote loop Ty represent the individual feedback loops associated with three feedback signals: Tes FuFiakt (10) TLS FuFeF ay Tr= FuFiFn (2 ‘At low frequencies, the remote loop is dominant, as seen previously. in the tid-frequency band, however. the local loop is dominant in order to minimize any detrimental effect Of the resonance due to Z, and Cy’, as will be illustrated in Section 5. At high frequencies, the current loop is domi- nant, ths realizing the full benefits of current mode control ‘The feedback compensations of the threeoop control are summarized as follows: © Current sensing network gain: R, For the ful) benefits of the current mode control, R, should be selected to provide a sufficiently high crossover frequency for Tr. Ke + Local ioop compensation : —*t— ° a+ 437(a) Two Fig. & Principle of « threeoop control: Joop control. (b) Three-oop contro! Ki, should be selected wo provide the sufficient midfrequency gain of T,, while maintaining the dominance of current loop at high frequencies. ‘Appole, ois placed after the resonance between Tyand to reduce the high-frequency gain. K, © Remote loop compensation. ‘An integrator is employed to provide a good DC regulation of the output Voltage. The integrator Pine ee “derreines he leeerueney een. ation of the closed-ioop transfer functions. 4. SMALL-SIGNAL ANALYSIS 4.1 Loop gain analysis Since the system loop gains are directly or indirectly related to small-signal performances of a converter {6.7}, they can be conveniently used to evaluate the closed-loop perform: ances and to assist designing the system. Among many ‘possible loop gains in Fig. 6, two loop gains are most useful: ‘the averal loop gain 7), measured at A, and the outer loop. gain T, measured at B 6}. T= T,+T)+ Tr (13) a 14) R= Teta Ty o Fig. 9 Loop gains: (a) Overall oop gain (b} ‘Outer loop gain Figure 9(a) shows the overall loop gain, T;, with its axsoct- ated individual feedback loops, Ty Ty, Ty. Asa vector sum of the individual feedback loops, T, follows the largest component of the individual feedback loops at any given frequency, and provides the effective means of optimizing the feedback compensations. The compensation for T; can ‘be designed to maximize the crossover frequency of T. The compensation for T;, can be designed to boost the mid-band gain of 7, while maintaining the dominance of T, at high frequencies. Figure 9(0) shows the outer loop gain, TAs a ratio of Ty and 1+ T;+ Ty. the loop gain has relatively small magnitude and crossover frequency. Even though the overall loop gain can be conveniently ured during the design process with the equivalent single module model, in actual System there is no single point there T; can be measured. The outer loop gain, on the other had, can be easly measured to confirm design results and 10 evaloate the ia- lity ofthe system. “The relative stability of the system can be evaluated from the phase and gain margins of these loop gains. The impii- ations of the phase and gain margins of these loop gains are as different as are their definitions. The stability mar- gins of 7; indicate the relaive stability of the sytem with wltaneous variation of 7, +7; + Tn. The stability margins of 7; can be interpreted as addional gain increase or phase delay. which can be introduced in Ty when 7, and 7; remain the same. 438Fig. 10. 42 Closed-loop performance and local voltage feed- back From the small-signal block diagram of Fig. 6, the audio- susceptibility can be derived as: FoFe Fe ee ee TSF FIR 3) From the power stage model of Fig, 5, it can be shown: ALBA D FA Fa Ve WD which simplifies (15) to: VG Ft Kha) Aus an 1304 T+ Te ‘This relatively simple expression of the audio-susceptibility is an inherent property of a buck converter. In boost or buck/boost converters, the third and fourth terms of the ‘numerator do not vanish simultaneously. From Fig. 6, trans-impedance can be derived as: £ | E [ete 00 Au | SS CL snnte 1 i i | sethew | J 0 Au —— 6 Performances of a three-loop controlled converter: (a) Overall loop gain. (b) Audio-uscepibity and overall oop gain (twoloop control) (c) Audio-susceptbility and overall loop gam (threeoop control 1) ite FoF Ft eA) Ty Zr hth 0a) From Fig. 5 it cam be shown that i z 19) which simplifies (18) to: FoF Ait Wh) ash (20) Finally, the output impedance is given by: A+ TF “By « 14, - Zo# ey THT +i Te ‘The effects ofthe local voltage feedback can be investigated from (17), 20), and (21). The local voliage feedback directly sieauates the audio-usceptibiliy and transimpedance since T;, appears only in the denominator of (17) and (20). ‘As will be illustrated in the nest section, these transfer functions are significantly improved with the local voltage feedback. In the output impedance, however, T;, appears in both numerator and denominator. indicating that its ef- fect is not as significant asin previous cases. 439© Fig. 11. impedance () Step load response (step 20A) 5, PERFORMANCE OF THE ‘THREE-LOOP-CONTROLLED CONVERTER 5.1 Comparison with two-loop control First, to demonstrate the benefits of te local voltage feed- tack, the closed-loop performance of the treeioop- controlled converter’ ig compared with that of "a {worloop-coatalied convert. For the tvodoop cont the control loop i optimally designed following the procedores ‘explained in [2} ‘On the other hand, for tirefoop contol, the controltoop is intentionally designed to have the same iow and hiprdreqoeney caracratcs mea the os Ieop con ign referred to as three ioop control Tin Figs, 10 through 13. Grea lop sis are compare iF 190), fo he ree-loop contol, the id Trequency pain is boot absorbing the resonance between [, and Cy’ with tie local foliage Gxdoack. while maintaining, the similar Salty Imargins 10 those of a worloop contol. The phase delay 4d gein increase at half he switching frequency are result the sampling acon ofthe current mode control. ‘The effects of the local voltage feedback on audio- susceptibility are illustrated in Figs. 10(o) and 10(c). The ‘numerator of audio-susceptibility, given by (17), has two resonances, the first determines by Ly’ and C;, and the sec- Performances of a three-loop contrlled converter: ~ | pis foes r SS tit t (0) Audio-susceptbity (6) Transimpedance (c) Output ond determined by I; and C’. For two-loop control, while the first resonance is eliminated by absorbing this resonance into the overall loop gain. the second resonance is still ap- parent in the audiowsusceptbilty. resulting in the peaking of Fig. 10(6). On the other hand, for three-loop control, both the first and second resonances are eliminated by ab- sorbing these two resonances into the overall loop gain with 4 local voltage leedback, as shown in Fig. \O{c)- Toe sic sxeoibiiy and wantimpedance are compared in Big gyand 11); For mesosp conta, both ean impedance cod sod uicepiby stow some peak Ac IEtbvoned prevouy. tha peatge are a reat of te eonance Gaween £y and @° and are laherent to te Srelovp contol For tsesotp cont the penkings Ae thay Gminse by absorbing the resonance between Ty tnd €; ino the concooop wih the local voltage hee? ma ‘Ti stp ipadane charac of wo converter sre compared in Fig. 1l(c). As expected, the output impedance 's not significantly affected by the local voltage feedback. ‘They have almost identical peak values and first corner frequencies, which determine the overshoot and the setling time of the step load response shown in Fig. 11(4) [8]. The outer loop gains are compared in Fig. 12. For the two-loop conwol, the resonance beween L, and Cy’ is ap- parent in this loop gain. This resonance strongly affects the hase and gain margin of the loop gain. To maintain ade- quate stability margins, the crossover frequency should be sufficiently lower than this resonance. For thret-loop con- trol, the resonance between L, and G;' is no longer appar- 640,conn 1} aa (0) Fig. 12, Outer loop gain ent in the loop gain (as expected from Fig. 9(6)), and consequently does not impose any direct constraint on the control loop design. The magnitude of the loop gain is sig- nificantly reduced, resulting in a lower crossover frequency than for a two-loop control. However, the lower crossover frequency by no means indicates any degradation of the closed-loop performance. Figures 13(a) and 13(b) show the wans-impedance and the ‘module-failure response of output voltage (switch-open fail lure of the third converter module at 0.2 mSec). For the tworloop control, the larger peak of the trans-impedance results in a relatively large undershoot of transient response. For the threedoop control, the undershoot is significantly reduced with a smaller peak value of trans-impedance. In a module‘ailure response, since the disturbance of current at te summing junction of converter modules is a linear ‘ype (éue to the opening of power switch) rather than an abrupt step change, the relationship between the trans- impedance and module-failure response is not so apparent as that between output impedance and step load response. However. there is stil a certain dependency of the magni- ride of undershoot and response time of the module failure response on the peak value and the first comer of the trans-impedance. "The lower peak value and the smailer first comer frequency of the wrans-impedance indicate a smaller undershoot and a faster response. Figure 13(¢) shows the inductor current waveform of the frst converter module. For twodoop control, the inductor current re- sponds with a certain delay, and it increases gradually 1 ~ 2 im ee Tie E 1 32 E 7 &: 3 XAT in: rr Tee gay 7 ~ ‘Trseleonsersett “i ] Treeioon | ee ree aa ea ao © - © Fig. 13. Performances oa trecionp conrad comerter: (a) Tranvimpedance (b Modulefalur response of put (©) Module-failare response of inductor current 441supplement the load current of the failed converter module On the other hand. for threeloop control, the inducter current responds immediately. ‘52 Further improvement of performance ‘The wansient responses and other cloted-loop performance of hreeoop-contolled converter ean be further improved srinout compromising the sabily. For example, the re- tte vlage and local voage feedback pin are creed {fom the previous design, reruling in an improved design {fered to as threvloop control 2in Figs. 10 through 13- ‘While te smallsignal performance ané whe wansient te. sponse are significantly Improved with the new design, the ‘outer loop gains in Fig. 1d are unchanged up to the evoss- ‘er eequeney. having the came sabilty margins, Up to tie ‘cossover Irequency. the outer loop gain is approximately proportional tthe Fatio of the remote and the local voltage Feedback gain. Thus the siiutaneous increase of two feed: back gaine does not significantly affect the Outer loop Bain {oil the crossover. This quite diferent from the we-oop conirol, and again, it ilustates the benefits of local Voltage fedback, 6. CONCLUSIONS A smematic conroldoop derign procedure for 2 muli- ‘module convener sem presened. Fist a small-signal Todel ofthe syste decived using the PWM switch meds: ta the smallsignal mode of te curent mode control Steondly, the smallsignal model for the mullsmodole con: Serer sym is eimples to an equiaantsinge-module ‘node! Finally te contol oop design i plemented vsing the singlemodole mode. {A three-loop control strategy for the muhi-module converter system with a secondary output filter is developed. Signif= jant improvements on small-signal performance and smodule-failure response are achieved using additional feed- back from the imermediate filter stage. ‘The small-signal analysis of the three-loop controlled con- vener is performed, focusing on the ‘of the loc volage feedback on the closedoop performance of the system. Ibis shown that local voltage feedback minimizes any detrimental effect of the resonance between the power stage filter of each converter module and the commen oul- put filter. ‘The superiority of the three oop control over the conven- tional two-loop conirol is discussed, and is substantiated by small-signal analysis and large-signal simulations. The ef fecuiveness of the local-voliage feedback in proving the module failure response is demonsizated by large signal simulations. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors express the gratitude to IBM-Kingston for many valuabie discussions through the course of research ‘and their suggestion of the three-loop control scheme for the muld-module converter system. a R) By (4) (1 te 0 (8) 442 REFERENCES R.B, Riles, “Small Signal Analysis of Parallel Power Gooverer M8 Thesis, VPIASU. March 1986 REE Badly, “Secondary LC Filter Anais and De- sign Teshalgues or: Corresi-Mode Contos Coe Saree EEE “Tranapcuons on Powe Eeyore, v. Vorperian RTs .erski and F.C. 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