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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL

Power Electronics is the technology used for the process control

and conversion of Electrical Energy into the convenient form for utilization
by machines and other electronic equipments by means of power
semiconductor devices which operate as switches. With the advent of Silicon
Controlled Rectifiers (SCRs) in 1950s, the application of Power Electronics
spread to various fields of Engineering such as in solid state industrial drives,
high frequency converters, inverters, uninterruptible power supplies,
Electronic tap changers, lighting control, home appliances and in medical
instrumentation.

Gradually since 1970, various Power Electronic devices were

developed and were available commercially. The typical classification of the
devices based on the controllability characteristics are, Uncontrolled turn on
and turn off devices (eg. Diode), Controlled turn on and uncontrolled turn off
(eg. SCR) and Controlled turn on and off characteristics (eg. Power Bipolar
Junction Transistor (PBJT)), Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect
Transistor (MOSFET), Gate Turn Off thyristors (GTOs), Static Induction
Thyristors (SITH), Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs), Static
Induction Thyristors (SITs) and MOS-Controlled Thyristors (MCTs).

The first category of devices such as diodes can be controlled by

the power circuits. In the second category, a control signal is required to turn
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on the device and turning off can be done by the power circuits. The devices
belonging to the third category require control signals during turn on as well
as during turn off. The evolution of the devices continued with the advanced
improvements in current rating, voltage rating and electrical characteristics of
the Power Converters.

In Industrial applications it is required to control and condition the

electric power from one form to another form in order to achieve increased
production and high efficiency. This can be easily obtained by power
converters which are broadly classified as Phase controlled converters (AC to
DC converters), DC-DC Converters (Choppers), DC-AC Converters
(Inverters), AC-AC Converters (Cycloconverters) and AC Voltage
Controllers (AC Regulators).

In Industries variable speed DC and AC drives are widely used

which take power from DC voltage sources. Hence DC-DC converters are
widely used for the conversion of DC Voltage source into different required
level of voltages. Among the above discussed converters DC-DC converters
find wider importance in the field of Power Electronics. These converters are
extensively used in various applications such as trolley cars, battery-operated
vehicles, traction-motor control, and control of large number of DC motors
from a common DC bus with a considerable improvement of power factor,
control of induction motors, marine hoist, forklift trucks and mine haulers.
DC-DC converters popularly called as choppers which convert fixed DC input
voltage into a variable DC output voltage. The choppers can be designed
using MOSFETs, IGBTs and Power BJTs. Choppers are fed from a battery or
a solar power DC voltage source. They are more advantageous in such a way
that they provide smooth acceleration control, higher efficiency, and fast
dynamic response, lower maintenance, smaller in size, smooth control and
lower in cost.
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Depending upon the level of input and output voltages, the DC-DC
converters are broadly classified as step down and step up converters. Step
down converters are the one in which the output voltage is less than the input
voltage where as in the case of step up choppers, the output voltage is higher
than the input voltage. In both the above mentioned types of converters, the
average value of the output voltage is controlled by turning on and off of the
semiconductor switches, which in turn represents the variation in the duty
cycle ratio, and it is defined as the ratio between the on time of the chopper
and the total chopping period. The duty cycle can be varied by using two
different control strategies such as time ratio control and current limit control.
Time ratio control can be implemented in two ways such as constant
frequency operation and variable frequency operation.

In constant frequency operation, the on time of the device, Ton is

varied by keeping the switching frequency at a constant value. Since the
width of the switching pulses is varied, this is also called as pulse width
modulation control. In variable frequency operation, the switching frequency
is varied keeping either the on time or off time as constant. This is also called
as frequency modulation which has several disadvantages such as the filter
design is quite difficult due to wide variations in switching frequencies,
interference with signaling and telephone lines. Moreover frequency
modulation leads to discontinuous load current if the off time of the device is
increased to a much higher value. Current limit control is employed for those
systems which comprises of energy storage elements as loads. Here the switch
is turned on and off with respect to the minimum and maximum values of
load currents. The device will be turned off, when the load current exceeds the
upper limit whereas the switch will be turned on when the current reaches the
lower limit.
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The basic DC-DC converter topologies such as Buck, Boost and

Buck-Boost converters are the switching circuits which exhibit complex
dynamic behaviour. They toggle among two different sets of linear and
non-linear equations which require a stronger and an effective feedback
control action. The feedback circuit should be designed in such a way that it
offers a robust control over the transient and dynamic behaviour of the
converter systems.

In particular, in these basic converter topologies the inductor

current ramps up and down during the complementary switching states that
exist between the semiconductor switch and the diode. The complementary
switching state is that when the switch is turned on, the diode is in off
condition and when the switch is turned off the diode will be in on condition
and vice versa.

It is inevitable to design a feedback circuit in order to control the

duty cycle of the switching converters to maintain a fixed value of output
voltage irrespective of the input voltage and load variations. The simplest
feedback circuits which are widely used for these converter topologies
compare the output voltage with the reference voltage and thus the control
signal is generated using Pulse width modulation scheme. This control signal
in turn adjusts the duty cycle so that the converter tracks the reference voltage
at the output and thus the error gets minimized. Alternately both the output
voltage and the inductor current can be used for the feedback circuit. Most
commonly used feedback circuits for the DC-DC converters are voltage mode
control and current mode control feedback circuits. The voltage mode control
uses only the output voltage in the feedback where as the current mode
control uses both the output voltage and the inductor current.

In voltage mode control scheme, the output voltage is compared

with the reference voltage and the error voltage is given to the controller or
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compensator. The compensator processes the error and produces a control

voltage signal, Vc. This control signal is fed to the comparator and compared
against the ramp signal, VRAMP. This in turn generates a pulse width modulated
signal to drive the semiconductor switch.

The pulse width modulation is implemented in such a way that, if

VRAMP is lesser than or equal to control signal, the switch is turned on and if
the ramp signal voltage is higher than the control signal, the switch will be
turned off. Thus the duty cycle which is defined as the ratio of, is
adjusted to track the reference value. This results in tight output voltage
regulation and improved dynamic characteristics of the DC-DC converters.

In current mode control, an additional inner loop is provided in

order to speed up the response of the system. This approach is mainly used in
Boost and Buck-Boost converters which suffer from non-minimum phase
response. The current mode control comprises of two loops, an outer loop and
an inner loop. The outer loop is much slower in which the output voltage is
compared against the reference and the resulting signal in turn acts as a
current reference for the inner loop. The inner loop is much faster in which
the reference value produced by the outer voltage loop is compared against
the actual value of the inductor current. It is assumed that the switches are
turned on and off by a clock pulse. As the clock pulse turns on the switch, the
inductor current rises up. When this current reaches the reference current
value given by the outer loop, the comparator output goes high and hence the
switch is turned off. Thus the inductor current ramps down and this process
gets repeated in a cyclic manner thereby controlling the duty cycle ratio of the
converter system. The purpose of the outer voltage loop is to set a reference
value for the inductor according to the error voltage signal. The important
characteristic of this method is that the response of the system will be much
faster and the performance of the system will be better. Inspite of this, during
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the compensator design, it should be kept in mind that this method suffers
from inherent high frequency instability due to sub harmonics and chaos.

The DC-DC converters are extensively used in computer

peripherals, communication systems, medical electronics, adapters of
consumer electronic devices, space stations, ships and aircraft to provide the
required level of DC voltages. The demand for the development of light
weight, compact and highly efficient switched mode power supplies have
been increased in recent years which lead to the stabilization of the converter
systems. The stability of the converters is achieved by designing appropriate
feedback loops. The conventional design approaches lead to the performance
degradation of the closed loop system due to component deprivation and
voltage changes, resulting in the design of robust controller to achieve good
dynamic performance (Middlebrook 1988).

There are several DC-DC converters among which the Buck and
Boost converters play a vital role in portable consumer electronics, since these
converters are simpler in construction and highly efficient. When these
converters are used in high power applications, they cannot withstand voltage
or current stress. To overcome this drawback the converters of the same type
are connected either in series or in parallel. Such parallel connected
converters are called interleaved converters. The interleaved converters have
the advantages of reducing the input current ripple, inductor size, current
rating of the semiconductors, I2R losses and inductor AC losses. Further these
interleaved converters are highly reliable with good current sharing among the
converter modules and easier for system maintenance.

The main challenge in the field of Power Electronics is emphasized

more on the control aspects of the DC-DC converters. The control approach
requires effective modelling and a thorough analysis of the converters. The
control based on conventional methods results in difficulty of system
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alteration and higher functions, thereby leading to low reliability and higher
sensitivity to noise (Chander et al 2011). To overcome the above mentioned
drawbacks, robust controllers have to be implemented.

In recent years digital controller for power switching converters are

being popular due to several advantages such as advanced control strategies,
low sensitivity to variations, robustness to ageing and environmental changes,
noise immunity and ease of programming. In digital approach, the highest
resolution Digital Pulse Width Modulation (DPWM) signals and digital
control algorithm have found significance in the research, in order to obtain
high accuracy in required output voltage and maximum utilization of the
controller (Morroni et al 2009).

The control of DC-DC converters are mainly focused on obtaining

stiff output voltage regulation. The typical control strategy which is widely
implemented through pulse width modulation can be categorized into voltage
mode control and current mode control. The current mode control is
advantageous over voltage mode control in which the system responds
quickly to the disturbances (Sreekumar and Agarwal 2008). But this
technique suffers from an inherent instability and sub harmonic oscillations at
constant frequency operation and hence a dynamic compensation has to be
designed. The major constraint in the design of control based on frequency
domain is the presence of a zero in the right hand side of the plane in many of
the averaged models. The average value of the inductor current is inversely
proportional to the location of this zero and therefore any increase in the value
of the inductor current may reallocate this zero to the lower frequency region
of the right hand side of the plane. This creates a considerable phase lag
which restrains the existing bandwidth for a constant operation of the
converter and makes the design to be carried out in time domain (Shuibao
Guo 2009).
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In low power DC-DC converters, the overload protection, increased

efficiency and improved dynamic response are obtained by current sensing or
measurement methods. The measurement methods are generally voltage drop
and observer based methods. The major drawback in voltage drop method is
that it decreases the efficiency of the system under consideration and requires
an amplifier with wide bandwidth, which is very difficult to implement. The
control circuits for the DC-DC converters are more complex and when the
converters are operated in continuous conduction mode, the current
imbalances due to intrinsic device parameter variation occur which is quite
critical. To overcome the above mentioned control problems an observer
based controller for the Buck, Boost, Interleaved Buck and Interleaved Boost
converters are designed and presented, which is based on deriving a control
law defined as ( ), where k is the state feedback matrix and x(t) is
the state vector. An Observer Controller (which estimates the unmeasurable
variables) with state feedback matrix (control law) has been designed for
Buck and Boost Converters using pole placement technique and Separation
principle, both in analog and digital structure.

Observer is designed based on time domain in which the converter

specifications such as rise time, settling time, maximum peak overshoot and
steady state error are met. The converters are modelled using state space
averaging technique. The Separation Principle makes the design procedure
much simpler in which the state feedback gain matrix is designed by pole
placement and then the full order state observer by the same technique, finally
which can be combined together to provide a better dynamic compensation
for the Buck, Boost, Interleaved Buck and Boost converters. The main
advantage of this principle is that the design of control law and the observer
can be carried out independently and when both are used together the roots
remain unchanged.
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The proposed Observer Controller for the interleaved Buck and

Boost converters is designed in twofold. First, the appropriate Observer poles
are chosen and the controller is designed by combining state feedback matrix
and Observer poles by using Separation Principle. Next the state feedback
matrix obtained for the interleaved converters are optimized by deriving
Riccati matrix and using the same observer poles chosen as in the first step, a
Linear Quadratic optimal Regulator (LQR) is designed for Interleaved Buck
and Interleaved Boost converters.

The simulation and experimental setup were carried out to validate

the proposed controller design. Thus the Observer Controller designed for the
Buck, Boost, Interleaved Buck and Interleaved Boost converters gives an
excellent output voltage regulation, improved dynamic response, robust,
rejects the disturbances, highly efficient with much lesser settling time in the
range of milli second and good current sharing among the converter modules.
In addition to that the interleaved boost converter designed using observer
controller is applied in Photovoltaic System and the results are presented.

1.2 LITERATURE SURVEY

Pinheiro et al (1999) have proposed a control of Interleaved Boost

Converter using Lyapnov control technique for power factor correction
application. The state feedback gain is obtained using Linear quadratic
optimal regulator method. Additionally a feed forward voltage loop is
employed to improve the system response which is quite complex and more
computations are required.

Sun et al (2001) have designed the reduced order and full order
averaged models for the Discontinuous Conduction Mode PWM Boost
converter. The authors have taken the duty cycle ratio as a constraint and
suggested it as a frame work for comparing different models. The authors also
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have suggested that this method accurately predicts that, the responses of the
small signals are upto the maximum frequency that can be handled by the
linear time invariant frequency domain model. Comparative evaluation of all
the relevant models developed earlier was made which overcomes the existing
problems in modelling.

Zhang et al (2001) have designed a Boost converter under critical

current mode for Power Factor Correction rectifier. They highlighted the fact
that when the converter is operated in the critical mode, it requires a larger
differential mode EMI filter which is quite undesirable. Next, the interleaved
Boost converter under critical mode of operation with variable frequency
control is also carried out and they highlighted the fact that the Boost
converter suffers from non minimal phase response due to phase lags and
subharmonic oscillations. In this study the dynamic performances of both the
Boost and Interleaved Boost converters are not verified under variable voltage
and under disturbances.

Tse et al (2002) have analyzed most of the non linear phenomena

existing in power electronic systems. The chaotic and bifurcation behaviour
of the Buck, Boost and Buck-Boost converters are discussed. The authors
focused the bifurcation behaviour and dynamic behaviour of the power
electronic converters. This work paves the way for the essential analytical
approaches that can be performed to utilize the power electronic converters in
several applications.

Dusan Gleich et al (2004) have proposed a digital state feedback

control for Buck converter. Three different algorithms were developed based
on the state feedback control. The state feedback controller has also been
combined together with the PID controller and decomposed fuzzy PID
controller. Improved performances were obtained and the authors suggested
that the state controller eliminates the overshoots and steady state error. But
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the state estimation has not been done in order to check the robustness of the
state feedback control. The dynamic response of the system has not been
verified.

Gonzalez et al (2005) have designed an Observer controller for the

basic Buck, Boost and Buck Boost converter topologies by using passivity
based non linear design. The output thus obtained shows overshoots and
undershoots which are undesirable.

Padimiti and Ferdowsi (2005) have evaluated the various digital

control techniques including the predictive control and a dead beat control
techniques for DC-DC converters. They have suggested that the digital
control and implementation of the DC-DC converter topologies are highly
advantageous and easy to realize. The authors highlighted that the sensorless
current mode control which estimates the inductor current without measuring
is one of the best choice to replace the current sensors especially in industries.
They emphasized that these control techniques provide better results when
used with DC-DC converters and they are the best choice for the automotive
industries in order to improve the dynamic performances of the electric
vehicles.

Stefanutti et al (2005) have proposed an auto tuning PID controller

for the voltage mode control of Synchronous Buck converters using relay
feedback. The authors introduced small oscillations on the output voltage
during converter soft start and measured the frequency and amplitude of the
oscillations, gain and phase of the converter to derive the transfer function.
They have auto tuned the PID controller parameters by iterative procedure.
They have obtained much improved results. But instead of estimating the
converter transfer function at different frequencies, the authors introduced this
type of iterative procedure. Estimation is mainly done in order to check the
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dynamic constancy of the converter and the corresponding performance

specifications of the converter parameters were also not presented.

Feng et al (2006) have proposed a new switching cycle

compensation algorithm to optimize the transient performance of the DC-DC
converter under input voltage changes. The converter is fedback to steady
state, driven by an optimized value of two switching cycle series. This was
done by using the principle of capacitor charge balance. The system shows
improved dynamic performance. The authors implemented it using FPGA and
used sensing resistors in series with the switch to measure the inductor
current. This type of current measurement is quite disadvantageous since the
efficiency of the system gets reduced due to higher power loss.

Peretz et al (2006) have designed a digital PID controller for the

PWM DC-DC converters based on the time domain responses. The averaged
models were derived and the discrete controller shows improved dynamic
performances. Hence the authors suggested that the time domain approach
bypasses some of the errors due to the s to z transformation and hence it is
highly compatible.

Zou et al (2006) have proposed a method to control the chaos in the

Buck converter using Pole Placement technique. Sate feedback matrix has
been derived and the stability of the converter is achieved. But the state
estimation has not been done in order to verify the robustness of the control
method.

Huang et al (2007) have analyzed the slow scale and fast scale
bifurcations of the parallel connected Buck converter using master-slave
current sharing method. The PI controller is implemented and the boundaries
between these bifurcations are identified. The results offered a reference for
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the practical implementation, where the occurrences of slow-scale bifurcation

are least bothered.

Hyung-Su Bae et al (2007) have proposed a digital state feedback

current control using pole placement technique for the synchronous Buck-
Boost converter. This paper mainly focuses the current sharing among the
converter modules during the transition from one mode to another mode. It
does not show the performance parameters of the converters in terms of
output voltage, settling time, rise time and maximum peak overshoot.

Abu et al (2008) proposed the sensorless voltage mode in

multiphase Buck converter and achieved optimum current sharing among the
converter modules. The proposed method is implemented using digital
controller and shows good performance under dynamic loading variations.
The voltage loop control when compared with current mode control is less
advantageous. With the voltage mode control, a type three compensator is
required to stabilize. Also with this mode of control crossover frequency of
the converter should be higher than the resonant frequency otherwise the filter
will ring. It is quite complex to design a compensator with voltage mode
control since good dynamic performance cannot be obtained under both
Continuous Conduction Mode and Discontinuous Conduction Mode.

Bo-Cheng et al (2008) have dealt with a feedback control using

sampled inductor current for the Boost converter. The stability criterion has
been achieved successfully and it is shown that the chaotic behaviour of the
Boost converter can be controlled. But the performance parameters of the
converters are not taken into account and the load estimation was not done to
ensure the robustness of the control law.

Chen et al (2008) have made a thorough analysis to identify the

stable operating region of the Buck and Boost converters. The authors focused
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their study on fast scale and slow scale bifurcations which occur both in
current mode and voltage mode control. They have suggested that the effects
can be eliminated by increasing the feedback gain. They have also extended
their investigation by inspecting the Eigen values. This in particular is very
much useful to design the input voltage parameter and load resistance for the
converters which operate under stable operating regime.

Geyer et al (2008) have modelled the DC-DC converter as hybrid

system for the whole operating regime by deriving a piecewise affine model.
Dynamic programming is used for formulating a constrained optimal control
problem. The authors validated that this method can be easily implemented by
creating a look up table instead of going in for an online optimization. But the
authors say that the derived controller is quite complex and higher in cost.

Huber et al (2008) have focused the master slave converter

synchronization under open loop conditions for interleaved Boost converters
operating under CCM and DCM. The slave converter is synchronized with the
master converter at turn on instant of the master converter there by achieving
stable operating conditions. The analysis illustrates the effects of mismatched
inductances, phase shift error, switching frequency limit and valley switching
on the input current ripple and input current distortion. Since the feedback
loop is absent, the output response may be inaccurate and unreliable. Further,
the response of the system to the external disturbances is not discussed.

Jonathan et al (2008) have dealt with the stabilization of Input

series and output parallel connected converters. This method uses a single
outer loop to generate a reference. It is quite disadvantageous when compared
with two loop system and especially when it is employed for Boost
converters, lots of disturbances will be generated.
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Lukic et al (2008) have proposed a self tuning current estimator for

the synchronous Buck converter with digital implementation using CMOS
technologies. The estimator works well and automatically adjusts the
coefficients using test current sink and a tunable IIR filter for the variations in
the inductor parameters. The operation of the self tuned estimator is proved to
be faster and accurate. Here the input voltage is sampled at a frequency much
lesser than the switching frequency of the converter. This is quite undesirable
since if the sampling frequency is lesser than the highest frequency of the
system, then aliasing effect is produced and most of the information will be
lost.

Mariethoz et al (2008) introduced a new predictive control method

for Interleaved DC-DC converters. The major control is emphasized on the
good transient performance and to achieve protection of the semiconductor
devices. The load estimation is achieved based on the capacitor voltage
measurement method and is implemented. This in turn achieves inherent
limitation on the leg current during transients. Instead of all the performance
benefits it is found that observer can be seen as an algorithm which processes
the data thereby reconstructing the variable state system from the input
mathematical model and output measurement for the practical systems. From
this literature it is evident that it is less expensive and more reliable. It
presents advantages from the mathematical model itself. It can easily be
implemented through digital computers.

Sreekumar and Agarwal (2008) have presented a new hybrid

control algorithm for the Boost converter to obtain output voltage regulation
under continuous and discontinuous mode of operations. The authors prove
that the system is stable under operating conditions and can easily be
implemented since the computations are minimum. But the main constraint in
this algorithm is that it can only be applied for lower switching frequency and
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when it is applied for the higher frequency systems, limitations are to be

imposed on various circuit conditions such as power loss, driver circuit
limitations and device speed.

Xu et al (2008) have presented a closed loop control for Interleaved

Boost converter operating in critical mode of conduction. It includes a master
and a slave converter which operate ideally under critical mode and there is a
much reduced input ripple current which finds wider applications especially
in power factor corrections. Inspite of the improved results it has several
disadvantages such as, when the semiconductor switch is turned on, the hard
reverse recovery takes place resulting in the generation of high frequency
EMI and harmonics and more over additional circuitry should be involved to
soften the reverse current transient of the diode and the switching
semiconductor device turn on.

Al-Saffar et al (2009) have designed a new non isolated single stage

switch high power factor correction converter. Both Buck and Buck-Boost
Converters are selected due to their intense step down capabilities. This paper
proposes a way to overcome the inrush current problem and acts as a
protection against over load current. The major drawback in going for Buck-
Boost converter is that it is very difficult to operate in the continuous
conduction mode.

Carlos et al (2009) achieved the stability and the performance of the

PWM converters using Linear Quadratic Optimal Regulator method. Here the
Linear matrix inequalities are dealt in which more than one plant can be taken
into account. The authors suggested that the controller exhibits a more
predictable response thereby assuring an upper band of a performance index.

Chen et al (2009) introduced a four stage Interleaved Boost convert

cells. The authors suggested that the interleaved converters can reduce the
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input current and output voltage ripple thereby resulting in improved

efficiency.

Grote et al (2009) have achieved the low cost implementation of

interleaved Boost converter for PFC application by combining together a
digital and analog control parts. The analog circuitry is retained by the
conventional analog structure. This results in high current control bandwidth
and improved efficiency.

Jonathan and Philip (2009) discussed a PFC control without the

current sensor in which the current sensor is replaced by a Kalman like filter
acting as an Observer. It has two extended kalman filters which derive the
information from the input and bus voltage measurements. In this work
kalman filters are used for voltage sensing. Though it gave near unity power
factor, the observer can better be used when it is employed for current
sensing, which is more advantageous.

Jong et al (2009) have obtained average current information by

sensing the diode current in the literature. A resistance in series with the
converter circuit is employed and it obviously results in reduced efficiency
due to power loss. The power losses are more pronounced under low voltage
conditions which further reduce the efficiency.

Morroni et al (2009) proposed a closed loop operation of Switched

Mode Power Supply (SMPS) converter based on adaptive tuning method. In
this method, the system cross over frequency and phase margin of the
converter under consideration is closely monitored. The adaptive tuning of the
compensator parameters are done with MIMO closed loop system. The
compensator thus designed includes the design of PID compensator and an
adaptive tuning compensator. Though the method yields a satisfactory
performance, the computations are quite complex and time consuming.
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Chander et al (2010) have proposed the FPGA implementation of

PID Controller for DC-DC converter. The modelling and simulation of a
synchronous Buck converter with discrete PID controller is carried out. The
performance parameters are much improved and better results were obtained.
But when FPGA is used for prototyping, it may have significant changes
when migrated to higher performance design and package solution. The other
disadvantages include limited size options and limited performances.

Mariethoz et al (2010) have designed five different control

methodologies for Buck and Boost converters by taking into consideration the
response times and capability to reject the disturbances. The systems settle
down faster and reject the disturbances thereby improving the dynamic
performances of the systems. Authors have suggested that the performance of
the converter and the robustness of the controller mainly depend upon the
controller tuning. State feedback control has been derived and load estimation
was done which can be taken as a point of reference result for the design
based on the observer controller.

Mayo et al (2011) have proposed the full order and reduced order
non linear dynamic model of the multilevel boost converter. Here the inductor
current is controlled by using input-output feedback linearization. The state
feedback gain matrix is derived using pole placement technique and output
voltage regulation is obtained and implemented using RTAI Lab as a Linux
based real time platform and NI PCI-6024 E data acquisition board. But the
robustness of the control law has not been presented and the dynamic
performance of the converter has not been checked by varying the inductor, L
and the capacitor, C of the converter.

Mohammad Alia et al (2011) have proposed a simple selftuning

PID controller using LabVIEW. The PID controller for water flow rate has
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been implemented using LabVIEW. The authors suggested that this as a

development platform for the auto tuning tool kit of LabVIEW.

Mohammad Abuzalata (2012) proposed a pulse width modulation

DC chopper using LabVIEW software. Sinusoidal pulse width modulation has
been employed to achieve the lower order harmonics. The author suggested
that the LabVIEW is an excellent platform to implement the PWM techniques
and it efficiently enables the interfacing between the hardware and software.

Based on the above literature survey it can be very well understood

that the state feedback control method achieves an efficient stability for the
DC-DC converters under all operating conditions. But in most of the
conventional current control methods, peak current mode control is being
used which is highly detrimental leading to the higher noise sensitivity. In
most of the industrial applications, small value of a precision resistor is being
used which in turn leads to the false firing of the power transistors employed
in the DC-DC converters. The important criteria to be considered for most of
the industrial applications are the reduction in the sensor number. Hence a
cost effective sensors are required and thus a feasible solution can be obtained
by using a well known Observer Controller.

1.3 OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH WORK

Chapter 2 presents the design, modelling and implementation of

Buck converter with observer controller under both continuous time domain
and discrete time domain. Modelling is carried out using state space averaging
technique. Observer controller is designed in two fold. Firstly, a state
feedback matrix has been derived using pole placement technique and
secondly a load estimator has been designed and finally both are combined
together using Separation principle to provide a dynamic compensation which
is termed as an Observer controller.
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Chapter 3 discusses in detail about the design, modelling and

implementation of Boost converter with Observer controller under both
continuous time domain and discrete time domain. Extensive simulation has
been carried out and the results obtained using analog observer is shown
compared against the digital controller. The performance parameters are
tabulated.

Chapter 4 explains the design, modelling and implementation of

the Observer controller for Interleaved Buck converter. Here the state
feedback matrix is derived using pole placement technique as well as using
Linear quadratic optimal regulator methods. Load estimation is done by
deriving a full order state observer and finally state feedback control and the
full order state observer are combined together by separation principle to
provide an Observer controller. Simulation results are shown and the
performance parameters are also tabulated.

Chapter 5 gives details about the derivation of Observer controller

for Interleaved Boost converter. Similar to the interleaved Buck converter, the
state feedback matrix for this converter is also derived using both the pole
placement method and linear quadratic optimal regulator method. The results
obtained from Interleaved Boost converter with observer controller thus
designed using the above mentioned two methods are shown compared
against each other and the performance parameters are also tabulated.

Chapter 6 elaborates the hardware Implementation of the Buck

converter with Observer controller. It is implemented using LabVIEW and
DAQ interfacing gadget USB 6009. The results thus illustrated are in
concurrence with the simulation and mathematical analysis.
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Chapter 7 elucidates the application of the Interleaved Boost

converter with Observer controller in photo voltaic system. The observer
controller for this converter which has already been discussed in chapter 5 has
been tested with photo voltaic system. The input is given from the solar panel
and the corresponding output responses are illustrated which efficiently tracks
the references and obtains the maximum power from the solar input.
Chapter 8 gives the Conclusion and references follow this chapter.