HYDERABAD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND

MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND

ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING
(Affiliated to JNTU,
Hyderabad, TS)2021-2024

In
ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

Course project on
Step up & Step
down Chopper

SUBMITTED BY: UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF:

D.Praneeth Dr.O.P.Suresh,Mtech,Ph.d ,
21E55A0206 Head of the dept -EEE
3rd year EEE
Step up chopper
Step-up chopper is a static device whose average output DC voltage is greater than its input DC voltage. It is different from
the step-down chopper. In step-down chopper, the average value of output voltage stepped down i.e. it is less than its

input voltage.

Working Principle of Step-up Chopper:To understand the working principle, let us first have a look at the circuit diagram
of step-up chopper. This is shown in figure below. In the circuit diagram, chopper is shown as a switch CH. We will
understand the working of this chopper in two steps: Switch ON period and Switch OFF period of chopper.

Switch ON Period: When chopper (CH) is switched ON, the current will flow through the closed path formed by supply
source Vs, inductor L and chopper CH. During this period, no current will flow through the load. Only source current is will
flow and the value of load current io will be ZERO during the ON period. This case is depicted in figure below. Also, during
the TON period, energy is stored in the inductor L. This energy storage in L is essential to boost the load output voltage
above the source voltage. Therefore, a large value of L is essential in a step-up chopper.

Switch OFF period: When the chopper CH is switched OFF, the current through the L can not die instantaneously rather it
decays exponentially. Due to this behavior of L, it will force the current through the diode D and load for the entire time
period TOFF. This is shown in figure below.
explanation-of-working-principle-of-step-up-chopper-OFF-period-of-chopper

Since, the current through the inductor L tends to decrease, the polarity of the emf induced in inductor L is reversed
as shown in above figure. As a result, the voltage across the load becomes equal to the sum of source voltage and
emf induced in inductor. Thus, the output voltage exceeds the source voltage Vs. The load / output voltage may be
written as below.

Vo = Vs + L(di/dt)

Thus, the circuit works as a step-up chopper. It may be noted here that, the voltage across the load increases
because the inductor releases its stored energy to the load during the OFF period.

Analysis of Waveform: Various waveform i.e. source voltage, source current, load voltage and load current
waveform are shown in figure below.

The first waveform represents the source voltage which is a DC voltage equal to Vs. Therefore, it is shown as a
straight line parallel to time axis. Second waveform shows the source current is. When chopper (CH) is switched ON,
the source current increases from its minimum value I1 to maximum value I2. It may also be noted that, this source
current flows through the inductor during ON time. Therefore, it may be said that the current through the inductor L
rises from I1 to I2 during ON period. During this time, no current flows through the load as shown in io versus time
(t) graph.

When chopper is switched OFF, the source current starts decreasing from its peak value I2 to least value I1. Thus, the
current through the inductor decreases from I2 to I1 during the OFF period. Since, load only comes into circuit during
the OFF period, it may be said that, load current decreases from I2 to I1 during OFF time.

Calculation of Output Voltage:

Let us now find the expression for the output voltage of step-up chopper. From the above analysis of source current
and load current waveform, it is clear that, the average value of current flowing through load and inductor are same
and equal to (I1+I2)/2. As discussed earlier in the article, the energy is stored in L during chopper ON time. This
stored energy in L during the ON period is equal to the multiplication of voltage across the inductor, average current
through it and TON time. The voltage drop across L during ON time equal to the source voltage Vs. This is evident
from the circuit diagram.

When chopper is switched OFF, this stored energy is transferred to the load. Let the load voltage (output voltage) be
Vo. Since, the average current through load is (I1+I2)/2, therefore, the energy consumed by load during this OFF
time of chopper is given as below.

energy consumed by load during off period of chopper : This energy consumed by load is supplied by source (Vs) and
the inductor L. The energy supplied by source to load will be equal to multiplication of source voltage Vs, average
current (I1+I2)/2 and TOFF time.
From the above formula for output voltage of step-up chopper, it can be seen that output voltage can be stepped up
by varying the duty cycle α. If the chopper is always OFF, α = 0 and hence, the output voltage Vo will be equal to
source voltage Vs. Similarly, if chopper is kept always ON, the value of duty cycle will become unity and hence output
voltage will become infinite. However, chopper is turned ON and OFF in such a manner that duty cycle is variable
and the required stepped up average output voltage, more than source voltage, is obtained.

Step down chopper

A Step-down chopper is a static device that step downs its DC input voltage. The value of average output DC voltage
of this chopper is less than that of its fixed DC input source voltage. This type of chopper is more common.

Working Principle:

Before we start discussing the working principle of Step-down Chopper, it is imperative to first have a look at its
circuit diagram. The circuit diagram is shown in figure below.

The chopper is shown within a dotted line and assumed to be a switch. This circuit consists of inductor L, a free-
wheeling diode, chopper CH, Source and Load. Fixed DC input voltage Vs is applied and our aim is to get the variable
DC output voltage which is a function of chopper. To get the variable DC voltage, we will switch ON and OFF the
chopper CH at some frequency called the chopping frequency (f).

Case-1: When Chopper CH is switched ON.

When CH is switched ON, the source is directly connected to load and hence the output voltage Vo becomes equal to
Vs. The time period for which chopper is kept ON is called ON Time of chopper and represented by TON. Thus, Vo
will be equal to Vs for time TON. The waveform of output voltage and time is shown in figure below.

During the ON period of chopper, the current will build in the load exponentially and will reach its maximum value at
the end of TON (It is assumed that TON is less than the time required for load current to reach its steady state value).
This, simply means that the maximum value of load current io will be less than the steady state value. The waveform
of load current and time of step-down chopper is shown in figure below.

In the above figure, the load current during TON time is shown linearly increasing with time. This is because the
chopping frequency is high and hence TON is very less. For a small time period, the exponential rise of current may
be approximated to the linear rise.

What about the free-wheeling diode? Free-wheeling diode (D) is reversed biased during TON, hence it doesn’t come
into circuit during this period.

Case-2: When Chopper CH is switched OFF.

When chopper in figure-(i) is switched OFF, the load is disconnected from the source Vs and hence load voltage Vo
will be ZERO during the entire period for with CH is OFF. The time for which chopper is kept OFF is known as OFF
time and represented by TOFF. You may refer the waveform of Vo w.r.t time shown earlier in the post. What about
load current io during the TOFF? Will it become zero just like output voltage?

As soon as the CH is switched OFF, the current through the inductor L (io) cannot suddenly drop to zero. Rather, it
starts decreasing and hence the polarity of induced emf across the inductor reverses (opposite of polarity as shown
in figure-i).

This induced emf of inductor makes free-wheeling diode forward biased and hence, free-wheeling diode (D) acts as a
short during TOFF. Thus, the load current continues to decay through inductor L, free-wheeling diode D and load
even though the source Vs is disconnected. Kindly refer the waveform of load current w.r.t time shown earlier. The
load current reaches its minimum value during OFF time and then CH is again switched ON. Therefore, case-1 and
case-2 repeats.

Derivation of Average Output DC Voltage:

To find the average output DC voltage, carefully observe the Vo vs. time waveform shown earlier in the post. What
you observe? You will notice that Vo is equal to Vs for TON time and is ZERO for TOFF time. As we know that
average value of any periodic function f(x) with time period T is given as below.

Therefore, using the above formula we can easily find the value of average value of output voltage of Step-down
chopper. It should be noted that the time period of chopper DC Output Voltage Waveform is T = TON + TOFF. The
derivation of output voltage of chopper is shown below.

Formula of Average DC Output Voltage:

The formula for Average DC Output Voltage of step-down chopper is shown below.

Formula-of-Average-DC-Output-Voltage-of-Step-down-chopper

From the above formula, it can be concluded that the output voltage of step-down chopper can be varied from zero
to source voltage Vs. This is achieved by varying the duty cycle (α).