Analysis and Interpretation of Loop Gains of Multiloop-Controlled Switching Regulators RAYMOND B. RIDLEY, BO H. CHO, axo FRED C. Y. LEE, senior meMBen, IEF Aburact—T wo dierent lop guns of power supplies with current- mode control ae considered. The relationships bebe the lop bias {eid design. A common problem with the implementation of curren ‘ode controle dacuseed. I. Isrropuction ULTILOOP control has become widely used in switching power supplies with the advent of cur- rent-mode control. Although it is generally understood that multloop control offers many advantages over single- loop control, the analysis and design procedure remains @ confusing issue for many engineers. Recent papers [1] [2] have taken different approaches to analyze multiloop systems, choosing different loop gains to evaluate system performance. The fundamental requirements of a power supply can be overlooked when they are analyzed purely from the standpoint of open-loop gains. A loop gain of a power supply or any other system actually has no intrinsic value. A loop gain is only important if it aids in the desiga of a control which satisfies the system's closed-loop re- quirements ‘A power supply is intended to be a voltage source and, as such, must be designed to meet the following specifi cations: * input-output noise transmission (audio susceptibil iy) must be less than a specified maximum; * the setting time and peak overshoot of the dynamic response to a step-load change must be less than a specified maximum (for a small load change, this may be translated as an output impedance specification); * the output must remain within a specified range for all operating conditions of line and load; * the power supply must be stable under all operating conditions, with all possible component variations ‘that may occur during the lifetime of the system. ‘There are no specific requirements forthe loop gain of the system to have a given crossover frequency or phase mar- gin. These are only important if they are directly related to the closed-loop performance, Manuscript ectved Sway 5,198; revised une 28, 188. The paper was prcete athe 1986 Power Electronics Conferese, San se, CA, “he aus ae ith the Bray Degree of Elesical Eneeving. Virginia Polytechnic Iie nd Sate Unvraty, Blahsarg, WA 2a TEEE Log Number 8823147, (0885-8993/88/1000-0489801.00 Al of the familiar concepts used in design, such as loop-gain crossover, phase margins, gain margin, and rel- ative stability, are directly related to the closed-loop char- acteristics for a single-loop system. When multiloop con- ‘rol is used, more than one open-loop gain can be defined and the relationships between loop gains and closed-loop characteristics are generally indirect. The design ap- proaches used for single-loop control are no longer di- rectly applicable. “The first section ofthis paper reviews a single-loop sys- tem and shows how the open-loop information is elated ta the closed-loop characteristics. The multiloop system is then considered. Relationships between the different loop gains of the multiloop system and the closed-loop measures of output impedance and audio susceptibility are derived, It is shown that different loop gains can be used to obtain information about relative stability and to en- hhance a poor design, Different implementations of cur- rent-mode control are discussed in the final section of this paper, and the most common problem encountered in practical circuit applications is shown, IL. Sixcte-Loor Systems Loop-gain analysis is a very useful tool for single-loop systems. The system output to be regulated, output volt age in the case of power supplies, is used for feedback. ‘The gain of the loop directly attenuates the output imped: ance and audio susceptibility of the closed-loop system. Fig. 1 shows the loop gain Tof a single-loop buck con- verter. The crossover frequency of the loop is approxi: mately 15 kHz, and the phase margin is about 85°. ‘The switching frequency is 40 kHz, and a designer will i mediately recognize this to be a stable high-performance system, For a second-order system, the phase margin can be directly related to the transient response of a system. A phase margin of 45° results ina closed-loop system which is critically damped for an optimal response. This is only true for a second-order systems with single-loop control ‘The gain margin of a single-loop system is a measure of the relative stability ofthe system. It shows how much the loop gain can be increased before the system becomes unstable, The crossover frequency of a single-loop system is important beeause it shows the frequency range where the feedback gain is effective in attenuating the closed: loop characteristics. 1988 IEEE,=O “T “CT , | # i i ® y 2 renner ‘ " [ if rhe Ll [ en ae Fig, 1. Single-loop buck converter open-loop gain. L = 4H: C = if ARTS TO a ou ii" ere Ike opens ado sscebity is given by Ky then te the closed-loop audio susceptibility is in nS a) ‘The Bode plots of open- and closed-loop audio suscepti- bility for the buck converter are shown in Fig. 2. The difference between the open- and closed-loop response is given by the loop gain. The two curves converge within 3 dB of each other atthe erossover frequency of the loop gain, and no further attenuation is given at higher fre- quencies by the closed-loop feedback. ‘Similar results can be obtained for the ousput imped- ance of the single-loop converter. The closed-loop output impedance is z ac 14+T @ whore Z, is the open-loop output impedance. The Bode plots of the open- and closed-loop output impedance ae Shown in Fig. 3. “The loop gain ofthe single-loop system, therefor, is an jvaluale desig ool BY measuring only the oop gain the system and making it as large a possible wilh a high erossove frequency, and an adequate gain and phase tnargin, both the stability of the system and the Best pos: sible closed-loop performance are measbred IIL, Mectitooe Systems The boost and buck-boost power stages both have a control-o-output transfer function with a right-half-plane zero. Good closed-loop performance is very difficult to Fig 3 Single top buck convener ouput impedance achieve with single-loop control since the crossover fre- ‘quency of the open-loop gain is severely restricted by the sight half-plane zero. A multiloop control scheme can be implemented for switching regulators by sensing the in ductor-current state and using it for feedback together with the output voltage. This multiloop control improves the power stage closed-loop characteristics. ‘The interpretation of loop gains is very different for :multiloop systems because an obviously useful loop gain is no longer uniquely defined. Many different loop gains ccan be defined analytically and experimentally verified, Each of these loop gains can have a different crossover frequency and phase margin. For multiloop switching regulators, wo loop gains are important. The first is mea- sured at the output of the duty-eyele modulator, and the second at the output of the voltage compensator. ‘The small-signal block diagram of a generalized two- state switching converter is shown in Fig. 4. The small- signal blocks Fy and F, represent the duty-cycle-to-out- put-voltage and the duty-cycle-to-inductor-current trans- fer functions, respectively. Gain blocks F, and Z, repre- sent the output-current-to-induetor-current and the output- current-o-output-voltage transfer functions, required for analyzing the closed-loop output impedance of the sys- ‘The feedback loop created by current-mode control is shown in the diagram as T; and is referred to as the current oop. The voltage loop, created by the output-voltage feedback path, is denoted by T,,. The crossover frequency ‘of the current loop must be larger than that of the voltageFig. 4 Mutilop convener smalsignal block diagram. loop to obtain the full benefits of current-mode contro. Fortunately, itis possible to design the current loop with a very high crossover, approaching half the switching fre- quency. At lower frequencies, the gain of the current loop is fairly low and the voltage-loop gain is made much larger. ‘The most common mistake made when using current mode control is to reduce the gain and crossover fre- quency of the current loop severely. The system is then very similar to a single-loop scheme, and the benefits of current-mode control are lost. The reasons for reduction of the current-loop gain are discussed in more detail later in this paper. ‘The points at which two useful loop gains can be mea sured for the multiloop system are denoted by 7; and 73 fn the block diagram. Loop gain 7; is referred to hereafter as the overall loop gain since it is measured inside both the current- and voltage-feedback loops. The loop gain can be measured using digital modulation techniques [1] ‘The overall loop gain can be written as a combination of the current and voltage loops: het+h @) where FF Fy Ty = FgF Fs Loop gain Ts is referred to as the outer loop gain since it is measured outside of the closed current loop. The outer loop gain can be measured using conventional analog modulation techniques. The outer loop can also be written asa combination of the current and voltage loops: a bee (4) oeede ease PYM Ro 10m, v2 Sv¥, = lOve = 4OKBe TThe fact that the crossover of the current-loop gains should bbe as high as possible may be deduced from the expres- sions for either of the loop gains, 7; or T3, and the form ff the duty-cycle-to-inductor-current transfer function, ‘Since this transfer function has a 90° delay alter the filter resonant frequency. its bandwidth must be made high so that it dominates the overall loop gain T, at crossover, siving it almost a 90° phase margin ‘The —90" phase of the current loop introduces +90° phase increase in the outer-loop gain T3, since the cur- rent-loop gain appears in the denominator ofthe outer loop expression. This phase increase is critical to stabilize the boost and buck-boost converters which have additional phase delay of the voltage-loop gain T., due to the power stage right-half-plane zero, The 90° phase boost due to the current loop decreases to 45° at the crossover of the ccurrent loop and below this beyond the crossover fre- quency. This crossover must, therefore, be as high as pos- sible Fig, 5 shows the overall loop gain and the outer loop ‘gain for a boost converter. The power stage gain, and the voltage and current-loop gains T; and T,, are shown in ig. 6. The overall loop gain T; has a crossover frequency of 16 kHz (switching frequency is 40 kHz), a phase mar- ‘gin of 85°, and an indeterminate gain margin. There is no indication of any right-half-plane zero in this loop gain ‘The outer loop gain shown in Fig. 5 has a crossover fre- quency of 1.6 kHz, a phase margin of 90°, and a gain margin of 16 dB. The effect of a right-half-plane zero is apparent Since Fig, 5 shows loop gains of the same system, itis apparent that the concepts used to evaluate system per-£ | AT Fit. 6, Boost conser power stage gui (/4,Yotagetop es Jn eament loop 2 formance from a loop gain are no longer directly appli- cable. The power of a loop gain to determine all of the system's closed-loop characteristics has been lost. Both loop gains contain useful information, however, and can be used to verify a system design IV. TRansree FUNCTIONS ‘To understand the relationships between each loop gain, and closed-loop performance, the transfer functions for closed-loop audio susceptibility and output impedance ‘must be examined. Before this ean be done, each of the transfer-function blocks F\-F; and Z, must be derived. ‘Three basic types of two-state converters, buck, boost, and buck-boost, are considered. ‘Small-signal state-space averaging technique are used ‘throughout the analysis to derive the results [3]. As the ‘crossover of the curtent-loop gain approaches half the switching frequency, this technique becomes inaccurate For the boost and buck-boost converters, a discrete av raging technique provides more accuracy for certain types of compensation schemes [4], but this will not be pursued in this paper. The most accurate analysis tech- nique, using exact discrete-time analysis [5], [6]. will not bbe used since it oes not provide analytical results which ‘may be easily interpreted. The transfer functions for each of the three converters are presented in Table I V. Aupio SuscePrimiLity ANALYSIS ‘The open-loop audio susceptibility of each of the three converters is given by F). Closed-Loop audio susceptbil ity can be derived from the small-signal block diagram of | the generalized system. For this analysis, the load pertur bation is assumed fo be zero, so the transfer function blocks F. and Z, do not affect the closed-loop audio sus- ceptibility. The’ closed-loop audio susceptibility for the general case is Fy neta Bi 3, T+heT, (3) Notice that when 7; = 0 there is no current-loop feed= back, and the result reduces to the same expression as for single-loop control. At frequencies below the crossover ‘of the current loop where | T;| >> 1, the closed-loop au- dio susceptibility may be expressed in terms of the loop gains 7) and 7; as _ BR + To 1+h ‘The closed-loop audio susceptibility for each of the three converters ean now be found by substituting the transfer functions for the particular converter. Although this is rather a tedious task, the analysis yields simple results which are summarized in Table Il ‘The results presented in Table II show several intrest ing results. For the buck converter, the closed-loop audio susceptibility is given by the open-loop audio susceptibil- ity divided by the overall loop gain, The second term of (6) is zero for the buck converter. This is similar to the single-loop case. This isnot true for the other converters. however, due to a feedforward term created by the closing ‘of the current loop. The audio susceptibility of the buck ‘converter with multiloop control is shown in Fig. 7. ‘The effect on the audio susceptibility due to closing the current loop is shown. From the expression in Table Il, can be seen that closing the current-loop results in signit icant reduction of the audio susceptibility and a first-order transfer function, up to the erossover of the current loop. Closing the voltage compensation loop then gives more attenuation up to the erossover of the outer loop. The ef- fect of the crossover frequencies on the closed-loop per~ formance can clearly be seen for this case. The overall Joop gain provides the most useful information for di- rectly predicting the closed-loop performance from open- loop audio susceptibility For the boost and buck-boost converters, the closed- loop audio susceptibility is composed of two terms at fre- {quencies below the crossover ofthe current loop, as shown in (6), The first term is the open-loop audio susceptibility divided by the overall loop gain. The second term is a transfer function with a single pole and zero divided by the outer loop gain, For most practical converters, the first term is the same order of magnitude as the buck con- verter, and the expression is dominated by the larger sec: fond term. This is very different to the buck converter where the first term was dominant and the second term ‘The effect of closing the current loop, therefore, is 10 A (6)FIDLEY «rs 100" GAINS OF MULTILOOR CONTROLLED SWITEMING RRGULATORS os ARLE Somc:Stxat anon FeNcrons ‘ ah sche 2 ck +t : Du bue : y bon fino y bor ef =e we > 5 h ee | t= pros mckbowt R= Ri back Ry = Ae too bck-bos t= aos buc-boost Rae= Re back Ray = 2 bos, bk Sweats Siena Cost Lr Ai Soca kan Ine sCh tt) 1 par MRI | 1 i DR eater Dik 1D ko A AR +t Di _scg +1 ae THR * Dice F219 DR 1+ DTT Fig 7. Back comvensr aio sscepbiy. change the characteristics of the power stage, giving @ firstorder transfer function. The first-onder transfer func- tion is given by the numerator of the second term of (6). since T; is zero when just the current loop is closed, The outer loop gain then provides attenuation of this’ new transfer function up tothe crossover frequency of the outer loop gain 7:. ‘The boost converter audio susceptibility is shown in a 7 N ay a er Fig. 8. Boos converter aio ssc. Fig. 8. The firstorder transfer function created by the closing of the current loop and the effect of the crossover fof the current-loop can be seen from the plots of open- loop audio susceptibility and the audio susceptibility with the current loop closed. The further attenuation given by the voltage loop and the effect of the crossover frequency of the outer loop gain are shown, Notice, however, that neither the overall loop nor the outer loop gain provide‘TABLE ml Swath Siena Chose Loot OUrALT HurDaNcE Boost Bish: Boot 240) 243) ‘han info 1 complete information about the relationship between the ‘open-loop audio susceptibility and the closed-loop re- sponse. ‘The most common interpretation of an audio suscepti bility specification is that the peak value of the transfer function should not exceed a specified maximum. Exam- ination ofthe expression for the audio susceptibility of the boost converter before the outer loop is closed, shows that the gain is lat between the R.C comer frequency of the ‘output filler capacitor and the crossover of the current loop. It can be concluded that there is a0 benefit in in- creasing the crossover frequency of 7; beyond the R-C comer frequency, since the peak value of audio suscep- ibility will still be the same, ‘This is very different from the single-loop case where an increase in the crossover frequency will always give @ lower peak value of audio susceptibility. Using the outer loop gain as the only tool for designing the control loop {or optimal closed-loop performance can be misleading, Measurements ofthe output-impedance and audio suscep- tibility of the power stage modified by the current loop must also be made. ‘Similar observations can be made about the overall loop. gain T,. The dominant second part of the expression for the closed-loop audio susceptibility of the boost converter is independent of 7). Furthermore, the high-frequency comer of audio susceptibility with the current loop de- pends upon the crossover of the current loop (and hence the overall loop), and a high current-loop crossover ac- tually deteriorates the high-frequency portion of audio susceptibility VI. Ovrpur IMPEDANCE ANALYSIS ‘The open-loop output impedance of each of the three converters is given by Z,, The closed-loop output imped- ‘ance may be derived from the small-signal block diagran Of the generalized system in a similar manner to the de- rivation of the audio susceptibility. In this case, the input- voltage perturbation is zero, and transfer functions F) and F, do not affect the result. “The closed-loop output impedance for the general case PRs z+ n/2- ; a” ‘As with the audio susceptibility expression, when 7; 6, there is no current-loop feedback, and the result re- duces to the expression for single-loop control. At fre quencies below the crossover of the current loop, the closed-loop output impedance may be expressed in terms of Ty and Ts as BR 2-5 z Fi i 1th oe T (3) ‘The closed-loop output impedance for cach of the three ‘converters may be found by substituting the transfer func: tions from Table I for euch converter. The analysis again yields very simple results which are presented in Table m1, All three converters have very similar closed-loop out put impedance expressions. Below the crossover of the current loop, each expression consists of two terms, The first is the open-loop output impedance divided by the ‘overall loop gain, and the second is a first-order transfer function divided by the outer loop gain. For most practi- cal applications, the first term is much smaller than the second: Fig. 9 shows the Bode plot ofthe output impedance of the buck converter. The current loop has the effect of the transforming the second-order output impedance function to a first-order expression, with a low-frequency asymp- tote of R; and a high-frequency asymptote of R,. The out pput impedance with the current loop closed is equal to the impedance of the capacitor in parallel with the load. This is consistent with idca of the inductor behaving as a cur- rent source when current-mode control is used. The effect ff the crossover of the current loop is not apparent on the ‘output impedance curves since both the open- and closed- loop asymptotes are the same at high frequencies. The er loop gain gives further attenuation of the output npedance, and the effect of the crossover frequency is shown, ‘Neither the outer loop gain nor the overall loop gain sive direct information about the relationship between the ‘open: and closed-loop output impedance measurement. As with audio susceptibility, increasing the crossover fre- quency of the outer loop gain beyond the R,C comer fre- quency of the output filter capacitor gives no further re- duction in the peak value of output impedance. The ‘dominant term of the output impedance expression is in dependent of the overall loop gain, and increasing the ‘crossover frequency of the averal loop is also ineffective.a 5 it] a Pp i il I iL x i h 2 2 Hl re i : Feo LUM : | . = . A Tl # ; {| Z 24 iN ale | at + Ly z Hy 1 Ll 5 |: SEexy cm il fn 2 (iene Fig 1, Bost cones op gi 7a 7 ae Fig 10. Boo! convener utp pean Fig. 10 shows the output impedance of the boost eon- verter. The first-order approximation of the output imped- ance with the eurrent loop closed is shown. The low-fre- quency asymptote of this transfer function is R,/2, and the high-frequency asymptote is R.. This is very similar to the impedance of the load capacitor in parallel with the Toad, except forthe low-frequency value, and the inductor resembles current source in parallel with a modified load VIL. Srapitiry CoxsiveraTions thas been shown that both of the defined loop gains 7; and T; have limited applications for predicting closed-loop performance. Conventional ideas used for single-loop systems can no longer be directly applied. Both loop gains mmay be used, however, to give some information about the relative stability of the system and to improve a de- sign, This information must be interpreted carefully The overall loop gain is the sum of the current. and voltage-loop gains. Measurement of this loop gain gives direct information about the larger of its two components atany given frequency. At low frequencies, with a proper design, the voltage-loop gain is higher. However, the crossover frequency of the current loop is much higher than that ofthe voltage loop, the overall loop gives direct information about the current-loop gain at higher frequen ‘The outer loop gain shows the ratio of the current- and. voltage-loop gains below the crossover of the current loop and the voltage loop gain directly above the current-loop crossover. The information about the crossover frequency of the current loop is only shown indirectly by the outer loop gain in the form of a pole [21 (On the other hand, the outer loop gain shows more clearly how much the voltage-loop gain may vary. The outer loop gain of Fig. $ shows that the voltage-loop gain ‘may be increased by about 17 dB before the system be- comes unstable. This information is not available from the overall loop gain of Fig. 5. Fig. 1] presents gains for a case where the overall loop gives more useful design information. The outer loop gain Of Fig. 11 shows thatthe system is on the verge of insta- bility, but offers no direct insight into the cause of the poor phase margin. The overall loop gain clearly shows the problem. The overall loop gain, which should be dom- inated by the current loop at high frequencies, also has & poor phase margin and a crossover frequency very close to that ofthe outer loop gain. Since ths isthe same boost converter as that shown in Fig. 5, itis apparent that the crossover frequency of the current [oop is much tower than it should be. Fig. 12 shows the voltage- and current-loop ans for this case. The crossover frequency ofthe current loop has been drastically reduced and is smaller than the voltage loop at all frequencies. Although the current-loop gain inherently has a high crossover frequency. one of the most common errors when using current-mode control is a low current-loop cross- over. This usually occurs with the addition of an exces- sive external ramp and is demonstrated in the next section of this paper. VIII. Currext-Mope Control. Proatens ‘The most common implementation of current-mode control uses a current transformer to sense the inductors : 7 at Nit a “ iT Mh rc . ote! ase Hb ® a omy é onan ea og fie 12, Bo conven oie op sin Tan esd cure op current during the on time of the power switch. The signal is compared with a voltage-compensation error signal to achieve duty-cycle control. This implementation is com- ‘monly referted to as current-injected control (CIC). The schematic for this circuit implementation is shown in Fig, B. ‘The current-sense waveform used for control has two ‘components and two functions. Since the de portion ofthe current is sensed, the signal may be used for pulse-by- ppulse current limiting. The small-signal changes in cu ‘ent are used with the current ramp to achieve duty-cycle ‘modulation. Both of these functions work well for low= power applications with a small de-current-to-ripple-cur- rent ratio. For high-power applications, the de portion of the waveform is much larger than the ramp. Since the total waveform must be below the comparator input threshold, the current-sense waveform must be scaled down, leading to-a very small ramp. This makes eurrent-mode control very difficult to use effectively. A large external ramp can be added to the current waveform, but this will severely ddectease the gain of the current loop. Other problems exist with transformer-isolated high- power designs. In the buck converter, the inductor is on the secondary side ofthe transformer. The current sensing i on the primary. The sensed current will, therefore, in- clude the transformer’s: magnetizing-current component and an overshoot due to the transformer's capacitance, Fig. 14 shows a typical current-sense waveform for a transformer-isolated high-power buck converter. An ex- ternal ramp has been added to prevent false triggering by the turn-on spike, at Fig. 13, CIC implementation of muloop cont Due Fig. 14, Gartencsense waveform wih second onder components Teal rnb Actal wacom, ‘The current-loop gain of the system is T= FyFiFs o ‘The gain of the pulsewidth modulator Fy for a current- mode system was derived in [7] to give 2 1 Fa aE cae 10) T, Sy = Sp #2 “ ‘The slope of the current-sense waveform is Sy when the switeh i8 on and Sp when the switch is off, An external ramp of slope , is used, For the waveform shown, the ain of the modulator is reduced by a factor of ten by the ‘magnetizing current and the external ramp. The crossover fof the current loop is also reduced by a factor of ten ‘A second method of implementing current-mode con. trol, described in (7) and referred to as the standard con- trol module (SCM), is shown in Fig. 15. The inductor voltage is sensed by a secondary winding on the inductor land integrated to reconstruct the inductor current wave- form. Only the ac portion of the inductor current waves form is sensed and there are no problems with the size of the ramp, noise, and magnetizing currents. The eurrent- limiting feature has, of course, been lost but this may be implemented with a current-sense transformer and sepa~ rate comparator. The total cost of implementing. this scheme is merely that of an integrator resistor and a few secondary sense turns on the inductor.eee: Fe. 15. SCM implementation on mutop conta IX, Coxetuston ‘The performance of & power supply, whether it has sin- tle- or multiple-loop control, is determined by its closed- Toop output impedance and audio susceptibility. These measurements show how good a voltage source the power supply is. The loop gain of a power supply is only im- portant if it gives some useful information about relative Stability or if it helps optimize the closed-loop perfor- ‘mance. ‘The loop gain of the single-loop power supply is used extensively for design and performance evaluation since it can be directly related to the closed-loop performance. ‘The loop gain alone may be used to design the best pos- sible feedback. A high loop-gain crossover frequency di- rectly implies good closed-loop performance ‘The situation is different when multiloop control is used. With the exception of the buck converter audio sus- ceptbilty, the connection between the two loop gains and the open and closed-loop characteristics is not obvious. ‘The crossover frequencies of the loop gains are very dif= ferent and can no longer be easily used to directly predict the system performance. In fact, increasing the crossover frequency of the loop gains beyond a certain point does not improve the system performance and can actually ‘make some of the characteristics worse. The loop gains Of the multiloop system can be used collectively to pro- vide information about relative stability, but this must be carefully interpreted. ‘Current-mode control is actually a very simple form of ‘multiloop feedback. There is very litle freedom in the design of the current loop. Its gain can be adjusted with the addition of an external ramp, but its frequency re- sponse is usually unchanged. (It is possible to compensate the current loop to some extent when SCM is used, but this is not considered in this paper.) The gain of the cur- rent loop should always be made as high as possible with- ‘out causing instability. Once the gain of the current loop is maximized, there are several possible design ap proaches ‘One design approuch [2] is to measure the oui impedance and audio suscepiiity ofthe resting “new power stage with the current loop closed. The otter loop Bain can thon be used with these new measurements (0 aptimize the closed-loop characterises, in manner sim ilar to single loop control. If esing this approach, the overall loop gain must often be measured to ensure that the eurrentloop crossover is as high as expected. The most common error when implementing. curent-mode Contol is the inadvertent reduction of the curren-loop zai ‘A second design approach takes advantage of the fact that all thee power stages have very similar characte ties when curren-mode contol suse It isnot surprising that a single compensation network can be used for al three power stages. The closed-loop audio susceptibility and output impedance may then he completely character- ized fora fixed compensation. The design procedure #s then used specially to meet the specifications of worst ‘ase output impedance and audio susceptibility. In this as, the loop gains are only used as & check of the rela tive stability ofthe resulting design and mot asa design tool to optimize the closed-loop characteristics. This de- sign approach has boon developed in detail for SCM con- trol [7] and extended to CIC for single- and multple- model power stats [3] Both design approaches become ineffective when more complex muliloop feedback is considered. For example additonal feedback loops can be used for the control of the Cuk convener, oF a converter with an input filter or second ovipet filter. Its also possible to feedback the futput curent to improve scp-toad responses, an this treates yet another loop. With such systems, loop gains can no longer be used exclusively asa design fool. Design methods must be formulated to consider directly the closed-loop characteristics of the sytem (One method of achieving this is 10 uilize ple-plac ment techniques which allow specific placement of the closed-loop poles by agusting feedback gains. Computer aided design tools are used extensively in other multloop applications for this purpose and these tools can be adapted for the design of multloop Feedback for switeh- ing power supplies. REFERENCES 11] 8.4. Choand FC, Lee, “Messeroment of lap gin wih she dig oda.” presented st the TEEE Power Hlstmics Speci Cont Jane 8-21 1588, (2) RD. Mietyok. Tops in mult-op regulators nd curent me ‘roeranming, pesca tthe IEEE Romer Elecomcs Speco omevnce Toulon. rane hne 24-2, 1983 (3) RD Non sd hh onal wit app {1 DT. Shom,""An improved switching converter rod," Ph.D. div ‘eration, Virgina Pobtecinie Inst and Ste Uni laksa. Is] FC. Leger al “Modeling andanaysn of power proering ystems tegpps.” Fin Rep. Vale NASA Contagt VANS 31 Se. (6) Av Brown, “Topsy inthe aalsn- measeemen and design highPetfomance switching regis.” Ph.D. dsenaion, California est. 171 F.C. Lee, M. F. Mahmoud. and Y. Yu, “Design handbook for & sanorized contol mele forsee ae covert" va NASA, Is) Rice, "Small-sigal rays of parallel power convenes." MS. Thesis, Vipin Polytech nw and Sate Unie Mar 1986 Raymond B. Ridley rccved the B.S. degre from Boston Uniery Boston MA, ante MS. depoc trom Virginia Postshni isu And State University (VPIRSU. Blacksburg Fh) stand 198s, respectnely, bth in ele 2 resin, Heb rely working twas fe fy PhD. degre st VPlaSU. Ms, From T98] fo 1968 He was employed as «Se nor Engine in the Power Syste Group i Prime Comput, wher he worked othe deri and analyse of computer omer spl. Hee peseily the Asstt eto ofthe Vigna Power Eletce Contr ‘aly, ver igh requency reson convenes nd computer ed de Sawn gover ye Heh pss ei aps te es owe BoM. Cho received the BS. and M.S. degree ftom the Cnltomin Insite of Teeolgs a aden. athe PhD egies Vegi Pol. Teele Insite and Site Univeray {VPIASU) Blacksburg. ta 1979. 1980 snd 198S. spe ‘om Electronics Deparment, TRW Defense snd Space System Group. He wax ive in the de Ng and atalysis of spacer power processing quip He joined we Depart of levies! Engineering of VPIRSU in 1982 whch presely ap Assistant Profesor His race neon Incademodcling, sali, nd contol t power pocestng spe! sd sstens| Fred ©. V. Le (S°72-M078-N077-SM), or 3 phoogrih ad bog "apy please 86 page 473 of his se