I was going through some basics of DC-DC converter design & came upon the following transfer

function:
(−𝑠 + 𝑤𝑧 )
𝐻(𝑠) =
(𝑠 2 + 2𝛿𝑤𝑛 + 𝑤𝑛2 )
This is a very common expression which can be found across multiple converters. We’ll not discuss into
the details of it. Let’s just talk about how it looks in the time domain.

If we evaluate the step response of this system:

It goes something like this:

At first glance it looks counterintuitive. The output goes negative for a positive step input. Why is that?
The step input contains all frequency components. If we observe H(s) we can see that it has 2 poles &
one RHP zero, which contributes to a phase shift(somewhere near -180deg). As a result, when we first
give a step input, it appears as a high frequency signal. So, the output first changes in the reverse
direction. As time goes on, the low frequency components takeover. Since there’s no phase shift at low
frequencies(before poles & zeros come), output changes in the same direction as the input does.

The implication of this in converter design is that, if we give an incremental increase in duty cycle,
output first takes a dip & then rises. This is one of the major challenges in converter control.

We can visualize this phenomenon, with a circuit shown below(without a converter):

Let’s assume the RLC circuit is an underdamped one & the RHP zero due to Cc lies at a frequency, which
is less than 10 times the resonant frequency of the RLC circuit.

So, now if we give a step, when the high frequency components come, Vout increases in the reverse
direction. After some duration, it increases in the direction of the input.