Dual PWM Control for High Step-Down DC–DC Converters

Abstract

The conventional step-down dc-dc converters under the single pulsewidth modulation (PWM) control scheme may not provide enough step-down voltage conversion capabilities with considering the minimum on-time and the switching frequency of the power switch. In order to overcome this difficulty, a dual PWM control scheme for designing the high step-down dc-dc converter is proposed in this article. Both high-frequency and low-frequency PWM waveform generators are utilized in synthesizing the dual PWM control of buck converters. The resulting PWM waveform will lead to various switching cycles, and five operating modes of the buck converter, which can be defined accordingly. The operation principle of the proposed converter and its small-signal switched model are presented in detail. One salient feature of the proposed design is that if the duty cycle of the high-frequency PWM is exactly equal to that of the low-frequency PWM, by exploring the volt-second balance condition, the voltage gain can be expressed as the quadratic formula of the duty cycle of the PWM signal when power switches are operated under the continuous conduction mode. Thus, a high step-down conversion ratio and significant reductions of the inductor current ripple can be ensured simultaneously. Since no modifications of the conventional circuit topology are made, the proposed scheme is very cost-effective. Simulation studies and hardware prototype circuit implementations are conducted to validate the proposed design with satisfactory performance.