Distributed generation is expected to play a significant role in remedying the many shortcomings in today’s energy market. In particular, fuel cell power generation will play a big part due to several advantages. Still, it is faced with its own challenges to tap into its potential as a solution to the crisis. The responsibilities of the Power Conditioning Unit (PCU), and thus its design, are therefore complex, yet critical to the fuel cell system’s performance and ability to meet the requirements. To this end, the dc-dc converter, considered the most critical component of the PCU for optimum performance, is closely examined. The selected converter is first modeled to gain insight into its behavior for the purpose of designing suitable compensators. MATLAB is then used to study the results using the frequency domain, and it was observed that the converter offers its own unique challenges in terms of closed-loop performance and stability. These limitations must therefore be carefully accounted for and compensated against when designing the control loops to achieve the desired objectives. Negative feedback control to ensure robustness is then discussed. The insertion of a second inner loop in Current Mode Control (CMC) offers several key advantages over single-loop Voltage Mode Control (VMC). Furthermore, the insertion of a Current Error Amplifier (CEA) in Average Current Mode Control (ACMC) helps overcome many of the problems present in Peak Current Mode Control (PCMC) whilst allowing much needed design flexibility. It is therefore well suited for this application in an attempt to improve the dynamic behavior and overcoming the shortcomings inherent in the converter. The modulator and controller for ACMC are then modeled separately and combined with the converter’s model previously derived to form the complete small-signal model. A suitable compensation network is selected based on the models and corresponding Bode plots used to assess the system’s performance and stability. The resulting Bode plot for the complete system verifies that the design objectives are clearly met. The complete system was also built in MATLAB/Simulink, and subjected to external disturbances in the form of stepped load changes. The results confirm the system’s excellent behavior despite the disturbance, and the effectiveness of the control strategy in conjunction with the derived models. To meet the demand in many applications for power sources with high energy density and high power density, it is constructive to combine the fuel cell with an Energy Storage System (ESS). The hybrid system results in a synergistic system that brings about numerous potential advantages. Nevertheless, in order to reap these potential benefits and avoid detrimental effects to the components, a suitable configuration and control strategy to regulate the power flow amongst the various sources is of utmost importance. A robust and flexible control strategy that allows direct implementation of the ACMC scheme is devised. The excellent performance and versatility of the proposed system and control strategy are once again verified using simulations. Finally, experimental tests are also conducted to validate the results presented in the dissertation. A scalable and modular test station is built that allows an efficient and effective design and testing process of the research. The results show good correspondence and performance of the models and control design derived throughout the thesis.

A Sliding Mode Control System for a Bidirectional DCDC Converter was designed and a low voltage prototype was constructed. The control system based its decisions solely on the latest available measurements, which improves performance when changing operative quadrant, since no memory needs reinitializing (such as for PI and state prediction methods). A boost control philosophy was presented, based on a current source approximation. The control was found to be stable without steady-state errors when the variance of the input/output dynamics was high. The target application for the DCDC Converter is an EV (Electric Vehicle) with a flywheel driveline, which puts additional requirements of the converter. Among these are current and voltage control, bidirectionality, and a broad input voltage range. Simulations were performed in Simulink prior to physical implementation, proving functionality of the proposed control system. The physical implementation of the control was done on a digital signal processor with code compiled from C. A median filter was designed to increase measurement efficiency for the current sensors which had shot-like noise distortions.

This thesis work describes the implementation perspective of an integrated high efficiency DC-DC converter implemented in 65 nm CMOS. The implemented system employs the Buck converter topology to down-convert the input battery voltages. This converter offers its use as a power management unit in portable battery operated devices. This thesis work includes the description of a basic Buck converter along with the various key equations involved which describe the Buck operation as well as are used to deduce the requirements for the various internal building blocks of the system. A detailed description of the operation as well as the design of each of the building blocks is included. The implemented system can convert the input battery voltage in the range of 2.3 V to 3.6 V into an output supply voltage of 1.6 V. The system uses dual-mode feedback control to maintain the output voltage at 1.6 V. For the low load currents the PFM feedback control is used and for the higher load currents the PWM feedback control is used. This converter can supply load currents from 0 to 300 mA with efficiency above 85%. The static line regulation of the system is < 0.1% and the load regulation of the system is < 0.3%. A digital soft-start circuit is implemented in this system. The system also includes the capability to trim the output voltage in ~14 mV steps depending on the 4-bit input digital code.

In this thesis a predefined design parameters are used to present theoretical guidelines for design of low voltage, and low power DC-DC converter with high power efficiency and low levels of EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference). This converter is used to alter the DC voltage supplied by the power source. Several DC-DC converters of different types and topologies are described and analyzed. Switched converter of buck topology is found to satisfy the design criteria most adequately and therefore is chosen as the solution for the task of the thesis. Three control schemes are analysed PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation), PFM (Phase-Frequency Modulation), and Sliding control. PWM is found to be most appropriate for implementation with this type of converter. Further, basic operation of the buck converter which includes two modes of operation CCM (Continuous-Conduction Mode) and DCM (Discontinuous-Conduction Mode) is described. Power losses associated with it are analysed as well. Finally several techniques for power conversion improvement are presented.

Distributed generation is expected to play a significant role in remedying the many shortcomings in today’s energy market. In particular, fuel cell power generation will play a big part due to several advantages. Still, it is faced with its own challenges to tap into its potential as a solution to the crisis. The responsibilities of the Power Conditioning Unit (PCU), and thus its design, are therefore complex, yet critical to the fuel cell system’s performance and ability to meet the requirements. To this end, the dc-dc converter, considered the most critical component of the PCU for optimum performance, is closely examined. The selected converter is first modeled to gain insight into its behavior for the purpose of designing suitable compensators. MATLAB is then used to study the results using the frequency domain, and it was observed that the converter offers its own unique challenges in terms of closed-loop performance and stability. These limitations must therefore be carefully accounted for and compensated against when designing the control loops to achieve the desired objectives. Negative feedback control to ensure robustness is then discussed. The insertion of a second inner loop in Current Mode Control (CMC) offers several key advantages over single-loop Voltage Mode Control (VMC). Furthermore, the insertion of a Current Error Amplifier (CEA) in Average Current Mode Control (ACMC) helps overcome many of the problems present in Peak Current Mode Control (PCMC) whilst allowing much needed design flexibility. It is therefore well suited for this application in an attempt to improve the dynamic behavior and overcoming the shortcomings inherent in the converter. The modulator and controller for ACMC are then modeled separately and combined with the converter’s model previously derived to form the complete small-signal model. A suitable compensation network is selected based on the models and corresponding Bode plots used to assess the system’s performance and stability. The resulting Bode plot for the complete system verifies that the design objectives are clearly met. The complete system was also built in MATLAB/Simulink, and subjected to external disturbances in the form of stepped load changes. The results confirm the system’s excellent behavior despite the disturbance, and the effectiveness of the control strategy in conjunction with the derived models. To meet the demand in many applications for power sources with high energy density and high power density, it is constructive to combine the fuel cell with an Energy Storage System (ESS). The hybrid system results in a synergistic system that brings about numerous potential advantages. Nevertheless, in order to reap these potential benefits and avoid detrimental effects to the components, a suitable configuration and control strategy to regulate the power flow amongst the various sources is of utmost importance. A robust and flexible control strategy that allows direct implementation of the ACMC scheme is devised. The excellent performance and versatility of the proposed system and control strategy are once again verified using simulations. Finally, experimental tests are also conducted to validate the results presented in the dissertation. A scalable and modular test station is built that allows an efficient and effective design and testing process of the research. The results show good correspondence and performance of the models and control design derived throughout the thesis.

Switching power converters are an indispensable part of every battery-operated consumer electronic product, nourishing regulated voltages to various subsystems. In these circuits, sensing the inductor current is not only necessary for protection and control but also is critical to be done in a lossless and accurate fashion for state-of-the-art advanced control techniques, which are devised to optimize transient response, increase the efficiency over a wide range of loads, eliminate off-chip compensation networks, and integrate the power inductor. However, unavailability of a universal, integrable, lossless, and accurate current-sensing technique impedes the realization of those advanced techniques and limit their applications. Unfortunately, use of a conventional series sense resistor is not recommended in high-performance, high-power switching regulators where more than 90% efficiency is required because of their high current levels. A handful of lossless current-sensing techniques are available but their accuracies are significantly lower than the traditional sense resistor scheme. Among available lossless but not accurate techniques, an off-chip, filter-based method that uses a tuned filter across the inductor to estimate current flow and its accuracy is dependent on the inductance and its equivalent series resistance (ESR) was selected for improvement because of its inherent continuous and low-noise operation. A schemes is proposed to adapt the filter technique for integration by automatically adjusting bandwidth and gain of an on-chip programmable gm-C filter to the off-chip power inductor during the system start-up through measuring the inductance and its ESR with on-chip generated test currents. The IC prototype in AMI s 0.5-um CMOS process achieved overall DC and AC gain errors of 8% and 9%, respectively, at 0.8 A DC load and 0.2 A ripple currents for inductors from 4 uH-14 uH and ESR from 48 mOhm to 384 mOhm when lossless, state-of-the-art schemes achieve 20 40% error and only when the nominal specifications of power component (power MOSFET or inductor) are known. Moreover, the proposed circuit improved the efficiency of a test bed current-mode controlled switching regulator by more than 2.6% at 0.8 A load compared to the traditional sense resistor technique with a 50 mOhm sense resistor.

Renewable energy sources including photovoltaic cells, fuel cells, and wind turbines require converters with high voltage gain in order to interface with power transmission and distribution networks. These conversions are conventionally made using bulky, complex, and costly transformers. Multiple modules of single-switch, single-inductor DC-DC converters can serve these high-gain applications while eliminating the transformer. This work generally classifies multiple modules of single-switch, single-inductor converters as high gain DC-DC converters transformers. The gain and efficiency of both series and cascade configurations are investigated analytically, and a method is introduced to determine the maximum achievable gain at a given efficiency. Simulations are used to verify the modeling approach and predict the performance at different power levels. Experimental prototypes for both low power and high power applications demonstrate the value of multiple module converters in high gain DC-DC converters for renewable energy applications.

Conduction based compact thermal modeling of DC/DC converters, which are electronic components commonly used in military applications, are investigated. Three carefully designed numerical case studies are carried out at component, board and system levels using ICEPAK software. Experiments are conducted to gather temperature data that can be used to study compact thermal models (CTMs) with different levels of simplification. In the first (component level) problem a series of conduction based CTMs are generated and used to study the thermal behavior of a Thin-Shrink Small Outline Package (TSSOP) type DC/DC converter under free convection conditions. In the second (board level) case study, CTM alternatives are produced and investigated for module type DC/DC converter components using a printed circuit board (PCB) of an electro-optic system. In the last case study, performance of the CTM alternatives generated for the first case are assessed at the system level using them on a PCB placed inside a realistic avionic box. v Detailed comparison of accuracy of simulations obtained using CTMs with various levels of simplification is made based on experimentally obtained temperature data. Effects of grid size and quality, choice of turbulence modeling and space discretization schemes on numerical solutions are discussed in detail. It is seen that simulations provide results that are in agreement with measurements when appropriate CTMs are used. It is also showed that remarkable reductions in modeling and simulation times can be achieved by the use of CTMs, especially in system level analysis.

The thesis is related to investigate characteristics and performance of a Z-source full bridge dc/dc converter which boosts the input voltage to a higher output voltage. Zsource structure increases the reliability of the converter according to current fed full bridge dc/dc converter and also reducing the complexity according to two stage design approach (boost followed by full bridge). Operating principles of the Z-source dc-dc converter is described by current and voltage waveforms of the components and mathematical expressions. Moreover, small signal models and transfer functions are derived for both continuous current mode (CCM) and discontinuous current mode (DCM) operations of the converter. Waveforms obtained, mathematical expressions, small signal models and transfer functions derived are confirmed by simulations. Performance of the converter and controller are both tested in laboratory prototype.

The aim of this work is to reduce the cost and size of a brushless dc motor (BLDC) drive as well as increase the reliability and ruggedness of that drive. Traditional BLDC drives use Voltage Source Inverters (VSI) that utilize hard switching, thereby generating switching losses and entail the use of large heatsinks. VSI needs a huge dc link capacitor that is inherently unreliable and is one of the most expensive components of a drive. Hence, a Current Source Inverter (CSI) is used to replace the hard switchings by natural turn-off, thereby eliminating the heatsinks as well as the large dc link capacitor. A controlled rectifier together with a large inductor act as the current source. The only disadvantage is the large value of the dc link inductor and the huge number of turns needed to achieve these values of the inductances lead to huge resistive losses. Therefore, it is shown that it is possible to replace the controlled rectifier and the large inductor with a suitable dc-dc converter based current source switching at high frequencies and a much smaller value of the dc link inductor. Switching at high frequencies makes it possible to reduce the value of the dc link inductor without increasing the current ripple. Hence, it is possible to have the advantages of using a CSI as well as reduce the value of the dc link inductor without a corresponding increase in the heat sink and snubber requirements.