BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
ENEE3102
Control & Power Electronics’ laboratory
Buck Converter Experiment Report
_______________________________________________________________
Shehadeh, J 1180519
Supervised by:
Dr. Shehadeh, H
T.A: Eng. Ismail, B
Jan,11th 2023
Abstract
The paper aims to expand the span of knowledge over the PWM technique used to control step-
down converters. The paper aims to do so by measuring the turn-off time of the Thyristor and
drawing a comparison between the on-state characteristics of power electronic devices
implemented in a step-down convertor. The paper also aims to measure and interpret various
parameters of the step-down converter and further validate the relationship between output and
input parameters.
Apparatus
- 735 65 Rectifier B6 3X400V, 10A
- 735 09 Load, Power Electronics
- 735 18 Fuse, three-fold, super fast
- 735 095 Capacitor, 2X 100 uF / 385V
- 735 341 Control Unit PWM; PFM
- 734 02 Setpoint Potentiometer
- 735 343 Thyristor with Turn-Off Circuit 230/8A
- 735 342 Field-Effect transistor MOSFET
- 735 346 IGBT
- 735 02 Diode
- 537 34 Rheostat 100 Ohm
- 537 35 Rheostat 330 Ohm
- 726 80 Transformer 45/90, 3N
- 726 86 Stabilized Power Supply +- 15V/3A
- 501 02 BNC cable, 1m
- 727 10 RMS Meter
- 524 013S Sensor-CASSY 2-Starter
- 500 59 Safety bridging plugs, black set of 10
- 500 851 Safety connections leads, 32 A, set of 32
- 500 852 Safety connections leads, yellow/green, set of 10
- 500 59 Safety bridging plugs, black, set of 10
Table of Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Apparatus .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Theory ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
Step-down (Buck) Converter ..................................................................................................................... 4
Procedure, Data & Analysis........................................................................................................................... 5
Connection of the Controller .................................................................................................................... 5
MOSFET & Diode Step-down Converter ................................................................................................... 6
IGBT & Diode Step-down Converter ......................................................................................................... 6
Step-down Converter Implementing an IGBT-PWM control .................................................................... 7
Ripple of the Output and Input Currents .................................................................................................. 9
Smoothing Inductor .............................................................................................................................. 9
Switching Frequency ........................................................................................................................... 10
Duty Cycle Control .............................................................................................................................. 11
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 12
Resources & Citations ................................................................................................................................. 12
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Buck Converter Circuit Topolgy ..................................................................................................... 4
Figure 2: Configuration of the Control Equipment for a DC-DC Chopper ..................................................... 5
Figure 3: Equivalent Power Circuit of a Step-down (Buck) Converter Implementing a MOSFET ................ 6
Figure 4: Equivalent Power Circuit of a Step-down (Buck) Converter Implementing an IGBT ..................... 6
Figure 5: MOSFET vs IGBT Valve Current behavior to load current .............................................................. 7
Figure 6: Equivalent Power Circuit of a Step-down (Buck) Converter Implementing an IGBT-PWM …….….9
Figure 7: Buck Implementing an IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current signals ........................... 8
Figure 8 : IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current change to duty cycle ......................................... 8
Figure 10: peak-to-peak ripple in current and voltage vs inductance value ................................................ 9
Figure 11 : IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current with inductance value of 12.5mH ................. 9
Figure 12: IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current with switching frequency value of 250 Hz..... 10
Figure 13: peak-to-peak ripple in voltage and current vs switching frequency value ................................ 10
Figure 14: IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current with duty cycle = 90% .................................... 11
Figure 15: peak-to-peak ripple in current and voltage vs duty cycle.......................................................... 11
Theory
Step-down (Buck) Converter
DC-DC converter circuit is an electronic circuit that converts a source of direct current (DC)
from one voltage level to another. The circuit includes a controllable solid-state device, such as a
Power MOSFET or IGBT, which serves as the switch for controlling the flow of current. These
devices are preferred over thyristors in this type of circuit because thyristors require another
commutation step to turn them off, whereas Power MOSFETs and IGBTs can be turned off
simply by making the voltage between certain terminals zero.
Converters also includes a diode, which serves to rectify the alternating current produced by the
switch and also provides a path for current to flow when the switch is in the off state. The diode
is connected to a low-pass LC filter that is designed to reduce current and voltage ripple. The
load connected to the circuit is a purely resistive load and the input voltage and current through
the load are constant.
To control the output voltage of the circuit, the switch is operated using Pulse Width Modulation
(PWM), which can be either time-based or frequency-based. In time-based PWM, the switch is
turned on and off at a constant frequency, but the on-time and off-time is varied to control the
output voltage. This method is more commonly used in DC-DC converters because it is simpler
to construct and use. In contrast, frequency-based PWM involves varying the frequency of the
switching to control the output voltage. This method has the disadvantage of requiring a wide
range of frequencies to achieve the desired control of the switch, which in turn leads to a more
complicated design for the low-pass LC filter required to handle a large range of frequencies.
The Buck converter, which is a specific type of DC-DC converter circuit mentioned in (Rashid,
2018) and (Electrical4U 2022), has two modes of operation. The first mode is when the switch is
turned on and conducting, allowing current to flow through the load. The second mode is when
the switch is turned off, and the diode takes over as the main path for current flow.
A Buck converter is a type of DC-DC converter that can be used to convert a higher DC voltage
to a lower DC voltage. It is often used in electronic devices that require a regulated lower
voltage, such as a microcontroller or a battery-powered device.
The circuit topology of the buck converter is displayed below:
Figure 1: Buck Converter Circuit Topolgy
The Buck has the input voltage applied to its switch (usually IGBT or MOSFET), and when the
switch is closed, the voltage is dropped across the inductor and diode connected in series with
the load. The inductor helps to smooth out the current flow and the diode acts as a rectifier,
which only allow current to flow in one direction.
The output voltage can be controlled by adjusting the duty cycle of the switch. When the switch
is turned on for a longer period of time, more of the input voltage is dropped across the inductor
and less across the diode and load, which results in a higher output voltage.
Limitations regarding the Buck Converter are on the input voltage range, maximum output
power and the max switching frequency in addition to a minimum load requirement and the
output voltage ripple.
The steady state voltage analysis for the buck converter is conducted as follows:
Where D is the duty cycle for the circuit’s switch,
Procedure, Data & Analysis
Connection of the Controller
Firstly the controller was set up to control the converter and a DC power supply to provide +/-
15V, a setpoint potentiometer to vary the duty cycle and control unit were configured together as
displayed below:
Figure 2: Configuration of the Control Equipment for a DC-DC Chopper
The set-point potentiometer was adjusted to provide a voltage between 0-10V and the frequency
of the control unit was set to 200 Hz.
MOSFET & Diode Step-down Converter
A step-down (Buck) Converter equivalent circuit implementing a MOSFET as a switch was
configured in accordance with the following figure:
Figure 3: Equivalent Power Circuit of a Step-down (Buck) Converter Implementing a MOSFET
The transformer was delta wined to produce 45 V line-to-line input voltage and a fuse was
connected at the lower side of the input to the buck as a protection practice.
The potentiometer was set at a 100% duty cycle and the probes of the CASSY were connected to
measure the valve voltage across the MOSFET while the load current was being controlled by
the load value to take jumps of 0.5A. Collected data was as follows:
IGBT & Diode Step-down Converter
A step-down (Buck) Converter equivalent circuit implementing an IGBT as a switch was
configured in accordance with the following figure:
Figure 4: Equivalent Power Circuit of a Step-down (Buck) Converter Implementing an IGBT
The potentiometer was set at a 100% duty cycle and the probes of the CASSY were connected to
measure the valve voltage across the MOSFET while the load current was being controlled by
the load value to take jumps of 0.5A. Collected data was as follows:
The valve voltages for the two implementations were drawn into a comparison and the valve
voltages concerning each current value were plotted for both circuits:
3.5
2.5
2 Iout
1.5 IGBT Valve Voltage
MOSFET Valve Voltage
1
0.5
0
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Figure 5: MOSFET vs IGBT Valve Current behavior to load current
The plot suggests a linear relationship between the MOSFET valve voltage and load current with
small voltage drops corresponsive to the drain-source resistance inside the MOSFET versus a
large voltage drop non-linear relationship between the same load current and IGBT valve
voltage.
Step-down Converter Implementing an IGBT-PWM control
A step-down/step-up (Buck) Converter equivalent circuit implementing a PWM controlled IGBT
as a switch was configured in accordance with the following figure:
Figure 6: Equivalent Power Circuit of a Step-down (Buck) Converter Implementing an IGBT-PWM Control
The transformer was configured to produce a phase-neutral voltage of 90V and the load
impedance was set to a maximum of 50mH and 430 Ohm.
The CASSY probes were implemented in a manner that measures the output voltgage and
current and the signals’ measured took the following shapes:
Figure 7: Buck Implementing an IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current signals
Next the load value was used to fix the output current at a value of 1A while the duty cycle
varied between values of 1 and 0.2. The input and output voltage values were measured at each
duty cycle reference and calculations of the ideal output voltage were made:
Next the accumulated data were plotted and drawn into a comparison using the excel software
and results were as follows:
300
250
200 Vout - Experimental
150 Vin
100 Iin - ideal
50 Vout - Ideal
0
1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2
Figure 8 : IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current change to duty cycle
As expected the plot and accumulated data confirms the theoretical relation between the output
and input voltages on the buck converter: The output voltage holds a negative linear correlation
with the duty cycle constant.
Ripple of the Output and Input Currents
Smoothing Inductor
Following on the same topology constructed in the previous part and attempt to study the ripple
was made by fixing the potentiometer setpoint to 5V and switching frequency to 1kHz with a
power supply of 15V. The load impedance had a fixed resistance of 430 Ohm and a varying
inducting element between 12.5mH and 100mH. The peak-peak values of the load current and
voltage were plotted and measured with the varying element as shown:
Smoothing
12.5 2x12.5 50 2x50
inductance[mH]
𝑰𝒐𝒖𝒕 [A] 2 1.5 1 0.5
𝑽𝒗 [V] 234 234 234 234
300
Vout Iout
200 3
2
100 Vout Iout
1
0 0
12.5 2x12.5 50 2x50 12.5 2x12.5 50 2x50
Figure 9: peak-to-peak ripple in current and voltage vs inductance value
Figure 10 : IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current with inductance value of 12.5mH
The results suggest that the inductance holds a negative linear relationship with the output
current and stands neutral to the value of the output voltage.
Switching Frequency
The previous configurations were kept with the exception of fixing the inductance element at
50mH in order to use the frequency as the varying element. The values of the output current and
voltage were plotted and measured again to capture the effect of the switching frequency. Results
were as follows:
Figure 11: IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current with switching frequency value of 250 Hz
Vout - Changing Iout - changing frequency
Frequency 2.5
300 2
1.5 Iout -
200
Vout - 1 changing
100 Changing frequency
Frequency 0.5
0 0
250 500 1000 2000 250 500 1000 2000
Figure 12: peak-to-peak ripple in voltage and current vs switching frequency value
The results suggests that the switching frequency holds a negative linear correlation with the
output current and stands neutral to the value of the output voltage.
Duty Cycle Control
The previous configurations were kept with the exception of fixing the inductance element at
50mH and switching frequency at 1kHz in order to use the duty cycle as the varying element.
The values of the output current and voltage were plotted and measured again to capture the
effect of the switching frequency. Results were as follows:
Figure 13: IGBT-PWM Control output voltage and current with duty cycle = 90%
Iout - Varying Duty Cycle Vout - Varying Duty Cycle
1 250
0.8 200
0.6
150
Iout - Varying
0.4 Vout - Varying
Duty Cycle
100 Duty Cycle
0.2
50
0
0.9 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.1 0
0.9 0.7 0.5 0.3 0.1
Figure 14: peak-to-peak ripple in current and voltage vs duty cycle
The results suggests that the switching frequency holds a quadratic correlation with the output
current and stands neutral to the value of the output voltage.
Conclusion
The paper successfully implemented and studied the topology of the step-down (Buck) Converter
touching down on both MOSFET and IGBT implementations. In addition the paper drew
correlations between the effects of impedance inductance, switching frequency and duty cycle on
the output voltage and current in the IGBT-PWM control Buck Converter. The experiment ran
smooth and all accumulated experimental data were relatively close to the expected theoretical
assumptions.
Resources & Citations
1) Rashid, M. H. (2018). Power electronics handbook. Oxford Butterworth-Heinemann, An
Imprint Of Elsevier.
2) Electrical4U. (n.d.). Buck Converter | Step Down Chopper | Electrical4U.
Https://Www.electrical4u.com/. https://www.electrical4u.com/buck-converter-step-
down-chopper/
3) ENEE (2022). Control & Power Electronics Lab Manual – Exp 6. Birzeit Univerity
