DESIGN OF BOOST CONVERTER FOR CHARGING

APPLICATIONS

A MINI PROJECT REPORT

VISHNU AJITH

M220424EE

In partial fulfilment for the award of the Degree of

MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY

in

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

(POWER ELECTRONICS)

Under the guidance of

Dr. MUKTI BARAI

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CALICUT

NIT CAMPUS PO, CALICUT, 673601

KERALA, INDIA

MAY 2023
 DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Seminar report entitled ”DESIGN OF BOOST

CONVERTER FOR CHARGING APPLICATIONS” is a

M220424EE) of 2nd semester M.Tech under our guidance towards the partial

fulfilment of the requirements for the award of M.Tech Degree in Electrical

and Electronics Engineering (Power Electronics) from National Institute of

Technology Calicut during the year 2023.

Dr. Preetha.P Dr. Mukti Barai

2
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have put considerable efforts in developing this mini project report. However,

it would not have been possible without the support and help from many people.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone of them. I would like

to thank National Institute of Technology Calicut for providing me with the

environment and infrastructure required for my mini project. I would like to take

this opportunity to thank Dr. Preetha.P, Head of the Department, Department

of Electrical Engineering for her support. I wish to express sincere gratitude to

my guide, Dr. Mukti Barai, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering,

for her valuable guidance and support.

VISHNU AJITH

M220424EE

NIT CALICUT

3
 Abstract

The goal of this project is to design and test a DC to DC boost converter for charg-

ing applications. The scope of this work included the design, simulation,inductor

core selection and winding and design of the driver circuit for MOSFET. The

simulation design uses a closed loop PI controller, a power stage, and a ramp

waveform generator circuit.The switching frequency used is 20kHz.

4
 Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.3 Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 BOOST CONVERTER:

AN OVERVIEW 3

2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2.1.1 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3 BOOST CONVERTER :

OPEN LOOP SIMULATION 5

3.1 Design Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.2 Design Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3.3 MATLAB Simulation and Waveforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

4 BOOST CONVERTER: OPEN LOOP HARDWARE 12

4.1 Design of Inductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.1.1 Number of Turns for Inductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.2 Hardware setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4.3 Inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

5 BOOST CONVERTER:CLOSED LOOP SIMULATION 19

5.1 Need for closed loop control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

5
 5.2 Implementation of closed loop control : MATLAB . . . . . . . . . 19

5.2.1 State Space Averaged Model of the Boost Converter . . . . 19

5.2.2 Inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

5.3 Closed Loop Simulation: SIMetrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

5.3.1 Overview of the control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

5.3.2 Inference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

6 CONCLUSION 26

6
 List of Figures

2.1 Boost Converter Topology[2] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3.1 Simulation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.2 MATLAB Simulink Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3.3 Output voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.4 Load Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3.5 Diode Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.6 Capacitor Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.7 Inductor voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.8 Inductor Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.9 Switch Current . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.10 Switch Voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4.1 Experimental parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4.2 Hardware values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4.3 Gate Driver Circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.4 Hardware Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4.5 Gate pulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.6 Output Voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.7 Voltage across Inductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.8 Diode Voltage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.9 Voltage across Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.10 Current through the inductor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

7
5.1 Transfer function of Boost converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

5.2 Transfer function of Boost converter in MATLAB . . . . . . . . . 20

5.3 PID tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

5.4 Closed loop MATLAB model of Boost Converter . . . . . . . . . . 21

5.5 Closed loop MATLAB output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

5.6 Closed loop SIMetrix model of Boost Converter . . . . . . . . . . 23

5.7 Closed loop SIMetrix output of Boost Converter . . . . . . . . . . 24

5.8 Closed loop SIMetrix model with changed input and load . . . . . 24

5.9 Closed loop SIMetrix output with changed input and load . . . . 25

8
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

The Combined Charging System, which regulates electric car charging standards,

is continually evolving and is researching on quicker battery charging rates, which

often take less than 30 minutes at a charging station to fully charge an electric

vehicle [1].DC charging stations uses Level 3 chargers, which deals with powers of

range 120 to 240 kW[6] . Both AC to DC and DC to DC power conversion stages

are present in these freestanding DC charging stations. To increase power levels

and enable speedy charging, a number of power conversion modules are piled

one over the other inside a charging station.. Without passing via an internal

AC/DC converter, the high-power DC current delivered to an electric vehicle’s

battery from a DC fast-charging station is more potent[10].Thus the need of dc-dc

converter arises which can directly charge the battery without the need for ac-dc

conversion.

1.2 Motivation

Though many dc-dc topologies exist,boost converter is cheap and less bulky when

compared to others like fly back,forward or full bridge[3].This helps to reduce

the size of the onboard charger in the electric vehicle as well as the cost of

1
implementation.

1.3 Objective

To design and implement a boost converter that steps up 6V to 12V capable of

delivering a current of 1A to a test load resistor[10]. A closed loop simulation of

the boost converter is also executed with a PI controller in order to understand

the behaviour of the converter with feedback.

2
 CHAPTER 2

BOOST CONVERTER:

AN OVERVIEW

2.1 Introduction

The boost converter’s primary principle is based on the inductor’s tendency to

resist changes in current by either storing more or less energy in its magnetic

field. Boost converters always have higher output voltages than they do input

voltages. Schematic for a boost is shown in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: Boost Converter Topology[2]

2.1.1 Operation

When the switch is closed (in the ”on” state), the inductor produces a magnetic

field and current flows through it clockwise, enabling the inductor to store some

energy. Positive polarity is present on the inductor’s left side. The switch’s open

(or ”off-state”) state will have a lower current because of the higher impedance.

3
The previously generated magnetic field’s energy will be reduced in order to keep

the current flowing in the direction of the source.

If the switch is cycled rapidly enough, the inductor won’t entirely discharge

between charging phases, and the load will always experience a voltage when the

switch is opened that is higher than the voltage of the input source alone. While

the switch is open, this total voltage is also applied to the capacitor connected

in series with the load. As a result, when the switch is shut and the right side

is disconnected from the left side, the capacitor is able to supply the load with

the necessary voltage and energy. The blocking diode prevents the capacitor from

discharging during this period through the switch. It goes without saying that the

switch must be opened quickly enough to prevent the capacitor from discharging

excessively.

The two distinct states that make up a boost converter’s basic functionality

are:

1. When the switch is in the off position, the switch is open, and the

flyback diode D, the capacitor C, and the load R are the sole conductors for

inductor current. The switch S is closed in the on-state, boosting the current

flowing through the inductor[8]. The energy that accrued during the on-state is

consequently transferred into the capacitor.

2. The inductor current and the input current are same. It is not

discontinuous, unlike a buck converter, thus the input filter requirements are

less strict.

4
 CHAPTER 3

BOOST CONVERTER :

OPEN LOOP SIMULATION

3.1 Design Specifications

Before building the hardware,it is mandatory to run a simulation with the

designed values so as to check whether the output from the simulation matches

with the desired output. If not, we simulate again with the necessary changes till

we obtain the desired output.

The design value desired is shown in Fig 3.1.

Figure 3.1: Simulation Parameters

The output voltage chosen is 12V as the standard lead acid battery is rated at

12V. With the input being at 6V, the duty ratio of the converter can be calculated

based on the below expression 3.1:

Vi
V0 = (3.1)
1−D

5
 where,

V0 = Output Voltage

Vi = Input Voltage

D= Duty cycle

Substituting the value in Equation 3.1, we get the duty cycle as 0.5.This is the

duty cycle with which we operate the converter to get 12v output. The switching

frequency is chosen to be around 20kHz due to the constraint on availability

of the necessary magnetics[4].For smaller size of inductor,we can go for higher

frequency of operation. The size of the capacitor used by filter is decided by the

amount of ripple content it must let through which is set at 10The rate at which

the battery is charged is determined by the the amount of current delivered by

the converter which is 1A. For simulation purposes,the output load is simulated

as a load resistor.

3.2 Design Calculations

Now the values of the inductor and capacitor used in the converter has to be

decided based on the fact that the converter is run in continuous conduction

mode(CCM) i.e, the current through the inductor must not fall to zero and always

must be a positive value.

The design equation of inductor is given as:

V0 ∗ D ∗ (1 − D)2
L >= (3.2)
2 ∗ f ∗ I0

Substituing the values from Figure 3.1, the critical value of inductance obtained

is:

L=3mH

The value chosen for design must be greater than 3mH.So we choose 4.4mH for

the inductor.

6
The design equation for capacitor is given by:

I0 ∗ D
C >= (3.3)
f ∗ ∆Vc

where

∆Vc = 10/100 * 12 = 1.2.

Substituting the value into eqn 3.3, the critical value of capacitance is 4.4 µF.

We must choose a value greater than the critical value and we choose 440 µF.

3.3 MATLAB Simulation and Waveforms

After calculating the required inductance and capacitance values, an open loop

model of the converter is constructed in MATLAB as shown below

Figure 3.2: MATLAB Simulink Model

After simulating the above model from the scope across various components,

output waveforms are obtained.

The output voltage obtained is 12V constant dc voltage as shown below:

7
 Figure 3.3: Output voltage

The load current obtained is 1A as shown below:

Figure 3.4: Load Current

8
 The current in diode is an approximated square wave as shown:

Figure 3.5: Diode Current

The capacitor bypasses the entire ripple content through it and the load thus

have constant dc current as shown below:

Figure 3.6: Capacitor Current

9
 The voltage across the inductor is square waveform due to switching as shown

below:

Figure 3.7: Inductor voltage

The inductor current rises and falls linearly thus giving triangular wave as shown

below:

Figure 3.8: Inductor Current

10
 The current through the switch is complementary to that of the diode current

as shown below:

Figure 3.9: Switch Current

The voltage across switch is square wave as shown with amplitude of 12V:

Figure 3.10: Switch Voltage

11
 CHAPTER 4

BOOST CONVERTER: OPEN LOOP HARDWARE

The simulation of the open loop converter has given the desired output and

hence the design can be implemented in practical.However due to practical

constraints, the input and the output voltage used here are 4.1V and 8.2V. Rest

of the parameters remain unchanged. The comprehensive list of experimental

parameters is as shown below:

Figure 4.1: Experimental parameters

The final design values for hardware is as shown below:

Figure 4.2: Hardware values

The PWM pulses for the switch is produced using Aurdino uno with duty cycle of

0.5. But the output of the micro controller used is 5V peak. The MOSFET used

is IRF 540 requires a minimum of 11V to be triggered. So we use a gate driver

12
circuit using TLP 250 which provides the required level of voltage to trigger the

MOSFET. A typical gate driver circuit is shown below:

Figure 4.3: Gate Driver Circuit

4.1 Design of Inductor

For practical implementation of hardware,the inductor must be wound . For this

the number of turns as well as the core must be designed.

The typical saturation flux density for this design is around 0.2mT. Based on

this the core chosen is E55 core whose manufacturer is TDK.

Now we must determine the number of turns to obtain an inductance of 4.4mH.For

this,we need to know the SWG rating of wire. As the current passing through

the inductor is 1 A, we go for SWG 16 wire as it can handle upto 2.6 A.

4.1.1 Number of Turns for Inductor

From the datasheet provided by the manufacturer, the AL value of the core

material is found to be 3950nH/(turns)2 .

13
Now to calculate number of turns we know the relation:

L
AL = (4.1)
N2

Substituting L=4.4mH and AL as 3950 in equation 4.1,

r
4.4 ∗ 10− 3
N= = 26 (4.2)
3950 ∗ 10− 9

Thus in order to obtain an inductance of 4.4mH, we must use SWG 16 wire with

26 turns.

4.2 Hardware setup

The actual hardware circuit after designing and connection is as shown:

Figure 4.4: Hardware Setup

The hardware setup shown in Figure 4.4 is powered up and the output waveforms

are obtained in CRO. The obtained waveforms are in coherence with that of the

14
waveforms obtained from simulation in MATLAB as shown below. The gate pulse

from the aurdino with peak of 5V is as shown below:

Figure 4.5: Gate pulse

The steady state output voltage of the boost converter with magnitude of 8.2 V

is as shown:

Figure 4.6: Output Voltage

15
 The voltage across the inductor is as shown:

Figure 4.7: Voltage across Inductor

The voltage across the diode is shown below:

Figure 4.8: Diode Voltage

16
 The voltage across the switch is as shown below.

Figure 4.9: Voltage across Switch

The current through the inductor has an average of 2A at a frequency of 20kHz

as shown below:

Figure 4.10: Current through the inductor

4.3 Inference

The above waveforms when compared to the simulation results are found to be in

coherence except for some non-idealities like the spikes and ripples in the practical

waveforms.The ripples in the output waveform can’t be mitigated completely.

17
The load current can be made ripple free by implementing a closed loop current

current scheme which will make the current through the load ripple free and

thereby maintaining the voltage across the load constant.

The spike in the voltage across diode can be eliminated by the use of snubbers[6].

18
 CHAPTER 5

BOOST CONVERTER:CLOSED LOOP SIMULATION

5.1 Need for closed loop control

The open loop hardware and simulation has shown us that the design is

satisfactory and can do the necessary task.These are true in cases where the

parameters like load, input voltage remains constant during the period of

operation, which is quite rare[10].These changes can significantly affect the

performance of the converter and cause deviation in output from the desired.

In order to prevent the converter from being susceptible to such variations,a

closed loop control must be established which constantly compares the necessary

parameters to a reference value and hence control the switching action to meet

this demand. In this project only a simulationin MATLAB and SIMetrix has

been carried out on how one can establish such control.

5.2 Implementation of closed loop control : MATLAB

5.2.1 State Space Averaged Model of the Boost Converter

In order to implement the control i.e. to control output voltage by varying the

duty ratio of the switch, we need to establish a relationship between the mentioned

parameters[9].

19
 We obtain this by modeling the boost converter using state space analysis and

the obtained equation is shown below:

Figure 5.1: Transfer function of Boost converter

where

Vg =Input voltage

D’=1-D

Now plugging Rc =0, L=4.4mH and C=440uF in figure 5.1 the obtained transfer

function is:
V0 72 − 0.1056s
= (5.1)
D 3 + 0.0044s + 23232 ∗ s2 ∗ 10−9

With equation 5.1 with us, we can simulate this transfer function in MATLAB as

shown: The auto tune function of MATLAB will help us in obtaining the desired

Figure 5.2: Transfer function of Boost converter in MATLAB

20
response as shown below:

Figure 5.3: PID tuning

The obtained value of P and I are plugged into the MATLAB closed loop model

as shown below:

Figure 5.4: Closed loop MATLAB model of Boost Converter

21
 The output of the closed loop control with PI is as shown:

Figure 5.5: Closed loop MATLAB output

5.2.2 Inference

The closed loop simulation has given the response as shown below. Oscillations

are found about the reference value as well as during the time it reaches to the

reference value.

22
5.3 Closed Loop Simulation: SIMetrix

The closed loop implementation of boost converter is done in SIMetrix with

schematic as shown:

Figure 5.6: Closed loop SIMetrix model of Boost Converter

5.3.1 Overview of the control

The transconductance amplifier converts the output voltage into a current which

then charges a series RC circuit. The value of R and C is decided based on Kp

and Ki values from MATLAB which then goes to opamp.The opamp compares

this value with a sawtooth waveform which gives a variable duty cycle which in

turn helps us in maintain the output voltage at reference value.

23
 Here the reference value is set at 12V and the final output steady state is 12V

as shown below:

Figure 5.7: Closed loop SIMetrix output of Boost Converter

Now in order to verify that the controller actually helps in matching the output

to reference value, the input and the load values are changed to 8V and 10 ohms

as shown below:

Figure 5.8: Closed loop SIMetrix model with changed input and load

24
The obtained output from this change is as shown below:

Figure 5.9: Closed loop SIMetrix output with changed input and load

5.3.2 Inference

It is clearly evident that the final output voltage settles at 12V despite the

oscillations during the transition.For a faster response , the load must be immune

to the oscillations found in output which rarely is the case. So one must consider

a trade off between the speed of response to the oscillations in the output.

25
 CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

The following conclusions can be drawn from this project:

1. A traditional boost converter has been designed and implemented in open

loop.

2. The hardware output waveforms are found to be in coherence with the

simulated waveforms.

3. The closed loop implementation is simulated and the results are obtained. The

responses obtained are sluggish in nature.

4.There is an initial dip in the voltage and then reaches the final steady state

value based on reference which is characteristic of the boost converter.

5.The intital dip in voltage is due to the output voltage being dependent on the

duty ratio in the transfer function.

6.The spike in the voltage across diode and switch can be mitigated using snubber

circuits.

26
 REFERENCES

[1] Hasaneen, B. M., and Adel A. Elbaset Mohammed. ”Design and simulation of

DC/DC boost converter.” 2008 12th International Middle-East Power System

Conference. IEEE, 2008.

[2] Fathah, Abdul. Design of a boost converter. Diss. 2013.

[3] Hwu, K.I. and Yau, Y.T., 2010. A boost converter. IEEE Transactions on

Power Electronics, 25(11), pp.2699-2703.

[4] Rosas-Caro, J. C., Ramirez, J. M., Peng, F. Z., Valderrabano, A. (2010). A

DC–DC multilevel boost converter. IET Power Electronics, 3(1), 129-137.

[5] Lee, P. W., Lee, Y. S., Cheng, D. K., Liu, X. C. (2000). Steady-state analysis

of an interleaved boost converter with coupled inductors. IEEE transactions

on industrial electronics, 47(4), 787-795. ol. 36, no. 7, pp. 8028-8043, July

2021, doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2020.3048928.

[6] Rosas-Caro, J. C., Ramı́rez, J. M., Garcı́a-Vite, P. M. (2008, June).

Novel DC-DC multilevel boost converter. In 2008 IEEE Power Electronics

Specialists Conference (pp. 2146-2151). IEEE.

[7] ] Sathya, P., and R. Natarajan. ”Design and implementation of 12V/24V

closed loop boost converter for solar powered LED lighting system.” Interna-

tional Journal of Engineering and Technology (IJET) 5.1 (2013): 254-264.

27
[8] ] Kalirasu, Athimulam, and Sekar Subharensu Dash. ”Simulation of closed

loop controlled boost converter for solar installation.” Serbian Journal of

Electrical Engineering 7.1 (2010): 121-130.

[9] Sharma, P., Kumar, P., Pal, N. (2018, March). Design and implementation

of closed loop controlled boost converter for solar power installation system

using fuzzy logic controller. In 2018 4th International Conference on Recent

Advances in Information Technology (RAIT) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

[10] Rana, N., Banerjee, S. (2019). Development of an improved input-

parallel output-series buck-boost converter and its closed-loop control. IEEE

Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 67(8), 6428-6438.

[11] Power Electronics Circuits Devices and Applications By Muham-

mad.H.Rashid.

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vishnu_m220424ee
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