ISSN: 2277-3754

ISO 9001:2008 Certified

International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT)
Volume 2, Issue 11, May 2013

Analysis and Simulation of Interleaved Boost Converter

for Automotive Applications
Farag. S. Alargt **, Ahmed. S. Ashur *
*
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
University of Tripoli / Tripoli - Libya.
**
Centre for Solar Energy Research and Studies / Tripoli-Libya
design of the high-power interleaved boost converter can be
Abstract - This paper studies a design and simulation of found [4].
multi-phase interleaved boost DC-DC converter. The control There have been many papers describing the use of
strategy of the converter is based on a voltage mode-controlled
multiphase buck converters, especially for high-performance
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) with a Proportional-Integral-
Derivative (PID) controller. The proposed converter has a 1KW high-power applications [1,9,10]. However, all the
power and 42V output voltage to satisfy the requirements of advantages of interleaving, such as higher efficiency and
usage in 14/42 power system used in automotive applications. reduced input and output ripple for voltage/current, are also
This architecture is considered to be technically a viable solution realized in the boost topology. Most of the controllers used
for automotive dual-voltage power system for passenger car in in buck applications apply equally well when configured for
the near further. The conception, analysis and simulation of a
multi-phase interleaved DC-DC boost converter for 42V power use in an interleaved boost application. In [1] multi-phase
systems are presented. One kilowatt interleaved three-phase buck converter controlled by PID is presented.
boost converter designed to operate in a Discontinuous This paper following the same approach used in buck
Conduction Mode (DCM). The impact of parameter variation on converters and applied it on boost converter, PID is
the performance capabilities of the converter is described. configured using „Ziegler–Nichols‟ tuning method, where
Simulation results are provided to illustrate the advantages of
the proposed converter and controller scheme. All the
the individual effects of P, I, and D is tuned on the closed-
advantages of interleaving, such as higher efficiency and loop response to give the required characteristics.
reduced input and output ripple for voltage/current, are also In sections ii and iii respectively, principles of modeling
Achieved in the proposed boost converter. The results show that and design steps to select components are presented for
the system is stable and well behaved under input voltage boost converter. Interleaved multiphase boost converter and
variations and the output voltage remains within the desired
control design are introduced in section iv, and v.
specified limits presented in automotive standards.
Simulation and results of work reported and computed in
Index Terms – DC-DC converters; interleaved boost section vi. A brief conclusion is drawn in section vii.
converter.
II. PRINCIPLES OF MODELING AND DESIGN
I. INTRODUCTION
BOOST CONVERTER
A switching converter is an electronic power system The circuit of the PWM boost dc–dc converter is shown
which transforms an input voltage level into another for a in Fig. 1, its output voltage Vo is always higher than the
given load by switching action of semiconductor devices. A input voltage Vi for steady-state operation. It boosts the
high power efficient dc-dc converter is strongly desired and voltage to a higher level. The converter consists of an
has found widespread applications. Examples include inductor L, a power MOSFET, a diode D1, a filter capacitor
aerospace, sea and undersea vehicles, electric vehicles (EV), C, and a load resistor RL. The switch S is turned on and off
Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV), portable electronic devices at the switching frequency fs = 1/T with the ON duty ratio D
like pagers, and microprocessor voltage regulation [1]. = ton/T, where ton is the time interval when the switch S is
In dual-voltage power systems, the dc-to-dc converter is ON [2]. The Equivalent circuit when the switch is ON and
required to step-up voltage provided from the low-voltage the diode is OFF and the reverse case are shown in fig. 1(b)
bus or back up part for the existing high-power devices in and fig. 1(c), respectively.
the application that use this power system. A power system The principle of operation of the converter are depicted
consisting of fuel cell, battery and possibly other energy in Fig. 2, for the time interval 0 < t ≤ DT, the switch is ON.
storage components used in electric vehicles and stationary Therefore, the voltage across the diode is VD = -Vo, causing
power system applications, which normally require a high- the diode to be reverse biased. The voltage across the
power boost converter for energy management that employs inductor is VL = Vi. As a result, the inductor current
an energy storage component to assist the slow-responding increases linearly with a slope of Vi /L. The switch current is
fuel cell. Multiphase converter with interleaved control is equal to the inductor current. At t = DT, the switch is turned
essential for the high-power boost converter in order to off by the gate-to-source voltage. The inductor acts as a
reduce the ripple current and to reduce the size of passive current source and turns the diode on. The voltage across
component. So far few literatures related to the controller the inductor is VL = Vi – Vo < 0 . Hence, the inductor current

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International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT)

Vi t 
Volume 2, Issue 11, May 2013
decreases with a slope of (Vi – Vo )/L . The diode current di (t )
L L (1)
equals the inductor current. During this time interval, the dt
energy is transferred from the inductor L to the filter If the source voltage remains constant, the rate of rise
capacitor C and the load resistance RL. At time t = T, the of inductor current is positive and remains fixed, so long as
switch is turned on again, terminating the cycle [2,6,5]. the inductor is not saturated. Then equation (1) can be
expressed as:


di L (t ) Vi
(2)
dt L
When the switch is open, the circuit that is applicable is

v L Vi Vo
shown in Figure 3.a. Now the voltage across the inductor is:
(3)
Given that the output voltage is larger than the source
voltage, the voltage across the inductor is negative and the
rate of rise of inductor current, described by equation (4)
[2], is negative. Hence if the switch is held OFF for a time
interval equal to (1-D)T, the change in inductor current can
Fig 1. PWM boost converter. (a) Circuit. (b) Equivalent
di L (t ) Vi Vo
be computed as given in equation (5)

circuit when the switch is ON and the diode is OFF. (c)
Equivalent circuit when the switch is OFF and the diode is ON (4)

V Vo
Δi L t   i  1  D T
[2]. dt L
(5)
L
The change in inductor current reflected by equation (5)
has a negative value, since Vo >Vi. Since the net change in
inductor current over a cycle period is zero when the
response iL(t) is periodic, the sum of changes in inductor
current expressed by (3) and (5) should be zero. That yields

Vo 
Vi
1 D
(6)

the value of the inductance needed to ensure that the

converter remains in Discontinuous Conduction Mode
(DCM) of operation i.e. the inductor current is zero during
part of the switching period and both semiconductor devices
are OFF during some part of each cycle, inductor value
must be less than critical L, which can be determined as

D Vi  1  D T
follow[2].
Fig 2. Idealized current and voltage waveforms in the PWM
boost converter work in CCM [6].
Lcritical  (7)
A mathematical model of the system helps us to realize 2I o
the controller design. Hence, we will derive the equations Where,
concerning the DC/DC boost converter model from basic
L  Lcritical
laws.

And

Io 
Po (8)
Vo
Fig 3. Boost converter operation states [2]. Where, Po is the output power.
When the switch is closed, the equivalent circuit that is
applicable is shown in Fig. 3.b.The source voltage is applied The peak inductor current can be calculated as:
I pk  i
across the inductor and the rate of rise of inductor current is V DT (9)
dependent on the source voltage Vi and inductance L. The L
differential equation describing this condition is [2]:

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Volume 2, Issue 11, May 2013
The average inductor current can be found out by IV. MULTIPHASE SWITCHING OF DC-TO-DC
equating the power drawn from the source to the power CONVERTER
delivered to the load resistor. Again the ripple in output To realize power conversion by a simple system
voltage is ignored and it is assumed justifiably that the configuration, a multi-cells boost converter topology
output voltage remains steady at its average value Vo. P o designed for DCM of operation is employed. Fig. 4 shows
absorbed by load resistor is then: the developed Simulink diagram of three-cell interleaved

Po  O
(V ) 2 boost converter with PID Controller.
(10)
R
The average value of inductor current IL is also the
average value of source current Ii, then:

IL  O
(V ) 2
Vi  R
(11)

Similarly, the output capacitance selection is also

considered to make sure that output voltage ripple is within
the desired boundary. It is proven that the minimum
capacitance required for output voltage ripple is given by
[8],
C min 
DT
R V ripple
(12)

However, the standard dc-dc converter with single

structure is not practicable due to the high current (71A), Fig 4. Simulink implementation of the interleaved three-
and high power (1KW) required for automotive phase boost converter circuit with PID controller
applications. Therefore, the power stage of the converter To design this converter, the following automotive
would have to be built in parallel for practical specifications for dual-voltage automotive electrical systems
implementation. A common approach in technical literature must be fulfilled and are tabulated in table (2) [1,11].
TABLE 2 Design Specifications For A Power Converter In
and industry practice is to use interleaved multi-phase
A Dual-Voltage Automotive Electrical System
technique instead of a single larger converter [1]. This
Description Parameter Value
approach will be discussed in the next section. Operation output Vo 30V<42V<50
voltage V
III. COMPONENT SELECTION Operation input Vi 11V<14V<16
For low voltage/high current power converter, the usage voltage V
of MOSFETs switching devices with low on-resistance is Power rating Po 1KW
required for more efficient and practical power conversion. Operation temperature T -40C<T<90C
The inductors and capacitors play important roles in the range
design of the power converter. Inductor is an energy storage Output ripple voltage Vripple 300mV
element while the capacitor is the main buffer for absorbing Output ripple current Iripple 1A
the ripple current generated by the switching action of the The three-cell interleaved boost converter is connected in
power stage. The switching frequency of the power parallel to a common output capacitor and sharing a
electronics used in automotive industry ranges from 82 kHz common load with the associated control system. In this
to 200 kHz with 100 kHz as a typical value used for most interleaved three-cell dc/dc converter architecture, the cells
operation of dc/dc converters [1]. Components was are switched with the same duty ratio, but with a relative
calculated from equations above with Vi = 14V, Vo = 42V, phase shift or time interleaved of 120° introduced between
and P o = 1000W, the calculated and selected component each cell in order to reduce the magnitude of the ripple at
summarized in table (1). the output port of the converter. The overall output current
TABLE 1 Calculated And Selected Component is achieved by the summation of the output currents of the
Component/ calculated selected equation cells. With the phase shift of 120°, the output of the
parameters converter is found to be continuous. Due to the equal
R 1.764ohm 1.764ohm (10) sharing of the load current between cells, the overwork on
the semiconductor switches is reduced and thereby
reliability is improved.
L 0.65µH .3 µH (7) in (8)
Another advantage is the ability to operate the converter
when a failure occurs in one cell as well as the possibility to
C 3.779mF 3.9mF (12) add new cells to the converter with minimum efforts [1].
Since this is a three-phase interleaving converter, the power

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Volume 2, Issue 11, May 2013
stage inductance of each phase is therefore equal to. 0.885 The desired output generated signal of the PID controller
µH (note that L required for one stage converter is 0.3 µH, is fed to the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) unit, where it
as shown in table 1). The output capacitor is another is compared with a constant frequency sawtooth voltage.
important element, which may reduce the system cost in The frequency of sawtooth voltage is the switching
multi-phase converter system and is needed to keep the frequency fs of the converter which is 100 kHz. The output
output voltage ripple Vripple within the allowable output signal from the PWM is the switching control signal, which
voltage range. To meet these constraints of the design represents a sequence of pulses that drives the
specification, a capacitor value of 3.9mFis sufficient. semiconductor switch, as shown in Figure 6.

V. CONTROL DESIGN
Feedback is used in control systems to change the
dynamic behaviour of the system, whether mechanical,
electrical, or biological, and to maintain their stability. The
control strategy of the proposed converter is based on a
voltage-mode-controlled Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
with a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) which takes
its control signal from the output voltage of the switching
converter.
A Simulink model for the internal structure of the PID
used to control the converter is shown in Figure 5.

Fig 6. Implementation of Pulse Width Modulation in

Simulink
The proposed converter necessitates a phase-shift of 120°
between the cells to generate the three-switching control
signal which are used to drive the three active MOSFET
switching devices of the converter system. Figure 7 and 8
show the implementation of the three-phase interleaving
Fig 5. A PID controller represented by a Simulink block
diagram circuit in Simulink and the three phase control signal
The aim is to regulate the output voltage of the converter waveforms respectively.
Vo across the load resistance RL to match a precise stable
reference voltage Vref . This is achieved by subtracting the
desired reference voltage Vref from the sensed output
Voltage Vo of the converter. The voltage-error thus obtained
is passed through a PID controller to obtain the desired
signal. The function of the PID controller is to take the input
signal, compute its derivative and integral, and then
compute the output as a combination of input signal,
derivative and integral. The individual effects of P, I, and D
tuning on the closed-loop response are summarized in table
3[1].
Table 3 effect of independent P, I, and D during the tuning Fig 7. Three phases of interleaving in Simulink
process
Closed
Rise Oversho Settling Steady
Loop
time t time state error
response
Increasing Decreas Small
Increase Decrease
P e increase
Small
Increasing Large
decreas Increase Increase
I decrease
e
Small
Increasing Decreas Minor
decreas Decrease
D e decrease
e

Fig 8. Three phase control signals in Simulink

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V. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
The complete model of the Simulink implementation of
the internal structure of the interleaved three-phase boost
converter system is shown in Figure 9. The converter system
is divided into three main parts; the three-cell boost
converter, the PID controller including the voltage mode
PWM and the phase shift circuit. The multi-phase converter
has been simulated to obtain the necessary waveforms that
describe converter system operation under steady-state and
transient conditions, using the design parameters tabulated
in table 4.

Fig 10. Output Voltage Ripples

Fig 9. Simulink schematic diagram illustrating the

implementation of interleaved tree-phase boost converter
circuit with a PID controller
Table 4. The parameters of converter Fig 11. Output Current Ripples
parameter symbo value unit Figure 12 shows the steady-state waveforms of the
l individual cell currents, the simulated results show that
Input voltage Vi 14 V inductor current of each cell rises to 70.86A during each
Output voltage Vo 42 V switching period and goes through an interval in the
Number of phases N 3 - discontinuous conduction mode.
Inductor value L 0.885 μH
Capacitor value C 3.9 mF
Load resistance RL 1.764 ohm
Switching fs 100 kHz
frequency

A. Ripple Cancellation
The first step in the analysis of the multi-phase
interleaved converter system is to investigate the
effectiveness of ripple cancellation related to the variation
of current and voltage as a function of the number of cells.
As can be seen the converter achieves a very good current
and voltage ripple cancellation for three-cells and above.
Though, six or eight cells produce a better ripple
Fig 12. The individual cell currents waveform
cancellation, however the cost outweigh the gains in
Fig 13 and 14 show the total output current and the
accuracy.
output voltage of the converter system, the operation of the
It can be seen from Figures 10 and 11, which the ripple of
power converter system is stable and accurate. The
output voltage is 8.8mV, and the ripple of the total output
converter is able to respond and produce the desired stable
current of the converter is 5mA, and they are better than the
output voltage and deliver the required total output current
desired specified limits.

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to the load with very low ripple. As a result, no negative Fig15. Transient response of the output voltage to step
effect on the loads connected to the converter. change in load
It can be seen that the output voltage overshoot to 44.5V,
43.09V and 42.6V, when the load at the output of the
converter system was rapidly changed from 25% to 50%,
from 50% to 75% and from 75% to full load (1kW).
The results show that the performance of the system is
stable and well behaved under load variations and the output
voltage remains within the desired specified limits presented
earlier in table (2).
C. Transient Simulation for Input Voltage Variation
In real conditions, the alternator output voltage ranges
from 11V to 16V during normal operation, with nominal
Fig 13. The output voltage of the converter
voltage of 14V. To study this line of variation, a step change
in the input voltage from 9V to 24V is applied to the model.
Figure 16 shows a transient response of the output
voltage behaviour waveform due to sudden changes in the
input voltage of the power converter system.

Fig 14. The total output current of the converter

B. Transient Simulation for Load Variation
The interleaved dc/dc boost converters are used as power
source to resistive and dynamic loads in passenger car and

 Small motors
these loads could be categorized into [1].

 Very small motors Fig 16. Output voltage and output current due to input
 Lighting system voltage variations
 Key-off loads
It can be seen that the output voltage overshoots to
 other loads
42.69V, 44.09V and decreases to 38.276V, then overshoots
to 43.29V finally voltage overshooting to 43.42V when the
The electrical loads demand varies and depends upon the
input voltage of the converter system is rapidly changed
weather and the driving conditions. A full load condition is
from 14V to 16V to 24V to 9V to 11V and to 14V, at time
rarely present for a prolonged period of time and most of the
t= 0.05s, 0.08s, 0.11s, 0.13s, 0.16s and 0.19s,
devices run at light loads (stand-by-mode) for most of the
respectively.
time. To study the effect of the load variation on the
It can be observed that the designed system has a low
dynamic behaviour of the converter system, the load at the
sensitivity to the variations of input voltage. These
output of the converter system is suddenly changed from
variations have only small influence on the output voltage
25% to 50% to 75% and to 100% and then back from 100%
and load current and still respect the specifications of the
to 75% to 50% and 25% of the full load at time t = 0.05,
automotive standard. It can be concluded that from the
0.08, 0.11, 0.13, 0.16 and 0.19s, respectively. The simulated
results obtained the proposed converter can maintain the
results are shown in Figure 15.
desired output voltage independently of load and supply-
voltage variations. This may lead to the elimination or
reducing of protection connected to the 42V bus in the
power system.

VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, analysis, design and simulation of 14V/42V
interleaved three-phase dc/dc boost converter system with
one kilowatt output power is presented. This system is a part
of the dual voltage architecture that will be used in future
passenger car power system. Based on the simulation

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International Journal of Engineering and Innovative Technology (IJEIT)
Volume 2, Issue 11, May 2013
results, the performance of the dc-to-dc boost converter
system provides a number of features that do not exist in
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
today's electrical systems. All the advantages of
interleaving, such as higher efficiency and reduced input Ahmed Said Ashur (M 2009) obtained his BSc
and output ripple for voltage/current, are also Achieved in from the University of Al-Fatah in 1975, his MSc
from the Southern California University (USC) in
the proposed boost converter. 1981, and his PhD from University of Nottingham
The results show that the system is stable and well in 1996. He is a faculty member at the University
behaved under input voltage variations and the output of Tripoli since 1981. His area of interest is digital
signal processing algorithms, systems,
voltage remains within the desired specified limits presented applications, and communications. He has more
in automotive standards. than 19 publications in reputable journals, and international conferences.

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