TOPIC 3

DC TO DC CONVERTER
(DC CHOPPERS)

1
DC TO DC CONVERTER
The dc to dc converter or also known as dc chopper convert the input
dc voltage into fixed or variable dc output. Figure 1 shows the basic
block diagram of the chopper :
 The chopper has fixed or variable DC input, Vs. And the output Vo is
also fixed or variable. Hence DC chopper is also called as DC to DC
Converter.

 The output Vo can be greater or less than the input. Hence the
choppers can be step down or step up type.

 Basically a chopper is a high speed on-off semiconductor switch that

converts fixed dc input voltage to a variable dc output voltage, by
connecting source to load and disconnecting the load from source at
a fast speed.
The average value of fixed DC source can be varied if the voltage is
chopped by certain duty cycle.

Chopped into

Duty cycle, d = Ton/T

where, T = Ton + Toff

APPLICATION
• In many industrial applications, such as battery operated vehicles,
trolley buses, cars, traction, motor control it is required to convert
a fixed dc voltage into a variable dc voltage.

• Choppers are used in dc traction drives, electric train, forklift

(trolley trucks), battery-driven vehicles etc.

• The choppers are also used in dc voltage regulators for high

efficiency.
ADVANTAGES
 A chopper circuit has several advantages as listed below:

1) Offers high efficiency (reduced losses)

2) Faster response to control signals
3) Requires less maintenance
4) Smaller in size
5) Cost is less

6
 STEP-DOWN
CONVERTER
(BUCK CHOPPER)

7
STEP DOWN CONVERTER
(BUCK CONVERTER)
• The buck converter is a dc-to-dc converter, where the output voltage
can be controlled from zero to the input voltage level.
• Therefore, it is called a step-down converter.
PRINCIPLE OF STEP-DOWN OPERATION
WITH RESISTIVE LOAD
• A chopper is a thyristor on/off switch that connects load to
and disconnects it from the supply and produces a
chopped load voltage from a constant input supply voltage.
• The chopper is
represented by a switch
(SW1) enclosed in dotted
square. The switch can be a
power transistor, SCR, GTO,
power MOSFET, IGBT or
similar switching device.

• It is triggered periodically
and is kept conducting for a
period Ton and is blocked for
a period Toff. The chopped
load voltage waveforms and
circuit diagram are shown in
fig 2 and 3 respectively.
OUTPUT VOLTAGE EQUATION
1 t2
Vo   Vsdt
(average) T
0

1 t1 t2
  Vsdt   Vsdt
T 0 t1

1 t1
  Vsdt  0
T 0
Vs t1
 t 0
T
Vs
 t1  0
T
Vs
Vo (avg)  t1
T
Duty cycle, d :
t1 ton ton
d  
t1  t 2 ton  toff T
Average output current, Io (avg) :
If chopper is lossless, then:

Input power = Output power

Vi Ii = Vo (rms) Io (rms)
Vo (avg) = average output voltage
Io (avg) = average output current
Vi = Input voltage
Ii = Input current
FORMULA :
EXAMPLE
Chopper circuit is operating on TRC at a frequency of 2 kHz on a 460
V supply. If the load voltage is 350 volts, calculate the conduction
period of the thyristor in each cycle.
EXERCISE
A chopper circuit with Vin = 20V and R=15Ω, is switching at 1KHz
frequency. Time ‘on’ is 0.3ms. Calculate:

i) Duty cycle, d.
ii) Average voltage
iii) RMS output voltage
iv) RMS output current
v) Power output (rms)
vi) Power output (avg)
METHOD OF CONTROL
The output voltage can be varied by varying the duty cycle.

The output dc voltage can be varied by the following methods :

 Pulse width modulation control or constant frequency

operation.

 Variable frequency control.

PULSE WIDTH MODULATION

In pulse width modulation the pulse

width (tON) of the output waveform is
varied keeping chopping frequency ‘f’
and hence chopping period ‘T’
constant. Therefore output voltage is
varied by varying the ON time, tON.
Figure 4 shows the output voltage
waveforms for different ON times.

Figure 4 : Pulse Width Modulation

Control
VARIABLE FREQUENCY CONTROL
• In this method of control, chopping frequency, f is varied keeping
either tON or tOFF constant. This method is also known as frequency
modulation.

• Figure 5 shows the output voltage waveforms for a constant tON and
variable chopping period T.

• In frequency modulation to obtain full output voltage, range frequency

has to be varied over a wide range. This method produces harmonics
in the output and for large tOFF load current may become
discontinuous.
Figure 5 : Output voltage waveform for Time Ratio Control
 STEP-DOWN
CONVERTER
WITH R-L LOAD

21
The circuit topology of the converter is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 :
 The step-down dc-dc converter, commonly known as a buck converter, is
shown in the Figure 1.

It consists of dc input voltage source Vd, controlled switch S, diode D,

filter inductor L, filter capacitor C, and load resistance RL.

 As the name implies, a step-down (buck) converter produces a lower

average output voltage, Vo than the dc input voltage, Vdc.

 By varying the duty cycle (Ton/T ) of the switch, the average output
voltage can be controlled.

 The associated voltage and current waveforms for a continuous current

flow in the inductor L is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 : Voltage and current waveform for Buck-chopper with
continuous i
 The state of the converter in which the inductor current is never zero
for any period of time is called the continuous conduction mode
(CCM).

 It can be seen from the circuit that when the switch S is commanded
to the on state, the diode D is reverse-biased. When the switch S is
off, the diode conducts to support an uninterrupted current in the
inductor.
CIRCUIT OPERATION
When switch is turned on (closed) at time t = 0 :

The supply current flows through the path filter inductor L, filter
capacitor C, and load. Therefore, the inductor stores the energy during
the Ton period.
The diode becomes reverse biased and the input provides energy to
the load as well as to the inductor.
When switch turned off (opened) at t = Toff :

During the interval when the switch is OFF, the inductor current
flows through L, C, load and diode D and hence diode D
conducts.
In general, the voltage across the inductor L is given by :
di
VL  L
dt
In time Ton, assuming that the inductor current rises linearly from I1 to
I2, we can write,

 I 2  I1  …..Eq. 1
VDC  VO  L 
 Ton 
Let us define, the change in current as :

I  I 2  I(i.e
1
peak-to-peak ripple current of L)
So (Eq. 1) becomes :

Ior.L I . L
VDC  VO  TON 
TON Vdc  Vo
…..Eq. 2 …..Eq. 4

As shown in figure 7, during time Toff, inductor current falls linearly

from I2 to I1,
I I . L
 VO   L TOFF 
TOFFor VO
…..Eq. 3 …..Eq. 5
Equating the values of ΔI in (Eq. 2) & (Eq. 3) gives :

I 
Vdc  Vo 
TON 
TOFF .Vo
L L
 Ton
Let us define, duty cycle = D …..Eq. 6
T
So,
Vo  D.Vdc
By assuming a lossless circuit, we can write,

VdcIS  Vo.Io  DVdc.Io

Therefore, the average input current is given by

IS  DIo
Now, the switching period T can be calculated as, …..Eq. 7

T  TON  TOFF
By substituting the values of Ton and Toff from (Eq. 4) & (Eq. 5) in
(Eq. 7), we get :

IL or IL 1 I .L.Vdc

T  T 
Vdc  Vo Vo f Vo(Vdc  Vo )

…..Eq. 8
From (Eq. 7), we can write the equation for peak-to-peak ripple current
as :

Vo (Vdc  Vo)
I  T
L.Vdc
…..Eq. 9
Vo(Vdc  Vo )
I 
f .L.Vdc
Vo(Vdc / Vdc  Vo / Vdc)
I 
f .L.Vdc / Vdc
From (Eq. 6), we have :

Vo D.Vdc(1  D)
D , so I 
Vdc f .L
…..Eq. 10

We can write the inductor current iL by applying Kirchoff’s current law

as,
i  i i
L C O
By assuming that the load ripple current Δio is very small and
therefore, neglected, we can write the above equation as :

iL  iC
The average capacitor current, which flows into for Ton/2 + Toff/2 =
T/2, is
I
IC 
4
Now the capacitor voltage is expressed as :

1
VC   icdt  Vc (t  0)
C
And the peak-to-peak ripple voltage of the capacitor is :

T
2
1 I
VC  VC  VC (t  0)   dt
C0 4

I .T I
Vc   …..Eq. 11
8.C 8. f .C
Substituting the value of ΔI from (Eq. 9) or (Eq.10) in (Eq. 11) yields :

Vo.(Vdc  Vo )
VC  2
or
8. L.C . f .Vdc

Vdc.D(1  D)
VC  2
8.L.C. f
AVERAGE, MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM INDUCTOR
CURRENT
OUTPUT VOLTAGE RIPPLE
If the switch (S) is turned on before the inductor current reaches zero
level, it is called continuous mode of operation.

If the inductor current reaches zero-level before the next on-period, it

is called discontinuous mode of operation.

It is to be noted that if the switching frequency of the chopper is

close to the natural frequency (ω0) of the LC filter circuit, then the
output voltage may be higher than the input voltage.
APPLICATION
The main application of buck chopper or step-down chopper is in
regulated d.c power supplies and d.c speed motor control.
EXAMPLE 1
 a) Output voltage, Vo

Vo  D.Vdc
 0.4  50
b) Imax  20V

 1 1  D  1 1  0.4  
Im ax  Vo     20  
R 2 Lf   20 2  400  20k 
 1.75 A
c) Imin
 1 1  D  1 1  0.4 
Im in  Vo     20   
R 2 Lf   20 2  400   20k 
 0.25 A

Vo 
1  D

1  0.4
8400  100  20k 
d) Output Voltage Ripple 2 2
8 LCf
 4.6875mV
EXAMPLE 2
A buck converter operating at 50 kHz is fed from a 12V battery and
supplies 5 V to load. Neglecting switch and device-losses,
determine :
a) The maximum on-period of MOSFET switch given that battery
voltage varies from 13.5 V in fully charged state to 10 V at the of
discharge.
b) Battery drain current under nominal condition with 10 A load.
c) The value of choke required to maintained continuous current
operation for a ripple current of 500 mA and worst case battery
voltage conditions.
 Given : Vo = 5 V, Vdcmax = 13.5 V, Vdcmin = 10 V,
Io = 10 A, ΔI = 500 mA

a) Duty cycle,

Vo
D
Vdc
tON Vo

tOFF Vdc
Vo 5
tON (max)   3
 10
Vdc. f 10  50  10
b) If the switch and device losses are neglected, then output power
will be equal to input power,

Vdc  Is  Vo  Io
12  Is  5  10
Is  4.16 A
c) Inductor, L

Vo (Vdc  Vo )
L
f .I .Vdc
5(10  5)
L 3 3
 100 H
50 10 10  500  10
EXERCISE 1
The buck-converter in Figure 1 has an input voltage of Vdc = 14V. The
required average output voltage is Vo = 6V and the peak-to-peak output
ripple voltage is 15mV. The switching frequency is 30kHz. If the peak-to-
peak ripple current of inductor is limited to 0.6 A. Determine :
a) The duty cycle, D
b) The filter inductance, L
c) The filter capacitor, C

Ans : 42.85% , 190.48µH , 166.67µF

EXERCISE 2

1. Name the types of chopper circuit above.

2. If chopper circuit is supplied with input dc voltage, Vs = 40V,

operated frequency at 100kHz and produce average output dc
voltage, Vo=25V. Calculate the on-time of the switch, S.
EXERCISE 3

Figure show the output waveform of buck chopper. If the

voltage source is 240 Vdc and the load resistance and
inductance are 20Ω and 7.5mH respectively, calculate :
i. Switching frequency
ii. Duty cycle
iii. Average output voltage
iv. Minimum and maximum current

Ans: 83.33kHz, 42% , 100.8V, 4.993A, 5.087A

EXERCISE 4
A transistor dc chopper circuit (Buck converter) is supplied with power
form an ideal battery of 100 V. The load voltage waveform consists of
rectangular pulses of duration 1 ms in an overall cycle time of 2.5 ms.
Calculate, for resistive load of 10Ω.
a)The duty cycle, D
b)The average value of the output voltage, Vo(avg)
c)The rms value of the output voltage, Vo(rms)
d)The output dc power

Ans: 0.4, 40V, 63.2V, 160W

EXERCISE 5
Sketch and label the waveform of inductor current
of Buck Converter for ton=50 ms and toff=20 ms.
 STEP-UP
CONVERTER
(BOOST
CHOPPER)

56
Figure 8 below shows the circuit diagram of the step-up chopper.
Observe that there is an inductance in series with the supply Vs.

Figure 8: Step-up Converter (Boost Chopper)

PRINCIPLE OF STEP-UP OPERATION
WITH RESISTIVE LOAD
A switch (transistor, GTO, MOSFET etc) is connected across
inductance and supply. A filter capacitor C is used across the load to
make Vo smooth.

When the switch,S is turned ‘on’ (closed) :

• The switch is turn on from 0 to T/2. Hence current flows through the
inductance from the supply.
• The diode, D blocks the reverse flow of output current when switch
is turned ‘on’.
• The inductance current rises and inductance stores the energy
from the supply.
The equivalent circuit-I in figure below shows this operation :

Note that the drop in the inductance is LdiL/dt with the polarity shown.
The voltage across S is zero.
The capacitor maintains the voltage ‘vo’ and supplies current ‘io’ when
switch is closed. Hence the diode, D is reversed biased and it does not
conduct.
When the switch,S is turned ‘off’ (open) :

The switch is turned-off at T/2 until T. Hence the inductor generates a

large voltage LdiL/dt to maintain the current iL in the same direction.

Note the polarity of inductance voltage in equivalent circuit-II of

figure below.
The diode D is forward biased and it starts conducting. Thus the output
voltage will be Vo = Vs + LdiL/dt

Thus the output voltage of the chopper is greater than supply voltage
Vs. This shows the step-up operation. The voltage induced in the
inductance adds to the supply voltage and this total voltage appears as
output voltage.

The capacitor also charges to this boosted voltage. The inductance as

well as supply provides the energy to the load from t/2 to T (i.e when
switch is off).

The current through the inductance decreases because its stored

energy goes on reducing.

At T, the switch is again turned on and the cycle repeats.

The waveforms
for the
continuous mode
For inductor;

Energy stored when switch, S is on = energy out when switch S is off

or both area, A are the same.

Vi x Ton = (Vo – Vi) Toff

Vo – Vi = Vi x Ton / Toff
Vo = Vi + Vi x Ton / Toff
Vo = Vi ( 1 + Ton / Toff)
= Vi ( 1 + Ton / (T-Ton) )

Vo = Vi ( 1 / (1 – d) )
Assume there is no losses :

Pi = Po
Vi Ii = Io Vo
Ii = Io (Vo / Vi)
Ii = Io (1 / (1-d))

Io = Ii (1-d)
 STEP-UP
CONVERTER
WITH R-L LOAD

65
Figure 9 shows the circuit diagram of a boost chopper using a power
MOSFET.
As the name implies, the output voltage is always greater than the input
voltage.

Figure 9 :
CIRCUIT OPERATION
 When the switch, S is turned on at t = 0, energy is stored in the
inductor L. The current through the inductor is assumed to be raising
linearly from a minimum level I1 to a maximum level I2.

 The diode is off as the output voltage Vo appears at the cathode

(anode is at zero potential due to the conducting switch).

 Let the capacitance is very high, therefore Vo is constant and the

capacitor supplies a constant load current.
The equivalent switching circuit diagram for this period is shown in
Figure 10(a).

Figure 7(a) : Equivalent switching circuit diagram.

• When the switch is turned off at t = Ton, it generates a negative voltage
across it (vL = Ldi/dt).

• Thus, a voltage Vi + vL appears across the switch, which is greater

than Vo.

• It turns on the diode D (anode being at a higher potential).

• The inductor current now charges the capacitor and the current flows
through L, D, C and load.

• The stored energy of inductor is transferred to the capacitor and the

inductor current falls linearly.
• In addition to the stored energy of the inductors, the energy from
source is also fed to the load.
The equivalent circuits for different switching conditions are shown in
Figure 10(b).

Figure 10(b) : Equivalent switching circuit diagram.

In this type of converter, the output
current is always continuous, while
the input current may be continuous
or discontinuous.

Moreover, the capacitor voltage or

Vo remains constant due to high
value of C.

Figure 11 : The waveforms

for the continuous mode.

71
 During Ton, by assuming that the
inductor current rises linearly from
I1 to I2, we can write,

Vdc  L
I 2  I 1
L
I
Ton Ton Input voltage waveform
..Eq. 1
OR

I .L
Ton 
Vdc ..Eq. 2 Inductor current waveform
During time Toff, the inductor current
falls linearly from I2 to I1, therefore,
we can write,

I
Vdc  Vo   L
Toff Input voltage waveform

..Eq. 3
OR

I .L
Toff  Inductor current waveform
Vo  Vdc ..Eq. 4
From (Eq. 1) & (Eq. 2), the peak-to-peak ripple current of inductor L
can be written as,

Vdc.Ton Vo  Vdc Toff

I   ..Eq. 5
L L
Substituting Ton = D.T and Toff = (1 - D)T, yields the average output
voltage,

T Vdc
Vo  Vdc. 
Toff 1  D ..Eq. 6
AVERAGE, MAXIMUM, MINIMUM INDUCTOR
CURRENT

Input power = Output power

Vo 2
ViIi 
R
2
 Vi 
 
 1  D   Vi
2
ViIL  
R 1  D  R
2
Average inductor current ;
Vi
IL 
1 D  R
2

Maximum and Minimum inductor current

iL Vi ViDT
Im ax  IL   
2 1  D  R 2 L
2

iL Vi ViDT
Im in  IL   
2 1  D  R 2 L
2
Assuming a lossless circuit, Pi = Po,

Vi.Io
Vi.Is  Vo.Io 
1  D 
Therefore, the average input current becomes,

IO
IS 
1 D ..Eq. 7
Now, the switching period T can be obtained as :
1
T   Ton  Toff
f
I .L I .L
 
Vi Vo  Vi
I .L.Vo
T
Vi Vo  Vi  ..Eq. 8
From (Eq. 7), the peak-to-peak ripple current becomes :

Vi Vo  Vi 
I  ..Eq. 9
f .L.Vo
OR

Vi.D
I 
f .L ..Eq. 10
When the device is ON, the capacitor supplies the load current for t
= Ton period.
During time Ton, the average capacitor current is Ic = Io and peak-to-
peak ripple voltage of the capacitor is :

Ton
1
Vc  Vc  Vc (t  0)   Icdt
C 0
Ton
1
  Iodt
C 0
Io.Ton
VC 
C ..Eq. 11
From (Eq. 5), we have :

Vo  Vi ..Eq. 12
Ton  Toff
Vi
From (Eq. 6), we have :

Vo  Toff
Vi   Vo.Toff . f
T ..Eq. 13
Substituting the value of Vdc in (Eq. 12), we get :

Ton 
(Vo  Vi )
.Toff 
Vo  Vi 
Vo.Toff . f Vo. f
Now substituting the value of Ton in (Eq. 12), we get :

Io (Vo  Vi )
VC 
Vo. f .C ..Eq. 14

Io.D
OR VC 
f .C ..Eq. 15
RIPPLE FACTOR

 Vo 
Q    DT  CVo
R
VoDT VoD
Vo  
RC RCf
Vo D
r 
Vo RCf
From (Eq. 5), it becomes clear that, for variation of a duty-cycle, D in
the range 0 < D < 1 , the output voltage Vo will vary in the range Vdc
< Vo < ∞.

Hence, the boost converter can step-up the output voltage without
transformer. Again, it has a high efficiency due to single power
device.

In this type of chopper, the input current is continuous. However, a

high peak current has to flow through the power device.

Since, the output voltage is very sensitive to changes in duty-cycle

D, therefore, it might be difficult to stabilize the regulator.
From (Eq. 6), it is noted that the average output current is less than
the average inductor current by a factor of (1 – D), and a much
higher RMS current would flow through the filter capacitor, resulting
in the use of a larger filter capacitor and a larger inductor than those
of a buck converter.

The main application of a boost converter is in regulated d.c power

supplies and the regenerative breaking of d.c motors.
EXAMPLE
Consider a boost converter has input voltage , 6V. The average
output voltage, Vo = 18 V and the average load current Io = 0.4 A.
The switching frequency is 20 kHz of L = 250 µH and C = 420µF.
Determine :

a) The duty-cycle, D
b) The ripple current of inductor, ΔI
c) The peak current of inductor ,I2
d) The ripple voltage of filter capacitor, ΔVc
e) The output power, Po
 Given : Vdc = 6 V,Vo = 18 V,Io = 0.4 A,

f = 20 kHz, L = 250 µh, C = 420 µf.

a) From (Eq. 6),

Vdc
Vo 
1 D
6
1 D 
18
6
D  1  0.6667  66.67%
18
b) From (Eq. 9),

VdcVo  Vdc 
I 
f .L.Vo
618  6
I  3 6
20 10  250 10 18
I  0.80 A
c) From (Eq. 7),
IO
IS 
1 D
0.4
IS   1.20 A
1  0.667
Peak inductor current,
I 0.80
I 2  IS   1.20   1.6 A
2 2
d) From (Eq. 15),
Io.D
VC 
f .C
0.4  0.667
VC  3 6
20  10  420  10

VC  31.76mV
d) Fr
e) Output power, Po

Po  Vo .Io
Po  18(0.4)  7.2W
EXERCISE

a) Name the chopper circuit in figure above.

b) Calculate ton for the circuit if frequency is 100Hz, input voltage is

20V and output voltage is 50V.
EXERCISE
A step-up (boost) chopper has a supply voltage of 250V while the
output voltage is 400V. If the total time period of the chopper is 100μ
sec, determine the :
a) Ton
b) Toff

Ans : 37.5µs , 62.5µs

EXERCISE
The boost converter has the following parameters: Vd=20V, D=0.6,
R=12.5Ω, L=65uH, C=200uF, fs=40KHz. Determine :

(a) output voltage

(b) maximum and minimum inductor current
(c) output voltage ripple.

Ans : 50V , 12.31A , 7.692A , 0.3V

EXERCISE
The DC to DC Converter has input voltage, Vin = 5V. The required
output voltage is Vo = 15V and the average load current, IL = 0.5A. If
the switching frequency, f=25kHz, L=150µH and C = 220µF.
Calculate the duty cycle, D.
EXERCISE
Compare the step-down to the step-up converter.
 END OF TOPIC 3

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Created by : Yuzrina Bt Md Yunus (PPD)