ELEC4614 Power Electronics Laboratory

Experiment 2 DC-DC Boost Converter 1 F. Rahman/March 2009

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications

ELEC4614 Power Electronics Laboratory

Experiment 2: DC-DC Step-up (Boost) Converter



1.0 Objectives

This experiment introduces you to a step-up DC-DC converter circuits. These are found in many
power supplies where a DC supply at a voltage which is higher than the available DC supply V
d

is required. Operations and steady-state characteristics of the step-up (boost) converter circuits
will be studied experimentally.

2.0 Background

The boost converter circuit is shown in figure 1(a) below in which the switch T is operated from
a pulse-width modulator operating at a carrier frequency f
s
. The switch T is also operated with a
duty cycle D which ranges from 0 to 1. Figure 1(b) indicates a few waveforms of the circuit
when the switch T is turned ON and OFF at frequency f
s
, with a duty cycle D.












Figure 1(a)

Ai
L

DT
T
-
R
V
o

i
c

I
max

v
L

V
d

V
d
-V
o

i
L


Figure 1(b)

R
(Load)
+
i
D
+ v
L

i
L
V
o
C
V
d
i
c
D

I
o

i
d
T

ELEC4614 Power Electronics Laboratory

Experiment 2 DC-DC Boost Converter 2 F. Rahman/Feb, 2011

We will assume that all the devices and components of the circuit are ideal, the inductor current
is continuous (always positive) and the output voltage is held constant at V
o
by the large output
capacitor during the switching intervals. Under these circumstances the inductor voltage v
L
, and
inductor the capacitor currents i
L
and i
C
, respectively, are as indicated in figure 1(b). The
following equations then hold for the boost converter.


D
V
V
d
o

=
1
..(1)


s
d d
Lf
D V
R D
V
I
2 ) 1 (
2 max
+

= .(2)


s
d d
Lf
D V
R D
V
I
2 ) 1 (
2
min

= ..(3)


R D
V
I
d
average L
2
,
) 1 (
= .(4)


where V
o
= output DC voltage, V
V
d
= supply DC voltage, V
L = inductance of the inductor, H
R = Load resistance, O.


D
I
I
R
V
I
o
d
o
o

= =
1
; ; and
o o d d
I V I V = .(5)

For a given switching frequency, the minimum inductance L
min
for continuous conduction is
given by,



s
2
min
f 2
R ) D 1 ( D
L

= (6)

The output voltage ripple across the filter capacitance C is given by


s
RCf
D
Vo
Vo
=
A
.(7)


3.0 Switching losses

Losses in the devices due to overlap of the voltage and current transients at turn off and turn on
affect the efficiency of the converter. The switching frequency f
s
is carefully selected to avoid
these losses becoming significant. f
s
also affects the physical sizes of the inductor and capacitor.

ELEC4614 Power Electronics Laboratory

Experiment 2 DC-DC Boost Converter 3 F. Rahman/Feb, 2011

4.0 Discontinuous conduction

The relationship between the output voltage V
o
and D, although simple when the inductor current
is continuous during the whole of switching period, it is very steep when D approaches 1. The
dynamics of this converter is also not suitable for operation in continuous conduction mode. For
the discontinuous conduction mode, it can be shown that


(
(

+ + =
s
d o
Lf
R D
V V
2
2
1 1
2
1
.(8)

Although this is a non-linear function, nevertheless, discontinuous conduction mode is the
preferred mode of operation of a boost converter.

4. Equipment

1 power IGBT switch
1 3 phase diode bridge rectifier module
1 L-C smoothing filter for the DC supply
1 50 O load resistor for the boost converter
1 47-235 H inductance board for boost converter
1 four-channel oscilloscope
1 DC voltmeter and ammeter modules
2 Isolated transducer boards with 1V/1A and 1V/V sensors
PC with DSP board and interface card

5. Experiment

Familiarise yourself with the experimental set-up, especially the IGBT, the rectifier diode bridge,
the input DC filter, the buck inductor L, the buck diode, the output filter capacitor C, and the
load resistor. The inductor board has inductors in the range of 22-110 H which are connected to
taps.

A DSP board resident in a PC generates the PWM switching pulses with which to turn the buck
switch ON and OFF. The frequency of switching can be changed only by running the appropriate
Buck Converter for x kHz programs from the Desktop where x stands for the switching
frequency. For each of these programs, the appropriate operator interface must also be run from
the menu. The duty cycle D for each of these switching frequencies can be selected by a slider on
the PC monitor.

The DC supply V
d
to the buck converter is obtained from an AC supply via an auto-transformer
(variac), a rectifier diode bridge followed by an LC filter. These are located on the left-hand side
of the equipment panel. For the whole of this experiment, V
d
must be set to 50V. When the
converter duty cycle or load increases, V
d
will drop because of voltage drop in the variac. For
each setting of D or load, you will need to adjust the variac so that V
d
is always 50V.

PRECAUTIONS!!

1. The experiment is pre-wired on the equipment panel. Do not attempt to alter any
connection of the power circuit while the DC supply is on. The only alterations you
will need to make to the power circuit is the selection of tapings of the buck inductor
(using the blue wire) and connection/disconnection of the load (using the red wire).
Make sure that all power connections (screwed terminal blocks) are firm (tight)
before the DC supply is switched on. Any intermittent connection in any part of the
circuit will destroy the IGBT.
ELEC4614 Power Electronics Laboratory

Experiment 2 DC-DC Boost Converter 4 F. Rahman/Feb, 2011


2. Also, make sure to adjust the variac to zero before you change the boost inductor
taps. You must not manually disconnect the boost inductor while it still carrying
current.

Goals:

In this experiment, you will run the boost converter with switching frequencies f
s
= 5, 10 and
20kHz; you will select boost inductance L = 47, 141 and 235H for each of these frequencies;
you will vary the duty cycle D from 0.1 to 0.9 in steps of 0.1 for each of these combinations,
Finally you will take frequency response test data by varying D sinusoidally, from 100Hz to
4kHz while the converter operates with f
s
= 20kHz and L = 141H.

Data obtained from these tests will allow you understand the roles of L and f
s
on the continuous
and discontinuous modes of operation of the converter, and its control characteristics.

5.1 The power circuit for the boost converter is shown in figure 2. Before switching the DC
supply to the converter ON, run the DSP program Boost Converter - 5kHz in directory
Elec4614_labs_boost on the desktop and run the DSpace control desk program using
Open experiment under the file menu to run the corresponding experiment file. Observe
the PWM switching pulses for a switching frequency of f
s
= 5 kHz. Adjust the duty cycle
D. Note down the range over which D can be adjusted. Set D initially to minimum. Connect
the switching signal from the DSP to the gate of the IGBT using a BNC cable. Connect this
signal also to channel 4 of the CRO and use it to trigger the CRO at all times. Set L to 235
H, and D to minimum initially. Connect the boost converter load (R ~ 5 O).

The DC supply, V
d
, to the converter is obtained from rectifier-filter circuit. Switch AC
power to the variac (auto-transformer) supplying the rectifier and adjust it to obtain a DC
supply of 50V. The DC supply must be maintained at 50V throughout the rest of this
experiment by adjustment of the variac for each setting of D or load current.

5.2 Observe the inductor and the capacitor currents, and voltages across these on CRO
channels 1, 2 and 3 of the CRO using the isolated sensors or clip-on probes.
3-
phase
415V
50Hz
Supply
D
LC filter
Rectifier
Variac
V
d
BNC
I
o
C
L
(47-235H)
V
o
Load
5
Ohm
Blue wire
Red wire
1000F
I
d
I
L
I
D
I
o
i
T

DSP PC
Driver
IGBT gate
CRO
Isolated
sensor
boards

ELEC4614 Power Electronics Laboratory

Experiment 2 DC-DC Boost Converter 5 F. Rahman/Feb, 2011


Figure 2
The peak-peak ripple on the output voltage can be observed by using AC coupling on the
CRO.

5.3 Display the switching waveform at the top of the CRO. Using a suitable time base, display
i
L
, v
L
, i
c
, v
o
, i
T
, and i
D
, three at a time, below the trace of the switching waveform. Adjust D
from 0.1 to 0.9 and identify vales of D for which continuous and discontinuous conduction
of inductor current i
L
take place.

Note that the input current of the boost converter and the output DC voltage V
o
can
become disastrously high when D approaches unity. You may find it necessary to maintain
D below about 0.7 in order to prevent such situations.


5.4 Tabulate the DC values of V
o,
I
d
, I
L
and the inductor current ripple I
L
versus D. Vary D
from 0.1 to 0.9 in steps of 0.2. Maintain V
d
= 50V throughout, by adjusting the variac. Note
down the value of D for which conduction of the inductor current is at the boundary
between continuous and discontinuous conduction. Print the waveforms of i
L
, i
d
, i
c
and v
o

for this condition of operation only. Mark the value of D in the printout. Reduce V
d
to
zero by adjusting the variac.

5.5 Select L = 141 H. Set V
d
= 50V by adjusting the variac. Repeat 5.3 and 5.4.
5.6 Select L = 47 H, Set V
d
= 50V by adjusting the variac. Repeat 5.3 and 5.4.

5.7 Run DSP program Boost Converter - 10kHz and repeat 5.3 5.6 for L = 141 and 47 H.

5.8 Run DSP program Boost Converter - 20kHz and repeat 5.3 5.6 for L = 141 and 47 H.

5.9 Run DSP program Boost Converter Frequency Response Test. In order to carry out a
frequency response test on the inductor current and output voltage responses, you will vary
the duty cycle D sinusoidally at some frequency and measure the variations in I
L
and V
o
.
As the frequency of variation of D increases, the variation of I
L
and V
o
will eventually fail
to follow it. This is given by a cut-off frequency at which the amplitude of I
L
and V
o
falls to
0.707 of its amplitude when the frequency of D variation is well below the cut off
frequency.

Set the frequency of D initially at 100Hz on the PC monitor. Set L = 235H and f
s
= 20
kHz. Note down the amplitude of the inductor current and load output voltage V
o
. Increase
the frequency of D and take a few readings of amplitude of I
L
and V
o
vs frequency of D.
You are expected to data well beyond the cut-off frequency.

6.0 Report

6.1 Plot graphs of V
o
versus D from the results of sections 5.2 and 5.8 and discuss with
reference to theory and experimental results.

6.2 Describe how switching frequency f
s
and the values of L affect the current ripple in the
boost inductor using your experimental results to verify theory.

6.3 Describe how V
o
changes with D when the converter operates with discontinuous
conduction using your experimental results to verify theory.

6.4 Plot the frequency response data for inductor current I
L
and V
o
versus frequency of D found
in 5.9. Comment on these results.

ELEC4614 Power Electronics Laboratory

Experiment 2 DC-DC Boost Converter 6 F. Rahman/Feb, 2011

6.5 You may substantiate your comments by using the simulation results. Computer model of
the buck converter could be built using PSIM in the School computing lab or in room 130.
Such models will give you all waveforms you observed during your experiment.