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Generalized Simulation Model for a Switched-Mode Power Supply Design Course Using MATLAB/SIMULINK
Wei-Hsin Liao, Shun-Chung Wang, and Yi-Hua Liu, Member, IEEE
AbstractSwitched-mode power supplies (SMPS) are becoming an essential part of many electronic systems as the industry drives toward miniaturization and energy efciency. However, practical SMPS design courses are seldom offered. In this paper, a generalized MATLAB/SIMULINK modeling technique is rst presented. A proposed practical SMPS design course at Lunghua University, Taiwan, which incorporates this technique, is then described. In order to validate the correctness of the proposed modeling technique, four prototype SMPS are provided in this paper. These prototype circuits also serve as the laboratory section of the proposed course. The main objective of the course is to teach nal-year undergraduate students and rst-year Masters students how to design an SMPS in real life. The positive response from students indicates that the proposed technique is useful for SMPS design courses. Index Termsacdc power conversion, dcdc power conversion, power electronics, pulse-width modulated power converters, switched-mode power supplies (SMPS).

I. INTRODUCTION OWER electronics is recognized as the enabling technology propelling many hi-tech applications, such as personal computers, home appliances, telecommunications, automation and process control, robotics, transportation, and all forms of environmentally friendly energy conversions. Nowadays, as the industry drives toward miniaturization and energy efciency, switched mode power supplies (SMPS) have become the dominant type of power supply units employed across practically the full spectrum of applications. This extensive use of SMPS in electronic products and systems makes the fundamental understanding of SMPS a necessity for electronic engineering students and professionals. This trend has resulted in an increasing interest in providing power electronic courses at the senior undergraduate and the graduate levels in various institutions [1][7]. Traditionally, SMPS are taught as part of a typical introductory undergraduate elective course in power electronics [8][11]. However, the practical design of SMPS
Manuscript received March 05, 2010; revised September 21, 2010; accepted January 11, 2011. Date of publication March 03, 2011; date of current version February 03, 2012. W.-H. Liao and Y.-H. Liu are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]). S.-C. Wang is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan 33306, Taiwan (e-mail: [email protected]). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TE.2011.2115243

requires design expertise, which can only be gained with years of experience [12][16]. An SMPS can be a fairly complicated circuit, as can be seen from the block diagram shown in Fig. 1 [12]. The ac supply is rst rectied, and then ltered by the input capacitor to produce a rough dc voltage. This dc voltage is next applied to a power factor correction (PFC) preregulator followed by output dcdc converter(s). Most of the SMPS manufactured today for ac input applications include the PFC front end to improve the power factor and meet the harmonic regulations such as EN61000-3-2. Downstream, a dcdc converter is used to generate a set of dc voltages required for the load, and this normally also provides input-to-output isolation. Regulation of the output is carried out by the control/feedback block, which in practice can be implemented using a commercial pulse-width modulation (PWM) IC. There are a number of topologies used in a dcdc converter, and a large variety of PWM ICs are suitable for these topologies. The selection of the right topology and controller depends on the specic requirements of the power supply and the designers personal experience. These issues are important for practical SMPS design, but are seldom discussed in power electronics courses [13][16]. Reference [13] presents experimental equipment on which students can safely observe the operation condition of some power converters, but the types of SMPS experiments that can be performed are limited. In [14], only power supplies consisting of a simple transformer, a rectier, and a lter were studied. Reference [15] proposed a switching converter circuit simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK and focused on closed-loop behavior and feedback controller design. In [16], a new course in practical SMPS design was described, but only two nonisolated switching power converters were considered. This paper proposes teaching SMPS design based on MATLAB/SIMULINK modeling, and four prototype SMPS are then given for the laboratory session. Compared to [15] and [16], both the simulation and experimental parts of SMPS design are addressed here, as are all the elementary types of SMPS. In this paper, a generalized MATLAB/SIMULINK dynamic behavior modeling technique for SMPS is presented. MATLAB/ SIMULINK is frequently used in design courses to facilitate the learning of some nonlinear, complex systems [17][22]. The MATLAB/SIMULINK environment is well suited to practical SMPS design course purposes because the SIMULINK environment has the advantage that models are entered as block diagrams with an intuitive graphical interface. Since the model parameters can be entered from menus, and changed interactively during a simulation as a block, students can conduct the

0018-9359/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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Fig. 1. Typical SMPS block diagram.

simulation just as though they were breadboarding the SMPS prototype. The purpose of this paper is to present a generalized simulation model suitable for SMPS design and a corresponding course. As the pedagogical plan was developed, several studies of students learning effectiveness were reviewed [7], [23][26]. The Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate (CDIO) concept as presented in [7] and [26] is adopted in this paper. Using the CDIO initiative and the proposed model, the students design, in systematic steps, real-life SMPS circuits to meet a set of design criteria. Detailed descriptions of these models and their use in SMPS design courses and four corresponding laboratory exercises will be presented in the following sections. II. COURSE OVERVIEW The main goal of this course is to teach nal-year undergraduate students and rst-year Masters students how to design an SMPS in real life. From the designers point of view, a practical SMPS design consists of several parts: the power converter topology selection, the controller (compensation circuit) design, and the magnetic and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) design. Of these, the magnetic and EMC design depend on the actual real-world application and are therefore not often taken into account in university courses. As a result, the main objectives of the proposed course are for the students to understand the theoretical operation of switching converter topologies, learn how to design a converter circuit using commercially available PWM ICs, and gain practical experiences by carrying out hands-on experiments. The course is divided into three main parts: 1) theoretical lectures; 2) simulation of the converter topologies and controller ICs; 3) hands-on experiments. The theoretical lectures will provide the background knowledge required for SMPS design, introducing the operating principles and state-space averaging techniques for switching power converter topologies. A basic knowledge is assumed of circuit theory, MATLAB/SIMULINK, and analog controller design. During the simulation session, descriptions of modeling techniques for power converters and controller ICs and their use in

SMPS courses will be presented. Students will then be asked to devise a SIMULINK model for power converters and PWM ICs using the behavior model technique, and then to mask this derived model as a subsystem for future use. After obtaining these models, students are then asked to complete four SMPS design projects that correspond to four commonly used SMPS types. Detailed descriptions of these four projects will be provided in Section V. During the laboratory part of the course, the students are presented with four prototype circuits, designed to the same specication as that given in the simulation section. These circuits are used to validate the correctness of the proposed modeling techniques and to give students hands-on experience of SMPS design. This course was taken for one semester by 40 students attending an elective three-credit senior-undergraduate course on practical SMPS design in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology (LHU), Taiwan. The detailed course layout is presented in Table I. At the end of the course, questionnaires were given to the students to collect their opinions about the course, which can later be used to improve the course design. III. SIMULINK MODEL OF A SWITCHED-MODE POWER SUPPLY In this section, the generalized construction method of an SMPS SIMULINK model will be presented. In this paper, the behavior model technique as presented in [27] is adopted. Take the yback power converter shown in Fig. 2 as an example. In a yback converter, the switch is continuously switching on and off at high frequency in order to transfer the electric power via energy storage components. Assuming the yback converter operates in continuous conduction mode (CCM), the state equation of the power circuit when is on can be written as (1) (2)

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OUTLINE OF

THE

TABLE I PROPOSED SMPS DESIGN COURSE

The relationship between

and

is (7) (8)

The output voltage

for switch being on or off is the same (9)

Fig. 2. Flyback switching power converter.

and the relationship between the transformer voltage on the primary side and secondary side can be depicted as (3) (4) where is the number of turns on the primary side and is the number of turns on the secondary side. With the switch turned off, the state equation of the power circuit can be written as (5) (6)

Taking (1)(9) into account, the corresponding behavior model, Fig. 3, can then be implemented in the SIMULINK environment. It should be noted that the constructed model can be masked into a subsystem in SIMULINK, allowing users to change circuit parameters easily during simulations using a dialog window. IV. SIMULINK MODEL FOR CONTROLLER ICS As seen in Fig. 1, a typical SMPS consists of two parts: a PFC preregulator and a dcdc conversion stage. The objective of the PFC is to control input ac current so that it is in phase with the utility ac voltage, and its waveform follows the input voltage waveform. The objective of the dcdc converter is to maintain a constant voltage across the load under a variable input voltage and load current. There are three basic types of power-supply control ICs: voltage-mode control ICs and current-mode control ICs for dcdc converter control, and power-factor correction ICs

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Fig. 4. Error amplier with compensation network. (a) General form. (b) Equivalent circuit.

Fig. 3. SIMULINK model for yback converter.

for PFC control. In addition to these three basic types of ICs, advanced functions such as multiphase or synchronous rectication are also commonly implemented in modern PWM ICs. The modeling techniques of these types of ICs will be presented. A. SIMULINK Model of Error Amplier For switching power converters, a negative feedback loop is required to obtain constant output voltage(s). To accomplish this, an error amplier (EA) is used, which attempts to minimize the error between the output voltage and an ideal reference voltage. Deciencies in gain and phase margins must be compensated for by using an appropriate compensation network. Fig. 4 shows the general form and the equivalent circuit of a feedback controller. From Fig. 4(b), assuming the input impedance of the EA is innite, the output voltage of the EA can be calculated as

Fig. 5. SIMULINK model for an error amplier with compensation network.

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of voltage-mode control.

(10) (11) where the transfer function of the open-loop gain represented as can be (12) is the dc gain and is the pole. Using (10)(12), the where SIMULINK model for an EA with compensation network can be obtained, as shown in Fig. 5. B. SIMULINK Model of Voltage-Mode Control IC Fig. 6 shows the schematic diagram of voltage-mode control. The important feature of voltage-mode control is that the error voltage is placed into a PWM comparator and compared to a clock-generated sawtooth waveform. As the error voltage rises and falls, the pulse width of the output signal increases and decreases accordingly. The operating principles of this type of control IC are similar to those of the many commercially available voltage-mode ICs. In this paper, UC3525 from Texas Instruments is taken as an example to show the validity of the proposed method; Fig. 7 shows its block diagram [28]. As can be seen, UC3525 comprises an error amplier, a PWM comparator, and an SR ip-op. The EA with a compensation network can be constructed using (10), and the error voltage is derived in the feedback system from the EA that amplies the difference between the output voltage and the reference voltage. The generated error voltage is then compared to a sawtooth ramp to control the duty cycle of the power

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Fig. 7. Block diagram of UC3525.

Fig. 9. Current-mode control schematic diagram.

Fig. 8. SIMULINK model of UC3525.

frequency clock signal. In this way, the peak current of the inductor is precisely controlled by the control voltage. Similarly, there are many commercially available current-mode ICs. Here, Texas Instruments UC3842 is taken as the example. As seen in the block diagram of the UC3842 [29], Fig. 10, the UC3842 also consists of an error amplier, a PWM comparator, and an SR ip-op. The only difference between current-mode control and voltage-mode control is that current-mode control uses the oscillator only as a xed-frequency clock, and the ramp waveform in voltage-mode control is replaced with a signal derived from the output inductor current. Using similar techniques to those described in Section IV-B, the SIMULINK model of UC3842 can be obtained as shown in Fig. 11. D. SIMULINK Model of Power-Factor-Correction IC

switch. A ip-op is used in UC3525 to ensure that only one output pulse is generated for each clock period. The SIMULINK model of UC3525 is shown in Fig. 8, in which the corresponding blocks (compensator, PWM comparator, and ip-op) are labeled in boxes to show the relationship between the IC diagram and the derived SIMULINK model. It should be noted that the model shown in Fig. 8 can also be integrated into a subsystem, and a dialog window can be used to enter the parameters of the compensation network. C. SIMULINK Model of Current-Mode Control IC A second control method for dcdc converters is called current-mode control. Fig. 9 shows the schematic diagram for current-mode control, where the peak inductor current is controlled along with the output voltage. The inductor current is sensed by some means and is compared to a control voltage , derived from the output voltage error. The PWM comparator will output high (power switch on) until the sensed inductor current equals the control voltage. As soon as this equality is met, the PWM comparator goes low and turns the switch off. The beginning of the next period is initiated by setting an RS latch from a xed

Power factor correction shapes the input current of the SMPS to maximize the real power available from the utility. There are three general methods for PFC control: discontinuous conduction mode (DCM), transition mode (TRM), and continuous conduction mode (CCM). However, these three types of ICs have a similar main objective: to ensure that the input current should be nearly sinusoidal and in phase with the ac line voltage and the output dc bus should be regulated at a xed voltage. Of the many commercially available PFC ICs, L6561 from SGS-Thompson Corporation is taken as an example here. L6561 is a transition-mode controller that is very popular for lighting and other lower-power applications. As seen in the block diagram of the L6561 [30], Fig. 12, an EA with a low-frequency pole provides an error signal into the reference multiplier. The other input to the multiplier is a scaled version of the rectied input ac line voltage. The multiplier output is the product of the near dc signal from the EA and the rectied sine waveform from the ac input. The output signal from the multiplier is then used as the reference for the input voltage. The amplitude of this signal is adjusted to maintain the output voltage at its regulated value. The SIMULINK model of L6561 can be obtained as shown in Fig. 13.

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Fig. 10. Block diagram of UC3842.

Fig. 11. SIMULINK model of UC3842.

Fig. 13. SIMULINK model of L6561.

Fig. 12. Block diagram of L6561.

E. SIMULINK Model of a Multiphase Control IC Multiphase interleaved circuits are commonly found in voltage regulator modules (VRMs) for personal computer (PC) and server applications, where high output current and fast transient response is crucial. For an -phase control IC, the oscillators are synchronized such that each phase is driven by gate-driving signals of the same switching frequency, but adjacent phases are phase-shifted by 360 . Here, TPS40140 from Texas Instruments is taken as an example. Fig. 14 shows its block diagram [31], from which it can be seen that TPS40140 offers two-phase interleaved operation and consists of two identical current-mode control blocks. Moreover, it provides gating signals for synchronous buck operation. Using similar

Fig. 14. Block diagram of TPS40140.

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Fig. 15. SIMULINK model of TPS40140.

techniques to those previously described, the TPS40140s SIMULINK model of can be obtained, as shown in Fig. 15. V. EXAMPLES USING THE PROPOSED SIMULINK MODEL In order to validate the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed technique, examples are provided in this section. Four types of converters, including nonisolated and isolated dcdc converters, an acdc converter with power factor correction, and a multiphase buck converter are considered. For the rst three types of prototype circuits, students are provided with a prefabricated blank printed circuit board (PCB) and all the required components. They have to build and test the circuit according to the same specication given in the simulation section. For the multiphase buck converter, an evaluation module (EVM) from Texas Instruments is used. Detailed descriptions of these converters will be provided in the following sections. A. Voltage-Mode Controlled Nonisolated Buck Converter Fig. 16 shows the SIMULINK model of a buck converter, using UC3525 as the control IC. From a theoretical approach, compensation circuit design often involves complicated equations, making this a challenging task. Many practicing engineers typically design compensation circuits using a trial-and-error approach. In contrast, the SIMULINK model presented allows engineers to learn compensation circuit design in a graphical and generalized way. There are a number of well-documented techniques for designing the compensation circuit for an SMPS [32]. In practice, due to its graphical nature and simplicity, the frequency response technique is widely adopted. Typical compensation circuit design procedures can be summarized as the following. 1) Obtain the transfer function of the power stage, and then plot the bode plot using the sisotool in MATLAB.

Fig. 16. SIMULINK model of a buck converter using UC3525.

Fig. 17. Typical buck converter.

2) Select the poles and zeros of a compensation circuit so that a cascade transfer function of the power stage and compensation circuit exhibits the desired frequency characteristics and does not violate stability conditions. 3) Verify the result using simulation and experiments. Taking the buck converter shown in Fig. 17 as an example, and assuming the circuit parameters are V, V, H, F, , the switching frequency kHz. Using state-space average

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Fig. 18. Open-loop bode plot of the presented buck converter.

Fig. 20. Parameter setting dialog window of UC3525 subsystem.

Fig. 19. Closed-loop bode plot of the presented buck converter with compensation circuit.

modeling techniques, the control-to-output transfer function can be obtained as (13) The dc steady-state operating point is A, V, and duty cycle . Using the sisotool, the bode plot of (13) can be plotted as Fig. 18. Adding two zeros at 1316 Hz and two poles at 72.5 kHz can improve the phase margin and crossover frequency. The bode plot after adding the compensation circuit is shown in Fig. 19. Users can then use the proposed SIMULINK model to simulate this circuit. Adding a zero and a pole is equivalent to a Type-II compensation circuit, so using the parameter setting dialog window as shown in Fig. 20, the compensation circuit parameters can be entered. To verify the correctness of the proposed method, a prototype using the same parameters is also implemented. The simulated and experimental waveforms of this system are shown in Fig. 21. The simulated and experimental waveforms are nearly identical, which veries the correctness of the proposed modeling technique.

Fig. 21. Waveforms of output voltage and inductor current lated waveform. (b) Experimental waveform.

. (a) Simu-

Three additional examples are also presented to validate the proposed technique. The design techniques are similar to those

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Fig. 22. SIMULINK model of yback converter using UC3842.

presented in Section V-A, so thay will not be described here. The block diagrams and waveforms obtained for these three examples will be provided in the following sections. B. Current-Mode Controlled Isolated Flyback Converter Fig. 22 shows the SIMULINK model of a yback converter using UC3842 as the control IC. The simulated and experimental waveforms of this system are presented in Fig. 23, which shows that the simulated waveform is similar to the experimental waveform, except for the transients caused by the parasitic components not taken into account in simulation. C. Transition-Mode Power Factor Correction Circuit Fig. 24 shows the SIMULINK model of a PFC circuit, using L6561 as the control IC. The simulated and experimental waveforms of this system are presented in Fig. 25, which shows that the simulated waveform correctly follows the experimental waveform. D. Two-Phase Synchronous Buck Converter Fig. 26 shows the SIMULINK model of a two-phase synchronous buck converter circuit using TPS40140 as the control IC. The simulated and experimental waveforms of this system are presented in Fig. 27, which shows that the simulated waveform matches the experimental waveform. It should be noted that TPS40140 only comes in a 36-pin QFN package; the manufacturing processes for this kind of surface-mount device (SMD) are much more sophisticated. Therefore, instead of letting the students construct prototype circuits of their own, students verify the SIMULINK model on an EVM of TPS40140. As a further validation, some key parameters are measured for each of the four prototype circuits. These are summarized in Table II. The simulated and experimental results show that the proposed modeling techniques can be successfully used to model various kinds of SMPS. Moreover, the four prototype systems constructed can be used for laboratory experiments in which students can verify the results of experiments and compare them to those obtained by simulation. By building and testing the prototype circuits, students can gain and improve their skill in product development. Fig. 28 shows photographs of these four prototype systems.

Fig. 23. Waveforms of output voltage waveform. (b) Experimental waveform.

and source current

. (a) Simulated

Fig. 24. SIMULINK model of PFC circuit using L6561.

VI. STUDENT ASSESSMENT The technique presented here was used by students in an elective senior-level undergraduate practical SMPS design course at LHU. After the course, all the students were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire, responding to questions on a ve-point scale (1very poor, 2poor, 3satisfactory, 4good, and 5very good), shown in Table III. According

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Fig. 25. Waveforms of input voltage waveform. (b) Experimental waveform.

and input current

. (a) Simulated Fig. 27. Waveforms of inductor currents form. (b) Experimental waveform. and . (a) Simulated wave-

Fig. 28. Four proposed prototype systems. (a) Buck converter. (b) Flyback converter. (c) PFC boost converter. (d) Multiphase buck converter EVM. Fig. 26. SIMULINK model of multiphase converter circuit using TPS40140.

to the results, the proposed course received a 4.50/5.0 rating, compared to an average rating of 3.95/5.0 for all electrical engineering courses at LHU. The questionnaire results were extremely positive on the interactive simulations and hands-on experiments; the majority of students felt that the interactive

simulation environment provides the user with a far more intuitive feel for system dynamics. Students also agree that building SMPS from scratch and validating the measured waveforms against simulated ones enhanced their understanding of the theoretical material and made the course more interesting. Most students liked the class because it was design-oriented rather than theoretical. They got to learn how SMPS are being

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TABLE II MEASURED RESULTS FOR SIMULATED AND EXPERIMENTAL CIRCUITS

TABLE III QUESTIONNAIRE AND RESULTS

implemented in various modern applications. They found the hands-on experiments, which gave them the opportunity to build actual SMPS and deal with the practical considerations, to be very challenging. While the course received an overall outstanding evaluation from the students, some still thought that the technology is too difcult for them to learn, although

they had nished the simulation and experiments with the rest of the class. At the end of the course, more than 80% of the students needed extra time to digest the important ideas in the lecture notes and explained by the teacher in class. For the complex mathematical calculations, it helps students to be given time to take handwritten notes.

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VII. CONCLUSION This paper presented a generalized MATLAB/SIMULINK modeling technique and a corresponding practical SMPS design course. The proposed modeling techniques can be used to model all the major types of SMPS and their control ICs. Using this technique, users can learn SMPS design through simulation, and then gain experience and improve their skills in practical SMPS design. In order to validate the correctness of the proposed method, four prototype circuits are also given. All the waveforms obtained conrm that the technique can successfully model the SMPS. The four circuits presented also serve as the laboratory part of the course and help students gain hands-on experience of SMPS design. To evaluate the proposed course, a comprehensive survey was also conducted. The positive response from students indicates that the proposed technique is useful for SMPS design courses. REFERENCES
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Yi-Hua Liu (M01) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1998. In 2003, he was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Chang-Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. He is currently with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan. His current research interests are in the areas of power electronics and battery management.