| Peer-Reviewed

A Fast Switching Current Controlled DC/DC Converter for Automotive Applications

Received: 7 June 2021     Accepted: 23 July 2021     Published: 7 August 2021
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Abstract

Automotive industry requires integrated circuits with both low cost, to maintain product competitiveness, and high efficiency, moving towards solutions as green as possible. Each electronic device within the car needs for a regulator to provide a steady supply to ensure correct and safe operation. Among all regulator, DC/DC Converters are the most valid solution to achieve a high efficiency-price ratio. The DC/DC Converter needs for a control loop to monitor the load operation. The basic control loop topologies are well known in the state-of-the-art. The paper presents a DC/DC Buck Converter for automotive applications designed in low cost technology with an upgraded version of the Peak Current Mode Control which uses a constant off-time. For chip area reduction, an n-channel power-DMOS is chosen as power transistor. The design of each block composing the circuit is presented. To guarantee DC-DC Buck converters high-efficiency and low cost (in terms of external components) increasing switching frequency is mandatory. A  1.5 MHz switching frequency has been chosen to reduce external components size. The device is optimized by design to be able to achieve 94.4% efficiency using a 3V  3A load. The post-layout simulations of the system are shown, confirming the expected circuit behavior also including the presence of wiring parasites. A PCB is also designed to test the packaged die to ultimately demonstrate the chip’s robustness and suitability in a real automotive application.

Published in Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Volume 9, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14
Page(s) 123-128
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

DC/DC Converter, Current Control, Peak Current Mode Control, Constant-Toff

References
[1] Mednik, A, “Automotive LED lighting needs special drivers”, Power Electronics Technology Magazine, 2005.
[2] Frank Xi, “Design of DC-DC converters”, Dallas IEEE-SSCS, 2007.
[3] Dixon Jr., L. H. “Closing the feedback loop”, Texas Instruments, 1985.
[4] Fang, Chung-Chieh Redl, Richard ”Subharmonic Instability Limits for the Peak-Current-Controlled Buck converter With Closed Voltage Feedback Loop” Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on. 30. 1085-1092, 2015.
[5] G. Nayak and S. Nath, "Instability in Peak Current Mode Controlled Coupled SIDO Buck Converter," 2020 IEEE International Conference on Power Electronics, Drives and Energy Systems (PEDES), 2020, pp. 1-6.
[6] Jiuming, Z., Shulin, L. (2011). ” Design of slope compensation circuit in peak-current controlled mode converters”, International Conference on Electric Information and Control Engineering, pp. 1310-1313, 2011.
[7] Y. Hu, Y. Wei, J. Wang and M. Sun, “Design of slope compensation for a high-efficiency high-current DC-DC converter”, 13th IEEE International Conference on Solid-State and Integrated Circuit Technology ICSICT, Hangzhou, pp. 1306-1308, 2016.
[8] Subotskaya, V., Mihal, V., Tulupov, M., & Deutschmann, B. “Optimized gate driver for high-frequency buck converter”, e & i Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, 135 (1), 40-47, 2018.
[9] Bau, P., Cousineau, M., Cougo, B., Richardeau, F., Colin, D., Rouger, N. ”A CMOS gate driver with ultra-fast dV/dt embedded control dedicated to optimum EMI and turn-on losses management for GaN power transistors”, PRIME, IEEE 2018.
[10] R. Di Lorenzo, O. Gasparri, A. Pidutti, P. Del Croce, A. Baschirotto, ”On-Chip Power Stage and Gate Driver for Fast Switching Applica¬tions”, ICECS, 2019.
[11] O. Gasparri, P. Del Croce, A Baschirotto Variable off-Time Peak Current Mode Control (VoT-PCMC) as method for average current regulation in Buck Converter Drivers”, ICECS, 2019.
[12] O. Gasparri, P. Del Croce, A Baschirotto ”Buck Converter with Variable Off-time Peak Current Mode Control”, ICECS 2020.
[13] P. Del Croce, A. Pidutti, A. Baschirotto, O. Gasparri, US Patent “US 16/248, 614”.
[14] Liu, Z., Cong, L., & Lee, H. “Design of on-chip gate drivers with power-efficient high-speed level shifting and dynamic timing control for high-voltage synchronous switching power converters”, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, 50 (6), 1463-1477, 2015.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Osvaldo Gasparri, Albino Pidutti, Paolo Del Croce, Andrea Baschirotto. (2021). A Fast Switching Current Controlled DC/DC Converter for Automotive Applications. Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 9(4), 123-128. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14

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    ACS Style

    Osvaldo Gasparri; Albino Pidutti; Paolo Del Croce; Andrea Baschirotto. A Fast Switching Current Controlled DC/DC Converter for Automotive Applications. J. Electr. Electron. Eng. 2021, 9(4), 123-128. doi: 10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14

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    AMA Style

    Osvaldo Gasparri, Albino Pidutti, Paolo Del Croce, Andrea Baschirotto. A Fast Switching Current Controlled DC/DC Converter for Automotive Applications. J Electr Electron Eng. 2021;9(4):123-128. doi: 10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14,
      author = {Osvaldo Gasparri and Albino Pidutti and Paolo Del Croce and Andrea Baschirotto},
      title = {A Fast Switching Current Controlled DC/DC Converter for Automotive Applications},
      journal = {Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering},
      volume = {9},
      number = {4},
      pages = {123-128},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jeee.20210904.14},
      abstract = {Automotive industry requires integrated circuits with both low cost, to maintain product competitiveness, and high efficiency, moving towards solutions as green as possible. Each electronic device within the car needs for a regulator to provide a steady supply to ensure correct and safe operation. Among all regulator, DC/DC Converters are the most valid solution to achieve a high efficiency-price ratio. The DC/DC Converter needs for a control loop to monitor the load operation. The basic control loop topologies are well known in the state-of-the-art. The paper presents a DC/DC Buck Converter for automotive applications designed in low cost technology with an upgraded version of the Peak Current Mode Control which uses a constant off-time. For chip area reduction, an n-channel power-DMOS is chosen as power transistor. The design of each block composing the circuit is presented. To guarantee DC-DC Buck converters high-efficiency and low cost (in terms of external components) increasing switching frequency is mandatory. A  1.5 MHz switching frequency has been chosen to reduce external components size. The device is optimized by design to be able to achieve 94.4% efficiency using a 3V  3A load. The post-layout simulations of the system are shown, confirming the expected circuit behavior also including the presence of wiring parasites. A PCB is also designed to test the packaged die to ultimately demonstrate the chip’s robustness and suitability in a real automotive application.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - A Fast Switching Current Controlled DC/DC Converter for Automotive Applications
    AU  - Osvaldo Gasparri
    AU  - Albino Pidutti
    AU  - Paolo Del Croce
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    DO  - 10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14
    T2  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
    JF  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
    JO  - Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
    SP  - 123
    EP  - 128
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2329-1605
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jeee.20210904.14
    AB  - Automotive industry requires integrated circuits with both low cost, to maintain product competitiveness, and high efficiency, moving towards solutions as green as possible. Each electronic device within the car needs for a regulator to provide a steady supply to ensure correct and safe operation. Among all regulator, DC/DC Converters are the most valid solution to achieve a high efficiency-price ratio. The DC/DC Converter needs for a control loop to monitor the load operation. The basic control loop topologies are well known in the state-of-the-art. The paper presents a DC/DC Buck Converter for automotive applications designed in low cost technology with an upgraded version of the Peak Current Mode Control which uses a constant off-time. For chip area reduction, an n-channel power-DMOS is chosen as power transistor. The design of each block composing the circuit is presented. To guarantee DC-DC Buck converters high-efficiency and low cost (in terms of external components) increasing switching frequency is mandatory. A  1.5 MHz switching frequency has been chosen to reduce external components size. The device is optimized by design to be able to achieve 94.4% efficiency using a 3V  3A load. The post-layout simulations of the system are shown, confirming the expected circuit behavior also including the presence of wiring parasites. A PCB is also designed to test the packaged die to ultimately demonstrate the chip’s robustness and suitability in a real automotive application.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Physics “Giuseppe Occhialini”, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

  • Infineon Technologies, Body Power- Product Development- Analog Design Team, Villach, Austria

  • Infineon Technologies, Body Power- Product Development- Analog Design Team, Villach, Austria

  • Department of Physics “Giuseppe Occhialini”, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

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