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Modelling and simulation DC-DC power converter buck for mobile

applications using MATLAB/Simulink

Article  in  International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise · January 2017

DOI: 10.1504/IJIE.2017.087004

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76 Int. J. Intelligent Enterprise, Vol. 4, Nos. 1/2, 2017

Modelling and simulation DC-DC power converter

buck for mobile applications using MATLAB/Simulink

Kaoutar Bendaoud* and Salah-ddine Krit

Laboratory of Engineering Sciences and Energy,
Polydisciplinary Faculty of Ouarzazate,
Ibn Zohr University,
Agadir BP/638, Morocco
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
*Corresponding author

Jalal Laassiri
Laboratory of Mathematic informatics and Applications,
Mohamed V University,
Agdal Rabat BP/1014, Morocco
Email: [email protected]

Lahoucine El Maimouni
Laboratory of Engineering Sciences and Energy,
Polydisciplinary Faculty of Ouarzazate,
Ibn Zohr University,
Agadir BP/638, Morocco
Email: [email protected]

Abstract: Switched mode DC-DC converters are some of the simplest power
electronic circuits which convert one level of electrical voltage into another
level by switching action. These converters have received an increasing deal of
interest in many areas. This is due to their wide applications like power
supplies for personal computers, office equipment, appliance control,
telecommunication equipment, DC motor drives, automotive, aircraft, etc. The
analysis, design, control and stabilisation of switching converters are the main
factors that need to be considered (Verma et al., 2013). In brief, DC/DC
converters are used to generate multiple DC levels for powering the circuits in
a device, they are also used to reduce ripples, i.e., they carry out two main
functions: modify the voltage level (step-up or step-down), regulate voltage.
This paper first reviews the commonly used DC-DC converters in portable
power device, namely, buck and boost converters, and then a model for a buck
converter using MATLAB/Simulink is illustrated and simulated in both open
loop mode and using a PID controller.

Keywords: DC/DC converters; mobile applications; MATLAB/Simulink; buck

and boost converters; PID controller.

Copyright © 2017 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Modelling and simulation DC-DC power converter buck 77

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bendaoud, K., Krit, S-d.,
Laassiri, J. and El Maimouni, L. (2017) ‘Modelling and simulation DC-DC
power converter buck for mobile applications using MATLAB/Simulink’,
Int. J. Intelligent Enterprise, Vol. 4, Nos. 1/2, pp.76–87.

Biographical notes: Kaoutar Bendaoud graduated in Electronics and

Automatics Engineering from the National School of Applied Science of
Tangier, Morocco in 2015. She is currently a PhD candidate at the
Polydisciplinary Faculty of Ouarzazate, Ibn Zohr University, Morocco. Her
research interests include linear regulators, DC-DC power converters, and
switching converters for mobile applications.

Salah-ddine Krit received his BS and PhD in Microectronics Engineering from

the Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morroco Institute in 2004
and 2009, respectively. During 2002 to 2008, he is also an Engineer Team
Leader in audio and power management integrated circuits (ICs) research,
design, simulation and layout of analogue and digital blocks dedicated for
mobile phone and satellite communication systems using CMOS technology.
He is currently a Professor of Informatics-Physics with Polydisciplinary
Faculty of Ouarzazate, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morroco. His research
interests include wireless sensor networks (software and hardware), computer
engineering and wireless communications.

Jalal Laassiri received his Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Informatics in 2001

and his Master’s (DESA) in Computer Sciences and Engineering from the
Faculty of Sciences, University Mohammed V, Rabat, Morroco in 2005. He
received his PhD in Computer Sciences and Engineering from the University of
Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco in June, 2010. He was a Visiting Scientific
with the Imperial College London in London, UK. He is a member of the
International Association of Engineers (IAENG). He joined the Faculty of
Sciences of Kénitra, Department of Computer Science, Ibn Tofail University,
Morocco, as a Professor in October 2010, His current research interests include
software and systems engineering, UML-OCL, and B-method.

Lahoucine El Maimouni received his PhD in Electronics in 2005 from the

Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (IEMN)
University of Valenciennes, Valenciennes, France. In 2006, he joined the
Polydisciplinary Faculty of Ouarzazate, Ibn Zohr University, Morocco. In
2011, he received his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) from the
Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir. At present, his research
activities are focused on acoustic wave propagation in piezoelectric structures,
BAW resonators, piezoelectric sensor, acoustic wave resonators and filters for
RF-MEMS, and audiovisual techniques for image and sound.

This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Design and
simulation DC-DC power converters buck and boost for mobile applications
using MATLAB/Simulink’ presented at International Conference on
Engineering & MIS, Agadir, Morocco, 22–24 September 2016.
78 K. Bendaoud et al.

1 Introduction

The emergence of integrated circuit around 1964 due to transistor’s miniaturisation

facilitated a great revolution of electronics which allowed the emergence of various
portable applications. Consequently, mobile equipment industry has known strong
growth and mobiles integrate more and more functionalities in smaller volumes. In other
words, battery-powered mobile equipment has become an important pillar of the
electronic consumer market. However, all these mobile equipment have the same major
weakness: their battery provides a limited operating time, which can only be increased in
two ways. First, the energy density of the battery can be increased by developing new
battery chemistries. Second, the battery energy can be used more efficiently by improving
energy management. We will focus on the latter, and especially on voltage conversion,
which is used in mobile equipment. A way used to optimise the battery run-time consists
in inserting a DC-DC converter between the battery and supplied load. In recent years,
these converters have received an increasing deal of interest in many areas of applications
due to maintain the voltage supplied to the load constant from no load to full load with
high conversion efficiency (Mude and Sahu, 2012).
DC/DC converters are important in portable electronic devices such as cellular
phones and laptop computers, which are supplied with power from batteries primarily.
Such electronic devices often contain several sub circuits, each with its own voltage level
requirement different from that supplied by the battery or an external supply (sometimes
higher or lower than the supply voltage). DC-DC converters provide smooth acceleration
control, high efficiency, and fast dynamic response (Rashid, 2004). Buck and boost
converters are ones of the basic DC-DC converters. They have a broad applicable
background because of the simple circuit structure and good control effort. In general,
they have two basic mode of work operation, i.e., continuous inductor current mode
(CCM) and discontinuous inductor current mode (DCM) (Tse, 1994). CCM is that the
inductor current is always greater than zero without interruption of current in a switch
period; however, DCM is that the inductor current is zero during the switch-off some
time (Jiang et al., 2009). This paper presents a brief overview of the operation of DC-DC
buck and boost converters, then presents modelling of buck converter using
MATLAB/Simulink.

2 DC-DC voltage converters role

At present, mobiles are composed of several integrated circuits. Figure 1 illustrates their
distribution. Namely, circuits used to transmit and receive data through the antenna,
circuit manages digital parts like memories, microcontroller and processor, circuits
incorporate analogue/digital circuits and battery management functions. Since the
constraints are very different for each of these circuits, they are realised in a technology
adapted to their functions.
Every integrated circuit needs a constant supply voltage. However, the only way to
store electrical energy in portable equipment is in DC energy reservoirs (e.g., batteries,
accumulators and capacitors), which all suffer from the same drawback: their voltage
decreases when they discharge (Rao et al., 2003). The voltage delivered must be
regulated and adapted to voltage requested by integrated circuits in mobile devices
(Panigrahi et al., 2001). This makes the integration of DC-DC converters for mobile
 Modelling and simulation DC-DC power converter buck 79

systems essential. In brief, the role of DC-DC voltage regulators will be to generate
several regulated voltages, stable and constant in time, from the single, variable and
distorted voltage that delivers the rechargeable battery to power integrated circuits. I.e.,
DC-DC converter must provide a regulated dc output voltage even subjected to load and
input voltage variation (Kumutha et al., 2015).
Current needs are cost reduction and miniaturisation which manifest in the
development of new integrated DC-DC voltage regulators structures purely CMOS.

Figure 1 Integrated circuits of a mobile phone

3 DC-DC converters operating principle

3.1 Boost converter

Boost converter is one of the simplest but most useful power converters. It is a step-up
converter that converts an unregulated DC input voltage to a regulated dc output at a
lower voltage. Figure 2 shows the basic circuit configuration used in the buck converter.
As can be seen, it consists of a power MOSFET switch Q, flywheel diode D, inductor L,
output capacitor C, and load resistance R. The inductor L acts as energy storage element
that keeps the current flowing while the diode facilitates inductor current wheeling during
the OFF time of the MOSFET. Filter made of capacitor (C) is normally added to the
output of the converter to reduce output voltage ripple (Erickson and Maksimovic, 2004).
Usually, P-channel MOSFET (PMOS) is preferred to be used as switch instead of
NMOS, because if the NMOS is employed as a MOSFET switch since both the gate and
the source are connected to the voltage supply then it would be hard to drive it
(Kazimierczuk, 2008). In order to improve power efficiency, the diode is usually replaced
by an n-channel MOSFET (NMOS) because voltage drop in conducted MOSFET is very
low comparison to conducted diode. In this case, it is referred to a synchronous boost
converter. The operation of a buck converter can be divided into two times according to
the state of MOSFET switch. During ON state, the current through the inductance
increases linearly. The voltage across the diode is negative, no current passes through it.
The off-state begins when MOSFET switch Q is blocked. The diode becomes conductive.
80 K. Bendaoud et al.

It ensures continuity of the current in the inductor. The current through the inductor
decreases.
As mentioned previously, it can operate in continuous conduction mode (CCM) or in
discontinuous conduction mode (DCM), depending on the waveform of inductor current
(Kazimierczuk, 2008).

Figure 2 Boost converter (see online version for colours)

Figure 3 Waveforms of current and voltage in CCM (see online version for colours)

3.2 CCM vs. DCM

If the value of the inductance is reduced to the critical point, the valley current will decay
and finally become zero at the end of the duty cycle. A further decrease in L will cause
the current to fall to zero even before the completion of the OFF period of the converter.
The current builds up from an initial zero value during TON in the next converter cycle.
 Modelling and simulation DC-DC power converter buck 81

This operation of the converter is called discontinuous load current mode. If the current is
non-zero for all the chopper period, the converter is said to be operating in continuous
load current mode. This is achieved by appropriate selection of converter switching
frequency or inductance value, or both (Mahesh Gowda et al., 2014). Figure 3 shows
waveforms of current and voltage in CCM for a boost converter while Figure 4 presents
them in DCM.

Figure 4 Waveforms of current and voltage in DCM (see online version for colours)

3.3 Buck converter

Buck converter is a step down converter which converts unregulated DC input voltage to
a regulated DC output voltage. Figure 5 shows the basic configuration of a buck
converter.
The buck converter is operated by turning the MOSFET ON and OFF at a high
switching frequency. During the ON state, the MOSFET is turned ON for a time interval
TON and the diode is OFF, then IL begins to grown exponentially across inductance L. The
OFF state TOFF begins when MOSFET is turned off and IL is at its peak value Ipk. The
decay of IL causes an induced voltage L didtL to appear across the inductance, then the
diode becomes forward-biased and causes the current flow to continue and decay
exponentially. The output voltage is given by:
Vout = DVin (1)
where the duty cycle D is given by:
TON
D= (2)
TON + TOFF
82 K. Bendaoud et al.

Figure 5 Buck converter with feed back controller (see online version for colours)

Figure 6 Block diagram of a PID controller

3.4 PID controller

Proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller (Figure 6) has been used for several
decades in industries for process control applications. PID involves three separate
parameter, the proportional, the integral and derivatives. By tuning the three constants in
PID controller algorithm, the controller can provide control action designed for specific
process requirement. First, the PID controller works in a closed-loop system. The
variable (e) represents the tracking error, the difference between the desired input value
(R) and the actual output. This error signal (e) will be sent to the PID controller, and the
controller computes both the derivative and the integral of this error signal. The signal (u)
just past the controller is now equal to the proportional gain (Kp) times the magnitude of
the error plus the integral gain (Ki) times the integral of the error plus the derivative gain
(Kd) times the derivative of the error where, this signal (u) will be sent to the plant, and
the new output will be obtained. This new output will be sent back to the sensor again to
find the new error signal (e). The controller takes this new error signal and computes its
 Modelling and simulation DC-DC power converter buck 83

derivative and its integral again. This process goes on and on, this signal (u) is obtained
as follows (Rathi and Ali, 2016):
de(t )
∫
u (t ) = K p e(t ) + K i e(t )dt + K d
dt
(3)

Figure 7 Model diagram of buck converter using Simulink

4 Modelling of DC-DC buck converter using Simulink

Differential equations of inductor current iL and capacitor voltage out v as a variable

respectively are established according to KVL and KCL theory (Erickson and
Maksimovic, 2004). The inductor is given by:
diL
Vin D = L + RL iL + Vout (4)
dt
Then
1
iL =
L ∫
(Vin D − RL iL − Vout ) dt (5)

Applying KCL at the capacitor node we get:

dVC
C= = iL − iout (6)
dt
Then
1
VC =
C ∫
( iL − iout ) dt (7)
84 K. Bendaoud et al.

And
Vout = VC + RL ( iL − iout ) (8)

where RC is the effective series resistance of the capacitor.

The Simulink model for buck converter based on the above equation is shown in
Figure 7 (Sigalo and Osikibo, 2016).

4.1 Modelling of PWM waveforms generator using Simulink

Power width modulation (PWM) signal is the most typical control signal applied on a
switch in switching DC converters. It is usually a signal with fixed frequency. Simulink
model of PWM generator is illustrated in Figure 8.

Figure 8 Model diagram PWM generator using Simulink

Figure 9 Buck converter subsystem

As shown in Figure 9, inputs are represented by the duty cycle and a repeating sequence
which provides a saw-tooth waveforms of time values (0 1/fs). The magnitude of this
repeating sequence is subtracted from the duty cycle to yield a mirrored version of the
saw tooth waveform whose amplitude ranges from D to D – 1. The resulted waveform
possesses a positive value whenever the required PWM signal is high and a negative
value where the PWM pulse is low. This fact is exploited to generate the PWM pulses by
using a Relay block that is configured to switch on (Output = 1) and off (Output = 0)
during the zero crossings (Mahesh Gowda et al., 2014).
 Modelling and simulation DC-DC power converter buck 85

4.2 Subsystems
Each of the power electronic models represents subsystems within the simulation
environment. These blocks have been developed so they can be interconnected in a
consistent and simple manner for the construction of complex systems. The subsystems
are masked, meaning that the user interface displays only the complete subsystem, and
user prompts gather parameters for the entire subsystem. Relevant parameters can be set
by double-clicking a mouse or pointer on each subsystem block, then entering the
appropriate values in the resulting dialogue window (Sigalo and Osikibo, 2016). Figure 9
shows the subsystem for a buck converter.

5 Simulation

Converters are designed and simulated using MATLAB/Simulink environment.

Simulation has been carried out for various changes in load value and input values.
Figure 10 and Figure 11 show respectively results on output voltage and output current
for open loop DC/DC buck converter.

Figure 10 Results on output voltage for open loop buck converter (see online version for colours)

Figure 11 Results on output current for open loop buck converter (see online version for colours)

Simulation shows that in open loop mode, converter system is sensitive to parameter
variations and external load disturbances, the output current and voltage tracking contains
overshoot and system has long settling time.
In closed-loop mode, the default PID controller offered by Simulink is used. The
simulation results of output voltage and current for buck converter with PID controller
are shown in Figure 12 and Figure 13.
86 K. Bendaoud et al.

Figure 12 Output voltage for buck converter using PID controller (see online version for colours)

Figure 13 Output current for buck converter using PID controller (see online version for colours)

Results show that using PID controller offer better output tracking ability, thus improving
output voltage and current regulation. The system is insensitive to parameter variations
and external load disturbances; PID controller gives stable operation to DC-DC
converters.

6 Conclusions

In this paper, we illustrated the role of DC/DC converters in mobile applications, we

provided a brief overview of the operation of both buck and boost converters and
proceeded t model buck converter using only Simulink blocks. The designed buck
converter operates effectively when PID controller is used. The controller realises a better
output tracking with minimal overshoot, and improves converter efficiency.
 Modelling and simulation DC-DC power converter buck 87

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