Applying digital methods to the control of power converters, in particular board-mounted dc/dc converters, offers a rich set of possibilities from which to create new features, improved performance, and much greater product flexibility, and all at lower cost.
Applying digital methods to the control of power converters, in particular board-mounted dc/dc converters, offers a rich set of possibilities from which to create new features, improved performance, and much greater product flexibility, and all at lower cost. Power converter operating characteristics dictated by a stored program, rather than the parameters of a set of discrete components, can mean tremendous cost and space savings as well as capacity for real time adaptation of those characteristics, greater sophistication in control algorithms and the ability to generate, store and recall valuable real-time functional data.
Digital signal processors, micro-controllers, flash memory and fast A/D converters will soon do to power conversion technology what they did to 35mm cameras.
This paper is intended to provide a brief, qualitative overview of how a digital control system is implemented in a familiar analog environment, i.e. that of a straightforward, board-mounted DC/DC converter. Terms and techniques discussed here apply to virtually any power supply design, but by no means exhaust the range of design alternatives available.
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