SIMPLE AND FAST METHOD FOR DESIGNING A PROGRAMMABLE PSM MODE CONTROL OF A BUCK CONVERTER

International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163
Issue 09, Volume 4 (September 2017) www.ijirae.com
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IJIRAE: Impact Factor Value – SJIF: Innospace, Morocco (2016): 3.916 | PIF: 2.469 | Jour Info: 4.085 |
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IJIRAE © 2014- 17, All Rights Reserved Page -26
SIMPLE AND FAST METHOD FOR DESIGNING A
PROGRAMMABLE PSM MODE CONTROL OF A BUCK
CONVERTER
Abdellah El jounaidi, Daoud Wassad
Department of Electrical Engineering
Labo RITM, Hassan II University, Casablanca
Morocco
eljounaidi@hotmail.com; wassaddaoud@gmail.com
Manuscript History
Number: IJIRAE/RS/Vol.04/Issue09/SPAE10086
DOI: 10.26562/IJIRAE.2017.SPAE10086
Received: 20, August 2017
Final Correction: 30, August 2017
Final Accepted: 05, September 2017
Published: September 2017
Editor: Dr.A.Arul L.S, Chief Editor, IJIRAE, AM Publications, India
Copyright: ©2017 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License, Which Permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author
and source are credited.
Abstract--The control of a DC-DC converter is usually done through an analog or digital circuit. In this work, we
opted for a command controlled by a microcontroller. The PSM (Pulse Skipping Modulation) control is
implemented by software instead of the conventional control based on an electrical circuit comprising logic gates
and an external clock. The control program, implanted on a microcontroller dsPIC is translated directly from a
diagram realized under SIMULINK using the tool MPLAB SIMULINK BLOCKSET. The use of the ISIS / Proteus
simulator allowed us to compare the simulation results obtained from MATLAB and the practical electrical circuit
of the converter and its simulated control under ISIS / Proteus.
Keywords-- Buck converter, PSM control, MPLAB SIMULINK Blockset, dsPIC, ISIS/Proteus.
I. INTRODUCTION
DC-DC converters are generally based on power electronics components used as switches. They have a control
circuit which must act on the opening or closing of the switch according to a well-defined protocol and frequency.
These control devices are implanted in the form of analogue or digital circuits. Presently, we are moving towards a
programmed control which is managed by a programmable logic circuit. The advantage of this method is its
simplicity and versatility in comparison with a conventional control. The work presented falls within the scope of
the programmed control. The control mode chosen is Pulse Skipping Modulation Mode (PSM). This command is
carried out in the form of a logic circuit which is controlled by an external clock. In our case, this circuit will be
replaced by a program which must achieve the same result and which will be implanted on a dsPIC
microcontroller using a tool provided by the manufacturer of the microcontroller and integrated in MATLAB
software. The practical circuit diagram representing the converter and the dsPIC containing the control program
will be simulated under ISIS / Proteus and the results of this simulation will be compared with those obtained
using SIMULIN/MATLAB.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
II. BUCK CONVERTER AND PSM CONTROL
A. Buck Converter
The converter consists of a switch (MOSFET), a diode, an inductance coil L and a capacitor C with a resistive load
as shown in figure-1.
Figure-1. Buck Converter
The buck converter is controlled by a PSM type impulse control device [1],[2].
The adopted mode of operation is the continuous conduction mode (CCM) [3]-[5].
The PSM regulator which will supply the pulses to the switch will act on the converter according to the result of
comparison of the reference voltage (Vref) and the output voltage (Vo) taken at the load RL. It is introduced in the
form of a MATLAB function which will apply to the switch (MOSFET) a clock signal H. The clock frequency fh and
the duty cycle α remain fixed. When the load RL voltage Vo is lower than the reference voltage Vref, the pulse
train is sent to the switch, which will result in an increase in voltage and current across the load, that is the
charging period of the capacitor. When Vo exceeds Vref the pulses are blocked and the opening of the switch
causes discharge of the capacitor and consequently the decrease of the voltage across the load. When the voltage
Vo becomes lower than the reference voltage (Vref), the pulse train is applied again to the switch and the voltage
Vo increases. Thus, when the steady state is established, the voltage Vo will oscillate periodically around the
reference voltage (Vref) with a ripple whose amplitude will be greater or less according to the value of the load
resistor RL.
B. Modeling the PSM Function
The operating principle of the PSM control is summarized in the flow chart as shown in figure-2. Vref , Vo and H
represent the input variables of the function and D the output variable [6].
Figure-2. PSM function flow chart
When the steady state is established after a transient phase, the clock signal with period Th (frequency fh)and duty
cycle α will be applied to the MOSFET when Vo < Vref (charge period of the capacitor) and blocked in the opposite
case (period of discharge). During the charging period, the MOSFET transistor will be on during the time αTh and
blocked during the time (1-α) Th. If p is the number of cycles during which the clock signal is applied to the
transistor and q the number of cycles during which the clock signal is absent as shown in figure3, the switching
frequency fc of the MOSFET can be expressed by the relation [7],[8]:
(1)
Start
D = 0Vo < Vref
D = H
N
O

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figure-3. Evolution of Vo and the PSM control signal in steady state
The modulation factor M is defined by the relation:
(2) ( 0 M 1 )
It is shown that in the case of the continuous conduction regime (CCM), the mean value of the voltage Vo applied
to the resistor RL is given by:
(3)
α is the duty cycle of the clock signal.
From the relation (6), the average current Io circulating through RL is deduced:
RL (4)
It can be seen that only the modulation factor M can vary since the other parameters are constant. It is this
variation which makes it possible to adjust the output voltage (Vo) to the reference voltage (Vref). It is also
established that to remain in the continuous conduction mode (CCM), the load resistor RL must satisfy the
condition:
(5)
For a given load RL , the inductance L must satisfy the condition:
(6)
In our simulation, we considered the load RL varies between 10 Ω and 100Ω, α = 0.9 and fh = 100kHz, Ve = 12V
and C = 100μF.
From the relation (6), the minimum value of L is deduced:
Lmin = 50µH
In the simulation we chose L = 200μH.
III. MATLAB SIMULATION OF PSM-CONTROLLED CONVERTER
A. Buck Converter unde SIMSCAPE
The electrical circuit of the converter and the PSM control function are realized under MATLAB / SIMULINK in the
form of two separate blocks, as shown in the figure-4:
Figure-4. PSM Buck converter and PSM control
The converter is realized under SIMSCAPE as shown in figure-5. The RDON resistance of the MOSFET is adjusted at
70mΩ. This value corresponds to the value of RDON of the MOSFET RF470 given by the manufacturer and used in
the simulation under ISIS/Proteus.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figure-5. Buck converter under SIMSCAPE
A. The PSM control
The PSM function which translates the flowchart of figure-2 is introduced in the form of a MATLAB function D = f
(Vref, Vo, H) whose inputs are the reference voltage (Vref), the output voltage (Vo) The clock signal (H). Output D
will send the clock signal H to the converter as long as Vo < Vref and block it when Vo > Vref.
Figure-6. PSM Function
The advantage of this software solution with respect to a hardware implantation is the simplification of the
control circuit. A single microcontroller containing the control program is sufficient instead of a circuit comprising
several logic gates and a clock circuit [9].
B. Converter response simulation
Figure-7 shows the evolution of the output voltage (Vo) and the control signal PSM. It should be noted that after a
transient phase the output voltage will tend towards the reference voltage with oscillations that are greater or less
depending on the value of the load, this is the steady state.
Figure-7. Evolution of Vo and the PSM signal versus time
The simulation also shows that the response time of the system (evolution of the output voltage Vo) is influenced
by the value of the load as seen in figure-8.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Figure-8. Output voltage Vo for two values of RL
IV. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONTROL PROGRAM IN A DSPIC33 AND SIMULATION UNDER ISIS
A. Implementation of the control under MPLAB SIMULINK Blockset
The control part will be managed by a dsPIC33 according to the diagram in figure-9.
The control in PSM mode will be implemented in a microcontroller dsPIC33 (16 bits) of the Microchip family
whose external clock frequency can rise up to 80MHz. The voltages Vo and Vref are applied to two inputs of the
analog-to-digital converter integrated in the microcontroller and the output signal PSM is sent to a pin configured
at the output as indicated in figure 10 and will be applied subsequently to the gate of the MOSFET through a
driver [10], [11].
Figure-9. Buck converter and control circuit
The implementation of the PSM function is performed under version 3.39 of MPLAB Blockset for SIMULINK
installed in the SIMULINK tool of MATLAB2016b software used in this study.
Figure-10. PSM function under Mplab Simulink Blockset

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
In our simulation, we used the dsPIC33FJ32MC204. This microcontroller belongs to the microchip dsPIC family,
performing very well with computing power which can reach 70 MIPS (70 million instructions per second) and
simulable under ISIS software. The compilation of the file under MPLABX using the xc16-v1.3 compiler will
generate a source file in C language and the corresponding object file. It is the object file who will be charged in
the program memoire of the dsPIC.
B. Complete circuit diagram under ISIS
The diagram of the circuit representing the converter and the control part (Figure-11) is carried out using the ISIS
software.
L1
200uH
D
15ETH06
R1
1
C1
100u
Ve
R6(1)
HIN
10
LIN
12
VB
6
HO
7
VS
5
LO
1
COM
2
SD
11
VC
3 U2
IR2112
D1
DIODE
R2
10
Q1
IRF540
C2
100n
C3
22u
D3
DIODE
R4
10K
RB2/CN6/RP2/AN4
23
RB3/CN7/RP3/AN5
24
RB6/CN24/RP6/ASCL1/EMUC3/PGEC3
42
RB10/CN16/RP10/PW M1H3/EMUD2/PGED2
8
RB11/CN15/RP11/PW M1L3/EMUC2/PGEC2
9
RB12/CN14/RP12/PWM1H2
10
RB13/CN13/RP13/PWM1L2
11
RB5/CN27/RP5/ASDA1/EMUD3/PGED3
41
MCLR
18
RA0/CN2/VREF+/AN0
19
RA1/CN3/VREF-/AN1
20
RA2/CN30/CLKI/OSCI
30
RA3/CN29/CLKO/OSCO
31
RA4/CN0/T1CK/SOSCO
34
RB0/CN4/RP0/C2IN-/AN2/EMUD1/PGED1
21
RB1/CN5/RP1/C2IN+/AN3/EMUC1/PGEC1
22
RB4/CN1/RP4/SOSCI
33
RB7/CN23/RP7/INT0
43
RB8/CN22/RP8/SCL1
44
RB9/CN21/RP9/SDA1
1
RB14/CN12/RP14/PWM1H1
14
RB15/CN11/RP15/PWM1L1
15
VCAP/VDDCORE
7
RA8/TDO
32
RA9/TDI
35
RA10/TMS
12
RA7/TCK
13
RC0/CN8/RP16/AN6
25
RC1/CN9/RP17/AN7
26
RC2/CN10/RP18/AN8
27
RC3/CN28/RP19
36
RC4/CN25/RP20
37
RC6/CN18/RP22/PWM2H1
2
RC7/CN17/RP23/PWM2L1
3
RC9/CN19/RP25
5
RC5/CN26/RP21
38
RC8/CN20/RP24
4
AVDD
17
AVSS
16
U1
DSPIC33FJ32MC204
R5
100k
R6
500K
R7
500K
R8
100K
Vo
R7(1)
U1(RC9/CN19/RP25)
Figure-11. Converter and control circuit under ISIS
The control of the MOSFET RF470 used in this simulation will be provided by the driver IR2112.
The voltage dividers by means of high-value resistors serve to divide the reference voltage (Vref) and the output
voltage (Vo) in the same proportions so that they do not exceed 5V, the maximum voltage accepted by the inputs
of the analog-to-digital converter. The influence of these resistances is negligible for values of RL not exceeding
100Ω.
C. Converter response simulation under ISIS
The ISIS simulation of the converter response to a voltage step of 12V and delayed by 1 millisecond is given in
figure-12. We note the appearance of a transitional phase before the establishment of the steady state.
Figure-12. Output voltage Vo and PSM signal under ISIS
Vref
Vo
PSM signal
transiant steady state

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
V. COMPARISON OF THE SIMULATION RESULTS OBTAINED BY ISIS AND MATLAB
A. Response to a voltage step for different load values
Figures-13a, 13b and 13c shows a good concordance between the simulation results under MATLAB and the
simulation under ISIS with a slight offset between the curves and a larger peak of the simulated transient phase
under MATLAB. This slight difference can be explained by the fact that the simulation was carried out under
different simulators, with different assemblies, but the shape of the signal remains generally the same.
Figure-13a. Evolution of Vo for RL = 1Ω Figure-13b. Evolution of Vo for RL = 10Ω
Figure-13c. Evolution of Vo for RL = 50Ω
B. Converter response time
Figure-14 shows the response time of the converter for RL values between 10Ω and 100Ω.
Figure-14. Evolution of the response time versus RL under MATLAB and ISIS simulation
It is found that the curves are almost confounded for the low RL values and diverge lightly for high RL values.
However, the offset between the two curves is very small.
RL=1Ω RL=10Ω
RL=50Ω

_________________________________________________________________________________________________
C. Ripple ratios
Figure-15 shows the ripple ratios of the output voltage Vo (τond )computed with the two simulators.
Figure-15. Evolution of the ripple ratio versus RL under MATLAB and ISIS simulation
It is observed that the ripple of the output voltage Vo decreases when the value of RL increases and the two
curves tend to get confused. The decrease of the ripple for the large RL values is a characteristic of the PSM mode
control [12].
VI. CONCLUSION
In this steady, we studied the behaviour of a buck converter controlled in PSM mode. The PSM control was
introduced as a MATLAB function instead of an electrical circuit consisting of logic gates and an external clock. The
advantage of this programmed control is its simplicity and flexibility, contrary to a conventional control. Thus, for
example, the clock frequency can be modified by programming without changing any components. The other
advantage is the economics of the components, so a simple microcontroller can replace all the electrical circuit of
the PSM control realized with a clock circuit and several logic gates. In order to program the PSM function, we
used the MPLAB Blockset for SIMULINK tool, a powerful tool that allows to directly translating the schema of a
circuit realized under SIMULINK into a program C, which will be compiled and loaded on a dsPIC. The use of this
tool greatly and efficiently simplifies the graphical realization under SIMULINK contrary to the conventional
methods. Finally, we used the ISIS simulator to test and execute the compiled and loaded control program on a
dsPIC33. The comparison of the "theoretical" results obtained under MATLAB and the "practical" results under
ISIS showed a good agreement between the results obtained. The next step will naturally be the practical
realization of the circuit and the comparison of the practical results with those presented in this study.
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