DEEP PPU consortium partners from UPM – Pedro Alou and Regina Ramos, attended the APEC from March 16 to 20, 2025, Atlanta, USA, where they presented part of the work they are developing in this project. Presented to the audience attending the session “Critical Applications in Space & Transportation technical”, their paper title “Modeling, Control and Digital Implementation of a Buck converter Operating in Triangular Current mode for a Wide Output Voltage Range Space Application”.
This paper presents the proposed control for the DC/DC conversion stage of the RFG, where challenges such as modeling the selected power stage, the digital implementation of converters with variable frequency, and regulation across a wide range of voltages and loads are addressed.
Paper presented at APEC
Modeling, Control and Digital Implementation of a Buck converter Operating in Triangular Current mode for a Wide Output Voltage Range Space Application
Abstract
This paper presents a simplified constant on time modeling and control of a buck converter operating in triangular current mode for space applications. The buck converter operates at a variable frequency to achieve ZVS in both transitions while minimizing the RMS current through the inductor. This control is implemented in a field-programmable gate array. Since the converter operates at a variable frequency, two different data acquisition alternatives are explored: sampling at a variable frequency (once per switching cycle) or sampling at a constant frequency (higher than the switching frequency). The proposed control is validated by simulation and experimental results with a 500 W prototype.
Authors
Pedro Alou, Regina Ramos, Javier Torres, Sara Perez, Guillermo Nunez.
About APEC
The APEC (IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition) focuses on the practical and applied aspects of the power electronics business. This is not just a designer’s conference; APEC has something of interest for anyone involved in power electronics.