June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos, Vol. 15, No. 5 (2005) 15491578

c World Scientic Publishing Company

BIFURCATIONS IN DCDC SWITCHING

CONVERTERS: REVIEW OF METHODS
AND APPLICATIONS
A. EL AROUDI , M. DEBBAT and R. GIRAL
Departament dEnginyeria Electronica, Electrica i Automatica,
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Campus Sesceledes,
43007, Tarragona, Spain
abdelali.elaroudi@urv.net

G. OLIVAR , L. BENADERO and E. TORIBIO

Departament de Matematica Aplicada IV,
Departament de Fsica Aplicada,

Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya,

Barcelona, Spain

Received October 29, 2003; Revised August 20, 2004

This paper presents, in a tutorial manner, nonlinear phenomena such as bifurcations and chaotic
behavior in DCDC switching converters. Our purpose is to present the dierent modeling
approaches, the main results found in the last years and some possible practical applications. A
comparison of the dierent models is given and their accuracy in predicting nonlinear behavior
is discussed. A general Poincare map is considered to model any multiple conguration of DC
DC switching converters and its Jacobian matrix is derived for stability analysis. More emphasis
is done in the discrete-time approach as it gives more accurate prediction of bifurcations. The
results are reproduced for dierent examples of DCDC switching converters studied in the
literature. Some methods of controlling bifurcations are applied to stabilize Unstable Periodic
Orbits (UPOs) embedded in the dynamics of the system. Statistical analysis of these systems
working in the chaotic regime is discussed. An extensive list of references is included.

Keywords: Power electronics; nonlinear dynamics; bifurcations; Poincare map; chaos; DCDC
converters; statistical analysis.

Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1550
2. Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1552
3. Modeling of DCDC Switching Converters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1554
3.1. Switched model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1554
3.2. Averaged model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1555
3.3. Discrete-time model. Poincare map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1556
4. A Review of Bifurcation Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1556
5. Generalized Approach for Bifurcation Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1557

Author for correspondence.

1549
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

1550 A. El Aroudi et al.

5.1. Generalized Poincare map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1557

5.2. Jacobian matrix and stability analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1560
6. Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1561
6.1. A necessary condition for stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1561
6.2. Instability of the 1-periodic orbit associated to = . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1561
6.2.1. Example 1: PWM voltage controlled buck converter . . . . . . . . . . . . 1562
6.2.2. Example 2: Current programmed boost converter . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1563
6.2.3. Example 3: Boost converter with hysteretic modulator and PI controller . 1563
6.3. Instability of 1-periodic orbit associated to = 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1565
6.3.1. Example 4: PWM controlled DCDC boost converter . . . . . . . . . . . 1565
6.4. Instability of 1-periodic orbit associated to (0, ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1566
6.4.1. Example 5: PWM state feedback controlled boost converter . . . . . . . . 1567
6.4.2. Example 6: PWM controlled buck converter with voltage PI control . . . . 1568
6.5. Border collision and grazing bifurcation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1568
7. Approximated Poincare Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570
7.1. Linear ripple approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570
7.2. Constant output voltage approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1570
8. Control of Bifurcations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1571
8.1. The OGY method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1572
8.2. Time delay auto synchronization of DCDC switching converters . . . . . . . . . 1573
9. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1576

1. Introduction
The elementary DCDC converters buck, boost
and buck-boost are a family of Power Electronics
(PE) circuits that allow the conversion of electrical
energy from one level to another without taking
into account, theoretically, losses in the compo-
nents. They are extensively used in power supplies
for electronic circuits and in the control of the ow
of energy between DC to DC systems, and in any
industrial application where there is a need of stabi-
lizing an output voltage to a desired value. They are
also widely used in small spacecrafts such as satel-
lites where DC power is generated by solar arrays.
Figure 1 shows the three basic power converters
buck, boost and buck-boost.
The operation of DCDC converters is mainly
based on the switching between dierent linear con-
gurations. This must be implemented with an
appropriate control of the switches. In a noise per-
turbation free environment, given the desired out-
put voltage, the switching frequency can be selected
and the switches can be turned ON and OFF
according to a xed pattern; this is referred to as
the open loop system. In contrast, in industrial
applications, noise and perturbations are always Fig. 1. The three basic power electronic converters buck,
present, and also the parameters of the circuits may boost and buck-boost.
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
be aected by external disturbances. Thus the use
of an appropriate control to counteract the devia-
tions on the output voltage in the system is needed;
this is referred to as the closed loop system. We
will refer to the ON phase when the switch S is
closed and diode D is open; the OFF phase refers
to when the switch S is open and diode D closed.
A third phase (OFF) that takes place when both
switches are open is also possible. The operation
mode when this topology takes place is called Dis-
continuous Conduction Mode (DCM). Otherwise, it
is called Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM).
The most interesting dynamics of these sys-
tems, from a classical design point of view, is the
T -periodic orbit (periodic evolution with the same
period as the modulating signal).
Switching DCDC converters are variable
structure systems (VSS) that are highly nonlinear.
During each phase the electrical switches select the
corresponding conguration of the circuit making
the energy ow from the input to the output in
agreement with the driving signal. The form of this
driving signal gives operating exibility to the cir-
cuits and allows, for example, regulation in front
of its parameter variations, a task that cannot be
done with a rectier implemented with only diodes.
However this switching gives rise also to switched
waveforms which can result in a great electromag-
netic noise emission.
DCDC switching converters working in
voltage-voltage (VV ) mode get energy from a pri-
mary continuous voltage source VIN , and transfer
it in the form of a voltage vC (t) which contains a
continuous component VC and a small ripple. To
maintain constant the averaged value of the out-
put voltage, the switching action should be periodic.
Thus the modulating signal should also be periodic
and the permanent regime will be ordinarily peri-
odic. However, due to their switching action and
feedback they are able to present a great variety of
nonlinear behavior such as bifurcations and chaos.
A canonical cell of rst order with a capac-
itor in parallel with the load to lter the out-
put ripple is a second order circuit, and its state
variables are the inductor current iL and the
capacitor voltage vC . The signal driving the elec-
trical switch presents dierent intervals per cycle:
for each interval, the circuit takes a specic con-
guration delivering energy during some intervals
and absorbing it within others. As it can be shown,
the dynamics of DCDC converter circuits working
in continuous conduction mode (CCM) may be
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1551
described by two independent and rst order dier-
ential equations for each switch position. The con-
trol forces the system to switch between two basic
linear congurations. These systems are therefore
piecewise linear (PWL). During the rst phase, the
state space evolution is given by a system of linear
equations, i.e.:
x = A1 x + B1 (1)
where A1 and B1 are constant matrices and x is
the vector of the state variables composed by the
voltage and current of the energy storage elements
like capacitors and inductors. This model follows
the evolution of the system for some time and then
switches to another linear set of equations in the
following form
x = A2 x + B2 (2)
with, generally, new constant A2 and B2 matrices.
In compact form, the dynamical behavior of the sys-
tem can be described by


A1 x + B1 if (x, t) > 0
x = f (x, t) = (3)
A2 x + B2 if (x, t) < 0
As the As and the Bs matrices and vectors are
generally dierent we have a PWL discontinuous
vector eld f . Other systems can be modeled by
similar PWL but continuous vector eld f [Freire
et al., 1998; Freire et al., 2002]. In general, these
discontinuous changes in the constant matrices are
responsible for inducing nonlinear eects. However,
as the system is PWL, we can solve the time evolu-
tions exactly. In other words, we can nd the map-
ping function that takes the state space variables
just after one switching instant up to their values
just before the next one. Let us assume that when
the switching occurs the value of the variable x
takes on certain value x(tS ) at the switching instant
tS . The time derivatives then show discontinuous
changes at the switching, i.e.:
x(t+
S ) x(tS ) = (A2 A1 )x(tS ) + (B2 B1 ) (4)
where t+
S and tS are the time instants just before
and just after the switching instant tS . When the
switching condition is time dependent, we have a
nonautonomous system, which as we know, requires
at least one more state space dimension. For feed-
back systems, as for most of DCDC switching
converters, the switching instant depends on the
history of the state variables themselves. Therefore,
we eectively have a nonlinear system. Hence this
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1552 A. El Aroudi et al.

Table 1. The As and Bs matrix for the basic converters heating) that produce deviations in the converter
during phases ON, OFF and OFF .
state with respect to the nominal one. If the param-
Converter AON AOFF AOFF
BON BOFF BOFF
eter changes are abrupt, they respond with oscil-
lations which decay with a certain characteristic
buck Aa Aa Ac Ba Bb Bb time and they will pass to a similar near state
boost Ab Aa Ac Ba Ba Bb
or they bifurcate to a qualitatively dierent one.
buck-boost Ab Aa Ac Ba Bb Bb
If the driving signal is generated from a constant
duty cycle clock, the converter input to output gain
will be constant, but its operating point, the out-
kind of piecewise model, at least in principle, may put voltage ripple and the power delivered to the
present nonlinear phenomena such as bifurcations load will depend strongly on the parameters varia-
and chaos. tion (unregulated converter). In order to make the
The dierential equations, modeling each one of converter state almost independent of the parame-
the three congurations that use each converter, can ter variation, it should be regulated with a control
be derived by using the standard Kirchos laws. circuit (controller) that xes a reference (reference
Let us dene the matrices Aa , Ab , Ac , Ba and Bc voltage Vref or/and reference current Iref ). The con-
as follows: trol of a DCDC converter can be implemented in
many ways. However, all the strategies can be clas-
1 1 1
0
RC C sied into two main groups: Fixed Frequency Con-
Aa = , Ab = RC ,
1 RS RS
troller (FFC) and Variable Frequency Controller
0 (VFC). The basic ingredients of almost all existing
L L L controllers that are used for output voltage control
1 are (Fig. 2):
0 0
Ac = RC , Ba = VIN ,
1. an output voltage error amplier
0 0 2. a sawtooth signal generator (modulating signal)
L
 3. a comparator that compares the error amplier
0 output with the sawtooth waveforms.
Bb =
0 The objective of the controller is to main-
tain the converter state near this reference by
(5)
where R is the output load resistance, L is the
inductance which is supposed to have an Equivalent
Series Resistance ESR RS , C is the capacitance,
and VIN is the input voltage. During each phase
(ON, OFF and OFF ), and until a switching condi-
tion is fullled, the dynamics of the system is
described as:
x = Ax + B (6)
x = (vC , iL )T is the vector of the state variables
and the overdot stands for derivation with respect
to time t (x = dx/dt). Table 1 shows the As and Bs
matrices for the three basic converters buck, boost
and buck-boost during each phase.

2. Preliminaries
Switching converters undergo great variations of
their external parameters (the input voltage rip-
ple or abrupt variations in the load) as of the Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of xed frequency controller
internal ones (changes in the driving signal fre- (PWM) and variable frequency (Hysteresis) controller for
quency, capacitors and inductors drift, aging and DCDC converters.
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
compensating the deviations of the controlled vari-
able by means of feedback and feedforward loops
(Fig. 3). In the case of FFC, the comparator decides
the switching instants and therefore the duty cycle
d of the driving signal u(t) by comparing the switch-
ing function with a sawtooth signal (Fig. 4). In
the case of VFC, no sawtooth signal is used but the
comparator uses hysteresis. The feedforward is the
control that translates the deviations from the vec-
tor of parameters p, and the feedback is the control
that translates the deviations of their present state
x(t) to an error signal that takes the information
of the deviation of the present state x(t) regarding
the required one Xref (Xref = (Vref , Iref )T ). In order
to do it periodically, some repetitive signals in the
form of a triangular, sawtooth voltages or clock sig-
nals are usually used in the control loop. We will
model these periodic signals in the control circuit
by a signal h(t).
The control logic is given by the expression of
the control variable u(t) in terms of the state vari-
ables, the state reference Xref , the control parame-
ters. Using the Heaviside step function H, the con-
trol logic of a regulator can be written as:

voltage feedback control, the output voltage is com-
1 if (x, t) > 0
u(t) := H((x, t)) = (7)
0 if (x, t) < 0
Fig. 3. Block diagram of a DCDC converter with feedback
and feedforward.
Fig. 4. Control signal (t), sawtooth ramp signal vramp (t)
and driving signal u(t).
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1553
where (x, t) := vcon h is a switching function
formed by the dierence between a control signal
vcon depending on the state variables x and pos-
sibly on time t and a term h which could depend
explicitly on time. It should be noted that in the
case of FFC h(t) = vramp (t) is a periodic ramp sig-
nal. In the case of a time invariant state reference
Xref , is given by
(x, t) := vcon (x) h(t)
:= K(x(t) Xref ) h(t) = 0 (8)
K is the vector of the feedback coecients with
appropriate dimension. If h = VH , this switching
function corresponds to hysteresis controlled con-
verters. In this case, both the period and the duty
cycle are variable. These regulators are often called
bang bang, free running or variable frequency.
The whole system formed by the switching
converter and the controller is called switching
regulator. The control of DCDC converters
can usually be carried out using two dierent
approaches, namely voltage feedback control and
current-programmed control, also known as voltage-
mode and current-mode control, respectively. In
pared with a reference to generate a driving signal
which drives the switches. For current-programmed
control an inner current loop is used in addition to
voltage feedback. The aim is to force the peak (or
the valley) inductor current to follow a reference sig-
nal which is derived from the output voltage feed-
back loop. The result of using current-programming
is a more robust system and it is now widely used
for boost and buck-boost converters.
The performance of a DCDC converter is eval-
uated by steady-state and dynamics analysis. In
steady-state analysis, the existence and location of
periodic solutions are of concern. In dynamic anal-
ysis, stability and transient dynamics can be stud-
ied using the closed-loop eigenvalues. There exist
two particular modes of operation of these systems:
continuous conduction mode (CCM) when the mini-
mal inductor current iL > 0 and discontinuous con-
duction mode (DCM) when iL drops to zero at
a certain instant within a switching cycle. These
two modes have 2 and 3 congurations respectively
in one cycle, and the dynamics is linear for each
conguration.
Sometimes, to improve the quality and for
meeting with some regulation requirements, active
lters are inserted in the controller. These l-
ters also called compensating networks are usually
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
1554 A. El Aroudi et al.
applied to the output variable, and are typically
Proportional plus Integral (PI) or low pass lters.
In the case of a state control (all the state variables
make part of the control signal), if the lter is a PI
controller applied to the output voltage vo of the
regulator, the general expression of the amplied
ltered error signal (control signal) will be
3.1. Switched model
vcon := Kp (x(t) Xref ) + kint (vo (t) Vref )dt
(9)
It should be noted that these lters enlarge the
order of the regulator and therefore their possible
stationary states. For instance,
 the integral term
adds a new variable xN +1 = (vo (t) Vref )dt. The
control voltage (9) can be rewritten in the form
vcon := K(xa (t) Xr ) (10)
where K = [Kp , Kint ], xa = [x, xN +1 ]T and
Xr = [Xref , 0]T . Obviously, this control signal is
similar to the previous one and the same approach
can be used for both cases (with and without
compensators).
The theory of dynamical systems shows that
a nonlinear dynamic system of order less than
three (for example, open loop second order con-
verters) can present only stationary equilibrium
states (without switching) and limit cycles [Parker
& Chua, 1989], while those of order equal or greater
than three (for example, those of second order
converters under Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
control) can also show quasiperiodic and chaotic
dynamics. Moreover, being VSS, switching regu-
lators present specic dynamics. Modern control
theory shows that there are dierent regions on
the switching surface, called refractive, rejective
[Kassakian et al., 1991] or sliding [Utkin, 1978]. If
a trajectory arrives to a sliding region, the regula-
tor state slides on this region switching with, the-
oretically, an innite frequency and if it reaches
in this region an equilibrium point, the switching
frequency in the steady state will be innite. This
produces high switching power losses that destroy
quickly the switch by increasing its temperature. In
practice, this frequency is limited by delays in the
switching times. For example, in the case of a two-
dimensional converter, (x) = 0 denes a straight
switching line in the state plane. Under certain con-
ditions related to circuit parameters, the dynam-
ics on this straight line is an innite frequency
trajectory (ideal sliding). A method for limiting
this phenomenon uses a hysteretic comparator that
produces periodic dynamics whose period depends
on the whole system parameters according to the
switching condition.
3. Modeling of DCDC Switching
Converters
The switched model of a DCDC converter working
in CCM may be written in the following form:
x = A1 x + B1
:= f1 (x) during ON subinterval
(11)
x = A2 x + B2
:= f2 (x) during OFF subinterval
DCDC converters being switched dynamical sys-
tems can present equilibrium points only if they
work with innite switching frequency. Periodic
orbits with high switching frequency can be approx-
imated by equilibrium points as they have very
small amplitude. For two-dimensional converters
(with two storage elements), the analysis can be
carried out by graphical support. At an equilibrium
point, the elds dening the dynamics of each con-
guration must have opposite direction. Imposing
this condition for f1 and f2 in Eq. (11), we can
obtain the equation dening the set of equilibrium
points of the system:
iL = Cc (vC ) (12)
This equation denes the load line [Krein & Bass,
1990] or characteristic curve (CC) [Benadero et al.,
1999] in the state plane. It depends only on the
power stage parameters. On the other hand, with
linear feedback controllers, two switching bound-
aries can be dened. Due to the linearity of the
feedback, these boundaries are also linear (Fig. 5).
Both boundaries dene a boundary layer (BL) in
the state plane. For PWM controllers these bound-
aries depend on the feedback coecients and the
lower and the upper values of the external ramp
voltage while for hysteresis controlled converters,
these boundaries depend on the feedback coe-
cients and the hysteresis width. On one side of BL
the controlled switch is turned ON and on the other
side it is turned OFF. Trajectories beginning at
an arbitrary point switch alternately when one of
the switching boundaries is reached. A point in the
two-dimensional space is an equilibrium operating
point if it belongs to both CC and a line inside BL.
If this point is stable, it denes the steady state,
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
Fig. 5. Characteristic curve CC and boundary layer BL for a boost converter with linear feedback controller.
although in practice it would be a limit cycle whose
period and amplitude are related to the hystere-
sis width or the switching frequency of the PWM
modulator. Depending on the type of the converter,
on the nature, and the parameter values of the
controller, there may exist more than one operat-
ing point. All the points belonging to CC can be
operative using an adequate control. A necessary
condition for the existence of an equilibrium point
is that BL and CC intersect. Varying the system
state reference or feedback coecients we can make
the system operate in a specic point of CC. The
stability concerns both power and control param-
eters. A lot of eort has been made studying the
stability of these circuits from dierent points of
view, mainly using frequency domain approaches.
In [Krein & Bass, 1990] the stability is analyzed
through the series of successor points. The sys-
tem is stable when the distance between successor
points decreases. Two-dimensional representation is
not outright if an auxiliary or modulating signal is
used in the control (nonautonomous case). Actually
the system in this case is three-dimensional. A com-
plete state representation needs a third variable, the
phase of the modulating signal. The points in the
two-dimensional space can correspond with dier-
ent phases. This two-dimensional space is just a pro-
jection of the complete 3D space. But in spite of
this, the two-dimensional representation can oer
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1555
an intuitive comprehension. In order to reduce and
simplify the system another approach can be used:
the averaged model.
3.2. Averaged model
The average method is obtained by substituting the
state variables x and the control variable u by their
averaged values x and u := d during one period of
the modulating signal.
x = [(A1 A2 )d + A2 ]x + (B1 B2 )d + B2
:= f (x) (13)
Averaged models are easier to handle than the
switched models. The binary variable u {0, 1} is
substituted by the continuous bounded variable d
belonging to [0, 1] interval. Obviously, the averaged
model is no longer valid if d is out of this interval. In
this case, only the corresponding conguration (sat-
uration of the duty cycle) exists. This model is more
accurate when the switching period is much smaller
than the time constants of the converter. The equi-
librium points are obtained by equating to zero the
time derivative of the averaged state variables. It
should be noted that the equilibria obtained using
this procedure are the same as those dened by
Eq. (12). The stability of the equilibrium points can
be analyzed by means of the response to a small
perturbation x of the equilibrium point X. From
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
1556 A. El Aroudi et al.
the large signal model, we can derive a small signal
model in the neighborhood of X. We assume that
the vector of state variables x may be composed by
a steady state value X and a small perturbation x.
Linearizing in the vicinity of the equilibrium point
X, we obtain a small signal model in the follow-
ing form:
x = Df x + HOT (14)
where Df is the Jacobian of the vector eld f and
HOT stands for high order terms. The solution of
this equation takes the following form:
x(t) = eDf t x0 (15)
A necessary and sucient condition for stability is
that the eigenvalues i of Df are in the left side
of the complex plane. Two dierent ways of losing
stability can take place.
1. The eigenvalues crossing the imaginary axis are
complex conjugates (trace(Df ) = 0).
2. One of the eigenvalues crosses the imaginary axis
from the origin (det(Df ) = 0).
where trace and det stand for the trace and deter-
minant, respectively. As the averaged model is an
approximated model for the actual system, some
accuracy is lost by using this approach to predict
the stability. The more accurate model that con-
serves the switching nature of the system and at
the same time allows mathematical analysis is the
discrete-time model.
3.3. Discrete-time model. Poincare
map
A discrete-time state-space description most com-
monly comes from regular sampling of the
state variables of the continuous-time description.
Because most of power circuits operate cyclically,
the discrete time modeling approach seems to be the
natural way to deal with these systems [Kassakian
et al., 1991]. The switching action is essentially dis-
crete. The discrete-time model considered in this
paper relates the state variables at the beginning
and at the end of an operating cycle. To build
up the discrete-time model of a DCDC switching
converter, we consider the operation of the sys-
tem within the nth cycle. The closed form solu-
tion of the state equations for each time interval
are linked at the switching instants and the map
P which relates two successive samples of the state
variables can be obtained. Viewing the dynamics of
the system in each cycle is equivalent to considering
the dynamics on a switching surface which can
be time dependent (PWM) or time independent
(Hysteresis). This surface denes a Poincare sec-
tion [Holmes, 1983; Parker & Chua, 1989; Seydel,
1994; Kutnetsov, 1998]. The map governing the
dynamics on the Poincare section will have the
following form:
P : RN1
 RN1
(16)
xn  xn+1 := P (xn ), n = 0, 1, 2, . . .
N being the order of the system, xn the value of the
state vector on the switching surface and xn+1 the
vector of state variable at the next instant when
the trajectory hits the same switching surface.
This discrete model keeps all the properties of the
continuous model regarding the existence of peri-
odic orbits and their stability. In order to obtain
this map, the switching instants must be found.
These switching instants are, in general, solutions
of transcendental equations and therefore are usu-
ally obtained numerically. Note that the map is an
N 1-dimensional system if its underlying contin-
uous time system is N -dimensional.
4. A Review of Bifurcation Phenomena
The research in nonlinear dynamics of DCDC
converters began in 1984 by [Brockett & Wood,
1984]. Later, chaos and nonlinear phenomena in
power electronic (PE) circuits have attracted sev-
eral research groups around the world. Dierent
nonlinear phenomena were discovered in dierent
DCDC converters controlled by various control
strategies. Among others we can cite flip bifurca-
tion or period doubling and its related route to chaos
[Hamill & Jeeries, 1988; Deane & Hamill, 1990;
Tse, 1994a, 1994b; di Bernardo et al., 1998; Fossas
& Oliver, 1996; Fang & Abed, 2001; Alfayoumi
et al., 1999], anomalous or so-called border collision
bifurcations [Yuan et al., 1998; Banerjee et al., 2000]
and quasiperiodicity route chaos and torus break-
down [El Aroudi & Leyva, 2001; El Aroudi et al.,
2000]. All these bifurcations are covered in some
2D bifurcation diagrams in the parameter space
[Benadero et al., 2003].
Some researchers were attracted by statisti-
cal analysis of DCDC converters. In [Baranovski
et al., 1999a], a systematic approach to design
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
switched dynamical systems with chaotic behavior
from statistical characteristics (probability density
function and spectral power density) of the out-
put signal is presented. An analysis of a DCDC
boost converter has been carried out in [Baranovski
et al., 1999b]. Using the state densities approach
[Marrero et al., 1996], an ergodic map was used to
describe the converters dynamics. It was shown that
the chaotic regime, with the stability of periodic
orbits lost, is not necessarily bad, and does not need
to be avoided. In spite of the instability of these
orbits, the converters still behave properly and the
output voltage ripple is small. In [Marrero et al.,
1999], the static characteristics such as the average
voltage gain and the average switching frequency
were computed using the statistical approach. The
results were also validated experimentally.
In most of the previously cited works, chaos
in DCDC converters under PWM-mode control is
studied. Few of them have undertaken the sliding-
mode control and its inuence upon the operation
of the converter. The work by Calvente et al. [1996],
showed that boost converter under sliding-mode
control can exhibit chaotic behavior and subhar-
monics. The authors observed that the increase of
the proportional gain of the compensating network
and changes in the hysteresis width result in sub-
harmonics, bifurcations and chaos.
The study of the nonlinear phenomena and
chaos was not restricted to the elementary convert-
ers, but it was extended to another class of power
electronic systems as drive systems. In [Suto &
Nagy, 2001] it was shown that the induction motor
supplied by a voltage source inverter and controlled
by a tolerance band current controller, can exhibit
a strong nonlinear behavior. Steady states of a two-
channel resonant converter family including both
CCM and DCM operations are analyzed in [Hamar
& Nagy, 2003]. A detailed study of the stability
of one member (the buck) of that family in sym-
metrical operation is made in [Dranga et al., 2003]
and quasiperiodic behavior is demonstrated in these
systems.
The objective of this paper is to oer a per-
spective of the state-of-the-art of the study of
nonlinear dynamics and bifurcations in DCDC
switching converters, and to give a summary of
other related works using a generalized approach.
This paper covers a bigger canvas than was covered
in earlier reviews like [Tse & di Bernardo, 2002] and
[Hamill, 1995]. Our formulation is fairly general.
We view an elementary DCDC power electronic
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1557
converter as a nonlinear map and discuss the local
static and dynamic behavior of such a system as a
function of a bifurcation parameter. To understand
the complex behavior of these systems, an orga-
nizational framework is required. Examples given
in Sec. 6, we hope, serve several purposes. They,
rst, illustrate the application of some theoretical
and numerical tools and more importantly they put
in evidence the occurrence of nonlinear phenomena
that these simple circuits can exhibit.
We hope that we have provided sucient con-
nections to the literature to give a start to a moti-
vated reader since the recent literature dealing with
this subject is extensive. Our reference list, neces-
sarily, omits many papers.
5. Generalized Approach for
Bifurcation Analysis
The similarity between the results obtained for dif-
ferent DCDC converters bring to the conclusion
that the dynamical behavior of all these systems
can be described by a similar model. In this sec-
tion we will try to give a generalized approach to
model DCDC switching converters. The discrete-
time model will be used in analyzing bifurcations in
these systems since it is more accurate than other
modeling strategies in predicting these nonlinear
phenomena.
5.1. Generalized Poincare map
Generally an N -dimensional DCDC switching
converter has M phases during one operating cycle.
The duration of this cycle may be xed (i.e. PWM)
or variable (i.e. Hysteresis). IN CCM, the system
switches sequentially among two dierent linear
congurations during one switching cycle. We will
construct the mapping function from xn at time
instant tn to xn+1 at time instant tn + Tn . In this
section we assume that the parameters of the sys-
tem are selected in such a way that the number of
congurations per cycle is the same during all the
time. In this case, the map is dierentiable every-
where (smooth) and only standard bifurcations like
ip, Hopf and tangent are possible in these systems.
The occurrence of other nonstandard (anomalous)
bifurcations are due to a structural change in the
discrete model. The system switches among the dif-
ferent phases at time instants tn + n when certain
threshold conditions are fullled. For elementary
DCDC switching converters such as buck, boost
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

1558 A. El Aroudi et al.

from one conguration to another may be written

in the following compact form

 
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. Switching sub-intervals and switching instants.
(a) Hysteresis control, (b) PWM control.
and buck-boost working in CCM and in standard
operating regime, two congurations act (Fig. 6).
Conguration 1: x = A1 x + B1
for t [tn , tn + n ]
(17)
Conguration 2: x = A2 x + B2
for t [tn + n , tn + Tn ]
where Ai and Bi are the system matrices during
phase i (i = 1, 2). x is the vector of the state vari-
ables and the over dot stands for derivation with
respect to time (x = dx/dt). During each subinter-
val the system equations are linear and time invari-
ant. Let Xeq,i = A1i Bi (i = 1, 2) the equilibrium
point corresponding to conguration i. In this case,
the solution during each phase interval takes the
following form:
x(t) = Xeq,i + eAi (ttk ) (x(tk ) Xeq,i ) (18)
where tk = tn , tk = tn + n and tk = tn + Tn are the
instants at which the system switches from one con-
guration to another, x(tk ) are the state vectors at
the switching instants. The condition for switching
1 (x(tn ), n ) 0
(x(t), t) := = (19)
2 (x(tn ), n , Tn ) 0
If the converter enters in DCM another congu-
ration must be taken into account and therefore
another constraint is added. In this paper we will
focus on CCM operation. In order to construct a
generalized map, let us write Eq. (18) in the follow-
ing more convenient form
x(t) = Xeq,i + i (t tk )(x(tk ) Xeq,i ) (20)
where i (t) = eAi t . The mapping that relates the
state variable xn at the beginning of a cycle to xn+1 ,
at the end of the same cycle, can be written in the
following form:
xn+1 := P (xn )
= Xeq,2 + 2 (Tn n )[Xeq,1
+ 1 (n )(xn Xeq,1 ) Xeq,2 ] (21)
For PWM controlled converters and under strobo-
scopic sampling, tn = nT and Tn = T , where T
is the period of the modulating signal. Therefore
only one equation has to be solved to obtain n , the
switching instant at the nth cycle. The switching
condition for the PWM control may be written in
the following form
(xn , n ) := K[Xeq,1 + 1 (n )(xn Xeq,1 )] h(n )
= 0 (22)
If a triangular signal is used instead of a sawtooth
one, another switching condition has to be added
with another switching instant. For hysteresis con-
trol tn is xed to a reference value (0 for example)
while n and Tn are unknown and two equations are
to be solved to obtain them. The switching condi-
tions in this case may be written as:

 
K[Xeq,1 + 1 (n )(xn Xeq,1 )] h1 (n ) = 0 0
(xn , n , Tn ) := = (23)
K[Xeq,2 + 2 (Tn n )[Xeq,1 + 1 (n )(xn Xeq,1 ) Xeq,2 ] h2 (Tn ) 0

Equations (21) and (23) dene a generalized

nonlinear constrained mapping for any switch- be noted that this generalized map works for
ing dynamical system with some dened thresh- PWM controlled converters as well as for hys-
old conditions and two congurations. It should teresis controlled systems. It works even for any
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
switched system with two constraints. For instance,
for hysteretic controlled systems, h1,2 (t) = VH /2,
where VH is the hysteresis width [Calvente et al.,
1996; El Aroudi et al., 2002]. For a PWM controller
if a sawtooth voltage is used, h(t) = Vl + (Vu
Vl )t/T := Vl + mc t, where mc := (Vu Vl )/T is
the slope of the ramp voltage. In the case of PWM
control with a triangular signal (double edge mod-
ulation) instead of a sawtooth signal, the switching
equation will be similar to that of the hysteresis con-
trol. In this case h1 () and h2 () will represent the
triangular signal during the trailing edge and the
leading edge subintervals, respectively. Note that in
this case we would have three subintervals instead
of two and the expression for the Poincare map
will include a third conguration characterized by
3 and Xeq,3 . This also occurs in the discontinu-
ous conduction mode [Tse, 1994b]. For feedforward
controlled converters and for power factor correc-
tion circuits, h() depends also on the input voltage
which is, in general, time dependent (AC input).
Once the generalized discrete-time model is
obtained, it would be interesting to obtain its
Jacobian matrix DP . In the steady state (at a xed
point of P ), xn = x , [n , Tn ] = [ , T ]. Solv-
ing (23) for n and Tn (recall that tn = nT and
Tn = T for PWM control), we nd the xed points
of the map. In general the solution is not available
in closed form. Therefore a root nding algorithm
(i.e. NewtonRaphson) should be applied. However,
for some simple circuits, or under some approximat-
ing conditions, the switching condition is solvable
in closed form [Deane, 1992; Podar et al., 1998]. It
is well known that the stability of xed points of a
map is the same as for the underlying periodic orbits
of the continuous system. For xed frequency con-
trolled systems with xed number of congurations
during a cycle, the generalized map corresponds to a
stroboscopic map, while for variable frequency con-
trol (hysteresis), this map corresponds naturally to
an A-switching or impact map [di Bernardo et al.,
1997; di Bernardo et al., 1998].
The xed points x of the Poincare map can be
obtained by enforcing periodicity: xn+1 = xn = x .
By doing so and using (21) we obtain
x = [I 2 (T )1 ( )]1 determines the stability of the xed point and hence
[(I 2 (T ))Xeq,2
+ 2 (T )(I 1 ( ))Xeq,1 ] (24) only if all characteristic multipliers lie inside the
where T is the period of periodic orbit. Note that
for PWM controlled converters T = T is known
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1559
and it is equal to the period of the external mod-
ulating signal, while for hysteresis controlled con-
verters T is unknown and it depends on the circuit
parameters. It should be noted that the locus of the
xed points x in the state plane when is varied
from zero to T is a curve similar to the characteristic
curve obtained from the switched and the averaged
models. This is illustrated in Fig. 7 which shows
the limit cycles, the state variables at the switching
instants and CC for a boost converter when is
varied in the range (0.05T, 0.95T ).
Once the xed points have been determined,
their stability analysis may be carried out by study-
ing the local behavior of the map P in their vicinity.
Performing a Taylor expansion near a xed point we
can write
P (xn ) = P (x ) + DP (x )(xn x ) + HOT (25)
where DP is the Jacobian matrix of the map P .
Denoting xn x by xn and noting that by def-
inition P (x ) = x , Eq. (25) to rst order can be
written as:
xn+1 DP (x )xn (26)
As Eq. (26) is linear, its solution for an initial con-
dition x0 has the following expression
xn = [DP ]n (x )x0 (27)
Let us concentrate on the case where DP is diago-
nalizable. In this case, there exists a set of linear
independent eigenvectors vi with eigenvalues i
such that the initial distance x0 can be written
as their linear combination, and Eq. (27) implies
N

xn = x + ci ni vi , (N = 2 for two-dimensional
i=1
converters) (28)
where ci are the components of the initial condition
x0 . The eigenvalues i are also called the charac-
teristic or Floquet multipliers [Duchesne, 1993] and
it can be expected that they give the amount of
expansion or contraction near the xed point x
when the map is iterated. Therefore the position of
the characteristic multipliers in the complex plane
of its underlying periodic orbit. The xed point and
the periodic orbit are asymptotically stable if and
unity circle. In the next subsection, stability anal-
ysis of periodic orbits is analyzed by obtaining the
Jacobian matrix and its eigenvalues.
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

1560 A. El Aroudi et al.

Fig. 7. The limit cycles, the state variables at the switching instants and CC for a boost converter when n is varied in the
range (0.05T, 0.95T ).

5.2. Jacobian matrix and stability term in Eq. (31) using Eqs. (21) and (22) for
analysis PWM controlled converters or Eq. (23) for hys-
teretic controlled converters, DP can be obtained in
The pair (n , Tn ) denes the duration of the nth
a straightforward procedure. It can be shown that
cycle and the switching instant during this cycle.
the expression of the Jacobian matrix has the fol-
Let us dene dn := (n , Tn ). By denition DP is
lowing form:
dP P P ddn
DP := = + (29)
dxn xn dn dxn DP = 2 (T )Q1 ( ) (32)
where we have assumed that all parameters are con-
where Q is an appropiate matrix which depends on
stant during the whole switching cycle. In the FFC,
the controller used and and T are, respectively,
Tn = T is constant and then we only need to dif-
the switching instant and the duration of the cycle
ferentiate with respect to n while for the VFC
at the steady state. In the case of FFC, it can be
case, the dierentiation must be carried out with
demonstrated that
respect to both n and Tn . Dierentiating Eq. (23),
we obtain: (x x+ )K
Q=I (33)
K x mc
dxn + ddn = 0 (30)
xn dn
where mc is the slope of the compensating ramp,
from which we can deduce (ddn )/(dxn ) and replace while in the case of VFC, this matrix becomes
its expression in Eq. (29) to obtain
  x+K2 (T )
P P 1 Q=I (34)
DP = (31) K2 (T )x+
xn dn dn xn
It is important to remark that for PWM controlled where x and x+ are the derivative of the
converters, the equation = 0 has one unknown state variables just before and after the switch-
variable while it has two unknown ones for hys- ing instants, respectively. Evaluating this Jaco-
teretic controlled converters. By calculating each bian matrix in a xed point and computing its
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
corresponding characteristic multipliers i would
give us the stability of its underlying periodic orbit.
For nonautonomous systems like PWM controlled
systems, as long as no eigenvalue is on the unit circle
(|i | = 1, i [1, 2, . . . , N ]), the periodic orbit is a
nonbifurcating (hyperbolic) orbit. For autonomous
systems like those controlled with hysteresis, one
eigenvalue say 1 is always unity [Parker & Chua,
1989; El Aroudi et al., 2002]. When for some i
(i = 1 for hysteretic controlled converters), |i | = 1,
the periodic orbit loses stability and this implies the
existence of a bifurcation. In the remainder of the
paper when we talk about a bifurcation of an orbit,
we will refer to the nominal orbit which we will refer
to as 1-periodic orbit or T -periodic orbit. The fact
that an eigenvalue is equal (or near) to 1 can also
occur for systems with some state variable which is
constant, or in situations in which a periodic orbit
disappears suddenly when a parameter reaches a
critical value.
6. Bifurcations in DCDC Switching
Converters
In this section we will give some examples of
bifurcations that DCDC switching converters can
undergo. Local bifurcations are strongly related to
the loss of stability in the small signal model. It was
shown that this stability is determined by the eigen-
values of the linearized map DP . These eigenvalues
are obtained from the characteristic equation of the
linearized map which is given by

It happens that, for some parameter values, a sta-
det(DP I) = 0
(35)
P (x ) x = 0
where I is the identity matrix and 0 is null column
vector whose order is the same as that of the con-
verter. At a bifurcation point, the modulus of is 1
and we can write = ej . There are three standard
ways for eigenvalues to leave the unit circle in the
case of a smooth map P . For = , ip bifurcation
takes place, while for = 0, saddle node bifurca-
tion can occur (a pair of periodic orbits coalesce
and disappear). For other values of , a Neimark
Sacker bifurcation is possible. In the next subsec-
tions we will see the three dierent ways of losing
stability. These three instabilities are classied into
two commonly encountered situations among bifur-
cations of xed points of a map: bifurcation points
and turning points [Seydel, 1994]. Other names of
turning points are limit points, fold bifurcations or
saddle nodes [Hilborn, 1994].
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1561
6.1. A necessary condition for
stability
If the system is stable, both eigenvalues of the
Jacobian matrix are inside the unit circle. The
determinant of the Jacobian matrix which is equal
to the product of its eigenvalues will be less than
unity. Thus, for the case of FFC, by using Eq. (32),
a necessary condition for local stability is:
 
 K x+ mc  tr(A A )t +tr(A )T
  2 1 1 2
 K x mc  e <1 (36)
It should be noted that this inequality is very sim-
ilar to a well known and widely used criterion for
stability [Erickson, 1997] which is:
 
 m2 mc 
 
 m1 mc  < 1 (37)
where m1 and m2 are the positive and negative
slopes of control signal, respectively and mc is the
slope of the ramp compensator. However (36) is
only a necessary and not sucient condition for sta-
bility. Therefore traditional methods based in the
approximated criterion (37) could fail to predict sta-
bility if the exponents in (36) are not suciently
small.
6.2. Instability of the 1-periodic
orbit associated to =
ble T -periodic orbit becomes an unstable T -periodic
orbit, and moreover, a stable 2T -periodic orbit is
created. This process is called a period-doubling or
ip bifurcation, and it is typical of smooth systems.
The inverse process, as a parameter is varied, is also
possible, and then, it is called an inverse period-
doubling bifurcation or subcritical ip bifurcation.
Buck, boost and buck-boost DCDC converters,
being systems modeled by smooth maps under stan-
dard operating conditions (CCM and with a single
switching instant within a switching cycle), usu-
ally show this type of bifurcation when appropri-
ate parameters of the circuit are varied. For a ip
bifurcation one of the eigenvalues is equal to 1.
Therefore from Eq. (35) we have the following
condition


det(DP + I) = 0
(38)
P (x ) x = 0
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

1562 A. El Aroudi et al.

1 1
0
RC C
A1 = A2 =

, B1 = VIN ,
1 RS
L
L L
 
0
B2 =
0
(39)

The switching condition is

(x , ) = K[Xeq,1 + 1 ( )(x Xeq,1 )]

Fig. 8. Schematic diagram of a voltage controlled buck
PWM DCDC converter.
6.2.1. Example 1: PWM voltage controlled
buck converter
Let us consider the PWM controlled buck converter
represented in Fig. 8 with the same value of param-
eters in [Hamill et al., 1992]: R = 22 , L = 20 mH,
C = 47 F, RS = 0 , T = 400 s. If a ramp signal
with lower value Vl = 0 V and upper value Vu = 1 V
is used, the corresponding control parameters are:
kv = 1.9091, ki = 0 , Vref = 22.4364 V. The matri-
ces A1 and A2 and vectors B1 and B2 are:
Vref Vl (Vu Vl ) =0 (40)
T
where x is given by [Eq. (24)] and K = [kv ki ].
Let us take the input voltage VIN as a bifurca-
tion parameter and keep constant all the remaining
parameters. Using Eqs. (31) and (38), the critical
value of the input voltage is found to be Vin,cr =
24.5166 V and the xed point at this critical value is
x0 = [12.0277 V; 0.6081 A]T . Figure 9 shows typical
waveforms of the inductor current, control voltage
and sawtooth ramp modulator after the ip bifurca-
tion takes place. The loci of the characteristic mul-
tipliers are also shown indicating that one of the
eigenvalues crosses the unit circle at 1. It should
be noted that the duty cycle to output transfer func-
tion of the system obtained from the traditional

Fig. 9. Subharmonic oscillation in a PWM voltage controlled buck converter. (Left) Characteristic multipliers as the input
voltage is varied. (Right top) Sawtooth and control voltage. (Right bottom) Inductor current.
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1563

averaged model is Let us take ki as bifurcation parameter. Using

vo (s) Vin Eqs. (31) and (38), the critical value of the feed-
H(s) := = (41) back coecient ki is found to be ki,cr = 0.4615

d(s) L
LCs2 + s + 1 and the xed point at this critical value is
R
Based on this transfer function, the system is x0 = [14.3673 V, 6.2220 A]T. Figure 11 shows
expected to be stable over the whole range of the typical waveforms of the inductor current, control
input voltage. Therefore nonlinear analysis based voltage and sawtooth ramp modulator after a ip
on the discrete time model is more accurate. bifurcation takes place. The loci of the character-
istic multipliers are shown in Fig. 12 indicating
6.2.2. Example 2: Current programmed that one of the eigenvalues crosses the unit circle
boost converter at 1. Traditionally the slope of the ramp modula-
tor is chosen in order to assure stability. In Fig. 11,
Let us consider now the current controlled boost the parameters of the system have been selected
converter with a ramp modulator (Fig. 10) with to fulll (37). However, as it can be shown, the T -
the following values of parameters: R = 5 , L = periodic orbit is unstable and the system presents
10 H, C = 47 F, VIN = 5 V, RS = 0 , Vl = 0 V, subharmonic oscillations. This discrepancy can be
Vu = 1 V, kv = 0, T = 20 s, Vref = 5 V. The matri- explained by the fact that Eq. (37) is derived from
ces A1 and A2 and vectors B1 and B2 are:
a one-dimensional map while the system is actually
1 1 1 two-dimensional.

RC 0
, A2 = RC C
A1 =
,
RS 1 RS
0 6.2.3. Example 3: Boost converter with
L L L hysteretic modulator and PI controller

0
In this example, a boost converter is controlled in
B1 = B2 = VIN
sliding mode using a sliding surface dened by a lin-
L ear combination of the inductor current iL , voltage
(42) error
 vC Vref and integrative of the voltage error
The switching condition is (vC Vref ) dt [Calvente et al., 1996]. This system
is represented in Fig. 13. Let us take the follow-
(x , ) = Vref K[Xeq,1 + 1 ( )(x Xeq,1 )]
ing values of parameters: R = 10 , L = 200 H,
C = 200 F, VIN = 10 V, RS = 0, VH = 0.5 V,
Vl (Vu Vl ) =0 (43)
T ki = 1 , Vref = 20 V. The matrices A1 and A2 and
vectors B1 and B2 are:
1
0 0
RC


A1 =
0
RS ,
0
L
1 0 0
1 1
0
RC C

(44)
A2 = 1
RS
0

L L
1 0 0

0 0
V V
IN IN
B1 = , B2 =
L L
Fig. 10. Current controlled boost converter with ramp
modulator. Vref Vref
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

1564 A. El Aroudi et al.

(a)

(b)
Fig. 11. Flip bifurcation in a current controlled boost converter with ramp modulator. (a) Control signal and ramp waveforms
showing subharmonic oscillations. (b) Corresponding capacitor voltage waveforms.

Fig. 12. Evolution of the characteristic multipliers of the

Fig. 13. Hysteretic controlled boost converter with PI
current programmed boost converter when ki is varied.
controller.
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1565

The switching conditions are: 6.3. Instability of 1-periodic orbit

1 (x , , T ) = K[Xeq,1 + 1 ( )(x Xeq,1 )]x
VH
kv Vref =0
2 In the rst case we can have transcritical and pitch-
2 (x , , T ) = K[Xeq,2 + 2 (T )[Xeq,1 (45)
+ 1 ( )(x Xeq,1 ) Xeq,2 ]
VH
kv Vref + =0
2 state variables: i.e. P (xn ) = P (xn ). Obviously
where K = [kv , ki , kint ] and T is the cycle dura-
tion corresponding to the xed point x . kv and kint
are the weights of the proportional and the integral
terms, respectively of the PI controller and ki is
the weight of the inductor current. The parameter
kint is taken to be 2kv /RC without loss of general-
ity. Varying the coecient kv , the system undergoes
a ip bifurcation and subharmonic oscillations are
obtained. The critical value of kv is kv,cr 4.35.
Figure 14 shows typical waveforms after this bifur-
cation occurs. The loci of the characteristic multi-
pliers are also shown.
It should be noted that in hysteretic controlled
converters, the period does not double exactly but it
is still a bifurcation with = 1 (ip). The reason
is that the Poincare map is not a synchronous map.
For this reason we preferred the term ip bifurca-
tion rather than period doubling bifurcation.
associated to = 0
Dierent types of bifurcations are associated with
an eigenvalue equal to 1. The critical point in this
case may be a bifurcation point or a turning point.
fork bifurcation and in the second one we have a
saddle node or tangent bifurcation. The condition
for a map to display a pitchfork bifurcation is that
it must be an even function with respect to the
the Poincare map of elementary DCDC switch-
ing regulators is not an even function and pitch-
fork bifurcation cannot occur. A state variable with
small ripple can also give rise to a characteristic
multiplier close to 1. This situation evidently does
not correspond to a bifurcation.
At a saddle node bifurcation, one of the eigen-
values is equal to 1. Therefore from Eq. (35) we have
the following condition


det(DP I) = 0
(46)
P (x ) x = 0
6.3.1. Example 4: PWM controlled
DCDC boost converter
Let us consider the PWM DCDC boost converter
shown in Fig. 15 with the following values of param-
eters: R = 5 , L = 20 H, C = 47 F, VIN = 20 V,

Fig. 14. Subharmonic oscillation in a hysteretic controlled boost converter with PI control. (Left) Characteristic multipliers
when kv coecient of the PI controller is varied. (Right) Capacitor voltage and inductor current after ip bifurcation takes
place.
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

1566 A. El Aroudi et al.

Fig. 15. PWM feedback controlled DCDC boost

converter. Fig. 16. Saddle-node bifurcation in a PWM controlled
DCDC boost converter.

RS = 0.1 , Vl = 0 V, Vu = 1 V, ki = 0.05 , one and only one xed point. By plotting the char-
Vref = 2 V, T = 10 s. The matrices A1 and A2 acteristic curve and the boundary layer in the state
and vectors B1 and B2 are: plane we can obtain geometrically the set of param-
eter values that makes the system have only one
1 1 1
0 nominal operating point. The situation in Fig. 5
RC C
A1 = , A2 = RC , corresponds to this case. It should be noted that
1 RS RS the averaging approach can be also used in this case
0
L L L without losing accuracy if the switching frequency
is suciently high.
0
B1 = B2 = VIN

L 6.4. Instability of 1-periodic orbit
(47) associated to (0, )
The switching condition is Most discrete models for DCDC switching con-
verters give rise to eigenvalues in complex conju-
(x , ) = K(1 ( )x + 1 ( )) Vref Vl gate pairs. For a NeimarkSacker bifurcation two
of the eigenvalues are of modulus equal to 1,
(Vu Vl ) = 0 (48)
T being complex conjugates but dierent from 1.
Therefore from Eq. (35) we have the following
Let us take Vref as bifurcation parameter. Using
condition
Eqs. (31) and (46), the critical value of the ref-
erence voltage is found to be Vref,cr = 3.625 V
and the xed point at this critical value is x0 = det(DP ) = 0

ej 0
[57.5549 V, 46.6404 A]T . When Vref > Vref,cr , the (49)
P (x ) x = 0 being =

0 e j
system has only the OFF equilibrium point as a
solution. When Vref < Vref,cr , the system has three
solutions: the OFF equilibrium point, the saddle being the phase of the complex pair eigenvalues
point and the node point (Fig. 16). In this case when these cross the unit circle. After the occur-
the behavior of the system in the steady state will rence of a NeimarkSacker bifurcation, the trajec-
be dependent on the initial conditions. Tangent tory of the Poincare map is an invariant closed
bifurcations may explain why DCDC converters curve that emerges from the xed point of the
undergo some sudden jump in their solution or sud- map. This invariant closed curve corresponds to
den disappearance of a periodic solution. A method a torus in the underlying continuous time system.
to avoid this behavior is by making the system have The system behavior is therefore quasiperiodic and
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
it is characterized by the existence of dierent
incommensurate frequencies. For xed frequency
controlled systems, one of the frequencies appear-
ing in the quasiperiodic behavior is the switching
frequency and the other is due to the natural fre-
quency of the linearized Poincare map. This natural
frequency is related to the phase of the complex
eigenvalues pair at the bifurcation point. Since the
modulus of these eigenvalues is 1, we can write
for the complex pair eigenvalues that 1,2 = ej .
Therefore, natural frequencies of the linearized map
may be written as f0 = (/2)fs , where fs = 1/T is
the xed switching frequency. Note that for = ,
f0 = fs /2, period doubling bifurcation is obtained
while for = 0, f0 = 0, saddle node takes place.
6.4.1. Example 5: PWM state feedback
controlled boost converter
Let us take the system of Example 4 but with the
following values of parameters: R = 0.1 , L =
(a)
(b)
Fig. 17. Dynamics of the PWM DCDC boost converter before and after Hopf bifurcation takes place. (a) Bifurcation
diagram. (b) Attractor of the system in the continuous time domain. (c) Discrete-time attractor. (d) Power spectrum of the
inductor current in the frequency domain.
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1567
1 mH, C = 32 F, VIN = 5 V, RS = 0.1 , Vl = 0 V,
Vu = 1 V, ki = 0.1 , kv = 0.1, fs = 1/T = 25 kHz.
The matrices and the vectors of the system and
the switching condition are the same as for Exam-
ple 4. Let us take Vref as a bifurcation parameter.
With the above set of parameter values, the criti-
cal reference voltage is found to be Vref,cr = 1.435 V
and the xed point for this critical value is x0 =
[9.536 V, 0.597 A]. In this case, Eqs. (31) and (49)
lead to the system eigenvalues 1,2 = ej0.2029 with
a natural system frequency f0 of about (/2)fs
807 Hz. Figure 17 shows the dynamic behavior
of the system before and after Hopf bifurcation
takes place. Before this bifurcation occurs, the xed
point of the Poincare map is a stable focus and
it becomes unstable when Hopf bifurcation occurs.
In this case the attractor of the system is a torus
[Fig. 17(b)]. Its Poincare section is an invariant
closed curve [Fig. 17(c)]. The power spectrum of the
inductor current shows a low frequency component
around f0 .
(c)
(d)
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

1568 A. El Aroudi et al.

attractor of the system is a torus [Fig. 19(b)] and

Fig. 18. PWM controlled DCDC buck converter with PI
control.
6.4.2. Example 6: PWM controlled buck
converter with voltage PI control
Now, consider the PWM DCDC buck converter
with PI controller shown in Fig. 18 with the follow-
ing values of parameters: L = 1 mH, C = 20 F,
VIN = 20 V, RS = 0.01 , Vl = 0 V, Vu = 1 V, ki =
0 , kv = 0.1, kint = 1000, fs = 1/T = 20 kHz. The
matrices A1 and A2 and the vectors B1 and B2 are:
1 1
0 elementary converters buck, boost and buck-boost,
RC C
A1 = A2 =
0
1 RS , due to the fact that in these systems one of the
L L
1 0 0 Kxn + VH = 0 n. This bifurcation is neither
(50)
0 verters. However, the insertion of input lters or PI
V 0
IN
B1 = , B2 = 0
L
Vref
Vref
Let us take the load resistance R as a bifurca-
tion parameter. With the above set of parameter
values, the critical load resistance is found to be
Rcr = 7.45 . Using Eqs. (31) and (49), the eigenval-
ues of the system at this point are 1,2 = ej0.6283 .
It is expected that the natural frequency of the
system is f0 = (/2)fs 2 kHz. Figure 19 shows
the dynamic behavior of the system before and
after Hopf bifurcation takes place. As in the PWM
voltage mode controlled DCDC boost converter,
before this bifurcation occurs, the xed point of
the Poincare map is a stable focus and it becomes
unstable when Hopf bifurcation occurs and the
again its Poincare section is an invariant closed
curve [Fig. 19(c)]. The power spectrum of the capac-
itor voltage shows also a low frequency component
very near to f0 .
In the case of quasiperiodicity another quanti-
fying term of the dynamics is the rotation or the
winding number w. It is dened as the averaged
angle by which the map rotates in the invariant cir-
cle. The denition of the rotation number involves a
limit for the number of iterations of a map P dened
on the torus starting from an initial point x0 .
P n (x0 ) x0
w = lim (51)
n n
For quasiperiodic solutions this number is irra-
tional. A special case of the dynamics on the torus
is when the two frequencies of the system are com-
mensurate. In this case, the rotation number is
rational, and the behavior is periodic, correspond-
ing to a phase locked orbit. These orbits are usu-
ally organized in the form of Arnold Tongues in a
two-dimensional parameter space. The plot of the
rotation number, as the bifurcation parameter is
varied, is a typical devils staircase (see [El Aroudi
et al., 2000] and [El Aroudi & Leyva, 2001] for more
details).
It should be noted that in hysteresis controlled
NeimarkSacker bifurcation is not possible. This is
eigenvalues is always zero because of the constraint
observed in current programmed elementary con-
controllers in these circuits may produce this bifur-
cation [Alfayoumi et al., 1999].
6.5. Border collision and grazing
bifurcation
Bifurcations in the parameter space that have
been analyzed in the above sections are associ-
ated to smooth changes in the system, although
often remarkable disturbance follows them. Fur-
thermore, Piecewise-Smooth Systems (PWS) are
susceptible to undergo other complex bifurcations
when some critical condition modies the pattern
for transitions between their inherent smooth con-
gurations. Switched converters are among these
systems; although each of their congurations is lin-
ear, nonsmoothness is associated with the transition
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
(a)
(b)
Fig. 19. Dynamics of the PWM DCDC buck converter with PI controller before and after Hopf bifurcation takes place.
(a) Bifurcation diagram. (b) Attractor of the system in the continuous time domain. (c) Discrete-time attractor. (d) Power
spectrum of the inductor current in the frequency domain.
Fig. 20. Waveforms of the ramp modulator and the induc-
tor current for the approximated one-dimensional model of
DCDC converters.
between these congurations. One case called graz-
ing bifurcations occurs in mechanics for impact
oscillators which are modeled by considering
negligible the impact time, so discontinuities in
the state variables are present. The term border
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1569
(c)
(d)
collisions (C-bifurcations in Russian literature) is
more used when the discontinuity aects the state
equations but not the state variables themselves, as
in the case of DCDC converters.
Regarding the Poincare map of PWS, it has
been assumed that it changes smoothly against
some parameter sweeping. But this is not true if the
sequence of the linear conguration is altered; then
a border collision bifurcation takes place. As a con-
sequence of this structural change of the eld (state
equations) associated with border collisions bifurca-
tions, there is an abrupt change in the eigenvalues
for the Jacobian or linearized matrix associated to
those xed points.
A large variety of border-collision bifurcations
have been reported in recent literature and several
names are coined for some of them. In a switched
converter, most typically border collisions involve
orbits with high periodicity, but they can also be
present with the T -periodic orbit. For instance, if
the inductor current reaches the zero value, both the
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
1570 A. El Aroudi et al.
main switch and the diode are OFF, then the only
nonzero state variable is the capacitor voltage; in
this case the system changes from two-dimensional
(2D) to one-dimensional (1D). In [Parui & Banerjee,
2001] an extended analysis for border collisions,
where the map is 2D in one side of the border
and 1D in the other side, is given. Another sim-
ple case occurs if the reference voltage is shifted
to overow the control range, freezing a single con-
guration. These simple cases show two possibili-
ties, one is when the attractor is present at both
sides of the borderline and other case implies that
there are two xed points on one side colliding on
the border, and there are no xed points on the
other side (for more details see [Parui & Banerjee,
2001]). Merging and disappearance of two solutions
of dierence type, a phenomenon that has some
similarities to saddle-node bifurcations in smooth
systems, is treated in detail in [Zhusubaliyev &
Mosekilde, 2003] for a two-dimensional map describ-
ing the behavior of a PWM buck converter. A main
dierence is that under the parameter variation
those xed points are separated from each other
more in a linear manner than in a parabolic way.
Border collision bifurcations can also drive to sud-
den transitions to chaos. Piecewise linear maps, as
for instance the tent map, exhibit this behavior.
Using selected piecewise smooth Poincare maps,
an accurate analysis is made in [Zhusubaliyev &
Mosekilde, 2003] for dierent kinds of more com-
plex bifurcations which include switched converters
among the detailed examples. The same approach is
used in [Robert & Robert, 2002] to study these kind
of bifurcations in a PWM current mode H-bridge
inverter. Other nonlinear phenomena like chatter-
ing and skipping are examples of border collision
bifurcations. Skipping phenomenon is produced by
varying some parameter, the control signal can
jump to another cycle of the modulating signal.
This leads to the period adding bifurcation.
Chattering, or sliding in some ideal cases, is
given if the control signal impacts repetitively on
the modulating sawtooth signal. Multistability phe-
nomena is frequently associated with border col-
lision bifurcations. Many dierent attractors are
referred to possible coexistence. This can be out-
lined by building bifurcation diagrams where the
in + m1 T
 
in+1 := P (in ) =
m2 mc
(in Iref ) + Iref + m2 T
m1 mc
sense of sweeping is changed so as to show the
hysteretic behavior. Corner collision is another term
used for associated bifurcation to the signal control
equaling the sawtooth signal just when it changes
slope. Readers interested in the mathematical back-
ground about these anomalous bifurcations can
refer to [Nusse & Yorke, 1992; Wolf et al., 1994;
Nusse et al., 1994; Yuan et al., 1998; Banerjee et al.,
2000; Zhusubaliyev & Soukhoterin, 2001].
7. Approximated Poincare Maps
We have seen that stability analysis of periodic
orbits cannot be carried out in closed form due to
the transcendental nature of the equation of the
switching condition. However, in some practical sit-
uations and in some specic control strategies, we
are able to nd the switching instants due to the
fact that the expression of the map is available in
closed form. Let us focus on the PWM control with
a sawtooth modulating signal. A similar approach
can be followed in case of other control methods.
7.1. Linear ripple approximation
In this case, it is considered that the waveforms
of the state variables are linear in each subinter-
val. Therefore, we can approximate eAt by I + At,
where I is the identity matrix. The switching condi-
tion will be a rst-order equation in n which may
be solved in closed form. Substituting n in Eq. (21)
will result in a closed form expression of the map-
ping governing the dynamical system behavior.
7.2. Constant output voltage
approximation
Further simplications in the expression of the map-
ping may be carried out assuming that the capac-
itor voltage is no longer a state variable. Indeed,
in most applications this voltage is controlled to a
desired value in such a way that the ripple is very
small. In this case, the capacitor voltage is constant
(vC = VC ) and the mapping governing the dynam-
ics is therefore one-dimensional. In [Marrero et al.,
1996] assuming a constant output voltage, it was
shown that the mapping governing the dynamics of
any current mode controlled elementary converter
working in CCM can be written as (see Fig. 19):
if in < T (mc m1 ) + Iref
(52)
if in > T (mc m1 ) + Iref
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1571

Table 2. The expressions of m1 , m2 and for the analyze bifurcation phenomena [Woywode et al.,
dierent elementary converters.
2001].
Converter Buck Boost Buck-Boost Dierently to the geometric approach used for
nonlinear analysis of dynamical systems, statistical
VIN VC VIN VIN approach is based on the system average properties.
m1
L L L
Using classical results from ergodic theory applied
VC VC VIN VC to stochastic processes, the statistical approach can
m2
L L L address certain questions about the average values
VC VC VIN VC of signals generated by nonlinear Poincare maps. In

VIN VC VIN VIN this approach it is often referred to a chaotic sig-
nal being stochastic even though the map giving
where Iref is the reference current, m1 and m2 being rise to it is deterministic. An important feature of
the increasing and the decreasing slopes of the state the statistical analysis is that a nonlinear map will
variable. Table 2 shows the values of m1 , m2 and not be dependent on an initial condition so that
:= m1 /m2 for buck, boost and buck-boost con- the sensitive dependence of chaotic signals on the
verters. Figure 21 shows the graph of the induc- initial conditions is not to be taken into account
tor current map. Other works use another map, the if we suppose that the system is ergodic. The map
so-called impact or A-switching map [Baranovski (55) governing the dynamics of DCDC elemen-
et al., 1999a; Woywode et al., 2000; Deane et al., tary converters is ergodic for values of greater
1999; Banerjee & Verghese, 2001]. than the golden mean Gm = (1 + 5)/2. The sta-
  tistical approach is based on considering the state
Iref ik space of a nonlinear system as a measure space.
ik+1 = Iref m2 T 1 mod 1 (53)
m1 T The measure (xi ) of a set of points in the state
where the subscript k stands for sampling at ON space is usually normalized in such a way that it
switching instants, mod stands for the modulus has a probabilistic interpretation [Lasota & Mackey,
function and mc = 0 for simplicity. Introducing 1994]. When this measure is normalized, the density
the parameter and the dimensionless variable xk function is a probability density (). The mean-
dened by ing of this probability is the relative frequency of a
trajectory that lies in a region when the iteration
Iref ik
xk = (54) number is large enough. For two-dimensional sys-
m1 T tems, the state plane is divided into a set of cells
The map (53) can be written in the following dimen- each one with a certain probability of being visited
sionless form by a trajectory. If we use M cells and nd that the
xk+1 := P (xk ) = (1 xk mod 1) (55) trajectory visits the ith cell mi times, then we asso-
ciate the probability pi = mi /M with the ith cell
This recurrence equation is more suitable for (Ii ). This probability may be also obtained using
carrying out statistical analysis rather than to the probability density (). The probability of nd-
ing a trajectory in the ith cell is given by integrating
in this cell, i.e.

pi = (xi ) = (x)dx (56)

Ii
Usually, densities vary when the map is iterated.
The evolution of a probability density when the map
is iterated is the central issue in the statistical appr-
oach. This density evolves according to the Frobe-
nious Perron operator [Lasota & Mackey, 1994].

8. Control of Bifurcations
It was shown from the examples presented previ-
Fig. 21. The approximated one-dimensional map of a ously that sometimes the behavior of an unstable
DCDC converter. DCDC converter is expected to be stable by using
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
1572 A. El Aroudi et al.
traditional control technique based on both the
averaged model and the approximated expressions
obtained from the discrete time model. In order to
widen, the stability range of the circuit parame-
ter, some methods based on nonlinear analysis, and
known from chaos theory like the OGY method,
and TDAS control can be used. Control of chaos,
meaning suppression of the chaotic regime in a sys-
tem has been a subject of interest in recent years
[Shinbrot et al., 1993]. In [Ott et al., 1990], it was
pointed out that the many Unstable Periodic Orbits
(UPOs) embedded in a strange attractor could be
stabilized. This is to the advantage of engineers try-
ing to control nonlinear systems in which chaotic
uctuations are present but undesirable. Two main
groups of methods for controlling chaos, such that
the feedback perturbation vanishes on the target
orbit, have been considered in the literature.
8.1. The OGY method
The rst method was proposed by Ott, Grebogi
and Yorke [Ott et al., 1990], where small perturba-
tions to an accessible parameter are introduced. The
method exploits the fact that during its wandering
over the strange attractor, the system will eventu-
ally come near the UPO of a given Poincare section.
When this happens, and only then, a small pertur-
bation is applied to the parameter so as to make
the orbit land on the stable manifold of the target
orbit the next time it crosses the Poincare section.
It has been applied with success to a great variety
of systems in almost all areas and it is continuously
revised in the literature. The OGY method can be
applied when the equations of the system dynamics
are known, like in the case of DCDC converters,
and from a sampled sequence of values of the chaotic
signal when the equations are not known. Some
types of OGY method have already been applied to
a buck converter [Podar et al., 1995; Chakrabarty
& Banerjee, 1995] stabilizing T -periodic and
2T -periodic unstable orbits, taking advantage of the
piecewise-linear character of the system. The main
idea of Ott, Grebogi and Yorke was to consider that
there can be a great number of UPOs embedded
in the chaotic attractor. Thus, slightly varying an
available parameter p [p pmax , p + pmax ] in derivatives of the map P with respect to the state
the system, the orbit can be stabilized, pmax being
the maximum perturbation allowed in the available
parameter, and p the value of the parameter for
which the UPO is localized. Let x = P (x , p ) DCDC buck converter. The bifurcation parameter
be the unstable orbit to be stabilized. A rst-order
approximation of P near (x , p ) is
xn+1 DP (xn ) + DPp (pn ) (57)
where pn is the available parameter, xn = xn x ,
pn = pn p , and DPp is composed by the partial
derivative of map P with respect to the parame-
ter p. We also assume that x is a saddle periodic
orbit with a one-dimensional stable manifold and
a one-dimensional unstable manifold with stable
direction es and unstable direction eu (with stable
eigenvalue s and unstable eigenvalue u , respec-
tively). Thus, for two-dimensional converters DP
can be expressed as
DP = u eu feu + s es fes (58)
where fes and feu are the contravariant vectors of
es , eu (and thus es fes = eu feu = 1 and es feu =
eu fes = 0). The idea of the method is to let the
system operate until the orbit is near the unstable
orbit. At that moment the value for p is modied
from p to p + p. With this small perturbation,
the localization of the unstable orbit and its stable
manifold is also varied in order to force the orbit to
stay in the stable manifold of x in the next itera-
tion. Thus, pn = p + pn must be chosen to satisfy
(in a rst-order approximation)
feu xn+1 = 0 (59)
and then,
feu xn
pn = u if feu DPp = 0 (60)
feu DPp
This perturbation is applied only if it does not
exceed pmax . If this is not the case, pn = 0 and
p = p is kept. Theoretically, once the value xn+1 is
on the stable manifold of x , the perturbation can
be reset to zero. In practice, since the value for pn
was computed to rst-order approximation, the fol-
lowing iterations will not be exactly on the stable
manifold and the orbit will be unstabilized. Thus,
the perturbation must be applied at each iteration.
The rst step to implement the algorithm numeri-
cally is to compute the unstable orbits desired for
stabilization. This can be done by writing down the
necessary equations for T -periodicity with one sin-
gle switching in each cycle, and following the main
branch attractor beyond the rst bifurcation. The
and the parameter are computed using the expres-
sion of this map. In order to illustrate the appi-
cation of the method it was applied to an unstable
is selected to be the input voltage VIN as before.
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
Figure 22 shows the waveforms of the output volt-
age before and after applying the OGY method.
The OGY method assumes that the UPO is
always of saddle type. Evidently, this is not always
the case in DCDC converters. Theoretically, the
control is activated only if the trajectory of the sys-
tem fails on the stable manifold of the system. This
method can be slightly modied to stabilize any
UPO (not necessarily a saddle). At the beginning
of each cycle, the value of a certain parameter may
be actualized following a certain control law which
depends on the state variables in such a way that
the dynamic of the system is stabilized. In the sim-
plest case, the control law may take the following
linear form
pn = p G(xn x ), G = [gv , gi ] (61)
where G is a feedback gain vector which must
belong to the domain of control of the system. When
the periodic orbit is stabilized, xn = x , n and
therefore pn = p is constant. In order that the
control works, the pair (DP, DPp ) must be stabi-
lizable. Moreover, the components of the vector G
must belong to the domain of control of the system
in such a way that the eigenvalues of the system
xn+1 = (DP DPp G)xn (62)
lie inside the unit circle. The parameter p could
be any available parameter of the system. How-
ever, some parameters are more easy to change
than others. The slope of the ramp voltage can
be easily modied by varying its maximum value.
Figure 23 shows the simulated results obtained by
applying the control law (61) to a PWM voltage
Fig. 22. Stabilized orbit for VIN = 35 V. The remaining parameters are the same as in Fig. 9.
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1573
mode controlled boost converter and varying, cycle
by cycle, the maximum value of the ramp volt-
age. Observe that when the control is activated the
width of the ramp changes until the periodic orbit is
stabilized. When this occurs, the width of the ramp
is constant. Note that in the averaged context, a
cycle by cycle modication of the amplitude of the
ramp voltage is not allowed while this is possible in
the discrete time approach.
8.2. Time delay auto synchronization
of DCDC switching converters
Another method to stabilize UPOs is auto syn-
chronization, and it uses delayed samples of the
state variables. This method was proposed by Pyra-
gas [1992] and it is called time-delayed auto syn-
chronization (TDAS). It involves a control signal
formed by the dierence between the current state
variables and the T delayed ones. TDAS and its
variants [Socolar et al., 1994; de Sousa Vieira &
Lichtenberg, 1996] have the advantage that the
only information needed about the target orbit is
its period, and that no computer processing must
be done to generate the control signal. In gen-
eral, the feedback gain which successfully stabilizes
the orbit lies in a nite, and often narrow, orbit-
dependent range. In the space of the feedback gain
and the bifurcation parameter(s) of the system, the
region where TDAS can be applied with success is
called the domain of control. The TDAS control was
succesfully applied to stabilize UPOs of a PWM cur-
rent mode H-bridge inverter using a discrete time
approach [Iu & Robert, 2003].
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294

1574 A. El Aroudi et al.

Fig. 23. Stabilizing the UPO by changing the width of the sawtooth voltage cyclically. The control is activated at t = 5 ms.
The parameters used are gv = 0.1, gi = 0 , Vref = 1.5 V. The remaining parameters are the same as in Fig. 17.

Fig. 24. The control voltage and the sawtooth signal showing the stabilization of the periodic orbit under TDAS control.
(a) From subharmonic oscillations to T -periodic orbit. (b) From a quasiperiodic behavior to a T -periodic orbit.
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
In a DCDC converter with PWM control, the
switching is decided by comparing the error sig-
nal with a modulating T -periodic sawtooth voltage.
TDAS control adds to the error signal another sig-
nal vTDAS (t), which is a linear combination of the
actual errors between the state variables x(t) and
the delayed ones x(t T ). The delay is the period
T of the sawtooth voltage or the period of the clock
in current programming control.
vTDAS (t) = mv (vC (t) vC (t T ))
+ mi (iL (t) iL (t T )) (63)
where mv and mi are the feedback factors of
both voltage and current, respectively. TDAS con-
trol suppress any dynamics resulting from an
UPO (chaotic, subharmonic or quasiperiodic), and
presents a stable T -periodic orbit if the two follow-
ing conditions are fullled:
Fig. 25. Capacitor voltage, inductor current and the sawtooth signal showing the stabilization of the periodic orbit under
experimental TDAS control from a 2T -periodic DCDC buck converter.
Bifurcations in DCDC Switching Converters 1575
1. an unstable T -periodic orbit must coexist with
the stationary dynamics in the system without
TDAS control.
2. parameters mv and mi belong to the domain of
control in the parameter space.
Experimentally, TDAS control may be implemented
by using a digital delay line. In [Gaston et al.,
1999] a digital delay line of 8 bits and with 3.3 s
as sampling period was used. The delay line was
built by means of an A/D converter, which sam-
ples the linear combination of both capacitor volt-
age and inductor current mv v(t) + mi i(t), and a
memory RAM of FIFO type that stores this signal.
In Fig. 24(a) we show how TDAS control can sta-
bilize the UPO embedded in the 2T-periodic orbit
of a buck converter. Figure 24(b) shows the sta-
bilization of an UPO of a PWM voltage controlled
boost converter when the system stationary dynam-
ics is quasiperiodic (torus). Figure 25 shows the
June 4, 2005 17:30 01294
1576 A. El Aroudi et al.
experimental results corresponding to Fig. 24(a).
TDAS control may be extended to other modes
of operation. More recently, a TDAS control was
applied experimentally to a buck converter working
in DCM [Hikihara et al., 2000].
9. Conclusions
In our opinion, the formality of our presentation
is necessary because terminology in the eld of
nonlinear dynamics of PE may be confused and
much of it may be new to some readers. Most non-
linear phenomena that the nominal periodic orbit
in DCDC converters undergo are classied into
standard bifurcations like, ip, Hopf and saddle
node bifurcations. We have attempted to provide
an overview of these local bifurcations as applied
in DCDC power electronic converters analysis.
The discussion is based in the general discrete-time
description of these systems. Analytical tools must
be combined by numerical simulations to study and
predict these bifurcation phenomena. Other non-
standard bifurcations are also possible but they
occur mainly for other periodic orbits and they are
due essentially to the change of the number of con-
gurations that can operate in one switching period.
We have not studied in detail these nonstandard
bifurcations as they are beyond the scope of the
present paper. The type of bifurcations that can
occurs in a DCDC converter depends on the type
of this converter, its order and the nature of the con-
troller used. It can be conjectured for example that
all current mode controlled elementary converters
undergo ip bifurcation and subharmonic oscilla-
tions when a control parameter is varied. PWM
voltage mode controlled buck converter in CCM
can also present this behavior. It can be claimed
the same for DCDC converters working in DCM.
PWM voltage mode controlled boost and buck-
boost converters present NeimarkSacker bifurca-
tion and quasiperiodic route to chaos when some
parameters are varied. Border collision bifurcations
occur usually after these standard bifurcations take
place. If these phenomena are to be avoided, some
techniques for controlling chaos can be applied to
stabilize the UPO embedded in the dynamics of
the system. To take into account these phenom-
ena in the system design, the discrete-time model
in the form of Poincare map must be used. This
is because this model does not ignore the switch-
ing action omitted in the averaging method. Aver-
aged models can be used to predict NeimarkSacker
and saddle node bifurcation but they fail to detect
period doubling.
After bifurcations occur, classical methods
based on averaging techniques are inaccurate in
giving the system performances. If a converter is
allowed to work in the chaotic regime, a statistical
approach is more suitable to get averaged state vari-
ables, averaged switching frequency and averaged
duty cycle. In the periodic regime static analysis is
sucient to get these averages.
Most works reported recently in the literature
deal with identifying and classifying nonlinear phe-
nomena that can occur in power electronic cir-
cuits. Other works deal with obtaining the system
performances using a statistical approach. Very few
works deal with applications of such phenomena in
engineering problems. The research in nding appli-
cations is in its infancy. However, the number of
interested research groups is increasing. It can be
expected therefore that engineers will be more inter-
ested in this eld of research.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Spanish CICYT
under Grant TIC2000-1019-C02-01 (& 02). The
authors wish to express their thanks to the anony-
mous reviewers for their valuable comments and
suggestions.
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