University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Engineering

Electronics Engineering Department

Design of a Buck Converter for a Solar Charger

Japhet Alfeo Nio D. Ang 1, Jasper T. Chua2, Ronchester Sigfrid S. Mendoza3, Katrina Ysabel M. Soriano4
Electronics Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Santo Tomas, Manila
japhet.alfeoang@yahoo.com1, jasperchua57@yahoo.com2, ronchester.mendoza@gmail.com3 , katrinaysabelsoriano@gmail.com4

INTRODUCTION
The buck converter is a very simple type of DC-DC converter that
produces an output voltage that is less than its input. The Current Mode
Control technique is used to regulate the output voltage. This control
technique involves a current feedback and control signal that is used to
regulate the peak of the inductor current and maintain the inductor equal to
a preset current. It creates a voltage-controlled ideal current source which
is programmed to produce a regulated voltage at the output of the
converter. converters are well-known for converting high voltage to a low
voltage with high efficiency. There are lots of products built to charge a
battery from a solar panel with a higher voltage. Solar cells have outputs
whose current-voltage curves are non-linear. Thus, solar chargers make use
of the current mode control buck converter to draw the maximum amount
of power by varying the load current to charge batteries in the shortest
DESIGN
time possible.OF POWER

RESULTS

Figure 1. Shown above are the voltage at the output (left) and the bode plot (right) of an
open loop buck onverter.

COMPONENTS

Figure 2. The images above displays the PWM and the output voltage
of a closed loop buck converter that implements the current mode
control technique.
The voltage regulates at an output voltage of 5V while the phase
margin is at 45 and the gain margin is at -10 dB at a 10kHz crossover
frequency. Voltage also oscillates before it regulates. Comparing this to
the closed loop buck converter system, the output oscillates faster and
regulates faster. The output voltage is also almost similar to that of the
open loop, only having a difference in decimal values. In the actual
circuit testing, the voltage at the output is also almost equal to that of
the open loop and closed loop simulation.

CONCLUSION
In this study, the design of an open loop and closed loop buck converter
is constructed and simulated using SIMetrix-SIMPLIS software. From the
simulations conducted, it is observed that the open loop buck converter
can produce an output of 4.8 volts when the input of the converter is
between the values of 20 to 25 volts at a 46.60% value of duty cycle and
at a switching frequency of 54.6795. In the simulation of the hardware or
the output, the buck converter system gives out an output of 5.5V. The
voltage is also regulated at the said voltage.
Furthermore, it is perceived that implementing a closed loop buck
converter with the use of a current mode control can improve the
systems output and stability. The closed loop buck converter also
generates an output of 5.5 volts when the input is between the values of
20 to 25 volts, almost similar to the value gathered from the open loop
buck converter. Through utilizing the current mode control, the output
voltage ripple became smaller, the system became faster in responding
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