A novel power line communication controller designed for point-of-load dc-dc converters

This work investigates power line communication (PLC) in a dc power management system comprising multiple point-of-load (POL) dc-dc converters. The communication, including a feed-forward signal from the central control unit (CCU) at the source end to the controller at the load end and a feedback signal from the load-end controller to CCU, is achieved by using the high-low voltage patterns of the power line, which is inherently generated by the on/off of the power MOSFET when regulating converter output voltage. In the proposed solution, both energy and communication signals can be transferred simultaneously through one single dc power line, without using an additional power amplifier for the communication signal injection. The Matlab/Simulink simulation results have verified the features of the proposed design.