A flexible and reconfigurable controller design for buck converters

There is a need for more flexible and reconfigurable dc-dc converters. This has pushed designers to seek for alternative ways to control the PWM modulated switch inside the dc-dc converter. This paper presents the results of design and implementation of a fully customizable Arduino based controller for a SMPS (buck converter). The controller presented gives the user a high degree of autonomy and permits the variation of several output parameters such as the magnitude of regulated voltage, the percentage of voltage regulation, the switching frequency and therefore the amount of ripple in the output by simple modifications of the code, eliminating the need for hardware changes. The flexibility of the controller has been illustrated by reconfiguring it to meet the requirements of different design specifications. The results obtained have been analysed, the possible advantages of such a reconfigurable buck converter over other existing solutions and its applications have been discussed.