Simulation and modeling of a DC-DC converter controlled by an 8-bit microcontroller

Traditionally, analog control technologies have been employed to regulate the output voltage of DC-DC converters. The utilization of digital control techniques for this regulation function is currently under consideration. Critical issues in a digital control implementation include analog-to-digital conversion range, resolution and delay, calculation time, and numerical precision. Results from an investigation into the modeling and simulation of DC-DC converters controlled by an 8-bit microcontroller are described in this paper. Many of these critical issues have been modeled using Matlab^TM and Simulink ^TM from The Mathworks Inc. Simulation results from this model are compared to experimental waveforms obtained from a buck converter controlled by a Microchip PIC16C74 8-bit microcontroller. Experimental results agree well with the simulation model. The buck converter is represented by its state-space averaged model in the simulation