80
Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2010
Modeling and Simulation of Synchronous Buck
Converter for PMG in Low Power Applications
R. Bharanikumar1, A. Nirmal Kumar2 and K.T. Maheswari3.
1, 2, 3,
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Anna University, Tamil Nadu, India
E-mail: bharanikumar.rbk@rgmail.com, maheswarikt@gmail.com
Abstract: This paper focuses on the design and development of
synchronous buck converter in low power generation system.
The buck topology suffers from low efficiency at light loads due
to dissipation that does not scale with load current. In this paper
we present a method for improving efficiency in buck converter
by reducing gate drive losses. Results of PSIM simulation are
presented.
Keywords: Buck Converter, Synchronous Rectification, PMG,
Wind turbine.
1. Introduction
Small wind turbines offer a promising alternative for
many remote electrical uses where there is a good wind
resource. The goal of this work is to characterize small wind
turbines, wind-diesel hybrid system components and wind-
hybrid systems and to develop new off-grid applications for
small wind turbines in order to expand the international
market for these systems. Projects fall into two
classifications: applications development and testing.
Testing includes both small turbines and wind-hybrid
systems. Although the projects that fall under applications
development and testing are varied, they all focus on the
remote power market and all include small wind turbines as
the power source.
2. Block Diagram
A block diagram consists of a rectifier stage , a buck
converter and controller. Many small wind turbine
generators consist of a variable-speed rotor driving a
permanent-magnet synchronous generator. The principal
application of such wind turbines is battery charging, in
which the generator is connected through a rectifier to a
battery bank. The wind turbine electrical interface is
essentially the same whether the turbine is part of a remote
power supply for tele communications, a
stand-alone residential power system or a hybrid village
power system.
Figure 1. Block Diagram
(IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security,
.
3. Small Wind Turbine in Battery Charging
Application
The performance limitations of permanent magnet wind
turbine generators in battery-charging applications are
caused by the poor match of the rotor, generator and load
characteristics over most of the operating wind speed range.
Even the small amount of energy (1kWh) that these batteries
store can sufficiently improve the quality of life for such
areas, giving people access to electrical lighting, TV/radio,
and other household conveniences. We placed an optimizing
direct current DC/DC voltage converter between the rectifier
and batteries. We can control the current output of the
synchronous buck converter, which allows us to control the
power going to the batteries. Battery-charging systems are
very important in developing countries where rural families
cannot afford a solar-battery home system or other
electricity options. The technical aspects of charging
numerous 28-V batteries with a small permanent magnet
alternator wind turbine suggest that a special battery-
charging station needs to be developed. The major
advantage of a centralized battery-charging station is that it
can bring electric service to a very low-income segment of
the population. This performance improvement comes at
higher system capital cost; however, the cost per charged
battery of the system with the individual charge controllers
is lower because of better performance characteristics.
4. Permanent Magnet Generator
Permanent magnet alternators are the most powerful
and cost-effective solution for building a wind generator.
Their low-rpm performance is excellent, and at high
speeds they can really crank out the current due to their
efficiency. They provide an optimal solution for varying-
speed wind turbines, of gearless or single stage gear
configuration. [5] The evolution of the control design of
PM drives begins with the cost reduction of permanent
magnet material and follows the progress of control
theory of AC electric machinery. The main difference
between PM drives and their earlier developed counter
parts lies in the removal of the excitation field circuitry
with troublesome brushes and its replacement with
permanent magnets. But the application PM disables
classical field weakening control, because the magnets
produce constant magnetic field intensity. With the cost
reduction of rare permanent magnet materials PM
machines became very popular in industry due to their
• Simple structure
 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security, 81
• High efficiency
• Robustness
• High torque to size ratio.
4.1 Types of Permanent Magnet Generators
Modern permanent magnet generators need no separate
excitation system. They can be gearless or with gearbox and
are fully controlled with variable speed and reactive power
supply. They provide the highest power quality and
efficiency for the end user. They offer three different
concepts of permanent magnet generator technology.
4.1.1. Low Speed Robust Gearless System
In a direct drive application the turbine and the generator
are integrated to form compact and structurally integrated
unit. The design gives free access to all parts for easy
installation and maintenance. The simple and robust low
speed rotor design with no separate excitation or cooling
system results in minimum wear, reduced maintenance
requirements, lower life cycle costs, and a long lifetime.
4.1.2. Medium Speed Compact and Economical Unit
This is a very compact slow speed system with the
turbine main bearing and the permanent magnet generator
integrated to a single-stage gearbox giving high efficiency
with low maintenance needs. It emphasizes the same simple
and robust low speed rotor design with no separate
excitation or cooling system, resulting in less wear, reduced
maintenance requirements, lower life cycle costs, and a long
lifetime.
4.1.3. High Speed Small Power Pack
The system is mechanically similar to the doubly fed type
with even smaller space requirements. Extremely high
power with a small size and typical speed range is from
1000 to 2000 rpm for a 6 or 8 pole generator.
The following are the key specifications evolved for PMG
PMG AC 3φ, 4-pole machine
Rated Speed 500 RPM - 3000 RPM
Output Power 1.0 - 1.5 kW
Output voltage 65V
5. Buck Converter
Output current 20A
Figure 2. Basic Circuit of Buck Converter
The operation of the buck converter is explained first.
This circuit can operate in any of the three states as
Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2010
explained below. The first state corresponds to the case
when the switch is ON. In this state, the current through the
inductor rises, as the source voltage would be greater than
the output voltage, whereas the capacitor current may be in
either direction, depending on the inductor current and the
load current. When the inductor current rises, the energy
stored in it increases. During this state, the inductor
acquires energy. When the switch is closed the diode is in
the off state. In Figure 2 the capacitor is getting charge.
The second state relates to the condition when the switch
is OFF and the diode is ON. In this state, the inductor
current freewheels through the diode and the inductor
supplies energy to the RC network at the output. The energy
stored in the inductor falls in this state. In this state, the
inductor discharges its energy and the capacitor current may
be in either direction, depending on the inductor current and
the load current.
Figure 3. Second Stage of Basic Circuit
When the switch is open, the inductor discharges its
energy. When it has discharged all its energy, its current
falls to zero and tends to reverse, but the diode blocks
conduction in the reverse direction. In the third state, both
the diode and the switch are OFF. During this state, the
capacitor discharges its energy and the inductor is at rest,
with no energy stored in it. The inductor does not acquire
energy or discharge energy in this state.
Figure 4. Third Stage of Basic Circuit
Here it is assumed that the source voltage remains
constant with no ripple, and the frequency of operation is
kept fixed with a fixed duty cycle. When both the input
voltage and the output voltage are constant, the current
through the inductor rises linearly when the switch is ON
and it falls linearly when the switch is OFF. Under this
condition, the current through the capacitor also varies
linearly when it is getting charged or discharged.
6. Synchronous Buck Converter
The synchronous-rectified buck converter uses current-
mode control to regulate the output voltage. This control
mode allows the converter to respond to changes in line
voltage without delay. Also, you can reduce the output
inductance to increase the converter's response to dynamic-
load conditions.
82 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security,
Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2010

Although these features would appear to favor current- MOSFETs. Under light loads, the control block usually
mode control in applications that require a fast dynamic turns the lower MOSFET off to emulate a diode.
response, this control method has some disadvantages. For Synchronous rectification with discrete MOSFETs causes
example, it tends to be sensitive to noise in the control loop. variable switching delays because of the variations in gate
Also, current-mode control method requires two feedback charge and threshold voltage from one MOSFET to another.
loops: a current inner loop and a voltage outer loop, thus Standard control circuits compensate for these variations by
complicating the design. Finally, the controller uses a delaying the turn-on drive of the lower MOSFET until after
current-sensing resistor in series with the output inductor. the gate voltage of the upper MOSFET falls below a
This current-sensing resistance typically dissipates as much threshold. This delay creates a dead time in which neither
power as do the MOSFETs, further reducing the current- MOSFET conducts. The dead time eliminates the possibility
mode converter's efficiency. Voltage-mode control is of a destructive shoot-through condition in which both
attractive for low-voltage buck converters because, it MOSFETs conduct simultaneously. Standard designs use
involves a single control loop, exhibits good noise immunity the same method to delay the turn-on of the upper device. A
and allows a wide range for the PWM duty-cycle ratio. Also, typical design delays discrete MOSFET conduction with a
voltage-mode converters do not require a resistor for sensing 60-nsec dead time and limits converter switching frequency
current. However, the transfer function of standard voltage- to 300 kHz.
mode buck converters that use Schottky diodes changes from
no load to full load, making it difficult to achieve fast 6.1 Conventional Vs Synchronous Buck Converter
response to large dynamic loads. The voltage drop of a
MOSFET is much less than that of a Schottky diode, The comparison of efficiency between a synchronous
which rectifier with a parallel Schottky diode and that of a
improves the efficiency of buck converters using Schottky diode alone is shown in Figure 6.
synchronous rectification. Synchronous rectification
increases the efficiency of a buck converter by replacing the
Schottky diode with a low-side NMOSFET. The resultant
voltage drop across the MOSFET is smaller than the
forward voltage drop of the Schottky diode. A more
comprehensive comparison includes the switching losses for
both the MOSFET and the Schottky diode. However, at
typical operating frequencies and voltages, a buck
regulator's switching losses are usually small in comparison
with the conduction losses. The low-side MOSFET conducts
current in its third quadrant during the off times of the high-
side MOSFET. This synchronous switch operates in the
Figure 6. Efficiency Graph
third quadrant, because the current flows from the source to
the drain, which results in a negative bias across the switch.
A positive voltage at the gate of the device still enhances the 7. Test Results
channel. 7.1Generator Testing Details

7.1.1. GENERATOR SPEED VS GENERATOR OUTPUT

VOLTAGE

The table shows various readings of generator speed and

their corresponding output voltages. It can be seen from the
table the generator output voltage of 51.1 volts is obtained
for the maximum speed of 1900 rpm.

Table 1: Speed and generator voltage

Figure 5. Synchronous Buck Converter Generator speed Generator o/p
As Figure 5 shows, conventional synchronous-rectified in rpm voltage
buck converters partition the PWM-control and in Volts
synchronous-drive functions into a single IC that drives 900 19.2
discrete MOSFETs. The control and driver circuits 1200 26.33
synchronize the timing of both MOSFETs with the 1350 29.41
switching frequency. The upper MOSFET conducts to 1700 46.2
transfer energy from the input, and the lower MOSFET 1900 51.1
conducts to circulate inductor current. The synchronous
PWM control block regulates the output voltage by
The following graph has been drawn for the generator
modulating the conduction intervals of the upper and lower
speed versus generator output voltage. Generator speed is
 (IJCNS) International Journal of Computer and Network Security, 83
Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2010

taken in x axis and generator output voltage is taken in y- 1200 4.10

axis. 1350 4.62
1700 5.81
1900 6.50

The following graph has been drawn for the generator

speed versus wind velocity. Generator speed is taken in x
axis and wind velocity is taken in y axis.

Generator Speed in
2000
Figure 7. Generator Speed Vs Generator Output Voltage
1500

rpm
7.1.2. Generator Output Voltage Vs Wind Velocity 1000

The table shows various readings of wind velocity and 500

their corresponding output voltages. It can be seen from the

0
table the generator output voltage of 51.1 volts is obtained 0 2 4 6 8
for the maximum wind velocity of 6.5 m/s. Wind Velocity in m /s

Figure 9. Generator Speed Vs Wind Velocity

Table 2: Voltage with wind velocity
Generator output Wind velocity
voltage in volts in m/s
8. Simulation Results
19.2 3.07
26.33 4.10 Electronic circuit design requires accurate methods for evaluating
29.41 4.62 circuit performance. Because of enormous complexity of
46.2 5.81 modern integrated circuits, computer aided circuit analysis
51.1 6.50
is essential and can provide information about circuit
performance that is almost impossible to obtain with
laboratory prototype measurements. PSIM is a general-
The following graph has been drawn for the wind velocity
purpose circuit program that simulates electronic circuits.
versus generator output voltage. Wind velocity is taken in x-
PSIM can perform various analyses of electronic circuits:
axis and in y axis generator output voltage is taken. The
the operating points of transistors, a time domain response,
generated voltage is maximum when the wind velocity is
a small signal frequency response, and so, on. Simulation
between 6 and 12 m/s.
work was done for all the circuits and results are attached.

8.1Simulated Circuit Diagram

Figure 8. Generator Output voltage Vs Wind Velocity

7.1.3. Generator Speed Vs Wind Velocity

The table shows various readings of generator speed and

their corresponding wind velocity. It can be seen from the
table the wind velocity of 6.5 m/s is obtained for the
maximum speed of 1900 rpm.

Table 3: Speed with wind velocity

Generator speed in Wind velocity in
rpm m/s
900 3.07
84
Figure 10. Simulated Circuit Diagram
The figure shows the simulated circuit diagram. The
Synchronous buck converter operate in current program
mode control .The unit is a PI controlled device that controls
the power level at which the converter operates. The unit is
primarily designed to operate from the three-phase
alternating current output of the wind turbine. The
following graph shows the PSIM simulation results for the
output voltage from the synchronous buck converter.
Figure 11. Output result of Synchronous buck converter
9. Conclusion
Synchronous rectification is possible with all commonly
used converter topologies. It is achieved by simply adding a
MOSFET in parallel with the free-wheeling diode. As a
result of this addition, the efficiency will improve
significantly. A simple to operate and robust wind-electric
battery-charging station has been developed and tested.
Future work for the applications development and testing
team will include continued testing of commercial or near
commercial products for the remote electrification market.
References
[1] Monica Chinchilla, Santiago Arnaltes, Juan Carlos
Burgos, “Control of Permanent-Magnet Generators
Applied to Variable-Speed Wind-Energy Systems
connected to the Grid”, IEEE Transactions on Energy
Conversion, vol. 21, no. 1, pp.130-135, , March 2006.
[2] F. Z. Peng, “Z-Source inverter,” IEEE Trans. Ind
Applicat.,vol. 39, pp.504–510, Mar./Apr. 2003.
[3] F. Z. Peng, M. Shen, and Z. Qian, “Maximum boost
control of the z- source inverter,” IEEE Transaction on
Power Electronics. vol.20, no.4, pp833-838 July2005.
[4] Shigeo Morimoto, Hideaki Nakayama, Masayuki Sanada, Power converters.
Yoji Takeda, “Sensorless Output Maximization Control
For Variable-Speed Wind Generation System using
IPMSG” , IEEE Transactions on Industrial Applications
2003, pp.1464-1471
[5] Tomonobu Senjyu, Sathoshi Tamaki , Naomitusu
Urasaki, Katsumi Uezato Toshihisa Funabashi, Hideki
Fujita “Wind Velocity and PositionSensorless
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of IEEE Power Electronics Conference. pp. 787-791,
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[6] A.B. Raju, K.Chatterjee and B.G. Fernandes, “A
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Authors Profile
Bharanikumar.R was born in Tamilnadu,
India, on May 30, 1977. He received the
B.E degree in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering from Bharathiar University, in
1998. He received his M.E Power
Electronics and Drives from College of
Engineering Guindy Anna University in
2002. He has 9 yrs of teaching experience.
Currently he is working as Asst. Professor
in EEE department, Bannari Amman
Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, TamilNadu, India
Currently he is doing research in the field of power converter for
special machines; vector controlled based synchronous machine
drives, converters for wind energy conversion systems.
A.Nirmal Kumar was born in the year
1951. He completed his PG and UG in
Electrical Engineering from Kerala and
Calicut University respectively. He
completed PhD in Power Electronics in the
year 1992 from P.S.G. College of
Technology, Coimbatore under
Bharathiar University. He was with
N.S.S. College of Engineering for nearly
28 years in various posts before joining Bannari
Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, TamilNadu,
India in the year 2004. He is a recipient of Institution of Engineers
Gold Medal in the year 1989. His current research areas include
Power converters for Wind Energy Conversion System and
Controller for Induction motor drives.
Maheswari .K.T was born in Tamilnadu
India, on Dec 20, 1980. She received her B.E
Degree in Electrical and Electronics
Engineering from Erode Sengunthar
Engineering College, Erode, Bharathiyar
University. Currently she is pursuing M.E in
Power Electronics and Drives at Bannari
Amman Institute of Technology, affiliated to
Anna University. Her field of interest includes PMG and