Analysis of Load Current Ripples in a Five Level Buck Converter

Abstract

In DC-DC converter family, Buck converter is one of the static devices that is commonly used to step down from high input voltage to low output voltage as well as protecting the connected circuit. Harmonics phenomena at the output current are one of the major concerns as the efficiency and performance of the Buck converter could be affected by interference of the current ripples. This paper focuses on the reduction of harmonics including the current ripple in the steady state and peak current of the buck converter. The proposed method to overcome the harmonics is to increase the switching frequency using five levels Buck converters. The relationship between frequency and current ripple are considered in this study. The results obtained shows that the efficiency of high frequency five level Buck converter using MOSFET and IGBT increases with increasing duty cycle values.