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# p m 1993
Small-Signal Modeling of
Average Current-Mode Control
Wei Tang, Student Member, IEEE, Fred C. Lee, Fellow, IEEE and Raymond B. Ridley, Member, IEEE
I. INTRODUCTION
Fig. 1. Average current-mode control scheme.
r SMALL SIGNAL
1T,
" cG P H
where loop gain always exhibits a 180" phase shift at half the
switching frequency no matter where the second pole is
placed. If the second pole is placed after half of the switching
frequency, it does not significantly affect the current loop gain.
Since the purpose of the second pole is to eliminate high-
frequency noise, it should be placed after half of the switching
frequency.
If the second pole of the current compensator is placed after
The modulator gain of average current-mode control is deter- half of the switching frequency, the sampling gain used in peak
mined by the sum of the external ramp slope and the turn-on current-mode control can be used in average current-mode
time slope of the modified current waveform: control. At high frequency, the characteristics of the current
loop of average current-mode control are almost the same as
those of peak current-mode control. Due to the existence of the
low-pass filter in the converter power stage, the voltage loop
does not behave as a sampling system, and the compensator
B. Sampling Gain
pole exists in the voltage loop.
In the small-signal sense, the current loop behaves as a
sampling system [5].According to sampling theory [6], the C. Feedback and Feedfonvard Gain
phase shift of the system transfer function is always real at half
The small-signal model of average current-mode control is
the sampling frequency (the sampling frequency of a current-
shown in Fig. 3, where
mode control system is equal to the switching frequency).
When modeling peak current-mode control, the sampling
effect is approximated by the sampling gain [3] H e ( s ) , a Wi (I +9
double RHP zero at half the switching frequency:
TABLE I
FEEDFORWARD
AND FEEDBACK
GAINSFOR AVERAGE
CURRENT-MODE
CONTROL
kf - YD DE ' T- % ( -EL
LL
L < - %1 (L DD'T
e t
k, -E& - EL( * *
U, = U, - G , ( s ) ( R i i ~
- w,) (12)
bPL
where G,(s) is the current compensator transfer function
G c ( s )= G,(s)G,(s) (13)
and om is the output of the current compensator. If the average
quantity is considered, (12) becomes
vc =o
(wm) = 21, - K ( & ( ~ L-) U,) (14) Fig. 5. Simplified small-signal model for deriving feedforward gain k f .
where the quantities ( i ~ )and ( w m ) denote the average value
of z~ and w,, respectively. K is the dc gain of the current and
compensator; it is finite for a real op-amp.
a=
From Fig. 4, the following equation can be derived:
u+ - 1435
-loI
-20 I
1m m 5m 1.m 2.000 5.m l0.W 2o.m
I
-'OL
.mlm aa xc ,.m zm Lm
Frequency(Hz)
l0.m mm
Frequency (HZ)
phase (degree) phase(degree)
I
I
lm w xa 1.m zm I" l0.m am Im zm rxr l.m zm 5.m 1o.m ar.m
Frequency (Hz) Frequency(Hz)
Fig. 6. Current loop gain with U ; as a running parameter. Fig. 7. Current loop gain with wT as a running parameter.
"
Ri [1+ sR(C + Cx)]
[l+s(;+cRc) +aZLC]
where
1
c -- F,V,w;R;
It can be seen from (21) that the dc gain of the current loop is and
affected by both the extemal ramp (appearing in F,) and the
integrator gain U ; ; its shape is affected by the compensator
zero w,. While in peak current-mode control, the shape of It- t-
WnQp
the current loop gain is fixed, and the gain is only affected
by the slope of the extemal ramp; hence, there is more where
freedom in designing the current loop for average current-
mode control. Fig. 6 shows a set of current loop gains with
wi as a running parameter. The current loop gain with w, as
a running parameter is shown in Fig. 7. It can be seen from
Figs. 6 and 7 that the low-frequency portion of the current gain
is much higher than that of peak current-mode control [3]. It
means that there is less low-frequency error in the current loop From (25), it can be seen that the damping factor of the
for average current-mode control. double pole at half the switching frequency is affected by
116 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 8, NO. 2, APRIL 1993
gain (dB)
W
wb
20.
-.-.-..=..-
10
0
\ w, -3.3ZE+5 0 wi
\:.
- 7.55E+'$.<:..
,
\'
,I
a' I
0
20
tm xo m ~.mam xm 10.m w,m
Frequency (Hz)
phase (degree)
Frequency (Hz)
IM
PS
,m an ya ,ma 2"
Frequency (Hz)
5ma 1 0 m
w
w m
Fig. 8. Control-to-output voltage transfer function with dz as a running Fig. 9. Control-to-inductor current transfer function with 'CI~ as a
parameter. running parameter.
both the extemal ramp slope and the integrator gain w ; of gain (dB)
Jo
the current compensator. The approximation is very close to I
the simulation results shown in Fig. 8.
'
Frequency (Hz)
transfer function for the buck converter is given in (26): phase (degree)
-=I
.<..
4 '
1 Frequency (Hz)
Fig. IO. Control-to-inductor current transfer function of peak current-mode
control.
:'J -
Fh(s).
(28)
TANG et al.: SMALL-SIGNAL MODELING OF AVERAGE CURRENT-MODE CONTROL 117
i
"
-Y -,o Experiment-
Fig. 12. Measurement and prediction of the current loop gain for a
buck converter.
IV. DESIGNGUIDELINES
After studying the small-signal characteristics of average
current-mode control, certain design guidelines have been gain (de)
developed.
The current compensator can be designed as follows. First,
wh
the second pole should be placed after half the switching
frequency. The zero should be placed at lesat one decade
before half the switching frequency. Second, the function of
the external ramp is similar to that of the sawtooth ramp in
-20
wi - 7.55E+4
voltage-mode control; this means that any sufficient large ramp Prediction - - - -
can be used as the external ramp. Third, for a given ramp,
choose the integrator gain wi which makes Q p = 1. It gives
proper damping on the resonant peak at half the switching
frequency.
By setting Q p in (25) equal to one
Exprimen-
V. EXPERIMENTAL
VERIFICATION The control-to-output voltage and control-to-inductor cur-
A buck converter was built with the same component rent gains, measured with the current loop closed, are shown
values as those given in the previous section. To measure in Figs. 13 and 14, respectively. The measurements again show
the current loop gain, a digital modulator [7] was used to very good correlation with the theoretical results. The peak of
ensure that the correct sampled-data loop gain was obtained. the gains at half the switching frequency clearly shows the
All other measurements were performed with conventional existence of two complex poles.
analog measurement schemes. The measurement and predicted result of the audiosuscep-
The measured and predicted current loop gains are shown tibility of the buck converter with the current loop closed are
in Fig. 12. Both the gain and phase measurement agree very shown in Fig. 15. Again, the measurement and prediction agree
well with predictions up to half of the switching frequency. very well.
..-
118 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 8, NO. 2, APRIL 1993
Frequency (HZ) than that of peak current-mode control because of the existence
phase (degree)
of the second pole of the current compensator. The resonant
peak caused by the complex poles at half the switching
frequency can be controlled by selecting the gain of the current
compensator. In peak current-mode control, the resonant peak
can only be damped by the extemal ramp. This allows more
flexibility in the design of average current-mode control.
Based on the small-signal analysis, a design guideline is
,80 Experiment- proposed. By properly selecting the gain of the current com-
Prediction - - - -
-zn
lca w %a l.ao zm Iaa 10.m w.m
pensator, subharmonic oscillation can be avoided. An almost
Frequency (Hz) flat control-to-inductor current gain can be achieved when the
current compensator is properly designed. The accuracy of the
Fig. 14. Measurement and prediction of the control-to-inductor current gain model is confirmed with the measurements of a buck converter.
for a buck converter.
REFERENCES
[l] L. H. Dixon, Average current-mode control of switching power sup-
plies, in Unitrode Power Supply Design Seminar Handbook, 1990.
[2] D. OSullivan, H. Spruyt, and A. Crausaz, PWM conductance control,
in IEEE Power Electron. Specialists Con5 Rec., 1988, pp. 351-359.
[3] A. S. Kislovski, Small-signal low-frequency analysis of a buck type
PWM conductance controller, in IEEE Power Electron. Specialists
Con$ Rec., 1990, pp. 88-95.
[4] A. R. Brown, Topics in the analysis, measurement, and design of high-
Prediction - - - performance switching regulator, Ph.D. dissertation, Califomia Inst.
Q
Im aa ya lm 2 m la0 ?om am)
Technol., Pasadena, May 1981.
Frequency (Hz) [5] R. B. Ridley, A new small-signal model for current-mode control,
Fig. 15. Measurement and prediction of the audiosusceptibility for a Ph.D. dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Inst. State Univ., Blacksburg,
buck converter. Nov. 1990.
[6] A. V. Oppenheim and R. W. Schafer, Digital Signal Processing. En-
glewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1975.
[7] B. H. Cho and F. C. Lee, Measurement of loop gain with the digital
VI. CONCLUSIONS modulator, in IEEE Power Electron. Specialists Con5 Rec., 1984, pp.
363-373.
In peak current-mode control, the peak inductor current is
sensed and compared with the control voltage derived from
the voltage loop. While in average current-mode control, it
is the average inductor which compares with the control
voltage. Hence, average current-mode control controls the
real averaged inductor current. This is particularly true when
the converter is operated in the discontinuous conduction
mode. When the buck converter employs average current-
mode control, the output current, which equals the average
inductor current, is also controlled. It means that an ideal
current source is achieved. Likewise, in the case of a boost Wei Tang (S90) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
converter, the average input current is controlled, which makes from Tsinghua University, Beijing, P.R. China, in
it suitable for a power factor correction circuit. 1982 and 1985, respectively, both in electrical en-
gineering. Since 1988 he has been working towards
Because of the existence of the current compensator in the Ph.D. degree at the Bradley Department of
the control loop, the small-signal characteristics of average Electrical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Insti-
current-mode control are quite different from those of the tute and State University, Blacksburg.
From 1985 to 1988 he worked as a Senior En-
peak current-mode control. Due to the usage of an op-amp, gineer at the Research Center of Computer Appli-
the current loop gain of the average current-mode control cations, Chengdu, China. He is now a Research
possesses very high gain at low frequency. While in peak Assistant at the Vireinia
Power Electronics Center.
His research interests include modeling, analysis, and control of the switching
current-mode control, the low-frequency gain of the current power converter, and power factor correction.
loop is rather small. Mr. Tang is a member of Eta Kappa Nu.
TANG et al.: SMALL-SIGNAL MODELING OF AVERAGE CURRENT-MODE CONTROL 119