An Inductor Current Estimation Approach for DC/DC Converters Based on Bisection Method

Abstract

The trends toward higher power density and efficiency for the DC/DC converters has posed more strict requirements for inductors. The inductor current in turn affect the operating characteristics of the converters significantly and thus needs to be accurately estimated. In this paper, a new bisection-method-based inductor current estimation approach considering the variation of inductance is proposed. The proposed approach can be adapted and applied for various DC/DC converters, including the widely used buck and boost converters and etc. Comparing to the conventional estimation method using constant inductance, the proposed method can obtain more precise estimations of both the inductor current waveform and the power loss. Experimental results on a buck converter with a ferrite-core inductor are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.