Design and Analysis of 2-in-1 DC/DC Converter Trainer with Reduced Number of Components

Abstract

The field of power electronics around the world has shown a growth in its development, rising as a specialization in electrical engineering. Along these lines, for further comprehension of the field’s theory, universities should take the lead in developing equipment for hands-on practical training. Several converter trainer kits exist in the market from many companies. A review of previous designs gives adequate ideas on the basics of the trainer and the components used in the trainer. The higher number of components used in the trainer significantly increases the cost, size and complexity of the system. Therefore, this paper outlines the design and development of a DC/DC converter trainer with buck and boost configurations. The proposed 2-in-1 DC/DC converter trainer can be configured as buck or boost at a time. The DC/DC converter comprises identical components but with different circuit configuration and operation. The circuit parameters are first calculated. To verify the effectiveness and functionality of the proposed trainer, a prototype is tested and compared with the simulation results from MATLAB/Simulink software. The proposed trainer uses Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to generate the Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) signals. The findings obtained show that both theoretical simulation and experimental results align with each other. The results show that the proposed trainer can be designed with identical parameter components under certain constraints and conditions.