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DSP-Based Control of Multi-Rail DC-DC Converter Systems with Non-Integer
Switching Frequency Ratios
James Mooney, Mark Halton and Abdulhussain E. Mahdi
Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering
University of Limerick
{james.mooney, mark.halton, hussain.mahdi}@ul.ie
Abstract
In this work, a modification to a standard Digital
Signal Processor (DSP) is proposed that enables it to
control multi-rail DC-DC converter systems with noninteger
switching frequency ratios. The modified DSP
overcomes the drawbacks of conventional DSPs, which
are attributable to large variations in the delay from
when the ADC samples the output voltage to when the
duty cycle is updated. By incorporating modified
interrupt control logic in the DSP, the effects of a
variable delay are minimized by significantly reducing
the worst case sampling to duty-cycle-updating delay.
1. Introduction
Multiple Point-of-Load (POL) converters are
frequently found in computing and telecommunications
devices, where they are applied to loads with a variety
of specifications at different voltage levels. A single
DSP can be time-multiplexed to execute multiple
control algorithms for these multi-rail POL converter
systems. A problem with using conventional DSPs is
that the switching frequencies of the individual power
converters being controlled are normally restricted to
being identical or integer multiples of each other. This
restriction is imposed due to variations in the delay
between ADC-sampling and duty-cycle-updating, which
are caused by simultaneously occurring interrupts if the
switching frequencies have a non-integer ratio.
Constraining the switching frequencies to integer
multiples of each other can negatively impact the
efficiency or performance of the DC-DC converters
because the power supply designer is forced into
selecting non-optimal switching frequencies.
2. Modified interrupt controller
To avoid the problems associated with a variable
delay between ADC-sampling and duty-cycle-updating,
the delay can be fixed at its maximum possible value,
TDMAX, for each iteration of each control algorithm to be
executed. However, a problem with using the maximum
fixed delay is that it is excessive and therefore degrades
the performance of the voltage regulator due to a slower
response to load transients. Improved performance can
be obtained by reducing this delay [1].
A modified interrupt controller for DSPs is therefore
proposed here that reduces TDMAX to an acceptable
value. By postponing the pre-calculation sections of the
control algorithms until all duty-cycle-updating has been
completed, the total ADC-sample to duty-cycle-update
165
delay, TDMAX is reduced. This is achieved by
automatically re-enabling all interrupts after the duty
cycle has been calculated and the Digital Pulse Width
Modulator (DPWM) has been updated. This therefore
allows interruption of one control algorithm by another
control algorithm during the pre-calculation stage.
3. Multi-rail DC-DC converter application
In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed
interrupt controller, it has been compared with the
standard interrupt control method. The comparison is
based on the application of both interrupt control
methods to a power converter system consisting of three
independent DC-DC converters. The proposed interrupt
controller was incorporated into an FPGA-based dual-
MAC DSP for power control applications [2], as
illustrated in Fig. 1. A third order linear compensator
was implemented for execution on the DSP to regulate
the output voltage of each of the power converters.
The restriction of the long TDMAX delay for the
standard method results in a slow response in the output
voltage when a load current step is applied at the output
of the DC-DC converters. The modified interrupt
method with the shorter TDMAX delay provides better
performance and thus also facilitates the use of a wider
bandwidth compensator. This enables a faster output
voltage response to the same load step to be obtained.
Figure 1. Modified interrupt controller applied
to multi-rail DC-DC converter test system
4. References
[1] L. Corradini, S. Saggini, and P. Mattavelli, “Analysis of a
high-bandwidth event-based digital controller for DC-DC
converters”, in IEEE Power Electronics Specialists
Conference, 2008, pp. 4578-4584.
[2] J. Mooney, M. Halton, and A. E. Mahdi, “Specialized
digital signal processor for control of multi-rail/multi-phase
high switching frequency power converters”, in IEEE Applied
Power Electronics Conference, 2010, pp. 2207-2211.