Digital Control For Power Management Systems

Abstract

The present document aims to show the advantages of a digital implementation of the regulation(s) used for the control of DC/DC converters. In a first step, a general overview of the capabilities provided by digital solution, w.r.t. analogue, will be introduced. An example of a pure digital algorithm (the predictive programmed current control) will also be presented. In a second step, a practical application of a digital control will be considered. In this example, the output voltage of two Buck DC/DCs, connected in parallel, is controlled via a digital regulation. This application also integrates different possible features (soft start, current sharing, embedded scope…), easy to implement in digital, and whose analogue equivalent would be hard or impossible to obtain. Finally, a quick overview of the radiation-hardened ASIC developed by Thales Alenia Space will be given. This component, called “Digital Programmable Controller” (DPC) is totally suitable to implement digital regulations for space applications.