Practical Control Measurements For The Sepic Converter - Part II

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Practical control measurements for the sepic converter - Part II
Author:
Dr. Ray Ridley, President, Ridley Engineering
Date
11/22/2014
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Coupled Inductor Designs
This article shows the measured characteristics of coupled-inductor Sepic converters and compares them
with a separate inductor Sepic. The coupled-inductor Sepic has less diverse transfer functions, but it is still
a challenge to control over a wide range. Publications in the past have discussed the coupled-inductor
topic, but rarely are the transfer functions shown.
Sepic converter with wide-range input
The only known full analysis of the Sepic converter was performed by Dr. Vatché Vorpérian [1], but few
engineers are aware of this work. It is difficult to follow since the Sepic can have very diverse transfer
function characteristics.
In the last article of this series, the separate inductor Sepic was examined. It was shown that very complex
characteristics were measured, especially at low input line. They could even change with temperature of
the power devices and measurement is essential. In this article, we move on to the coupled-inductor Sepic
to see how coupling affects the control performance.
Figure 1 shows the schematic of the Sepic converter with component values. The inductors are wound on
a single core with a magnetizing inductance of 11 µH. This is the same as the value of each of the two
inductors used in the last article.
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Click image to enlarge
Figure 1: Coupled-Inductor Sepic Converter Circuit
The inductor used for the design used an RM6 core, with two windings wound bifilar with each other to
minimize leakage inductance. Figure 2 shows the equivalent circuit model of the coupled inductor. With the
bifilar winding, the leakage inductance was measured on an AP300 to be 0.15 µH.
Figure 2: Equivalent Circuit Model of the Coupled Inductor with Tight and Loose and Coupling
Figure 3 shows input ripple currents for the separate-inductor Sepic and for the tightly-coupled Sepic. With
the separate inductors, the current is shown in yellow, and the classic linear-ripple slope of PWM
converters is apparent.
Figure 3: Input Ripple Currents for the Sepic with Separate and Tightly-Coupled Inductors
With the inductors combined onto a single core, the ripple current was reduced, as indicated in the red
waveforms. This is a result of coupled-inductor ripple steering, an advanced topic beyond the scope of this
article. With the proper value of leakage, it is possible to reduce the input ripple current to almost zero.
Sepic converter transfer functions
The AP300 analyzer [2,3] was used to inject a test signal into the converter, and measure the gain and
phase
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Figure 4: Range of Transfer Functions for the Separate-Inductor Sepic
Figure 5 show the range of transfer functions for the tightly-coupled inductor design. The low-line response
is much less severe. Past articles have referred to the better behavior as “benign”, but the converter still
has quite an extreme range of gain and phase. Careful attention must be paid to the design of the control
loop due to a moving resonant frequency and a moving RHP zero.
Figure 5: Range of Transfer Functions for the Tightly-Coupled Inductor Sepic
A second inductor was wound with loose coupling between the primary and the secondary windings. The
leakage inductance was increased to 2.54 µH with this design. Figure 6 shows the input ripple currents
with both a tightly-wound inductor and a loosely-wound inductor. The inductor with poor coupling exhibited
a lower ripple current than the tightly-wound inductor.
Figure 6: Input Ripple Currents for the Sepic with Loosely- and Tightly-Coupled Inductors
The transfer function at low line for the two design cases is shown in Figure 7. It can be seen that there is
little difference between the two designs in terms of the response. This observation holds for the full range
of operation of the two designs, and the degree of coupling did not substantially affect the measurements.
Figure 7: Low-Line Transfer Functions for the Sepic with Loosely- and Tightly-Coupled Inductors
Sepic Converter Efficiency
In winding the inductors for this converter design, interesting effects were seen on the efficiency of the
converter. The biggest increase in efficiency came with changing from off-the-shelf inductors to a custom
single-core design when the inductors were coupled. This was mostly due to a diferent inductor structure,
changing to a gapped ferrite from a powder material.
Remember that off-the-shelf inductors are usually optimized for cost, and you can often do better if you
have more space or a different profile to work with. Being able to try your own custom magnetics is key to
success.
In moving from a tightly-coupled design to a loosely-coupled design, the efficiency dropped. This is due to
the fact that an RM6 core was used, and the arrangement of windings had to be significantly changed to
get a high leakage. Different results can be obtained if you use a toroid where the single-layer winding
structure can be maintained in bothand
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The coupled-inductor Sepic converter has improved transfer functions over the non-coupled design. This
article has shown the experimental measurements of the transfer functions in order to quantify the extent
of the changes. In either case, it is important to characterize the transfer function properly for the Sepic
converter by making measurements over the whole range. The analysis is complex, and not always
accurate due to the variability of parasitic elements.
Ridley Engineering
References
[1] “Sepic Converter Analysis Notes”, Dr. Vatché Vorpérian, www.ridleyengineering.com/design-

center.html
[2] AP300 Application Notes and Videos, www.ridleyengineering.com/analyzer.html
[3] Measuring high-performance loops, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbjtGZtaUaQ
[4] Join our LinkedIn group titled “Power Supply Design Center”. Noncommercial site with over 5000
helpful members with lots of theoretical and practical experience. www.linkedin.com/groups?&gid=4860717
[5] See our videos on loop testing and power supply design at
www.youtube.com/channel/UC4fShOOg9sg_SIaLAeVq19Q
[6] For power supply hands-on training, please sign up for our workshops at
www.ridleyengineering.com/workshops.html
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Practical control measurements for the sepic converter - Part II

Sepic converter with wide-range input

Figure 1: Coupled-Inductor Sepic Converter Circuit

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Sepic converter transfer functions

Click image to enlarge

Figure 4: Range of Transfer Functions for the Separate-Inductor Sepic

Click image to enlarge

Figure 5: Range of Transfer Functions for the Tightly-Coupled Inductor Sepic

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Sepic Converter Efficiency

[1] “Sepic Converter Analysis Notes”, Dr. Vatché Vorpérian, www.ridleyengineering.com/design-

[2] AP300 Application Notes and Videos, www.ridleyengineering.com/analyzer.html

[3] Measuring high-performance loops, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbjtGZtaUaQ

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Module Lifetime Estimation Tool

Infineon is launching EDT2 IGBTs in a TO247PLUS package

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